One thing this enables is switching platforms. If a future MacBook Air runs on ARM instead of Intel, anyone using Xcode would only need to recompile to target the new platform. Similar to how Intel support was easy for Xcode developers (but very hard for Metrowerks developers). Getting everyone on Xcode gives Apple tremendous flexibility. They could even have apps target LLVM-IL (whatever it’s called) instead of the CPU directly.
There is also the guilt of having an item flown across the country and delivered by truck. An item that costs $10 and is readily available at a store 1/2 mile from your house. I’ve done that, because I can be done with it in two minutes and forget about it.
True. But it was probably accompanied with many other copies of itself. Also the truck arriving at the store likely delivered more cargo per mile driven than a UPS/FedEx/Mail equivalent. Those services are more expensive ($/gasoline/packaging/...) than just shipping a truck full of toothpaste to a distribution center and then hundreds of tubes to a multitude of stores because of the piecemeal fashion in which they pick up and drop off at the ends of their networks.
This type of passive-aggressive attitude towards end-users is not helpful. People who buy the iPad are not doing so because they are too dumb to be programmers. They are buying it because it meets their needs, not yours. To you it's a dumbed-down device. To them, it may be the first computer they can confidently use without your help.
To be honest, the majority of the passive-aggressive attitude that I see is coming from iPad supporters, not enthusiasts.
I say that I am disappointed in it because of the App Store and suddenly I'm the one being called a luddite, being accused of wanting to keep the poor masses down, and other silly things.
I think any technology enthusiast will tell you that they would love nothing more than to never have to do tech support for peoples computers. I assure you, that part of the iPad is universally loved.
The disappointment some of us feel is because we were hoping for a tool for us to use as well, and it's not really what we were hoping for.
People will buy it because of the hype, they think it will meet their needs, and those perceived needs will be defined in the marketing.
Really it's about fear, the fear of learning.
People now know they need a computer, but they're terrified of learning to use it, and they're not really interested in computers anyway. As a cheap, disposable, toy-like unit the iPad can likely succeed in that market.
It's not so much that dumbed-down computers discourage learning, more that they justify inability.
Those of us who deal with constant tech support from friends and family or even at work know all too well the cost of ignorance.
People in this age are expected to read and write, but using a computer in powerful ways is considered magic and unobtainable, this is to everyone's detriment.
I have an analogy: morbidly obese people given electric carts to wheel around walmart in.
No, this device meets a real need. Not everyone is buying it because they are easily-duped consumers (whereas you have mastered the fine art of seeing through marketing messages...).
Specifically, those friends and family who constantly call you for tech support are friendly enough when they see you, but they deeply resent having to deal with you every time their computer breaks down. It's not personal. They just hate that it's "their fault," or that they have to lie because they really were surfing sketchy porn sites. The iPad solves that need.
People in this age are expected to read and write, but using a computer in powerful ways is considered magic and unobtainable, this is to everyone's detriment.
I think that's just it: it seems (and for most people, actually is) far harder to learn to work a computer in a powerful way than it is to learn to read and write. The number of facts you have to know to properly administer a modern OS is staggering. One could reasonably argue that the iPad has gone too far in the "easy" direction, but it seems difficult to argue against the idea that computers thus far have been "too hard". If we can provide the ability for people to achieve powerful results with their computers without having to learn the intricacies of their OS/hardware, we're doing good and unleashing precious talent. Every minute spent (by anybody who's not a sysadmin) dealing with file system errors and driver conflicts is a minute not doing productive or creative work.
I agree with this. Part of the problem is full featured computers have been the only game in town for a long time. Really they have been oversold to people who only need something like an iPad. I just think it's disappointing that, given a chance to learn and explore, most people choose not to. Certainly literacy is much less of an obstacle than computer literacy. Maybe it's too optimistic to favor a higher standard. The barriers between information and people have never been lower though.
I guess I'm just not sure that it is a higher standard for the average non-computery person to have to learn a bunch of otherwise-irrelevant-to-their-task computer junk. Am I worse off for not [having spent the time to] know much about my Honda works? Occasionally, yes; but, overall? Definitely not!
How about getting people to release apps as source code?
Those who want to put anything we like on our iPhones pay $100 for a developer cert, but after that could install anything we want, without the hassles of jailbreaking. Just think of it as adding $100 to the cost of the phone.
This would open up regular iPhones to 3rd-party apps that bypass the App Store.
Go into Best Buy and you’ll see RAM, CPU speed and hard disk sizes listed on the features tags. Those specs are increasingly meaningless for most consumers as any computer in the store will do what they need.
The more they focus on these specs, the more PC makers allow their product to become a commodity.
Design, usability, buying experience and after-sales service are what really differentiate computers. If any computer is sufficient to do my daily tasks, I’m going to look for the cheapest one available. But I’ll pay more if you can sell me on those intangible benefits. That’s the high-end of the market.
