Tag Archives for Mac culture wars

iPad reactions

I wanted to want it. I was willing to spend money. But it doesn’t give me what I’m looking for in a “couch laptop”, so I’ll pass. I’ve collected some of the more interesting opinions.

the Positive

Bits / NY Times – Video Demonstration

Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo – The iPad Is The Gadget We Never Knew We Needed

Michael Pusateri / cruftbox.com

you need to hold it for yourself. It’s a different computing experience

Cory Ondrejka / Agile or Dead

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if tactile browsing is crushingly better than keyboard + mouse, and given how much of our day is spent on the web, something that makes that more fun is a big deal.

the Negative

Apple evolution demotivational poster

Adam Frucci / Gizmodo - 8 Things That Suck About the iPad

Michael McWhertor / Kotaku – Hands On With Apple’s iPad, Just The Games

Adam Lisagor / lonelysandwich

Get the giggles out. But I’m afraid I’ll only ever love the device despite its embarrassing name. And that makes me love it a little less.

the Optimistic Future

Marco Arment / marco.org

One of the biggest factors holding back iPhone app practicality in certain areas was screen space, and that was just dramatically expanded with the iPad.

John Gruber / Daring Fireball

Part of their vision for moving computers from technical culture to popular culture is about getting away from defining these things by their technical specs. So the prominent talk about A4 is telling. This is something they want us to notice.

Wade Roush / Xconomy

But with every Apple purchase, there’s a part of me that rebels at handing my money over to a company that’s so fanatically controlling. I can’t help wondering what Apple’s customers and developers would do if another company came along with a solid, elegant, open computing platform and a less suspicious, more cooperative disposition toward its community.

the Pessimistic Future

Alex Payne / al3x.net

if I had an iPad rather than a real computer as a kid, I’d never be a programmer today.

Mark Pilgrim / dive into mark

… I have no doubt that someone will figure out how to “jailbreak” the iPad, too. But I don’t want to live in a world where you have to break into your own computer before you can start tinkering.

Adam Pash / lifehacker

Unlike the iPhone, where it was easy enough to convince ourselves that these problems were imposed for good reason, the iPad is basically a keyboard-less netbook that will exert complete control over what you’re allowed to use on it.

the Final Word

I won’t be buying one. The “app” culture of Apple works fine for a small screen with no disk access. Any computer I spend a great deal of time on will need to be open with open development (shareware) and open web access (flash). I’m not a consumer and I don’t quite fit in with the Mac crowd. But I’m not a developer or tinkerer, which is why I’m not much for the Linux thing. I’m a user. Hopefully, a power user. To be honest, I’m a PC. Apple, I like your products, I love my iPhone, I’d like to have a great tablet PC, but the iPad just isn’t a fit.

MSI Wind

My parents are dead set on buying a Mac Book.

I’m a PC. Vista isn’t the answer to the world’s problems, Windows 7 is going to inherit many of the same issues, and for the last 14 years Microsoft has been making changes based on the Mac OS.  If you’re going to overspend on a Macbook, I can see doing it for a few reasons:

  1. Strong dislike for Microsoft Vista
  2. Desire to belong to the Mac culture
  3. You like shiny objects

After talking it over with my Dad, he wants to use Garage Band and doesn’t like how slow his current Vista desktop gets. Garage Band does seen pretty sweet, but there’s enough open source and free ware that can do all those things. Vista Sidebar and User Access Control are annoying but can be disabled. I just don’t know. $1500 is a lot of money, especially when you can buy a Windows Vista laptop for half the price.

Then I discovered the MSI Wind. It’s a $400 netbook that I’ve seen running Mac OS. The hackintosh concept was never popular with Apple, but now you can get a hackintosh macbook. MSI has even come up with Mac OS X drivers for the wireless network card in their MSI Wind. I can run XBMC and, with Boot Camp, I can get it to run Windows XP and maybe Ubuntu on top of it.

I’m still very much a PC. I work all day on Windows XP, Windows Server, Microsoft SQL, and I think the “right-click” is the most essential productivity hack ever. For an enterprise-wide solution, there’s no logic to choosing Mac Server; even it’s own website says it’s best for small businesses [probably small photography and graphic design shops]. But I do like my iPhone 3G and wouldn’t mind having a slick netbook.

I’d hesitate to give one to my parents, since there won’t be any real tech support [just me] and I just don’t think I’m up for that. But I wouldn’t mind trying it out for myself. If I can find it on sale for $350 I might just buy it.