greg said:
>   I'm not very impressed.  Too big & heavy. 
>   I like the iPhone better.

"too big".  that's a curious objection to make.

then again, i was just telling someone yesterday
apple might have done things in the wrong order.
if they'd come out with the ipad first, and _then_
the iphone, we'da seen it as a natural progression.
"computers always get smaller, and then cheaper."

by skipping over the ipad form-factor to go directly
to the iphone, now it seems they are "regressing"...

at any rate, if the iphone and the ipad can do a job
equally well, i'd see how the iphone would be better.

but i think a whole class of functionality will develop
where the iphone is _too_small_ to do the job well...
(and a laptop or a netbook is "too big".  to define this,
seek out places where someone is using a _clipboard_;
they will prove to be the realms where the ipad shines.)

and of course apple gave itself plenty of room to grow.
even if that functionality class takes a while to manifest,
there's years of "upgrade" possibilities just in jacking up
the memory, adding hardware (the future will laugh hard
at the sans-camera debut), as well as dropping the price...


>   The interface is, overall, very impressive and responsive.

let's hope apple doesn't choose to enforce its patents on it,
or that the legal system is smart enough to toss such claims.
there is nothing about the human hand that doesn't have a
long and glorious history predating the founding of apple.


>   Like all the related Apple devices, you are forced to
>   "drink the kool-aid" and use iTunes to manage the devices,
>   and go through the iTunes store for many things
>   like new apps, even when those apps are free. 
>   (There are some workarounds, but iTunes is
>   by far the path of least resistance.)

i understand why this grates on some people.

i also understand that apple is doing it for a good reason,
namely to ensure that the user-experience is high-quality.

nobody complains that the xbox is a closed platform...
or the wii...  or all of the various nintendo machines...
they just enjoy the fact that the experience comes first.

so i take the same attitude with apple's ip* line of stuff...

i don't particularly _like_ the fact that it's a closed system.
but i _do_ like the stability.

now, i'm hoping that the open-source world can compete.
i'm hoping they can get high-quality hardware built out and
i'm hoping they match that with high-quality software, and
i'm hoping the resultant experience is a high-quality one...

but i must say i am not _expecting_ them to come through.
because they never have in the past.

i'm not sure why steve is the only guy who can get it right.
it shouldn't be that hard to simply copy what he has done.

-bowerbird