So, reading that I am supposed to come to the conclusion that absence of choice is now a good thing?
No keyboard, no mouse, only a multi-touch capable screen and this will somehow liberate software development?
I really don't get it. If it was in addition to the usual input suspects, then sure, that would enable lots of stuff.
But to be able to type, use the mouse for precise on-screen pointing without getting your hand in the way of what you're doing, those are things we already had.
Now you lose those and in return you get interaction with your hands on a relatively small screen.
On screen keyboards are nice, but even a lengthy email would be pretty cumbersome that way.
Choice is good, lack of choice is not 'fascinating', it is limiting. Limitations will drive creative people to come up with ways around those limitations but for now this is what you've got to work with.
Another thing I don't understand from the article is this sentence:
"but the specter of having a small user base for my experiments always discouraged me."
Why does that matter? Not everything is about how many people adopt it. If you can make a small group really happy that counts for something too.
It's not a general-purpose computer (much like an iPhone or an iPod). It's a browser and e-mail and e-book reader you can use while on the bus. For reading, it's less cumbersome than a netbook.
But there's that keyboard dock. That should make composing long-emails (or using the iWork suite) less of a painful experience. Since it doesn't allow connecting a mouse, I will wait until there is emacs ported to it ;-)
emacs is an extensible Lisp runtime, and Apple has shot down all such applications in the past. I don't think they're going to change their tune for the iPad.
Won't = "won't one day." Adding one for a bluetooth mouse would be very easy. They will probably hold off on that to firmly establish the new multitouch UI conventions, though.
use the mouse for precise on-screen pointing without getting your hand in the way of what you're doing
If you're a developer or a similar tech-savvy mind, it should take you all of about 30 seconds to come up with an alternative for precision pointing in multi-touch. (It would have to be app-specific at first, of course.)
"but the specter of having a small user base for my experiments always discouraged me."
Why does that matter? Not everything is about how many people adopt it. If you can make a small group really happy that counts for something too.
Depends on the size of the user base, and its composition. Having a small, unimaginative, not-savvy, highly conservative user base is no picnic. Been there, done that.
No keyboard, no mouse, only a multi-touch capable screen and this will somehow liberate software development?
I really don't get it. If it was in addition to the usual input suspects, then sure, that would enable lots of stuff.
But to be able to type, use the mouse for precise on-screen pointing without getting your hand in the way of what you're doing, those are things we already had.
Now you lose those and in return you get interaction with your hands on a relatively small screen.
On screen keyboards are nice, but even a lengthy email would be pretty cumbersome that way.
Choice is good, lack of choice is not 'fascinating', it is limiting. Limitations will drive creative people to come up with ways around those limitations but for now this is what you've got to work with.
Another thing I don't understand from the article is this sentence:
"but the specter of having a small user base for my experiments always discouraged me."
Why does that matter? Not everything is about how many people adopt it. If you can make a small group really happy that counts for something too.