I wonder how/when/if they'll integrate this into Courier. You begin to sense you could do marvellous things with something like this.

On the iPad front... I don't see how a device touted as being a supreme media watching device can be 4:3 ratio... it's utterly insane. And yet their ads show Star Trek being watched full screen... hence pan and scan... yay! welcome back to TV of the 90s.

Indeed the iPhone has somewhat 'standardised' how people expect to be able to interact with a touchscreen phone, but that absolutely doesn't mean they should be going lawyer crazy on everyone... it just is not productive.

They didn't invent multitouch
They didn't invent the gestures they use
They make a huge deal of adding things to their devices which others have had for a long time previously.

Hurray for Apple making products, hurray for competition... but the iPad is hardly revolutionary as people like yourself Dag, like to make out. It will do OK... and it might even do very well a few versions down the track when Apple can be arsed actually making it a decent product.

The million bloody tablet pcs out there at present do not excite me in the slightest, not the iPad, not any other manufacturer. The million bloody eReaders are similarly boring to me.

As I've said many times here, the rumoured Microsoft Courier is the form factor and functionality I want in 'a larger than a phone' portable device... something like THAT would get me excited.

All these other tablets are merely half arsed products with no clear goal AT ALL as to what need they're filling. The iPad falls into that same hole... if it really was trying to be a little portable media hub then it SO would not have been 4:3 ratio.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Maybe stick to your happy little trees.

Just kidding, you make some very good points.>> ^highdileeho:
I'm going to try to be as nice as possible. Iv'e seen the microsoft version, Iv'e seen the mac version. I just want to know. When will anyone actually really need any of this crap. Is it just a fancy gizmo to be whipped out at coffee shops in the hopes that it will start a conversation? Or do people really need to cut and paste shoes, or boobs, or search the internet with a machine that isn't nearly as fast as the last gizmo that you bought. I don't get any of it, but I do understand that apple has whipped Americans up in this consumerism frenzy, to throw down hard earned cash on things that no one will ever really need. And these consumers will defend with seering lunacy it's ability to do things that no one needs better than any competetor. I'm just waiting patiently for the day when people have finally determined that they don't need anymore. Mr. Creosote lives

I said in the original thread that I thought it would fail, but also said that I was sure that Apple would prove me wrong as they seem to have been on the mark for a long time.

However.

It does not excite me in the slightest. The first thing that killed it for me was the horrible, horrible look. That enormous bezel, it's so big and chunky... I was hoping for something smooth and sexy and sleek... this ain't that.

So, I continue to lust after the Microsoft Courier be it a real product actually coming or not.

To have a little leather like bound notepad that I can open up and use my fingers and a stylus on just like a notebook, but have all my notes (I have a collection of pads that I've gone through at work with my notes and doodles) in a form I can actually search back through and cross reference and clip and paste things from the world (via its camera), or the web or... well... look, THAT gets me excited, and everyone I've shown that video to gets excited... it serves a tangible, simple purpose to me that nothing else does:

It replaces my physical pen and paper notepad.

And it does so in a way that solves problems I've had for ages:

* Where is that phone number I wrote down (flick, flick, flick... man, how long ago was it I wrote that down?)
* I can only really write in black as I'm not going to lug around many different pens or use one of those four colour doovies
* I can't easily clip and paste in pieces of reference into it
* I can't take my notes easily and transfer them by email


I want, want, want that product... I want that interface... I want it to be real, it actually solves problems I have

Now... the iPad, what does it solve?

Um

Um

Nothing.

It's inventing needs where there aren't any.

And that's why I don't want one.

But if you do... huzzah for the shopkeep... of course, being an Australian now, you're shit out of luck with actually getting any books with it as they refuse to use the open standard for eBooks. Apple continuing to limit options as they always do.

Thanks! This does look more interesting than the ipad doesn't it?

In reply to this comment by spoco2:
Oh fine... *quality then.

>> ^maatc:
"Microsoft builds a giant $10,000 table for hotel lobbies, Apple builds a $500 tablet for everyone."


Yeah, well... except... um, it's not for everyone at all. It really has so few uses it begs the question why would you actually want one? Would you really like to lug this thing around for how little it actually does?

As I linked to above, that Courier interface and form factor excite me WAY more than this, really shows how you could use a tablet/book form device for note keeping etc.

This is almost Apple creating a product without having a purpose in mind when they did it.

Wow... you can change the wallpaper... STOP THE PRESS

Gee... a WHOLE WEB PAGE in front of you that you can manipulate with your fingers... you don't say... like... um... tablet PCs that have been around for years? Or touchscreen desktops?

I'm sure I'll be proved wrong, and it'll be a complete success... but I really think they've lost it this time. I think this looks horrendously chunky and inelegant. Why does it have such large and horrendous edges around the screen?

Why is there no camera?

This device... the as yet announced 'Courier' is something that really does excite me. The interaction on THAT device is something that makes me excited about a portable computer again.

This? This does nothing for me... who really wants this limited functionality at this size? I'd rather this (plus more... camera etc.) in my phone that I can hold in my pocket rather than having less than that in something I have to carry in a bag.

If it were instead something more like what the Courier looks to be I'd actually see the joy in using it, the usefulness in having a 'live' scrapbook.

I just have this feeling that the iPad will be an iBomb.

But again... Apple seems to do no wrong, and people wee themselves over anything they put out... but this time... this time I don't see it.

Hey I'm not attacking anyone. I'm just saying "come on guy, are you for real!?"

Like I said it wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't regularly get insinuations from ignorant marketing victims about this very issue. I tend to deal mostly with marketing department people who have very little technical knowledge. Or, creative people with very little computer knowledge, who do stuff like create bitmap graphics in Illustrator so that every file is 500MB, and then they think it's simpler to courier shit around or have to meet up to exchange files instead of taking the time to sign up for any of a dozen different large file transfer services.

Last example is a partner on a 3D visualization product. This guy doesn't know the difference between modelling and rendering, but he felt very comfortable telling me that, rather than upgrading my 3D package to one that could make use of my multiple cores, I should probably just upgrade to a Mac, because they're faster, more reliable, and that's what real creative professionals use. He then went on to wave his hands for five minutes without actually saying anything technical or even coherent, just a whole lot of "I've been doing this a long time and I see a lot of Macs around" fucking assblastery that I get literally about once per month. This is someone I work with, who speaks to our clients, who is integrated into my workflow, etc.. so his fucking ignorance is my pain in the ass in many ways.

>> ^NicoleBee:
I watched my brother play this game and my biggest gripe was his voice. He's a bike courier. Why does every modern male game lead have to have the stupid gravelly Wolverine/duke/halo voice?


Sounds more "Wannabe Solid Snake" to me. It's a good game, I actually started off hating it. I couldn't stand his voice, the fact that you could climb EVERY building actually got to me, because most of the time you're climbing something that you know wouldn't be there in real life (Generally places don't have exterior pipes), and you can basically make it up anywhere no matter what by spamming X and hoping for the best.

It's a good enough system, but I dislike it, I prefer Assassins creed more. My other gripe is that I got insanely lucky with the first "Mission" of saving the food and it immidiately set me to Hard difficulty and the game then proceeded to kick my ass.

The Reapers have what look to be AK-47's, but have a 99.9% accuracy rating, essentially meaning if you poke your head out to zap someone and there's more then 3 of them there, you're either dead or graying out.

However, with more power unlocks and a tad more understanding of the game it does get more fun, it's just a shame that it took me 3+ hours to reach that point.

>> ^NicoleBee:
I watched my brother play this game and my biggest gripe was his voice. He's a bike courier. Why does every modern male game lead have to have the stupid gravelly Wolverine/duke/halo voice?


Let's see what your voice sounds like after being forced to drain thousands of human souls, and then getting electrocuted.

I bet you'd drop an octave or two.

I watched my brother play this game and my biggest gripe was his voice. He's a bike courier. Why does every modern male game lead have to have the stupid gravelly Wolverine/duke/halo voice?

What is the deal with him and those t-shirts? Do they all have some 'edgy' comment written in courier font? Probably shouldn't ask because this is a guy who earns more in a week than I do in a year, a higher education, never stepped foot in Middle-America (that's something to be proud of, fer all y'all twats out there), and... Jesus, video's been blocked, damn he's got snappy lawyers.

From wikipedia:

"Legal action against the guardsmen

Eight of the guardsmen were indicted by a grand jury. The guardsmen claimed to have fired in self-defense, which was generally accepted by the criminal justice system. In 1974 U.S. District Judge Frank Battisti dismissed charges against all eight on the basis that the prosecution's case was too weak to warrant a trial.[13]

In May 2007, Alan Canfora, one of the injured protestors, demanded that the case be reopened, having found an audiotape in a Yale University government archive allegedly recording an order to fire ("Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!") just before the 13 second volley of shots.[15]

Canfora has been on a crusade since discovering the tape, hoping to get authorities to reopen the case and use new technology to perform voice analysis. Larry Shafer, a guardsman who said he fired during the shootings and was one of those charged told the Kent-Ravenna Record Courier newspaper in May 2007:" I never heard any command to fire. That's all I can say on that," Shafer, a Ravenna city councilman and former fire chief, told the newspaper. "That's not to say there may not have been, but with all the racket and noise, I don't know how anyone could have heard anything that day." Shafer also when on to say that "point" would not have been part of a proper command." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

Just to even the spin out, oh wait... not a single guardsmen was killed.

The threat of force does not always work, and it can make a bad situation much, much worse.

Which is why you should tell your CO or XO to stick it up his ass.

mmm, courier - makes me want write code in emacs.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Sepia tones and a courier font might look nice.