Apple's iPad 2 is the 'Holy Grail' of computing

[Karlos]

So says Computerworld!

The iPodTouchJumbo (aka iPad 2) certainly is a "Holy Grail", insofar it's an object of deep religious significance to a particular crowd, coveted and heralded by acolytes worldwide.

Honestly, though, who really gives a distended rats rectum about it? It's this seasons utterly pointless "must have gadget", soon to be replaced with one that's even bettar [ sic ]!

After asking people repeatedly what was so ground breaking about it and how it would transform their computing experience or enable them to do something they couldn't already do perfectly well before, all I got that stood out was "It can be used as a replacement for sheet music on stage".


Some time ago, someone here coined the term "Macsturbation". I cite the OP as an example par excellence.

[Karlos]

As for the calls for "no more apple/pc" threads, well this is the "other operating systems" section. Uses of said alternative systems should be free to fire away, nobody is forcing anybody to read threads here.

Personally, I quite like reading how excited people get by repeated iterations of existing devices running the world's most special-needs, crippled Unix distribution (posix compliance standards must have fallen a long way). There aren't many others that can be crashed by purely user-space processes. You know, like teh evil Flash, the "number one reason why macs crash". Arf!

:roflmao:

[Karlos]

Good luck finding a "HTML5Block" plugin.

Probably easy enough to block et al.

[Karlos]

but dont worry some day this page will renamed to apple.org

Over... my... dead... body... :lol:

I don't mind people talking till they're blue in the face about apple provided they keep it to this sub forum.

Rather than simply complaining about people talking about it, why don't you counter it by creating some Amiga related discussions yourself? Or can't you be bothered?

[Karlos]

@karlos

ok... dont criticize apple or apple fans in the future, understood.

WTF? I realise English is probably not your first language, but how does what I've said equate to that?

Read this thread again and others like it. I've slammed apple, their products and the sheeple that worship them multiple times. However, they are perfectly within their rights to talk about it here, in the "other operating systems" under the current forum rules.

You seem unwilling to accept that as long as they keep their platform-X discussion to this sub forum, they aren't breaking any rules. There's no rule that Amiga users can't also be Apple/Linux/Windows/Console/whatever users. The forum is for the users themselves, not their machines.

Personally, I've grown to hate all things apple with a passion since the first generations of OSX. Before that, I wasn't really polarized either way. I even used MacOS 7.5.3 (albeit under ShapeShifter) to complete my Uni work since I had to use MS Word and a few chemistry applications only available for MacOS at the time.

However, one of my first IT jobs put the nail in that coffin. I had to work with an OSX machine to do stuff for which a LAMP server is the logical choice. The constant hype and having to work with a true apple zealot who could not even bring himself to use the right tool (a bog standard x86 linux machine) for the job. Oh no, a G4 running OSX Server 10.3, "the best server OS in the world!"... He then went on to lose everything when that server decided to trash it's own filesystem - but still, it wasn't OSX's fault, oh no). Said incident is documented here on this very forum, somewhere.

Eighteen months of having to use a flaky form-before-function machine at work that touted it's "unix" compatibility but would fail to provide basic unix tools. The entire Objective-C debacle. Bloodline seems to think I hate it purely on aesthetic grounds, but that's not even the half of it. Oh no. The list goes on. You won't find many people here with a bigger axe to grind about apple stuff than I. When it comes to their typical trend-obsessed fanboy users, to paraphrase American Dad, "Hmm, how do I hang an air freshener on this? You're a total waste of space and I often think about killing you."

Does that explain my position on apple products, or shall I draw you a picture?

None of which means that other people can't have a different opinion.

Now, as I said. If you want to see more amiga specific discussion, then help initiate it rather than whining about the lack of it and making insinuations that the site is more for apple users or whatever other nonsense passes for logic in your reasoning.

[Karlos]

@Kesa

My antipathy towards apple is a matter of public record. I don't mind their desktop machines since you can generally upgrade the hardware and ditch the OS and put something useful on.

Their software and "post PC" totally-non-upgradable-in-any-way-shape-or-form hardware is just plain sh!te. A triumph of marketing and consumerism over common sense.

[Karlos]

I disagree here, I think the "Post PC" thing was inevitable. To be against it is a bit like telegraph operators lamenting the introduction of the Mobile Phone...

Don't confuse my disdain for the iPhone/iPad with disdain for portable computing devices in general. I have absolutely nothing against such devices. What I do dislike is apple's totalitarian approach to hardware expansion. You are simply not allowed to add anything to it, even an after market battery FFS. This, combined with their insistence that they are at the absolute forefront of innovation whilst trying to sell me some hermetically sealed box of electronics I can do precisely feck all with (because to all real intents and purposes they basically still own it and I'm just paying for the the privilege of holding it) other than what they allow, really pisses me off. But not nearly as much as the fanboys that think this is perfectly fair and good.

[Karlos]

@Iggy

Try it out, it's a neat device for what it is.  Not every computer has to do everything.  My fridge doesn't have to host websites, my TV doesn't have to render 3D objects in real time.  I have an 8 core Mac Pro that handles the hard computing stuff.  I have give talks with an iPad and small projector, watched TV from my slingbox, etc with the iPad.  I use it for light internet use.  It's simply  tool that fills a niche.

On the flip side not every device need have a full bash shell,  I don't need it for my TV, even though it has a web browser. Sometimes a device is just a device.  The iPad is neat for a handheld applications platform, but I would want to code on it.

So, as a user you are basically saying it's a fairly basic device for undemanding end-user applications. So in what sense, then, can it possibly be described as "the holy grail" of computing" ?

For a start, none of the tasks you have suggested are really what anybody would seriously call "computing". After all, consuming media and web surfing and so on is the sort of thing you can do on your average TV set in 2011.

To a serious user, the "holy grail" of computing is far more likely to be something that lets them do real work (whether that's creating content, coding or whatever else) with maximum efficiency, minimum hassle and as inexpensively as possible. Precisely the sort of activities you've dismissed it as being any use for.

Do you see why this kind of stupid "best thing evar!" hype gets on my tits now?