<story><title>Why the iPad isn&apos;t for me</title><url>http://www.macworld.com/article/150474/2010/04/ipad_not_for_everyone.html?t=</url><text></text></story><parent_chain><item><author>VBprogrammer</author><text>I would caution against using the music creation applications as good examples of iPad applications. Firstly, musicians rarely skim on their gear, if an iPad and a $10 App will do the same job as a bit of hardware costing twice the price more than half of them will buy the hardware. I&apos;ve not used a synth very much but I doubt a touch screen provides an adequate replacement for the musical keyboard, nevermind the more natural feel of real buttons and knobs. Finally, any reasonably serious musician will buy a sound card priced in the hundreds of dollars, they will not be happy with a 3 1/4 inch analog output from one of their primary tools.</text></item><item><author>troystribling</author><text>That the iPad is consistently classified as a media consumption device seems an attempt to trivialize its significance by people who consider themselves power users. I agree that currently the use cases of most applications fall into this category, that it is expensive and I doubt you will ever do application development on a device of its form factor, but it is clearly not just a media consumption device. A few example applications are the two very nice musical instruments the Korg iElectribe &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.korg.co.uk/products/software_controllers/iPad_iElectribe/sc_ipad_ielectribe.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.korg.co.uk/products/software_controllers/iPad_iEl...&lt;/a&gt;, which sells for $10 while its HW equivqlent is around $450, and the MiniSynth Pro &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yonac.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.yonac.com/&lt;/a&gt; a fully functional FM synthesizer. Neither of these applications would have been possible prior to the iPad. Others are the drawing applications Brushes &lt;a href=&quot;http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id363590649?mt=8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id363590649?mt=8&lt;/a&gt; and SketchBook Pro &lt;a href=&quot;http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sketchbook-pro/id364253478?mt=8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sketchbook-pro/id364253478?mt...&lt;/a&gt;. I also like the touch and hand drawing interface to OmniGraffle a diagramming application &lt;a href=&quot;http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/omnigraffle/id363225984?mt=8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/omnigraffle/id363225984?mt=8&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;I think the majority of creative or power user applications will be for those with a complex control surface, such as the examples above. The large touch interface of the iPad is much simpler to use than a traditional mouse keyboard. Also when compared to Wacom drawing tablets &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&amp;#38;rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS240&amp;#38;q=wacom+tablet&amp;#38;um=1&amp;#38;ie=UTF-8&amp;#38;cid=1545184928933896623&amp;#38;ei=o5nES4G3EsL78Aax6bCtDw&amp;#38;sa=X&amp;#38;oi=product_catalog_result&amp;#38;ct=result&amp;#38;resnum=6&amp;#38;ved=0CDIQ8wIwBQ#ps-sellers&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&amp;#38;rlz=1G1GGLQ...&lt;/a&gt; it is competitive, at the iPad low end the iPad is about $200 more, though not quite as functional, the iPad does not have pressure or stylus tilt sensitivity but it is portable. If you are interested in developing these types of applications you have to have one. If you do not have one you will never see were the deficiencies are or know which problems to solve. The device as only been available for 10 days. I would expect it will take a year or two before the application space has been adequately sampled.&lt;p&gt;Another obvious short coming, or opportunity, is with file synchronization and management. I am currently using dropbox, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dropbox.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/&lt;/a&gt; with ReaddleDocs &lt;a href=&quot;http://readdle.com/products/readdledocs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://readdle.com/products/readdledocs&lt;/a&gt;, which works for reading. If documents are generated on the IPad you have to use iTunes, eMail or an application specific server for document synchronization. Neither of these is adequate.&lt;p&gt;The typing problem you mentioned can be solved by a case that holds it an an angle, such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.goincase.com/products/detail/CL57512&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.goincase.com/products/detail/CL57512&lt;/a&gt;. The number of viewing and use positions for the device is greater than that for a laptop. Also heavy duty typing can be handled with a bluetooth attached keyboard though for my needs the the onscreen keyboard has been adequate.</text></item><item><author>akadien</author><text>Neither is it for me. I&apos;m sending mine back. Things I don&apos;t like: (a) Eye strain, (b)It doesn&apos;t provide enough utility for me to justify another device in my life, and I don&apos;t want another media consumption device. In short, it&apos;s another toy. 
(c) An awkward device angle when touch-typing and trying to read what I&apos;m typing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dionysiac</author><text>The touch screen will not provide an adequate replacement for buttons and knobs - if you emulate buttons and knobs, that is. With capacitive multi-touch, there&apos;s a real opportunity to rethink the interface here. Interaction in the past was limited to what hardware can do in real life, so why should we keep those limitations now that they don&apos;t exist? The music world, unfortunately, has this &quot;old-school&quot; mentality for the most part. The focus is on previous hits and successes with synths and hardware that worked in the past (in this case the Electribe), not with what could be created with new ones. There&apos;s a real opportunity here that will take time to play out.&lt;p&gt;As for the sound card - I agree, the DAC in the iPad is probably similar to the other iDevices in the past.. Pretty good for consumer standards, but poor by pro standards - not to mention multiple outs, ins, etc. Where the iPad stands to gain the most is as a remote controller for a larger rig running on a laptop - via Bluetooth or Wifi. Heck the audio jack could be used for modulated data and have it interpreted by the host machine as a control input, a la Serato et al. Ever since the $2k Lemur people have been hungering for this - it will happen sooner or later!</text></comment>
<story><title>Why the iPad isn&apos;t for me</title><url>http://www.macworld.com/article/150474/2010/04/ipad_not_for_everyone.html?t=</url><text></text></story><parent_chain><item><author>VBprogrammer</author><text>I would caution against using the music creation applications as good examples of iPad applications. Firstly, musicians rarely skim on their gear, if an iPad and a $10 App will do the same job as a bit of hardware costing twice the price more than half of them will buy the hardware. I&apos;ve not used a synth very much but I doubt a touch screen provides an adequate replacement for the musical keyboard, nevermind the more natural feel of real buttons and knobs. Finally, any reasonably serious musician will buy a sound card priced in the hundreds of dollars, they will not be happy with a 3 1/4 inch analog output from one of their primary tools.</text></item><item><author>troystribling</author><text>That the iPad is consistently classified as a media consumption device seems an attempt to trivialize its significance by people who consider themselves power users. I agree that currently the use cases of most applications fall into this category, that it is expensive and I doubt you will ever do application development on a device of its form factor, but it is clearly not just a media consumption device. A few example applications are the two very nice musical instruments the Korg iElectribe &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.korg.co.uk/products/software_controllers/iPad_iElectribe/sc_ipad_ielectribe.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.korg.co.uk/products/software_controllers/iPad_iEl...&lt;/a&gt;, which sells for $10 while its HW equivqlent is around $450, and the MiniSynth Pro &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yonac.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.yonac.com/&lt;/a&gt; a fully functional FM synthesizer. Neither of these applications would have been possible prior to the iPad. Others are the drawing applications Brushes &lt;a href=&quot;http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id363590649?mt=8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id363590649?mt=8&lt;/a&gt; and SketchBook Pro &lt;a href=&quot;http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sketchbook-pro/id364253478?mt=8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sketchbook-pro/id364253478?mt...&lt;/a&gt;. I also like the touch and hand drawing interface to OmniGraffle a diagramming application &lt;a href=&quot;http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/omnigraffle/id363225984?mt=8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/omnigraffle/id363225984?mt=8&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;I think the majority of creative or power user applications will be for those with a complex control surface, such as the examples above. The large touch interface of the iPad is much simpler to use than a traditional mouse keyboard. Also when compared to Wacom drawing tablets &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&amp;#38;rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS240&amp;#38;q=wacom+tablet&amp;#38;um=1&amp;#38;ie=UTF-8&amp;#38;cid=1545184928933896623&amp;#38;ei=o5nES4G3EsL78Aax6bCtDw&amp;#38;sa=X&amp;#38;oi=product_catalog_result&amp;#38;ct=result&amp;#38;resnum=6&amp;#38;ved=0CDIQ8wIwBQ#ps-sellers&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&amp;#38;rlz=1G1GGLQ...&lt;/a&gt; it is competitive, at the iPad low end the iPad is about $200 more, though not quite as functional, the iPad does not have pressure or stylus tilt sensitivity but it is portable. If you are interested in developing these types of applications you have to have one. If you do not have one you will never see were the deficiencies are or know which problems to solve. The device as only been available for 10 days. I would expect it will take a year or two before the application space has been adequately sampled.&lt;p&gt;Another obvious short coming, or opportunity, is with file synchronization and management. I am currently using dropbox, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dropbox.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/&lt;/a&gt; with ReaddleDocs &lt;a href=&quot;http://readdle.com/products/readdledocs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://readdle.com/products/readdledocs&lt;/a&gt;, which works for reading. If documents are generated on the IPad you have to use iTunes, eMail or an application specific server for document synchronization. Neither of these is adequate.&lt;p&gt;The typing problem you mentioned can be solved by a case that holds it an an angle, such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.goincase.com/products/detail/CL57512&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.goincase.com/products/detail/CL57512&lt;/a&gt;. The number of viewing and use positions for the device is greater than that for a laptop. Also heavy duty typing can be handled with a bluetooth attached keyboard though for my needs the the onscreen keyboard has been adequate.</text></item><item><author>akadien</author><text>Neither is it for me. I&apos;m sending mine back. Things I don&apos;t like: (a) Eye strain, (b)It doesn&apos;t provide enough utility for me to justify another device in my life, and I don&apos;t want another media consumption device. In short, it&apos;s another toy. 
(c) An awkward device angle when touch-typing and trying to read what I&apos;m typing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>GHFigs</author><text>&lt;i&gt;any reasonably serious musician&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Snobbish bullshit like this is a bigger threat to creativity than anything the iPad does or doesn&apos;t do.</text></comment>