blog | analogindustries.com

Jan.28
2010

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger...

It's funny how grey and pasty all the Riot Nrrrds are today. They're all tired from a day of ranting at the Man. How could Steve Jobs, a dude who was always in their corner, possibly take the low road?

What they wanted: a MacBook Pro with no keyboard for $799.

What they got: a big fucking iPod Touch for $499.

OMGWTFBQQ!!!!1111!! HOW COULD HE DO THAT TO US? OUR BELOVED STEVE!??!

Now, anyone who could possibly mistake me for an Apple apologist obviously doesn't know me or read anything I've written in the last... oh... 5 years. There is absolutely no way I will defend that company, in any way, shape, or form. But that said, I think that the iPad is exactly what it is advertised to be: a big fucking iPod touch. In that context, if you need a big fucking iPod touch, you're in good shape, because there is one now. If you don't, believe it or not, you don't have to buy one. There's no law that says you do.

For what I do, which is make music, and make software to make music, the iPad is pretty fucking cool, bordering on heaven-sent. I can easily think of about 20 ways this will be handy for me, and if you gave me a little time to think about it, I could come up with dozens more. For the times I'm not making music or making software to make music, I'm either sitting outside or sitting on my couch, staring at the tiny screen of my iPhone as I play games. This will be a nice replacement for that.

I'm not going to try to read anything else in to it. It's just a big fucking iPod. Peter Kirn would have you believe that the Sky Is Falling, but he obviously doesn't recall the original Mac, which was as closed as a computer can be, yet beget a fairly robust line of products. Besides, we've heard that story before.

How different would the stories be today if they had just called it the iPod Pro?

Comments:

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@noisegeek: Obviously, you're not going to use this for serious photo management where Lightroom or something is doing its job. I'm not a pollyanna (read: retard.) But if you're out in the field, you can quickly jam in all the photos you've taken and look at them on a real screen to get a good idea of focus and framing. Color can be dealt with down the road, but you can't fix focus.

Also, this will be a real boon to wedding photographers, as well as people that need to show portfolios and such to prospective clients.

-CR

posted January 28, 2010 by Chris Randall

I liek my ipod to play music, I liek my macbook cause its portable, I like my g5 cause I have a 22inch monitor. I don't need an ipod touch and I won't need this.

Mac is always coming out with new stuff, I pick and choose what fits my needs.

Im more interested in what googles doing these days honestly.

posted January 28, 2010 by planes

"Apple makes hardware to facilitate people buying content from them"

Apple's CFO described all of their software/content sales this week as "near-break-even," that kind of talk doesn't exactly strike me as describing a company that sells hardware just to hook you into the content.

posted January 28, 2010 by shamann

One of the biggest world-changing things to come out of the iPad deal isn't so much the technology or the hardware, which has been within reach for a couple of years and is a pretty obvious next step as far as handheld devices go. The biggest thing is, I think, the no-contract data plan. AT&T and the other cell providers have been fighting that for YEARS-- they really don't want to be reduced to just an ISP, since they can make serious bucks by charging extortionate rates for text messages and data services, and lock in customers for years through contracts and discounted hardware.

Now that the precedent has been set for an a la carte data plan, I think the cellular carrier industry will change drastically.

posted January 28, 2010 by Solipsist Nation

"Im more interested in what googles doing these days honestly."

And what exactly are they doing? Besides making a boatload of half-assed products, that is. They're like a kid with AD/HD. OMG!!!TH1SIZGUNNABTH3SH1TZZZ!!!!!...<turns head>ooooh, shiny!...OMG!!!NOWTH1SIZGUNNABTH3SH1TZZZ!!!!!...and repeat.

They have some great ideas, but I kinda wish they'd finish them now and again.

posted January 28, 2010 by Glenn

@solipstnation Very good point that's been totally overlooked. Wonder if Apple had to extend iPhone exclusivity to get it.

Also wonder if the iPad plan is one of the reasons (along with their sucktastic network) AT&T won't allow iPhone tethering.

posted January 28, 2010 by RidleyGriff

the instant on thing is really a big deal when it comes to intelligent devices. so when people whine that their netbook can multitask, i sort of laugh. because the time for netbook startup easily outstrips the time we all want to take to do typical netbook tasks, like check the weather, see if somebody hotmailed in the last 5 minutes, etc.

we've been giving our computers alot of slack for the past decade for taking up 10 minutes of our day every day starting up, shutting down etc. this has collectively killed alot of inspiration and forced us into work modes that involve "zoning out" or "zoning in" on the computer.

posted January 28, 2010 by martinhekker

I hope that CR is right and the iPad will make other manufacturers do similar products.

All I want is a machine that will
A) Run Ableton Live with a bunch of soft synths and effects
B) Have a multitouch scrreen
C) have USB ports I can hook a good audio device into.
D) have decent built-in sound with a jack that won't go wonky after 6 months.

Dell and Lenovo both have something like this but they're a little underpowered for live audio use. But I'm guessing someone will get it together eventually.

posted January 28, 2010 by chaircrusher

There are some smart people at Apple. Smarter than most of us. I didn't get the iPod when it first came out. No one I know did.

Real people want this. Average people who don't give a shit about computers. They always have and no one would give it to them. Companies were far too busy making things for geeks. That's the people complaining about the iPad (even thought they haven't used one) and then going to to describe what it should have been, which is the computer they already have.

My wife wants one. She wants to use the internet and check her email on a real human sized screen and not think about the computer. I want her to have that. I 'm tired of looking at her computer. It seems the less you know about computers the more inclined you are to break them doing simple, common tasks. At least all the people I know.

bb

posted January 28, 2010 by bongo_x

Exactly.

-CR

posted January 28, 2010 by Chris Randall

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