2010
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?
What I can see for the iPad :
Midi sequencer to run hardware synths Live .
Cheaper than a Lemur , Monome , Tenorion , etc all in one unit .
And if ( and maybe you can help me out on this CR ) someone wrights an au host a cheaper way for me to play my oddity or Attack live then a Laptop or Musebox .
I could also see something like Volta for this as well .
However ( drum roll please ) what I want to see most of all ( staring at you now CR ) is the hardware version of Automaton !
posted January 28, 2010 by DBM
However, there is no global way to register an AudioUnit effect like we do it now on an OS X computer. It all has to be inside a program, and I'm positive I don't see a way around that, currently. Who knows what Apple will wing at it, though. If they make an iPad version of GarageBand (and why on earth wouldn't they?) then we'll see global AudioUnits, and the game is on for actual hosts that behave like the ones we're already used to.
The device certainly has enough power to do something like Pd (to a certain extent) or Bidule, and I think the context is inherently suited to a boxes-n-wires system. I think we'll definitely be seeing shit like that.
-CR
posted January 28, 2010 by Chris Randall
To all the rest : here's to hoping for haste ... of course if it takes time then I'll just wait for version 2 . There bound to have a 2gz or possibly a duel core one day .
Oh BTW ... There are some apps like a vocoder , voice changer , and I'm T-pain ...are they not au fx then ?
posted January 28, 2010 by DBM
It's pretty complex. The CoreAudio system isn't for the faint of heart, even on a proper Mac, let alone a phone. But aside from not being able to host external AUs, it's exactly the same, line for line, as the one in OSX proper.
There are several other audio systems in the iPhone OS as well; there is OpenAU, which is really only good for games (that's what Plinkton uses) and a pair of high level kits for playing system sounds or background music in your app, and there are hooks for playing back whatever's in your music library, should the app need it. All of these high-level apps are able to access the on-die MP3 (and other formats) decoding available in the iPhone, which is kind of nifty. No CPU overhead, as it has its own chip.
It's a pretty sophisticated audio system, no mistake. It's just enough unlike OSX to make barfing out a host that can host external plug-ins problematic, though.
-CR
posted January 28, 2010 by Chris Randall
posted January 28, 2010 by BirdFLU
The iPad is going to be a serious boon for "real people" like has been mentioned earlier. Businessmen and College Students are going to eat it up, especially if they eventually add in handwriting recognition. For the "install Linux from the kernal up just for fun" people, not so much. But guess what? 90% of the population want their computing devices to work, not to fight with them endlessly for the satisfaction of getting a 10% faster boot time.
posted January 28, 2010 by squidgee
Does Peter get some sort of internet drama award for publishing nerd bait like that?
Seriously, how open is a Lemur, or an OP-1?
Honestly, I did wish for audio in, camera, usb, and multitasking. I can understand all except for the camera. It will just be a later revision.
All I need is TouchOSC, and I will be thrilled by everything else that comes along.
Really, the demo of iLife showed me above this that the iPad (silly name that GF will mock for years!) is likely to be a much more serious product than Android tablets. Being that TouchOSC is ported to Android, I was considering an Android tablet, but based on the iPad's demo and price...
(Hell even if I'm wrong, it's not like I couldn't sell the thing for a small loss and get an Android tablet cheap.)
Win-Win!
posted January 28, 2010 by cubestar
posted January 28, 2010 by cubestar
Most of my close, personal musician friends are non-electronic types so it will take them awhile to come around to realizing the potential of this device. But I knew the value of the form factor even before Apple spilled the beans.
It's actually bigger than I expected and will fit well on stage. It will make a nice X/Y pad and sample trigger and probably also sound generator even though I can use it to control a full PC hidden away in a rack somewhere if I need to.
3G support is nice and I like that it is optional. Personally, I pay for two iPhones in a family plan and I don't want to add a separate full data plan for yet another device, I'd much rather use the tethering my iPhone is capable of if only AT&T would get off their ass and fix their network and give us the option.
And hell, I will enjoy the convenience of using it to just surf the web while sitting on my couch watching TV. There is nothing wrong with that. It beats having to disengage my macbook pro from my music studio environment.
It's like it was in Goldilocks ... for a casual web-browsing experience, a smartphone is too small, a laptop is too big but this iPad is just right.
I would also like to have one at my band's merch table as well (locked down, of course). You can display promo images of merchandise and album info on it, let people hear samples of your albums with the iTunes app and let them sign up for your mailing list or check out your website via mobile safari. It will make a great portable information kiosk for whatever industry you are in.
posted January 28, 2010 by spittingangels
D=Duende
I used to run live and logic on a 13' macbook for the longest, sucked like a mofo why would you wanna do that on a 10 inch screen?
posted January 28, 2010 by johan