On 10/24/2012 01:22 PM, Bernard Devlin wrote:
When it came to choosing a tablet earlier this year, I could not see myself
using something in the original iPad form-factor - it just felt too
uncomfortable in my hand. I went for a 7" HTC Android tablet.
The 7" form-factor is like going back to the good old days of the Apple
Newton. Only the thinness of modern tablets is much to be desired compared
to the chunkiness of the Newton!
Ahah!
So; while the iPad is a tablet computer, I suppose the iPad mini (trying
to be cutesy with the
lower case M) is a PDA.
But . . . "Every inch an iPad"
which, if you think about it, is not strictly true: it's a shrunken iPad.
And, as such, should be seen as a PDA rather than a tablet computer.
The only problem is that PDAs tend to have some sort of physical
keyboard you can tap with a stylus or pencil, and the iPad mini will
have about 2-3 letters under my fat fingers on its virtual keyboard, and
it is unlikely that its screen is going to take nicely to being tapped
with a sharp pencil.
Sorry to be negative, but the iPad mini looks like something for Paris
Hilton and all the other
posers, and not much else.
I find it almost impossible to use the on-screen keyboard on my Android
phone (I find myself yearning for an old Nokia with a numeric keypad - it
would probably be quicker to type with that inappropriate design). But on
the 7" form-factor I find the on-screen keyboard is surprisingly usable,
with the error rate a tiny fraction of that on the phone. Whether or not
the error rate would drop further on a 10" screen I have no desire to find
out, as it is low enough on the 7" to be a non-issue.
When I was in the market for a tablet, I predicted to my style-conscious,
Apple-everything, metrosexual friends that Apple would have to release
something in that shape. Shortly after my purchase, Google released a
tablet in that form-factor. So Apple is late to the party. Steve Jobs was
probably blinded by wanting the iPad not to be anything like the Newton
(the Newton being a landmark product when he was not a Apple).
Bernard
_______________________________________________
use-livecode mailing list
use-livecode@lists.runrev.com
Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription
preferences:
http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
