H.P.’s New Tablet Enters Market Late, but Looks Marvelous

H.P.’s New Tablet Enters Market Late, but Looks Marvelous, article.
A lot of limitations, but some big promises too.

You know how people “jailbreak,” or hack, the iPhone to run unauthorized apps? Apple fights jailbreakers incessantly with software warfare. But H.P. welcomes such shenanigans. You agree not to bother H.P. with whatever trouble results, and you can restore the factory settings by resetting your tablet.

Now that's a healthy attitude. I honestly don't know what's up Apple's ass that they have to fight this all-out war with people who want to install non-approved software on their iPhone or iPad. Just give them a warning that they will void their warranty, and let them play their game, for pete's sake.

A dream iPad

Goodness gracious me, a detail in a dream I had was that Apple surprised everybody and released a 20-inch super-iPad! I'd love for that to come true.

iFart

I saw a "fart app" mentioned on Big Bang, and I checked if those really existed. And lo, there are about 80 of them! Doesn't that make you proud of humanity?

Download speeds again

I hate to bitch about this, but I'm just so disappointed with download speeds on my iPad and such devices. Often, video is just not practical, even on wifi! Do you have the same experiences?
Contrast this with my Mac Pro, on the same connection: I just downloaded a 350MB Apple System update file... in under two minutes! That's half a CD's capacity! Holy frig. If I could get even a tenth of that speed reliably on the iPad, I'd be happy.

Keep It Simple, Sweetheart

In Search of New Web Site Tools to Replace iWeb, Part I, article.

I love Apple's products, but sometimes the company can be cold bastards. They are discontinuing the iWeb service without so much as an apology to people who may have put hundreds of hours into it.

And replacing it is not easy:
Apple has done some proprietary things inside iWeb, and decoding that process has so far proved intractable. As a result, if one is going to select a new, modern web site builder app to replace iWeb, it’ll be necessary to rebuild the site from scratch.

This is why I am a fan of KISS, Keep It Simple, Sweetheart. (OK, I changed it a little, the original seemed potentially insulting...) It is very typical that a fancy app which makes fancy results and does it easily, will do so in a complex and proprietary way, making it difficult to make it work with other tools. Something which you may need to update and change, should be made simple and transparent, with standard tools.

Nora Barnacle and the Birth of the Ebook

Nora Barnacle and the Birth of the Ebook, article.
How e-books started, very ambitiously, 20 years ago, and actually were successful. Quite interesting.

The seven-inch dilemma

I think Steve Jobs is right from his perspective: a 7-inch tablet does not make much sense. It's sat between two chairs.
That's as a tablet, though! As an e-reader, it would be perfect.
So I'm hoping that while Apple probably won't ever the "small" ereader market, somebody else will (Amazon) and make the perfect ereader. Small enough to put in a large pocket, 250+ pixels per inch, power and features to juggle all kinds of text easily, emails, web articles, etc. And of course color multi-touch screen.
The Nook Color is close, when it's hacked. But I'm still hoping for the high-rez screen, it makes a surprising difference. And I'm hoping lighter and thinner and great ergonomics (no pressing buttons by mistake all the time.)

iPad publishing: time to switch to v2.0

iPad publishing: time to switch to v2.0, article.

The first generation of iPad magazines are not making any money. At all.

As I see it, then we can either: 1) work harder at making it work in the brand new medium. or 2) go down with the ship.

I think that the first guys who succeed with iPad magazines will succeed wildly. Because unlike with paper and trucks, there's no enertia to expansion.

Line breaks in e-text

Ampersand Makes E-Poetry Possible, article.

I find it typical that while computers can do the most mind-boggling thing, something as simple as line breaks in text continues to be a problem decade after decade after decade...