Originally Posted By: Dignan
Originally Posted By: andy
And of course one person's compromise is another person's feature.

For example:

To many people the lack of access to the file system on iOS is a massive compromise. To many people the simplicity that it brings is a feature.

There's a big difference, IMO. On a tablet you're making way more compromises.


No, on a tablet YOU would have to make more compromises. On a laptop/desktop some (in fact I'd say quite a few) people would be making more compromises than they would on an iPad.

Using a laptop/desktop a user takes on the very burdensome compromises of managing a complex computer setup, dealing with backups and restore, trying not to infect it with malware* etc. This complexity is just as much a compromise to those people as the lack of file system on iOS is to you.

The people I am thinking about who could use the iPad as their only computer are the people at the end of the spectrum where they've never bought a PC/Mac app and have never successfully restored anything successfully from a backup. Such stuff is childs play now in the iPad (the first time you blow away the contents and restore the entire device from an iCloud backup really is compelling).

Originally Posted By: Dignan

I also think that you're reading my posts and every time I say laptop you think I'm talking about a 17" MacBook Pro. I'm actually thinking more along the lines of a MacBook Air. An Air is the same weight as an iPad with a keyboard, but can do so very much more.


No, I was certainly not thinking of something as massive as the 17 wink

However, even an iPad + keyboard is a fair lighter than the 13 inch Air + PSU. And that is kind of beside the point, as not a single one of my iPad owning offline friends has felt the need to buy a physical keyboard for it.

We have an external keyboard as I had one for my MacBook, but even though she has played with it, my wife prefers to use the on screen keyboard.

Originally Posted By: Dignan

And to each his own. You like typing on a tablet and for me it makes me want to punch a wall. How are you typing on it? Like a real keyboard, or thumb typing?


I'm not sure I said I liked typing on the iPad. I said it was usable. Given the choice, with no other factors involved I'd clearly prefer to be typing on a physical keyboard, but of course there are other factors involved.

I type on it like a really keyboard when writing more than a couple of lines, people who are good at it can just about touch type in it, as unlikely as that must sound...

* you're going to say that OSX makes these compromises less painful and yes, it probably does, a bit. But then the people looking to make a $399 iPad their only computer are the people who in the past would have ended up on a $400 PC, not a $1,000 Mac

N.B. in all of these discussions I am talking about an iPad and not a generic tablet. And iPad and other tablets certainly do not bring the same set of benefits and compromises.
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