Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.
That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)
DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.
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47 replies on “Hitler doesn’t like the iPad”
We have the iPad, the iPhone, the iPod, the iMac…when’s the generalization of these, the iRobot coming out?
You and Hitler aren’t the only ones not thrilled with the iPad. Here is an opinion that shares that sentiment. And $500.00+? puh. leeeze.
@Dianne #1, isn’t the company that makes roombas called iRobot? If so, then Apple trying to use that name would likely be facing a trademark lawsuit.
Yeah I’m very meh about the iPad. I was hoping it was going to be a good tool out in the field for my photography biz, but I’m not as excited now.
I have an iPhone and I don’t need a bigger iPhone. I was hoping for a little more flexibility in the software to not only rely on “apps”, but we’ll see how the developers do.
The only thing that really popped into my mind when I saw the pictures of the iPad was use for medical records. Rather than carrying around a folder with bunches of papers in it, it could be used to bring up the patient’s medical file. Of course, there are privacy and HIPAA compliance issues involved with that.
For personal use, though…meh.
haha @ bloons. people looking at me at work now.
Actually, I don’t even know what bloons is.
Its just some flash game. You’re a monkey shooting darts at baloons. The part that made me laugh was that whatever Hitler actually said there, it sounded similar to “bloons”.
totally agree, what a cool device that I have absolutely no use for. If I can think of a way to change that I will… but right now it’s not looking good for the the wandering cog as far as a purchase. unless they port the xcode IDE to the iPad… then I could actually work on the thing 😉
The one BIG complaint I’ve heard is that it doesn’t have a camera — specifically, a front-facing camera. This has been a huuuuge complaint from my hearing-impaired friends.
In terms of usefulness, I was wondering if something like this or a kindle could be useful in the lab for keeping protocols handy. Right now I have a mixture of 1) a highly unorganized 3 ring binder 2) a drawer in my bench with random product inserts 3) a 400 year old computer running the nanodrop which I use to look up protocols because options 1 and 2 suck.
From some people’s reactions it seems that they are not aware of the fact that this is not the first tablet thingy to hit the market:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_PC#Popular_models
“Who knew Hitler was such a Mac geek?”
Nah. Adolph is just being pissy. Several years ago the
United Nations decreed an annual international observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27. The day was selected because the Red Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on Jan. 27, 1945.
Ever since then, Hitler’s ghost gets the red a$$ this time of year.
The quick response is: “Hey, you lost; you’re dead; get over it.”
The Linux kernel has a module that does not allow Hitler to use it.
Unlike Da Furher… I like the iPad.
I think it will be a good fit for me for several uses…
at home.. I can peek at a website referenced on TV, or read e-Book, or check email without having to go down to the computer desk in the den… and if it really runs the iPhone apps, I get a bigger screen for added utility of things I already bought!? As it matures and more features are added (iPAD2.0) it will likely be even…. cooler! They probably will add a camera… not for taking pics so much as webcam conferencing?
I also thought it would be TERRIFIC as wireless networked EMR tool for electronic office charting… small enough to take room to room, designed to work in wifi/bluetooth. HIPPA (someone mentioned) is issue no matter what form of records are kept paper or EMR.. but I have heard some good arguments for going MAC… less viral and security issues for your network, so perhaps MAC EMR would be MORE secure?
I want one. Cheaper than buying a Mac Laptop to use around the house.. bigger than iPhone (and likely cheaper than the first iPhone I had as well!!!).
12: the thing is, this isn’t an evolution of the Tablet PC as much as it’s an evolution of the current generation of mobile media devices like the Nook, Kindle, Archos or HP media centers. It’s designed to be a swiss-army media device, not a portable computer.
Which is frankly why I’m not interested. My iPhone is good enough to replace all my portable gadgets, and 80% of my laptop’s necessary features. The 20% I’m missing are Pro-quality graphics apps that I need for work, and pressure-sensitive pen support.
Get a tablet – they’re cheaper and can run more than 1 function at a time. Aside from my PC bias, the iPad (worst name ever)is a 2 pound glorified iPhone that can’t take pictures. It’s another expensive turd from Macintosh.
@bluemaxx – the only reason macs don’t get viruses is because PCs are far more prolific. As soon as everyone is on a mac – you will get viruses galore because they are very easy to hack into. Takes about 30 minutes. Safari is a joke compared to firefox & IE.
Not a fan of the concept. It’s like an overpriced iPhone (which is already overpriced as it is) that can’t fit in your pocket and can’t make phone calls. It doesn’t even have a USB port. What were they thinking?!
Or it could also be compared to a Netbook, but with extremely limiting software (only 1 app can run at a time and you’re locked into Apple’s service unless you jailbreak it), slower processor, a TINY hard drive (the smallest Netbook has a 160 GB hard drive), and no keyboard (instead you get to look like a moron while stare at the keyboard as you attempt to type something).
It could be compared to an eReader as well. But an eReader is less expensive, and designed exclusively for reading books/magazines/etc. None are color as far as I know, but they use something called eInk that’s easy on the eyes (making it more like reading a real book). And with the iPad, you have to pay $30 a month for Internet service if you want to download books. eReaders are free and only the books cost money.
I’m sure some of these problems will be addressed in the future, but right now it’s a terrible buy. That said, the Mac fans will buy anything Apple puts out. (They’re generally not very good skeptics, which is why they’ll pay double for hardware that looks pretty) It’ll still sell well.
Keynote and VGA output are appealing for presentations. I’d like to see an object-oriented drawing package, though. Bring back MacDraw!
The video gives the impression that it is locked into AT&T, but Apple specifically said that it is unlocked, so any carrier should be able to offer a competing package.
I sold some Apple stock in the run up to the announcement, expecting that a lot of people would feel let down, but I actually think the iPod will be a success, although not so much of a runaway as the iPhone or iPod. I’ll probably end up buying the stock back at a lower price.
I think that they actually managed to find a sweet spot between media players and book readers. Ten hours is enough for me to use it to read books (assuming that claim actually holds up in practice). Putting it in the iPod/Phone line rather than the Mac line makes a lot of sense. OS X is not natively designed for touch input, and would always seem awkward. By releasing Works, Apple shows that it is powerful enough for productivity applications, and as on the original Mac, they establish a paradigm for how users will interact with applications. Developers will be obliged to rethink their applications for touch input, and I think that Apple is right that the usefulness of touch rises with the screen area. Having an additional market for apps will further incentivize developers to develop for the iPad/Phone/Pod Touch.
Apple seems to have intentionally not provided for a mouse, which is smart, since it prevents developers from simply porting over their mouse-driven computer applications. Nevertheless, I doubt if many people are going to want to use it at length propped in the keyboard dock up as demonstrated in the presentation, for the same reason that touch-screen computers have failed–nobody wants to hold their arm up in the air for more than a few minutes. To use it with a stand, it needs a pointing device, and it shouldn’t be a mouse. Perhaps Apple will make a bluetooth pad. Or maybe they’ll release an app to let the iPhone/Touch double as an iPad touchpad.
The iPad’s interesting, but where does it fit in?
It’s too big to just be casually carried; I assume students could hold it like any other folder or such, but since it’s not a full PC, it won’t run most of the apps they’d need for school. Since they can do basically everything this does in an iPod or iPhone that fits in the pocket, this is also somewhat superfluous.
It might compete with the ebook readers, but the main point of those is that they’re electronic paper; this is still a screen, which most people won’t read on. Also, requiring all the content to go through iTunes is going to limit what it can show.
It’s not competing with tablets, because most people want a full PC in their tablet. Most tablet users who actually *use* the tablet functionality also like the stylus, which this doesn’t really work with.
It doesn’t have much industrial use, because it can’t run the software. Maybe if someone hacked it to a linux kernel, but I doubt Apple would support that openly.
It’s too expensive to be just a sometimes-used toy.
It’s like the iPad’s trying to be “jack of all trades, master of none” at the moment. I suspect they’ll do something fancy for the second-gen version that may help it get a direction, but for the moment, I can’t see most non-mac-addicts buying one. Maybe I’m wrong.
The iPad’s interesting, but where does it fit in?
I’ve been mulling it over at dinner, and I _think_ the answer is that Apple’s attempting to redefine the ultra-portable computer as being a universal multifunction “gadgets” rather than a trimmed-down desktop.
On the plus side, they have a mature and popular interface for a keyboard-less device, and a fair bit of existing developer support. On the downside, it lacks the portability (and some features) of the iPod Touch, and the desktop compatibility of the netbooks and TabletPCs.
If they’re right, then a fair number of netbook users may defect to the iPad, as being more convenient and easier to use for daily web browsing, video watching, and book reading done around the house. If they’re wrong, this is going to wind up as another Newton.
ORAC !
Great blog. Anyway, what about med students and docs running around with epocrates , citrix, and the new telemetry apps for iphone? Wouldn’t the ipad make easier reading?
I was excited about the (max)iPad, until it came out. Doesn’t support multitasking (so only one app at a time) nor does it support flash. Granted flash is the devil of the internet, but if you aren’t going to support the current standard for interactive web content and videos, then the device is almost useless. Other things that I think they dropped the ball on – no camera, they should have punched in a front facing camera for video chat. The device is capable of decoding HD video with it’s new A4 processor, but Apple decided not to put an HDMI port on it. What a waste. They’ve also screwed up the e-reading, from Adobe systems themselves (who are a bit upset with apples lack of support for adobe)
The way I see it, if this thing was released in 2005, it would have been revolutionary. It’s 2010 and it’s not up to par with current technology. I am a bit disappointed, to say the least. (Not that I’d trade in my netbook with Linux for this, even that somewhat flash support.
Yes, it does look like just an oversized iPod Touch.
It costs $200 to go up from the 16GB version to the 64GB version and another $130 to get the 3G data support that AT&T likes to brag about when that finally comes out, so the “full” version will cost something like $830!!!!
And, it won’t multitask !?!?
So much for those AT&T commercials.
At least you can get a bluetooth mouse (I have one for my HP computer), but who knows when the driver software will get written?
Another little crosscheck showed a real laptop with a 2Ghz Intel Core 2 duo processor, 4GB of RAM, 320 GB of hard disk, a bluray drive and a 17.1″ display for $900.
I’d definitely spend the extra $70.
Overall, it just looks too bulky to just stick in a pocket and carry around and too underpowered to be useful as a “real” computer.
But, maybe the iPhone apps market has gotten the software production pipeline primed and some really good apps will show up soon to make it a useful product.
The lack of flash support for the Iphone/Ipod touch is bad enough. What is this thing supposed to *be*?
I mean, I already have a netbook running Eeebuntu, which can do anything other than run Itunes. Why, exactly, would I buy another walled garden apple device that needed to be synced regularly?
I totally would have bought a $500 stand-alone Mac tablet pc. Oh well.
I imagine that the iPhone/iPad/Touch line will eventually support multitasking, since it will be necessary to remain competitive, and there is no technical reason why it could not be done on existing hardware. Apple’s main concern is likely to keep the system from being bogged down by lots of background processes, and perhaps also to enhance security. The Droid, in contrast, permits some multitasking, but only a limited number of applications. I could see Apple taking a similar, but I expect it will be more controlled–perhaps a special, more rigorous, certification process of apps that want to enable background processing.
In any case, I’d have been astonished if Apple had chosen to roll out multitasking at this point. It makes more sense to introduce it as part of a system update for the entire line at a later date. It would be nuts to introduce a major new system feature simultaneously with the iPad, especially one that is not essential for the major uses of the iPad and that has so much potential for performance and security problems. As it is, the iPad will release with a mature OS that has already been through multiple revision cycles, with only minor adaptations, so it should be solid. This is critical for a product like this–any problems at all are going to be widely reported in the media, and a rash of crashes or performance problems could create a stink that the iPad would never recover from.
Obviously Der Fuhrer doesn’t want one, so it must be good.
Since Fujitsu already has an “ipad” out there for commercial inventory use, there’s some flap over trademark infringement.
Let’s call it what it is – the presbyopiaPod.
fusilier
James 2:24
I think that the “no multitasking” is a ploy to make PC users seem stupid like their “no right clicking” ploy. A lot of people still think Macs do not have right click functions so they look like asses when they bring that up in debates. So five years down the road, we’ll all be saying the iPad/iPhone can’t multitask when they actually have been able to for two whole months!
So they call it the (Max)iPad rather than the iSlate or iTablet. Remember the Wii and all the verbal shrapnel it took when it launched. This unfriendly onslaught of uncontrollable giggles will pass.
Apple is famous for making you appreciative of them by adding things later that really should have been there from the start. It’s a good bet that additional “features” will be “updated.” Prices may come down within a few months, as with the iPhone. It’s probably a better plan to skip the first iteration of new hardware until all of the bugs & problems have been worked out, so use this rationale to restrain your techno-lust. Good luck on that.
Hitler offered quite a few helpful points about his venomous distaste for the device, but Mac OS X isn’t written “OSX” any more than Windows 7 is written Windows7. Don’t get me going on how people mistakingly hyper-capitalize Mac.
I’ve got 6 apps open on my Droid right now:
1. Pandora streaming over 3G
2. Facebook
3. Newsrob RSS client
4. SportsTap
5. Google Maps
6. Browser
HAHAHAHAHAAAAA, oh man I love the fanboi attitude. A Ploy? Really? I was excited about this thing until I heard no multitasking. As mentioned above, I can multi task on an android phone that has less horsepower. That means, I can, ya know, listen to Pandora while looking at Google maps. You can argue that apps could be accessed through ha website, but then you are relying on the browser (an plugins [remember no flash]).
I’ve never ever heard anyone say that a mac can’t right click either, or more accurately, control click.
@jj
“A Ploy? Really? I was excited about this thing until I heard no multitasking.”
I’m really not a fanboy. I was joking. Obviously it’s not a ploy. I think that Apple just tends to be very behind on many things. For example, why do none of their mobile phones, MP3 player, etc, have a slot for a flashcard? (I know the answer to this, they’re greedy bastards that want more money) And why do they not have multitasking? (I know this answer, they want you to have to buy more than one iPhone/iPad)
@Cris – Sorry, my bad :). The inability to understand sarcasm online…
@trrll, the iPad uses SIM chips so it’s only compatible with the AT&T & T-Mobile networks in the US, as far as I know. Verizon and Sprint are CDMA networks so you can’t access them with an iPad or an iPhone.
See, I am a total fangirl for Apple but I’m really disappointed by the Ipad. Instead of being a revolutionary device it basically seems to be the love-child of an Iphone and a kindle and I already have both.
I don’t see it replacing my kindle anytime soon for reading novels because the battery life is nowhere near as good, and I like the epaper/ink thing that the kindle has. It makes it very easy to read. I will say though, if Apple managed to get a huge amount of text books available for the Ipad, I could see myself caving. I’d rather drag the tablet around than a bunch of heavy books. But I really wish there was a stylus for it. It would make note taking more easy for me.
I’m also curious about whether or not the tablet will be jailbreakable. You could fix the issue of multitasking pretty easily with jailbroken software.
Personally, the tablet that I’m holding out hopes for is the microsoft Courier. That thing looks hot, but to the best of my knowledge there haven’t been any official announcements about it, so who knows what the finished product will be like, if there even is one.
Quote possibly. One issue is that the CPU on this thing is brand new (apple has decided to jump back into the chip market) so no one really knows waht to expect. Also, the device is unlocked, unlike a iPhone.
@Fin# 34. It wont work on t-mobile3g (but will on EDGE):
http://gizmodo.com/5458382/8-things-that-suck-about-the-ipad
http://gizmodo.com/5458423/unlocked-or-not-your-ipad-wont-be-able-to-use-t+mobiles-3g-network
That clip never gets old.
You’d think I’d be over Unhinged Hitler commenting on the latest online meme . . . but I swear they just keep getting better. Unhinged iPad Hitler is der finest yet. As for the iPad, I love me some Apple, but, meh.
They should have called it iKindle.
Michelle, #35 Did you know that there is a free Kindle download app for iPhone? Makes a great little reading device and you only have to take your phone with you.
I can’t see any reason to get this thing and I’m a huge Mac fan. It seems to be an oversized Kindle. It’s smaller than my laptop, but it looks like something you could drop very easily and how in the heck are you supposed to protect the screen?
I think it has potential for students if they can download textbooks at a savings, which would lighten the backpack load and save a lot of trees. For me, it would just be another thing to drag around.
Do you really have to sync it? I didn’t see that in the video or read it anywhere in the critiques. That would be nuts because I often don’t remember to sync my phone and run out of podcasts on sleepless nights–another chore I do not need.
@39 I do and I have the app on my phone but it doesn’t really replace the kindle all that well for me. The IPhone screen is too small and, like the IPad, it’s got issues with the battery life and not having the epaper/eink ( whatever it’s called) screen.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore my phone but I think the kindle is much better as an ereader. Though I do prefer the IPhone kindle app for cookbooks. I like the color screen for pictures of food.
Right, because there are WAY more critical exploits for Apache than IIS web services? No offense, but this is pure nonsense. I’d also recommend you read up on what UNIX is and how it compares to what Windows sits on. Not to mention that the very reason the latter is so prolific is that its creators constantly rush flawed product to mass release, quality be damned, and they have since their inception.
As for Macs being “very easy to hack into” within “30 minutes”, I’ll call you out on your obvious reference to a disingenuous 2006 “hack” that was anything but. It was an offset calcuation fix in the virtual table kernel pool. In other words, the “winner” didn’t get anywhere near actual root/admin access. The host even set up open SSH access for the attackers to feast on, so the competition was a hoax from the start. An out-of-the-box Mac has yet to see a confirmed hack. A Mac with extra security trimmings, forget about it.
Anyway, do you realize how many Macs are out there in 2010? If OSX users are just rich idiots with insecure boxes, where are the horror stories? Where are the hacks? Give me just a single incidence where someone’s machine was compromised. Macs are no longer fringe PCs, so your reasoning is ridiculous.
Stability is built into the Mac approach. While OSX may well get more vulnerable as its user base increases, it is ignorant to suggest it will ever be anywhere near as corrupt as Windows. You’re comparing a streamlined hardware & software team to a company that craps out 100 releases of its OS to tens of thousands of different hardware combos. Think it over.
As for your silly jab at Safari, since we’re on a science blog, I would ask for some evidence for that claim as well. Safari, unlike Firefox, is one of the only browsers capable of fully passing ACID3. It is also faster and more stable than Firefox. Chrome was impressed with Webkit enough to borrow it from Safari. (Tell Google that Safari is a “joke”.) Complaints about Safari are almost invariably related to Adobe’s Flash plug-in neglect or some other contextual crap related to non-compliant code by IE developers.
Anyone who holds the laughable IE up to ANY of the aforementioned browsers is either an idiot or is being paid by Microsoft.
/rant
I’ve said this about the iPad in a few other places, but it bears repeating: I’m not entirely sure Apple knows what it has here.
The first point, the part I know they know about, is that the biggest audience for the iPad + iWork package will be people who do a lot of work on long plane flights. Ten hours of battery life is longer than even some netbooks, and the iPad is, as best as I can tell, the modern incarnation of the old RadioShack TRS-80 Model 100. It’ll be a huge seller to that crowd, since you can add a full-size Bluetooth keyboard where a netbook keyboard is somewhat cramped.
The other point is something I find extremely bothersome — the iPad is a wet dream for certain types of hobby and thin-client projects, including jukeboxes, gaming tables, hospital data pads, robotics, and lots of other things that no one has really thought about yet, and the fact that Apple is likely to lock it into the iTunes architecture means very little of that will actually happen, at least with Apple’s blessing. No matter how good the iPad hardware turns out to be, Apple will absolutely lose the markets that can actually use a cheap touchscreen computer for something other than a netbook/ebook reader/general satellite gadget.
I may want one. Jailbreaking will have to ensue first though.
I am disappointed. The iPad was highly anticipated by my husband (who loved his iTouch so much he used it even in the bath, hence its early demise) – I would rather wait for a few improvements before buying this.
The first generation will be a neat toy, especially for my 3 year old – but it just doesn’t have enough features for me. I do think I will use it a lot for web browsing though.
FYI we are NOT a Mac family – the only Apple devices we have owned were the iTouch and AirPort Express.
Kel:
Oh, so I am not the only person who want to have a water proof reader! I do have a radio that is supposed to work underwater, but it is pretty iffy (especially since the pool is in a concrete building and the signal gets lost).
I would love to sit in the shallow end of the pool on a hot day and read (well, I can, but it is usually a paperback I bought for fifty cents at a book sale).
Chris – he used ziploc snack bags and would soak in the tub for hours with the iTouch – until the fateful day the bag wasn’t sealed.
I made him promise never to take electronics into the bathroom again unless they were actually rated waterproof and still under warranty.
A camera would be nice too, I’m really surprised it doesn’t have one.
Water proof cameras do exist. Now all we need now are waterproof readers and mp3 players. I just modified my mp3 cover to protect it from rain and dirt. It had a “convenient” opening for the USB cord, except that dirt could get in. So I took some light vinyl and covered it up. Works much better when I am gardening and walking in the rain (which I get to do often in winter).
Get a tablet – they’re cheaper and can run more than 1 function at a time. Aside from my PC bias, the iPad (worst name ever)is a 2 pound glorified iPhone that can’t take pictures. It’s another expensive turd from Macintosh.
@bluemaxx – the only reason macs don’t get viruses is because PCs are far more prolific. As soon as everyone is on a mac – you will get viruses galore because they are very easy to hack into. Takes about 30 minutes. Safari is a joke compared to firefox & IE.
thank blogs yesilcam