iPad vs. Computer
I've heard a number of stories lately about people switching from computers to the iPad. I have to say that's a bit much. The iPad is cool. It's a form factor that we haven't had until now, and running an OS that is simple to use and suits such a form factor. That's great, but it's still a device with very heavy limitations in hardware and, especially, in software.
What do I mean?
Well my first experiments with the iPad involved wanting to view spreadsheets. This is possible, sure enough. The easiest way to do it is to mail yourself the spreadsheet. Then when it arrives in your mailbox you can open it to view. (Sadly, this doesn't work with OpenOffice spreadsheets which is a glaring omission!) You can't, however save it. Even if you could, where could you save it to? There is no "home folder" or anything of that sort, so you are pretty much precluded from every saving files at all - sort of.
The next thing I tried was installing Dropbox.com's application. This is pretty cool, except that it doesn't synch all the files like you would think it does, but you have to pick the files you want to see (and you have to be online to do that). You can, however, "star" the files you want to keep cached, and it works most of the time. You can always view the files in Dropbox. There are certain other things that work too, for example, you can save a photo you are viewing in DropBox into the photo library. Neat, huh? Then again, it's not like you can pick the folder or filename, it just gets saved, that's it.
In fact, if you install certain applications, they can take over certain file types. For example, if you install Apple's "Numbers" application, you can view, create, and edit spreadsheets inside the app. That's great, but again, the easiest way to get an app in there is to email it to yourself, and then use the "open in... numbers" option in the email program - which leaves a lot to be desired. You could also add it to Dropbox on your computer, and then go into the Dropbox app on the iPad and it has a similar "open with..." option. You pick Numbers, and it opens in Numbers. Great, right? Well, not so fast. A COPY gets made, and opened with Numbers. If you save it, the local copy in Numbers gets updated, but not the Dropbox copy (thus defeating the main point of Dropbox). In fact, there is no way to get the file back into Dropbox. You can email the file back out, or if you like hooking your iPad to the computer, you can get at the file from iTunes. That's about it. Worse yet, the problem has nothing to do with Dropbox, it's part of the iOS design. There is no shared "files" area, but rather each app has its own files area. That means you can't pick which app to use to open a file each time. The file belongs to only one app. If you want to have it accessible from multiple apps, you basically have to import it into each app, and then it will be taking up extra space. There are certain exceptions to this (like photos - the photo library is accessible to 3rd party apps), but as a general rule, applications on the iPad don't play together as far as files are concerned.
Take the example of eBooks. There are right now a number of apps you might want to use to read eBooks. There's Apple's iBooks app, there's the Kindle app, there's Stanza, and there's other apps like "goodreader" that people rave about. Let's say I say "Ok, I am going to try GoodReader", so I install it. Then I open it, and... no books. Even though iBooks and Stanza have a whole bunch of files each.
Another problem is that the multitasking in iOS 4.2 is designed to allow some limited activities to occur in the background, but it certainly isn't conducive to actually USING multiple applications at once. One thing I often do it make a document or spreadsheet (or, often both), while reading a web site or PDF. For example, I have a case from class in a PDF file, and I am copying numbers out of it into the spreadsheet, which is linked into the word processing file. How exactly would you do this on the iPad? Right, you wouldn't. Trying to flip back and forth between the apps loses its novelty after about 10 seconds.
I could go into a lot more examples of things you commonly want to do on a computer that you can't do on the iPad, but I think fro the examples above I have already made my point - the iPad is great for what it is, but it isn't a PC replacement. In their strive for simplicity, they have given up much utility. People worry about trivial issues like Flash content not displaying (it's very very rare for me to see any flash content that's not an advertisement), and miss the fact that the problem is much more basic - there isn't flexibility for *any* type of plug-ins or add-ons at this point in iOS. There isn't any way to work with multiple apps at once, there isn't any way (in general) to choose to open the same file with different apps at different times, and there is as a result little way to have workflow between applications.
Still, the iPad is interesting for what it is good at, it's just not trying to be a PC.
What do I mean?
Well my first experiments with the iPad involved wanting to view spreadsheets. This is possible, sure enough. The easiest way to do it is to mail yourself the spreadsheet. Then when it arrives in your mailbox you can open it to view. (Sadly, this doesn't work with OpenOffice spreadsheets which is a glaring omission!) You can't, however save it. Even if you could, where could you save it to? There is no "home folder" or anything of that sort, so you are pretty much precluded from every saving files at all - sort of.
The next thing I tried was installing Dropbox.com's application. This is pretty cool, except that it doesn't synch all the files like you would think it does, but you have to pick the files you want to see (and you have to be online to do that). You can, however, "star" the files you want to keep cached, and it works most of the time. You can always view the files in Dropbox. There are certain other things that work too, for example, you can save a photo you are viewing in DropBox into the photo library. Neat, huh? Then again, it's not like you can pick the folder or filename, it just gets saved, that's it.
In fact, if you install certain applications, they can take over certain file types. For example, if you install Apple's "Numbers" application, you can view, create, and edit spreadsheets inside the app. That's great, but again, the easiest way to get an app in there is to email it to yourself, and then use the "open in... numbers" option in the email program - which leaves a lot to be desired. You could also add it to Dropbox on your computer, and then go into the Dropbox app on the iPad and it has a similar "open with..." option. You pick Numbers, and it opens in Numbers. Great, right? Well, not so fast. A COPY gets made, and opened with Numbers. If you save it, the local copy in Numbers gets updated, but not the Dropbox copy (thus defeating the main point of Dropbox). In fact, there is no way to get the file back into Dropbox. You can email the file back out, or if you like hooking your iPad to the computer, you can get at the file from iTunes. That's about it. Worse yet, the problem has nothing to do with Dropbox, it's part of the iOS design. There is no shared "files" area, but rather each app has its own files area. That means you can't pick which app to use to open a file each time. The file belongs to only one app. If you want to have it accessible from multiple apps, you basically have to import it into each app, and then it will be taking up extra space. There are certain exceptions to this (like photos - the photo library is accessible to 3rd party apps), but as a general rule, applications on the iPad don't play together as far as files are concerned.
Take the example of eBooks. There are right now a number of apps you might want to use to read eBooks. There's Apple's iBooks app, there's the Kindle app, there's Stanza, and there's other apps like "goodreader" that people rave about. Let's say I say "Ok, I am going to try GoodReader", so I install it. Then I open it, and... no books. Even though iBooks and Stanza have a whole bunch of files each.
Another problem is that the multitasking in iOS 4.2 is designed to allow some limited activities to occur in the background, but it certainly isn't conducive to actually USING multiple applications at once. One thing I often do it make a document or spreadsheet (or, often both), while reading a web site or PDF. For example, I have a case from class in a PDF file, and I am copying numbers out of it into the spreadsheet, which is linked into the word processing file. How exactly would you do this on the iPad? Right, you wouldn't. Trying to flip back and forth between the apps loses its novelty after about 10 seconds.
I could go into a lot more examples of things you commonly want to do on a computer that you can't do on the iPad, but I think fro the examples above I have already made my point - the iPad is great for what it is, but it isn't a PC replacement. In their strive for simplicity, they have given up much utility. People worry about trivial issues like Flash content not displaying (it's very very rare for me to see any flash content that's not an advertisement), and miss the fact that the problem is much more basic - there isn't flexibility for *any* type of plug-ins or add-ons at this point in iOS. There isn't any way to work with multiple apps at once, there isn't any way (in general) to choose to open the same file with different apps at different times, and there is as a result little way to have workflow between applications.
Still, the iPad is interesting for what it is good at, it's just not trying to be a PC.
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