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A use case for the iPad

A use case for the iPad published on 8 Comments on A use case for the iPad

Ah, yup. Between the price point, the locked-down App Store approach, the spiffy design, the tech specs, the lack of camera, the lack of multitasking, the lack of phone, the cool iBook Store, the corny iBook shelves, the impending transformation of personal computing, the impending collapse of Apple stock, the green light for 3G voice-over-IP apps, the telco deals, the publisher deals, the rumor fact checks, the comparisons with Windows, the Kindle-killing, the not-Kindle-killing and the just-have-to-wait-and-see, all of the good points are taken.

Okay, except maybe pointing out how disappointed cartoonists are that there’s no pressure-sensitive stylus. But That Would Be Self-Serving, so I won’t say it.

I’m sure there are probably a few more sanitary-napkin jokes left waiting in the wings (Anyone joke about a Maxi model yet? They did? Bugger.) but I’d like to think I’m above that. (Addendum:Alex tells me that “wings” is also circulating as an iPad joke. God, I’m clueless about this stuff. Is there a course I can take somewhere? Or maybe an app?)

All I can say is this: Dollhouse wrapped on Friday night, and I’m just about certain that even if the zombie apocalypse was brought about, not by the depradations of the Rossum Corporation, but by an iPad OS update that went horribly, horribly wrong… I’d still want one of the gorgeous damn things.

8 Comments

Actually, the iPhone/iPad is pressure sensitive — or at least, size-of-touch sensitive, so you can get some of what a pressure sensitive stylus would give you. Not quite as precise though. I would have liked a stylus myself…. I had heard that Apple filed a patent application for a stylus with the same capacitive response as a finger. If that's true, it could be used as a stylus on the iPad. Dare we hope that it comes out as an accessory?

And with HTML 5 support from YouTube and Vimeo, that's increasingly likely to be the case.

I'd like Flash support in the iP* line… but the online world is developing some robust alternatives, and we may well soon look back at how dependent we all were on Flash with amused incredulity.

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