The intertubes have been swarming with discussion about Apple’s latest product; the iPad. While there is no doubt a lot of people talking about the iPad in a positive way, it is impossible to deny that there is an overwhelming negative attitude towards Apple’s latest creation. The question is whether or not iPad is deserving of the negative barrage it is getting.

Lets take a sample of some comments people have made about the iPad:

Engadget

…how many more ”definitive” posts/editorials do we need to see to further explain how crappy this thing is. i think we got it

Ok, so people are mad that engadget is covering the iPad because they think the device is “crappy”? Engadget covers all device releases, yet the audience of the site (which is anti-Apple to begin with) get pissed about the coverage. You would think engadget is somehow forcing these people to read their site.

The iPad is basically a giant iPod touch. In my opinion, it is missing a lot of essential components/features that deter me from purchasing one myself. For instance: The iPad has no multitasking, no cameras, a touch keyboard, no hdmi out, no flash, lots of adapters, and it ‘s not widescreen. Just a few things that make me say… no thanks.

Then they are upset that the iPad has no camera, physical keyboard, hdmi out, flash, and not widescreen. Well lets think about this, it is a tablet computer. I do understand the multitasking and camera comment so I will ignore those. But physical keyboard? This is a tablet device, it is not a tablet PC. It is designed for your hands, but you can get a keyboard if you really want one. While this person did make some good observations there was still some pretty far off complaining and critiquing of the device. It is not a tablet PC, and it was never touted as one, thus no attached keyboard.

I’m sorry engadget but this is the last I’m ever visiting your site. Your coverage of a medicore product is completely overboard. If you decide to give the HP slate this much coverage when it comes out let me know and I’ll be back, until then, peace out.

Calling an unreleased product mediocre and saying if they cover the HP Slate in the same way they will come back is just childish. This user makes no attempt to hide their total bias. If Engadget covers a PC device they will be happy, but covering an Apple device is not ok. A typical comment from the Engadget commenting crowd.

Yea. HP Slate better be awesome coverage. And the Courier. That’s a slick piece of tech. If you go this bananas over a giant iPhone, I’d better see an entire server dedicate to those.

Same for this comment, covering something Apple makes isn’t alright, but the same coverage for a PC based device is more than ok. Bias galore. Anyone who has watched the keynote in its entirety knows that the iPad is much more than a giant iPod. All you need to do is watch the iWork section of the keynote to understand that.

But fear not, in the flak of negativity there are still people with some good reasoning:

Constant negativity gets old pretty quickly. As someone who enjoys constructive debate and is looking to get some apps developed, I’d like to see everyone take a step back and a deep breath.

None of the more prolific commenters have given Apple the benefit of the doubt on multi-tasking. Really, is that a feature that would make it into a .X release? And is there any reason to assume that the A4 can’t perform similar to whatever’s in the Pre Plus with its demonstrated 50 apps at once ability?

Then there’s the bitching about the bezel, when other devices in the same form factor have pretty much the same thing going on. A thin bezel is great for anything that doesn’t require a firm, one-handed grip; I don’t want to continually move my hand to read content that is obscured by my thumb.

No full OS. Umm, until a full OS can be made that is designed from the ground-up to be touch-friendly, and doesn’t take forever to boot up on tablet/slate hardware, I’ll happily live without the extras.

With 8 out of 10 comments here shredding the iPad, it’s all become sort of a blur, so I can’t come up with anything else off the top of my head. But, I hope you see my point that for the vast majority of the negative commentary, it’s been nothing but the same knee-jerk reactions posted over and over again.

And if, as you say, these represent the voices of the “power users” who beta test the devices, then how is Apple going to get anything of use out of coming here? Virtually every person who has criticized the iPad in the comments has done so without any actual time using the device, and have sworn to never purchase it and experience it for themselves. I fail to see how this qualifies as beta testing.

This is a rare comment from the Engadget community, and I’m sure this user will get buried for a comment like this. The fact is that there is a strong vocal internet trend right now that involves bashing the iPad, and it isn’t just limited to Engadget comments. Heck, Gizmodo wrote an entire article on “8 things that suck about the iPad” which simply rehashed the same old crap: thick bezel, no multitasking, no keyboard.. blah blah blah.

And Digg.com is always a good place to go for non-bias Apple commenting… right? Ha, no, not at all. Digg is another site that is filled with Apple hate. Top comments include:

I’m really digging the internet backlash. All that hate towards NBC is being channeled now towards Apple. The fact that they’re arrogant enough to suggest that this rivals a netbook in any way is only going to lead to further scrutiny.

Suck it, Apple.

Oh? I haven’t talked to anyone who can say they love their $299 netbook. Maybe when you get in the 11″ $500 price range people start to enjoy their netbooks a little more, but anyone who has the most common type of netbook would probably gladly trade it in for an iPad. As someone who has owned 3 netbooks let me tell you, the experience with them is terrible.

No multitasking in a NEW device that is meant to be a replacement for laptops? Pandora shuts down just because you left Pandora to do something else? Nice going, Apple. You should have waited till version 2 was ready to release.

Woah, wait, what? A replacement for laptops? Steve specifically said during his keynote that this device is designed to fit between a smartphone and laptop, not replace either one! Another case of someone commenting when they never even watched the keynote. This is further reinforced when you realize that this is one of the top promoted comments for the story on Digg, meaning that over a 500 other people agreed with this observation enough to promote this users comment. Wow.

Then we have the Microsoft fanboy chiming in:

If Microsoft releases the Courier, it will destroy the iPad.

Just like the Zune did to the iPod and the ZuneHD did to the iPod Touch… right? Sigh.

Netbook Comparisons

A lot of critics on the web use the argument “why not just get a Netbook, it has more features and its cheaper.” It is important to realize the differences between a netbook and the iPad, as they are two completely different types of devices. The iPad is thin, has a 10 hour battery, and offers a form factor and OS that is very friendly for short-use situations, like waiting for a bus. A netbook is thicker, has a shorter battery, longer startup and shutdown time, and a full OS which can perform more tasks but in a longer period of time to do application startup/shutdown times and the fact that the full blown programs have more features and are intended to be used on full laptops and desktops.

Also, netbooks generally have cramped keyboards and tiny trackpads which makes navigating and interacting with the device more of a chore than a pleasure. The iPad turns the entire display into a trackpad of sorts, and allows for simple navigation and interaction with objects, like websites. If you have ever browsed the web on a netbook you probably have experienced the underwhelming feeling you get when constantly scrolling to view content. The mobile Safari browser allows you to see much more of a page, and you can easily zoom in and out of the content you wish to focus on, a feature you can’t easily do in Firefox on a netbook without lots of scrolling. It is an entirely different yet efficient way to browse the web. I am to the point where I would rather browse the web on my Nexus One or iPhone than my netbook because pinch-to-zoom is a lot easier than using those tiny trackpads and widescreens.

As Steve Jobs said:

“Netbooks aren’t better tat anything. They’re not better than a laptop at anything, they’re just cheaper. They’re just cheap laptops.”

Yet we still have critics saying:

$629 with 3G/Wifi? THAT’S INSANE.

I’ve got a Lenovo $300 netbook with Windows XP, FLASH, JAVA and a KEYBOARD !

Let me start by saying your netbook doesn’t have 3G on it (so why did you bother comparing it to the 3G/Wifi iPad?). And thats fine, you can enjoy the heck out of your tiny netbook all you want. A netbook is still a small computer with a small screen made from cheap components. If that makes you happy, so be it. Many people are turned off by netbooks because of how small they are, how underpowered they are for the software that runs on them, and the overall less-than-stellar hardware they are made from.

The Bezel from HELL

Based on reactions found on the web you would think this was the first device to ever have a bezel.

Here’s two of the Many things that piss me off. #1 bezel – it’s NOT neccesary. Are you telling me apple cannot come up with a software solution so the system would know your just holding the edge of the screen?

Oh really? The iPhone multitouch technology already blows away all of the competition (including the Nexus One) and yet this user wants software to tell whether they are pressing or just holding the screen edge. Seriously? How annoying would it be trying to browse the web but having part of the screen blocked by your thumb? That sounds pretty annoying to me. The bezel is there because this device is intended to be held with one hand and interacted with using your other hand!

Lets understand why the bezel is necessary by using an example. Look at the picture below, and focus on the area I highlighted in green. That green area is the most important area of interaction when deleting email. On the left side you will notice that there are red check boxes, clicking the email flags the check box red and marks the email for deletion.

Now imagine having your thumb covering those red check boxes. You would need to set the device down, or find a way to palm the back of it to allow you to uncover those deletion ticks (which are currently being covered by your left thumb). That is a hassle. Having a bezel to hold onto eliminates the need to juggle the device so you can perform tasks that require interaction with the edges of the device.

Lets just look at one more example. See how the removal of the bezel would move your hand right up to the edge of the words when reading an eBook? People with larger hands could easily have their view of the pages effected by holding the device this close to the actual text. Not to mention the device reads this as input which could cause a shift of the hand to result in a page turn.

No flash?! Do not want!

With the Ipad’s omission of flash, it becomes pointless as it will not be able to deliver you content that 98% of websites use.

98%? Oh? I can pull numbers out of my ass too. 110% of this users comment was bullshit. See, its that easy! Me being snarky aside, this is yet another prime example of a user being overly critical in an attempt to make a product seem worse than it really is. I don’t know about you, but aside from advertisements (which I block using AdBlock anyway) I interact with maybe two flash based websites on a weekly basis, and that is including YouTube which does have an application on the iPad to stream YouTube videos. So where are all of these flash websites hiding? I read reddit, digg, endgadget, and the rest of those popular sites, so tell me where are these popular flash-based sites? Which sites are so reliant on flash that it is required to view the content? Ok ok I hear cries of “Hulu”, so lets ignore video streaming sites. Anyone? Anyone? Exactly. Most of the sites out there do NOT rely on flash to view the content. FFS.

It doesn’t run a “full” OS!

Yes, it does. Sure it doesn’t run OS X, but that is not a bad thing. Why? Because thats not the point of this device!

The iPad is supposed to be a device that is between your iPhone (smartphone) and your MacBook (laptop) for web browsing, email, photos, games, and reading. It is not a laptop replacement. It is not a phone replacement. It is easier to use than a smartphone, but less feature-packed than a laptop. It is a easily portable device with a long battery and great capabilities.

Thank god I am a Mac user. Why? Read.

So I was given a computer to fix by a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a zoo keeper’s personal bee keeper’s gardener, or something like that. Anyway, the reasons cited for needing repair included running slow, and possibly a virus had worked its way into the users well-secured system.

So I got the system, fired it up, and instantly noticed there was no AV software running. Secure? Ha. Heck, there was no anti-spyware software either, a defrag had never been done and updates hadn’t been installed since Service Pack 3. It was still using IE6, and when I fired IE 6 up, I was in for a surprise.

Feel free to take a peek at the larger image. Their IE was a toolbar heaven. It almost seems like the user just googled the word Toolbar and click every hit that came up. I mean come on, how am I supposed to work with someone like this? To top it off, they said they LIKED the toolbars. What did I do? I gave them the system back and said “I usually just fix Mac’s, try the Geek Squad.” Seriously, I cannot bother trying to ‘fix’ a system that has never had AV software on it, doesn’t have updates installed, and has more tools than the Digg offices… er… toolbars.

It is situations like this that make me thank myself more and more for switching to Mac. So many PC users are just dumb like this. Mac has ‘them’ too, but far less.

Funny video of my favorite actor doing standup comedy in 1996.

About a year ago I created a tool that converts a .torrent to a .txt file so it could be downloaded on networks that do not allow downloading for .torrent files (the .torrent will start downloading but never complete). It was used many thousand times which was cool. However I realized that the system I made was in a way a hassle, as people would need to rename the .txt to .torrent for their clients.

Solution? Well its obvious, but zip the original .torrent! So thats what it does now. When you submit a .torrent file, it will be compressed into a zip and you can download the zipped up .torrent file. Decompress it, and you are on your way.

Again, this utility will compress a torrent file that you have a link to, provide you with a zip file you can download then you just extract the zip and run the torrent file. This is ONLY useful if your network doesn’t allow you to download .torrent files from the web (like mine does).

Enjoy! Link: torzip.com

(I realize the page is still ugly as all hell but thats the way it goes. I am not artistic.)
Well I tried to be a little artistic and make it a bit colorful. Im sure this site violates every rule of design and offends nearly everyone with an eye for color, however you all can deal with it!

This is quite possibly one of the best YouTube video’s I have seen in a long time. Its so true, and I do the exact same thing.

I refuse to use a microphone when playing on XBox Live unless I can confirm that the people in-game with me are above (or at least sound like they are above) the age of 18. Why? Because hearing the shrill voice of a 14 year old while trying to immerse myself in a game like Call of Duty: World at War is nearly impossible. I sit down after a long day of classes and work hoping to hop into a game and take out a few people, but instead I have to deal with hearing children yack their high-pitched, unintelligent mumbo-jumbo into the microphone making me want to quit.

More after the jump.

Who can we blame? Well I suggest we start with the parents. Why? Because they are likely the ones supplying their angel of a kid with the game to begin with, as well as providing the kid with their credit card to pay for XBox live. I mean come on parents, have you even looked at the box for Call of Duty? It screams “do NOT buy for my 14 year old son!”, yet somehow the kids always end up with these games. Lets take a look at the game case shall we:

I tried to highlight the reasons why kids shouldn’t have this game. Fire, guns, bombs, death, etc. However none of that tells the parent “hm, maybe I shouldn’t buy this.” So next we have the blatant rating:

Anyone with eyes can see that it is for ages 17+. Yet that still doesn’t push parents away from buying these games. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there is anything wrong with a parent getting a shooting game for their kid, as long as they are mature enough to handle it, and that is one of the major issues. Listening to the way these kids talk on the microphones its obvious they are NOT mature enough to handle it.

XBox Live can be a hostile place. When the mature players (17+) get into it, swear words and racist slurs fill the audio channels. Who is on the receiving end of this? Well mature players like myself, and then young kids. So, we have these young kids that sound like girls hearing profane things being shouted and decide to themselves that they want to join in on the swearing bonanza. Sadly, that just makes it worse because its funny to hear an adult curse when they die in a game, but its sad, annoying, and frustrating to hear Johnny Mc-14-Year-Old curse in a game. The ONLY time it is funny hearing a kid swear in a game is when you can hear his mom in the background yelling “Johnny Allen McYoungster, what did I hear you say???!?” lol, kids.

It basically just boils down to immersion, which is destroyed by the sound of a pre-pubescent kid. How do we solve this problem? Simple, require the damn XBox Live customer to enter their CORRECT age when registering, and use a voice sample to verify their age. Then Microsoft could develop one of two things:

1. In-Game filters that allow the users to select which age groups they are willing to game with. That way those of us who are older than young can play with our own kind, and kids can play with their own annoying-ass people
2. Develop a voice analysis system. What will it do? It will constantly scan the voice of the player, and if it reaches a certain pitch that only children and not-straight adult males can hit it perma-mutes their microphone. Then it will randomly sample the sound every month to see if their voice has changed and if it has, reactivate their microphone

Why do this? To eliminate the children ruining my gaming experience, and the experience of others by annoying the hell out of everyone playing the game. Not to mention the fact that children are likely always in game with me causes me to sensor what I am saying, which I shouldn’t have to do.

People, Microsoft, this is the only way.

This is a never ending debate. Which is better, Mac or PC? Which is better, OS X or Windows? The answer is: both. It all boils down to personal experiences. Care to guess what side of the fence I am on? I will give you a hint: Mac/OS X. I will give you an outline of why I have decided this to help paint a picture of where I am today.

Ah, the younger years

I started off a PC guy I suppose. I was born in 1988, and the first computer I can remember was my dad’s Samsung 386 laptop. It had a monochrome screen, no hard drive, a 3.5″ floppy drive, and ran Commander Keen like a charm. I just recently disposed of that system. From when I was 10 to my early teen years, it made a great machine to test my BASIC (GW-BASIC, QBASIC) programs I was writing.

My first desktop system was a Packard Bell. 15″ CRT display @ 1024×768, 75MHz Pentium, 8MB integrated memory, and a 800MB hard drive running Windows 95. I did a lot of my computer learning on this system which included tinkering with hardware, learning to install programs, using Office 95, and doing programming with GW-BASIC and QBASIC. My next few computers were also PC’s, a Compaq Desktop (450MHz Windows 95), and a HP Desktop (667MHz, Windows ME). By 9th grade I was building computers every year or so. They were obviously PC’s as you don’t build Macs.

Between then and 2006 I owned a few more systems like a few iBooks (only owned for a few months), custom built PC’s, and a Compaq v2000 laptop.

Fast forward to 2006

I graduated high school in 2006, and was getting ready to go to college. My major was Computer Science and I wanted a laptop. I went on Dell.com, priced out and ordered a Inspiron E1505 laptop. Specs: 1.6GHz Centrino Duo, 80GB HD, 256MB GeForce Go7XXX, 1GB RAM, 15″ Screen @ 1280×800, DVD Burner, and a 3 year warranty. Cost: $1700. I got the system, and was happy with it.

By second semester (2007) it was already having issues. First, a hard drive died. Dell came and replaced that for me. Then the display went out. Dell came and replaced that. Then my speakers went out. Dell came and replaced that. By then I was just sick of this system. It was in great shape, and all issues were fixed. I started the search for a buyer. By mid way through my Sophomore year I found a buyer (after much searching). I got $650 for it, and that included a iPaq PDA ($125 value) so really I got ~$525 for the laptop. Great… I lost $1175 on that deal. PC’s have wonderful resale value don’t they? /end_sarcasm

I then purchased a white Macbook (2.2GHz C2D, 3GB RAM, 120GB HD, DVD-Burner) with OS X Tiger on it. I loved it right away. I was enjoying OS X from the beginning. OS X Leopard was released, and I paid $70 to get the retail discs. I then started to love OS X even more, it was great. The Macbook gave me no frills and worked wonderfully.

More… MORE POWER!

I reached a point where I wanted some more power. I already had a powerful desktop, but my plan was to sell my desktop and just have a laptop that can ‘do it all’. So, I sold my Macbook for around $950. I paid $1150 for it, so I lost $200 total. Not bad! I then went off to go buy a Macbook Pro. It ran me $1750, tax free. Specs: 2.4GHz Core2Duo, 2GB RAM, 200GB HD, DVD-Burner, 15″ Display @ 1440×900. I have upgraded the RAM to 4GB, and the hard drive from 200GB to 500GB.

Am I happy with this system? Absolutely. It has everything I wanted from a laptop, and more. What do I like about it? Well first, OS X. It is a great OS, and I prefer it over Windows any day. Second, the hardware is no-frills. Nothing has died on it yet, no warranty work has had to be done yet. It looks great (Aluminum is a nice look for a laptop), the backlit keyboard is very nice, the large trackpad is a breeze to use, and its a sturdy, thin machine. Also the display is gorgeous, pumping out 1440×900, and it is super bright. My Dell was plastic, thick, the screen became loose after 6 months (I’m sure you have all seen laptops with loose screens), and gave me issues. They cost the same price, but hands down I prefer the Macbook Pro.

OS X has a lot to do with it

The operating system plays a major role in my love of Mac’s. It looks a lot more modern in comparison to Windows XP, it runs a lot better than Windows Vista and XP, the file structure has some resemblance of Linux (I do like Linux). Finder beats Explorer hands down for me, and the Dock is a lot more convenient in comparison to the Start menu.\

Application installation is in most cases a lot easier than on Windows. Just having to drag an application anywhere to install it is simple. Want to uninstall? Drag to the trash can. Sick of how Windows application menu’s are always different, and can at times be cumbersome? OS X has the menu bar in the same place, always. OS X applications are consistent, and I like that.

My job indirectly taught me to dislike Windows PC’s

For about the last year I have worked for my colleges Technology Department. My job responsibilities involve server administration (1 windows server, 5 linux servers), web development, database management, application development, and system maintenance when needed (other people usually cover this). I cannot even count how many PC’s we have serviced in the year since I have worked there. The number is upsetting. Countless cases of viruses (more recently, the Anti-Virus 2009 virus), hardware failures, OS crashes, and more. We have had to warranty an absolutely insane amount of defective PC hardware, and I have reinstalled Windows XP so many times I can do it with my eyes closed by now.

But our Mac’s are ticking like clocks. We got some Macbook Pro’s for select faculty members, and they are loving them. We use a PowerMac G5 as one of our servers, and it runs better than all our other servers (Debian for PPC is on it). We have a G4 Mac Mini that works great, and recently I got a old Power Mac G3 from work (purchased in 1999) that still has 100% functioning parts. Heck, I use it as my primary desktop at home now.

And yet some of the PC’s we have had for only a few months have faulty hardware. What makes this worse is many of our systems are Gateways, and if you have been following tech news you know that Gateway went bust. So, we have tons of systems with warranties that we are unable to even claim. Cool huh?

I really enjoy OS X applications

OS X has a great set of applications I use every day. I wont talk much about them but I will list my favorite apps:

• Safari – web browser
• Coda – editor
• XCode – programming IDE
• NetBeans – programming IDE
• Eclipse – programming IDE
• Microsoft Word 2008
• iChat
• Aperture – photo editing
• iPhoto
• Mail
• Photoshop
• Terminal
• Handbrake – video conversion
• iTunes

There are more, but those are what I use on a daily/weekly basis off the top of my head.

So I have my Mac, and I am happy

I have my Mac, and I am happy. Whenever a faculty member needs their USB drive scanned for viruses, they come to me so I can use my Mac to do it. I have had the same Leopard install since I got the laptop, and I haven’t had to reinstall yet (like I would with Windows XP). If I need Windows for something, I just fire-up Bootcamp, Virtual Box, or VMWare-Fusion. It works great. It does what I need it to do, and it does so in a way that satisfies my computing needs.

I tried to paint a picture of why Mac’s are best for me, and why I decided on them after years as a PC guy. Basically it boils down to a few major factors:

• Leopard suits my needs better than Windows
• Comparable hardware costs for better quality systems
• Great set of applications that serve me every day, most are free
• More aesthetically pleasing than PC hardware

So I must admit the wordpress app for the iPhone is pretty cool, and best of all it’s free. Kudos devs.