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Windows 8 vs. Mountain Lion (Page 3)
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freudling  (op)
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Mar 3, 2013, 02:25 PM
 
Originally Posted by TETENAL View Post
What is an active e-mail? How do you determine the activity level of an e-mail?
Frequency of sends and receives.
     
TETENAL
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Mar 3, 2013, 02:40 PM
 
In general a e-mail is sent and received exactly once.
     
freudling  (op)
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Mar 3, 2013, 02:55 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
How do I remove Notification Center from the menu bar? The garbage pushed to it provides no value to me, and it occupies particularly valuable screen real estate (Fitt's law).
Well if you Google "disable notification center in Mountain Lion" you'll find solutions. I disabled mine.

Nice on the Fitt's law! I love Fitt's law. I use it for userflow and interface design all the time!

Here's my secret sauce! The tough part is calculating the correlation coefficients:

1. (1+D/W), 1+3/1 = 4
2. log2(step 1), log2(4) = 2
3. a+b*(step 2), 5 + 8*2 = 21
MT = (step 3), MT = 21

Where MT= a+b log2(1+D/W)

b= time/bit = ms/bit
a= time required to click a button
W=Width of target
D=distance between starting point and target
     
freudling  (op)
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Mar 3, 2013, 02:56 PM
 
Originally Posted by TETENAL View Post
In general a e-mail is sent and received exactly once.
Between Email addresses. If you're sending and receiving a lot between a set number of people, that's what I'm talking about.
     
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Mar 3, 2013, 04:18 PM
 
You can use the VIPs feature for that.

Automatically creating a list of the top x percent you have the most communicated with, is a very specialized feature. Does any e-mail application have this even?
     
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Mar 3, 2013, 09:20 PM
 
Originally Posted by freudling View Post
Spheric: you have helped no one. You have provided little insight into this topic. There is NO SETTING IN MAIL. What is there is under General and that's New message notifications but doesn't even come close to providing decent filters in a way that would work as I've mentioned with Notification Center.
The way you are arguing is rather disingenuous: first you claim there is no setting, then you claim there is no setting, because the setting doesn't offer you adequate control (basically you are limited by what you can do with smart mailboxes). If you want to argue that there is a setting, but doesn't suit your needs, please do so. However, you moving the goal posts and claiming that people's counter arguments have nothing to do with yours is very destructive and contributes as much to the degeneration of the thread as Speric's outbursts.
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Mar 3, 2013, 09:25 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
But they do support his point, I think you are just being a little reactionary. Notification center does not have rules, it's all or nothing. This was clear to me.
However apps have rules. And in the »worst« case, you can switch to Growl which is a lot more customizable and have Growl send the notifications to the Notification Center.
Originally Posted by TETENAL View Post
You can use the VIPs feature for that.
Or you can create a smart mailbox for that purpose and customize the e-mail notifications that way. Certainly, this would not eliminate all limitations, but to me at least, Notification Center is not a replacement for my mailboxes. (I've also set it to VIPs.)
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freudling  (op)
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Mar 3, 2013, 09:25 PM
 
Originally Posted by TETENAL View Post
You can use the VIPs feature for that.

Automatically creating a list of the top x percent you have the most communicated with, is a very specialized feature. Does any e-mail application have this even?
Nope, VIPs won't get me that. All VIPs do is allow you to star someone like they're your favourite person. It has nothing to do with Email frequency.

Look, I don't want to get into pedantries over this. The larger point I'm trying to make is that there's another way of looking at all of this. Developing something like Notification Center I'm suggesting could have been done much differently. Abstracting away a lot of simple buttons and things and making it smart. That it learns from you with the goal of only showing you notifications that it believes really matter to you. Not something that shoves virtually every beep and blip down your throat, only to realize the only way to approach anything close to what I'm saying is to take a screwdriver and spend hours tooling arcane settings that aren't even in the NC preferences to begin with.

And then you realize all of those settings are moving targets and need to be updated and retooled regularly because life and the world changes. It's an endless pit of time suck, and this is but one of many, many things in our lives we have to manage. It's what makes software suck. We're all waiting for smart software, it was supposed to be here years ago.

Sorry, I think features like NC are weak and I'm not alone... I like OS X... but I expect a lot more from the thousands of engineers they have on payroll working everyday. OS X needs a revamp and a rethink. Let's move it forward...

By the way, I laughed when I read this comment about VIPs in Mountain Lion in a comment thread of an article on it:

How do I delete the VIP Mail Function in Mac X Mountain Lion? Many thanks.

I'm sure there're are people who like VIP though.
     
freudling  (op)
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Mar 3, 2013, 09:32 PM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
The way you are arguing is rather disingenuous: first you claim there is no setting, then you claim there is no setting, because the setting doesn't offer you adequate control (basically you are limited by what you can do with smart mailboxes). If you want to argue that there is a setting, but doesn't suit your needs, please do so. However, you moving the goal posts and claiming that people's counter arguments have nothing to do with yours is very destructive and contributes as much to the degeneration of the thread as Speric's outbursts.
I never said there wasn't "a setting". There is, in fact, specifically no setting in Notification Center for anything outside of what I already outlined. And there is no setting to achieve what I stated earlier on in the conversation about wanting 10% frequency filters. That's what I want and that's a fact. No goal post moving. And the whole point is this is very pedantic and derails the thread.

Who cares how much you like NC and how much it doesn't work for me and others? The larger point is that OS X doesn't seem to be evolving the way some of us think it should. Maybe we're all wrong, but Windows 8 offers some real competition. I've listed valid criticism about OS X and this thread has become a bixch fest for Spheric attacking me because he thinks I'm wrong and that NC must be liked. He is incredulous and refuses to believe the criticism offered about it.

Let me say this again: Notification Center in Mountain Lion is too distracting and limited for my use, no matter how much I dig into the settings. I've already demonstrated this point.

Please, no more on NC. How about you look at other points brought up here:

-Reminders, Notes, Contacts... terrible user experience and design choice to just throw iOS designed Apps into OS X?
-Stripping away RSS functionality in Mail and Safari?
-LaunchPad, an iOS homescreen on a point and click device?
-Mission Control, a bit of a confused mess?
-iCloud: why are we automatically forced to save to iCloud in Pages, Numbers, etc.? We then have to click expand and find the folder we want to save it to.
-Seamless integration of OS X and iOS: I'm totally confused here... I find the integration between the two OSes to be at this point bizarre. Cryptic Preferences settings in System Preferences and then the dreaded, bloated, ugly, POS iTunes to manage yet more settings for sync. I really miss Windows 8 and how seamless all of the devices are together when I deal with this.
-Notification Ce... no, just kidding, forget this one...
-Bugs, bugs, bugs?

These are some of my main gripes with Mountain Lion. I do like things about ML mind you. It's not all bad.
     
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Mar 3, 2013, 09:33 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
They'll stick with it. They'll either stay with Windows 7 and put up with 8 when they get a new PC, or they'll just suck it up and go with 8 eventually. Users always bitch and moan about stuff changing, I don't think this is enough for a mass exodus.
I think Windows 8 is Microsoft's power play: they want to leverage their user base to their advantage. Being nice and innovative and all, but I think »Windows RT« (aka the Metro bits, irrespective of the underlying CPU architecture) would wither and die if it were released alongside a standard flavor of Windows 8 (the version with the desktop). Not because it'd be a bad product, but because Microsoft has come very late to the market and thus has very little traction. (Just like Windows Phone 7 & 8.)
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besson3c
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Mar 3, 2013, 09:45 PM
 
Originally Posted by freudling View Post
You make a good point, but wouldn't you agree that, for instance, Notification Center is really "dumb"? Ok, Notification Center allows you to turn the badge App icon off and list as little as the 5 most recent Emails. But not being able to add some filters is terrible for usability? You mean I have to see every single damn Email that comes in in the notification slips on the top right of my screen with zero control?

That is absolutely terrible. I can't see anyone wanting that. Anyone... with any degree of daily Email. How can anyone focus anymore? Get any work done? Email, Twitter, Facebook, blah blah. Lots of irrelevant notifications.

-And do you actually like LaunchPad? An iOS throwback.
-How about Mission Control? I think this latter sucks on my 15" MacBook Pro. Maybe a bit better on a 27" iMac.
-What about all that versioning stuff Apple added in in 10.7 and the Save As debacle? I'm still not sure where we're at with at under Mountain Lion from one application to another.
-Do you think Reminders, Notes, and Contacts are just bizarre in OS X? A complete design failure throwing iOS Apps into OS X and not really doing anything to them? It's like I have iPad Apps floating inside OS X.

I agree that it is light on features and flexibility, but what does Android do?

The problem to me is that different applications require different contextual notifications and different sorts of notifications of differing urgency. How do you take care of that elegantly in one interface for every possible app - even ones that haven't been written yet?

I'm not sure what the ideal solution is here. I think of notification center as sort of a notification log more than something that is central to my workflow.
     
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Mar 3, 2013, 09:48 PM
 
Freudling, do you think a significant percentage of people still use RSS? I don't. I think it has pretty much been made obsolete by social networking.
     
freudling  (op)
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Mar 3, 2013, 10:09 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
Freudling, do you think a significant percentage of people still use RSS? I don't. I think it has pretty much been made obsolete by social networking.
Good question. I don't know. But I do. You can pry the Newsify iPad App from my lifeless body.

Do you have any tips for social media replacing RSS? How do I get the relevant stuff and a stream of news from my favourite sources?
     
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Mar 4, 2013, 01:13 AM
 
Originally Posted by freudling View Post
Good question. I don't know. But I do. You can pry the Newsify iPad App from my lifeless body.

Do you have any tips for social media replacing RSS? How do I get the relevant stuff and a stream of news from my favourite sources?
Well, you could create a TweetDeck column just for your news sites,
     
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Mar 4, 2013, 11:46 PM
 
That's almost as convenient and useful as using an RSS reader. Almost.
     
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Mar 5, 2013, 09:06 AM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
MS is taking the virtual machine approach with CIL bytecode; they started laying the groundwork over 10 years ago.
It's fast enough to not care - anything you need faster will be hand written asm for each platform anyway.
I know, actually - well, it's fast enough except for games, but apparently they allow native code for games on Win Phone 8. My point was more that this was a pretty pointless thing to hold up as an advantage from a user perspective.
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Mar 5, 2013, 09:20 AM
 
Originally Posted by freudling View Post
You make a good point, but wouldn't you agree that, for instance, Notification Center is really "dumb"? Ok, Notification Center allows you to turn the badge App icon off and list as little as the 5 most recent Emails. But not being able to add some filters is terrible for usability? You mean I have to see every single damn Email that comes in in the notification slips on the top right of my screen with zero control?

That is absolutely terrible. I can't see anyone wanting that. Anyone... with any degree of daily Email. How can anyone focus anymore? Get any work done? Email, Twitter, Facebook, blah blah. Lots of irrelevant notifications.
Personally I removed email from NC - just unchecked the box. Never used Growl for incoming mail either.

Filtering alerts is a good idea, but it seems like a mail feature rather than an NC feature.

In total, I think of NC as just a way to standardize alerts, just like Growl was. If I don't want to be alerted about something, I turn that off. That's not new - I've done that since the nineties at least. A modal dialog box that pops up to alert, like I think Eudora used to do, is way more annoying.

Originally Posted by freudling View Post
-And do you actually like LaunchPad? An iOS throwback.
Yes, but also a Start menu in a sense - especially given how the "Start screen" works on Windows 8 - and I've seen less-capable switchers love it. Personally I dislike it because I dislike anything that abstracts the file system even further, but it reminds me more of Windows than anything else. It is also a completely optional feature that you don't have to bother with.

Originally Posted by freudling View Post
-How about Mission Control? I think this latter sucks on my 15" MacBook Pro. Maybe a bit better on a 27" iMac.
What about it sucks? The main feature that annoyed me was made optional in Mountain Lion, so now it's basically just the old Exposé all windows, except with added support for multiple desktops.

Originally Posted by freudling View Post
-What about all that versioning stuff Apple added in in 10.7 and the Save As debacle? I'm still not sure where we're at with at under Mountain Lion from one application to another.
This was a fail in my book. Versions sounds like it would be a good idea, as it closes a big potential data loss situation (saving over a file with the same name - Outlook Express on Windows is infamous for doing this, and I've had people close to tears over that situation) but the Save As... debacle clouded all of that.

Originally Posted by freudling View Post
-Do you think Reminders, Notes, and Contacts are just bizarre in OS X? A complete design failure throwing iOS Apps into OS X and not really doing anything to them? It's like I have iPad Apps floating inside OS X.
That's they're ugly? Yes, I think so. Personally I solved that by never opening them and just using my iPhone for that. The easiest way to sync is to never sync at all.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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Mar 5, 2013, 12:13 PM
 
I totally agree about the easiest way to sync is not to sync at all. It all seems like too much of a hassle.
     
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Mar 5, 2013, 04:52 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
How do I remove Notification Center from the menu bar? The garbage pushed to it provides no value to me, and it occupies particularly valuable screen real estate (Fitt's law).
According to MacRumors:

To completely remove the Notification Center (and the menu bar item), run the following two commands in Terminal:

sudo launchctl remove com.apple.notificationcenterui.agent
launchctl remove com.apple.notificationcenterui.agent

One is likely to produce an error stating "launchctl remove error: No such process", however this can be ignored.
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bleee
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Mar 5, 2013, 05:27 PM
 
I'm pretty happy with the improvements in Mountain Lion, I wish iMessage could be on with out having the entire Messages app running. iCal, Notes, and Reminder apps are functional I'm just happy they sync with my iOS devices could care less how they look shared calendars and reminder lists are great. Mail could use a bit of love, I haven't used an email app on Windows since they messed with Outlook Express.

Notification center is in it's infancy and will probably be improved to add more options... I find integration with browser notifications extremely useful especially when you're using it with gChat or Gmail.

I'm just getting used to mission control... you really need the magic track pad to take advantage of all the swipe gestures.

My biggest beef with Mountain Lion isn't really the O/S but more the integration with iCloud and how it sometimes just falls off a cliff... here's a great example... they started encouraging users to save documents to iCloud through the default text editor and preview ok great idea it's in the cloud why the HELL can't I access the files on my iOS devices.

Here's another one... Air Drop remember that? Great idea why can't I Air Drop files to my iOS device... and vise versa.

Bring back keychain syncing from the .Mac/Mobile Me days it was useful why did they kill it?

You've just received a text message on your iPhone... why not tell the user in messages/notification center and allow them to respond to it from their desktop if their iOS devices is on the same wifi network? Your iPhone is ringing... notification center would be a great place to TELL me if I'm working on my desktop.

A desktop version of iBooks would be nice... I know they're trying to push iOS devices but I just want to read an ePub book on my Mac sometimes.
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Mar 5, 2013, 07:14 PM
 
Originally Posted by bleee View Post
Here's another one... Air Drop remember that? Great idea why can't I Air Drop files to my iOS device... and vise versa.
Air Drop on an iOS device would require some sort of file browser, though.
     
freudling  (op)
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Mar 5, 2013, 08:04 PM
 
Originally Posted by bleee View Post
You've just received a text message on your iPhone... why not tell the user in messages/notification center and allow them to respond to it from their desktop if their iOS devices is on the same wifi network? Your iPhone is ringing... notification center would be a great place to TELL me if I'm working on my desktop.
Not totally what you're talking about, but... WebOS had some nifty features... If your phone was ringing and it was within range of the tablet your tablet would ring and you could answer and talk on it.

I think Apple has some degree to go before this stuff is truly seamless and integrated.
     
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Mar 5, 2013, 10:10 PM
 
Originally Posted by bleee View Post
My biggest beef with Mountain Lion isn't really the O/S but more the integration with iCloud and how it sometimes just falls off a cliff... here's a great example... they started encouraging users to save documents to iCloud through the default text editor and preview ok great idea it's in the cloud why the HELL can't I access the files on my iOS devices.
I've read a very interesting commentary by Jean-Louis Gassée, and it sums up my thoughts well. I think Apple is very conservative when it comes to making substantial changes to how iOS works. You can see that very well in the UI which hasn't changed since its introduction. (I like the look of the standard controls, so I don't need them to change stuff just for the sake of change.) It's clear to me that they haven't decided how to implement things where previously you needed a more complicated filesystem-based organization of files and folders. The only thing that seems clear is that they don't think a Dropbox-like service is the answer. Unfortunately, Apple has chosen to implement their document syncing solution (iCloud) before making up their mind on iOS, I agree that was a mistake on their part. Most apps I use don't care about iCloud, so I don't run into this very often.

I very much hope this is an area of focus in the development of 10.9 (another tick/feature release), and that they also replace the filesystem by something better. Perhaps a filesystem that has distributed data storage built-in such as DragonflyBSD's HAMMER FS.
Originally Posted by bleee View Post
You've just received a text message on your iPhone... why not tell the user in messages/notification center and allow them to respond to it from their desktop if their iOS devices is on the same wifi network? Your iPhone is ringing... notification center would be a great place to TELL me if I'm working on my desktop.
… or even let you take the call on your computer. But I suppose this is at least partly an issue Apple has to solve with the cellular providers.

Personally, I'd prefer if Apple, Google and Microsoft got together and propose a shared standard for IP-based telephony. Just like TV 2.0 which we are all impatiently waiting for, this is a similar thing. And as well as FaceTime (and to a lesser degree Skype) work, they are closed and do not rely on »open« standards.
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Mar 7, 2013, 12:36 PM
 
Originally Posted by freudling View Post
I totally agree about the easiest way to sync is not to sync at all. It all seems like too much of a hassle.
This is what Canonical is moving toward with their new Ubuntu phone. It's about having one single device that is your gateway to phone, tablet, and desktop. No more syncing, because there's only one piece of "smart" hardware behind everything else.

Originally Posted by freudling View Post
Not totally what you're talking about, but... WebOS had some nifty features... If your phone was ringing and it was within range of the tablet your tablet would ring and you could answer and talk on it.
I've used WebOS a bit on my TouchPad. I love a lot about the operating system - this is a feature I didn't know about, since I've never had a WebOS phone.

I'm disappointed HP axed WebOS. It could have replaced BB as the enterprise mobile OS of choice.
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Mar 7, 2013, 03:19 PM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
… or even let you take the call on your computer. But I suppose this is at least partly an issue Apple has to solve with the cellular providers.
I remember when you could send and receive SMS and dial your phone via Bluetooth (though not talk) directly from Address Book.

It would even archive incoming SMS right in the contacts' notes. (I still have a couple of contacts with saved SMS.)

It was a sad day when 10.6 (or was it 10.5? whatever came directly after the iPhone) was released, and they had axed that function, as well as iSync.
     
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Mar 8, 2013, 02:38 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
I remember when you could send and receive SMS and dial your phone via Bluetooth (though not talk) directly from Address Book.
I actually used that feature, too. I hate typing sms via T9, so doing it on a proper keyboard was a relief.
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Mar 8, 2013, 02:42 AM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
I'm disappointed HP axed WebOS. It could have replaced BB as the enterprise mobile OS of choice.
I absolutely agree. They could have made webOS into a proper competitor for Android and iOS. Back then I had a lot of hope that Hurd (HP's CEO at the time) saw the writing on the wall and pointed HP in the right direction (more vertical integration, its own platform, etc.).

IMO webOS had brought interesting features and UI elements, e. g. their flavor of multitasking. It's sad that Hurd got booted when he did and HP decided to hire a clueless idiot for a year. Instead, HP brings the thousandth Android device to the market.
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Mar 8, 2013, 08:15 AM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
I'm disappointed HP axed WebOS. It could have replaced BB as the enterprise mobile OS of choice.
They seem to have decided to sell it to LG instead.

What LG’s acquisition of webOS means for its open source projects | Ars Technica
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Mar 9, 2013, 11:18 PM
 
Originally Posted by P View Post
They seem to have decided to sell it to LG instead.
Sure, but all the people behind the project are gone. Selling the guardianship to the source code and conclude some cross-licensing agreements won't bring them back.
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Mar 10, 2013, 12:46 PM
 
It seems like every player in the business is just improvising at this point because it is hard to see with clarity where all of this is going. I think clarity will be reached as these mobile devices continue to become serious work machines, and not just fidget toys and mobile web browsers for the masses.

I'm not one to dismiss these mobile devices as iToys because that's just dumb, there is clearly and obviously serious potential here and what we are seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg, but let's be real, for many people these mobile devices are currently just toys and something that provides a number of conveniences, but are not really and truly needed for work the way a PC is.

I think it's important to keep this in perspective with all of this "company x is behind, no company y is behind" stuff. They're all just experimenting.
     
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Mar 10, 2013, 01:05 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
It seems like every player in the business is just improvising at this point because it is hard to see with clarity where all of this is going. I think clarity will be reached as these mobile devices continue to become serious work machines, and not just fidget toys and mobile web browsers for the masses.
I don't know if we're ever going to get there. The form factor is so limited I think it's close to plateau. Not really going flat, but dropping to computer levels of advancement rather than the leaps and bounds we've seen in mobile in the last 10 years.

Look at the last couple releases from iOS or the last release from Android... uh, er, I can't name one significant new technology or capability. We're to the point of marginal improvements at the fringe.

Same story with the hardware. The CPUs still get a bit faster, screens inch larger (surely that's done with now for the mainstream) but it's otherwise... new year, same shit.
     
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Mar 10, 2013, 01:26 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
I don't know if we're ever going to get there. The form factor is so limited I think it's close to plateau. Not really going flat, but dropping to computer levels of advancement rather than the leaps and bounds we've seen in mobile in the last 10 years.

Look at the last couple releases from iOS or the last release from Android... uh, er, I can't name one significant new technology or capability. We're to the point of marginal improvements at the fringe.

Same story with the hardware. The CPUs still get a bit faster, screens inch larger (surely that's done with now for the mainstream) but it's otherwise... new year, same shit.

I disagree.

For one, a lot of what PCs are used for is basically data entry. A mobile device can be a great device for data entry because of its camera and mobility.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Mar 10, 2013, 02:15 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
, for many people these mobile devices are currently just toys and something that provides a number of conveniences, but are not really and truly needed for work the way a PC is.

I think it's important to keep this in perspective with all of this "company x is behind, no company y is behind" stuff. They're all just experimenting.
Your phrasing comes from the assumption that a PC is already present.
Of course an iPad isn't "necessary" then.

The point is whether a PC is necessary, or an iPad will suffice.

For many usage scenarios, this is already the case. Traveling salesmen work on iPads, where they used to require laptops.

It stems from the backwards phrasing "why do I need an iPad?", when the real question is "why do I need MORE than an iPad?"
     
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Mar 10, 2013, 02:21 PM
 
It makes the assumption that most people cannot replace their PCs with iPads, and to most people an iPad is a supplement to their PC. Would you disagree with this?
     
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Mar 10, 2013, 02:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
For many usage scenarios, this is already the case. Traveling salesmen work on iPads, where they used to require laptops.
Who has replaced laptops with iPads for their travelling salesmen?
     
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Mar 10, 2013, 02:35 PM
 
I think is is and will be becoming increasingly untrue.

Give us a 13" version in about three years, once the file management and local backup stuff has been worked out, and the majority of users will no longer need a "traditional" PC.
     
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Mar 10, 2013, 02:37 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
Who has replaced laptops with iPads for their travelling salesmen?
I actually sold a number to people who used to use laptops to hold presentations. I have no idea about large-scale corporate deployment. Those weren't my customers. Those are notoriously conservative, so of course they're just "experimenting" at this stage.
     
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Mar 10, 2013, 03:20 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
I think is is and will be becoming increasingly untrue.

Give us a 13" version in about three years, once the file management and local backup stuff has been worked out, and the majority of users will no longer need a "traditional" PC.
I agree that it is going in that direction.
     
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Mar 10, 2013, 06:17 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
Who has replaced laptops with iPads for their travelling salesmen?
Drug salespeople, for one thing.

I am seeing more and more drug representatives come to my office with iPads for their drug sample accounting than with the old style "tablet" computers. (The ones with the swivel screen and stylus).

Now they ask me to sign my name with my finger on their iPads and iPhones.
     
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Mar 10, 2013, 06:45 PM
 
Originally Posted by Person Man View Post
Drug salespeople, for one thing.

I am seeing more and more drug representatives come to my office with iPads for their drug sample accounting than with the old style "tablet" computers. (The ones with the swivel screen and stylus).

Now they ask me to sign my name with my finger on their iPads and iPhones.
And the iPad was their only company computer?
     
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Mar 10, 2013, 09:14 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
It seems like every player in the business is just improvising at this point because it is hard to see with clarity where all of this is going. I think clarity will be reached as these mobile devices continue to become serious work machines, and not just fidget toys and mobile web browsers for the masses.
I think clarity will not be reached by waiting. In many cases, companies (think Samsung or Asus) are just waiting what Apple is doing and then they're trying to copy it. That way they will never push further than Apple will -- which is, I think, a hindrance to even faster progress. The early battle of iOS vs. Android has been a boon to consumers, because two big companies put their whole weight behind their mobile OSes. I feel that this has stopped, partly because of the fragmentation of Android (many OEMs and their skins plainly stand in the way of progress), partly because the sense of urgency of the late 2000s got lost.

I think that eventually, we will need more form factors, e. g. a 13" iPad Pro (for the lack of a better term). In my opinion, the limiting factor is clearly the »file system replacement« problem, i. e. how do you sort, juggle, share and multitask with thousands of documents?
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Mar 10, 2013, 09:17 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
Who has replaced laptops with iPads for their travelling salesmen?
There are plenty of big companies who are doing/have done just this, e. g. for inventory management. E. g. the main German car companies are using iPads for that purpose as do German insurances to deal with their real estate assets.
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Mar 11, 2013, 02:25 AM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
And the iPad was their only company computer?
I didn't claim that.
     
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Mar 11, 2013, 11:28 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
I didn't claim that.
I guess you missed the emphasized word replaced in the comment you were replying to.

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
Who has replaced laptops with iPads for their travelling salesmen?
I actually sold a number to people who used to use laptops to hold presentations. I have no idea about large-scale corporate deployment. Those weren't my customers. Those are notoriously conservative, so of course they're just "experimenting" at this stage.
     
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Mar 11, 2013, 11:41 AM
 
I said that they'd replaced laptops with iPads, not that the iPad was the only computer they used.

The travelling salesmen/presentation guys I've sold iPads to REPLACED their ultraportable VAIO laptops with iPads.

From what I gathered, those laptops were, at least in some cases, already SECONDARY machines, with a regular cheap IT-issued DELL or whatever sitting on the desk at the office.

Though I'm pretty sure I heard at least one conversation where a suit was showing another around the iPad that his iPad and the Kensington keyboard case he was using was "all he needed".

I'm no longer in sales, so I can't ask them now.

I do know that an increasing number of sales representatives are using iPads pretty much exclusively. All they need is presentation software, communication stuff, PDF/catalogue viewers, and a database connection.


I do have to wonder, though: Are you seriously doubting that the iPad can be/will be a viable computing platform for a fair proportion of users, or just "business" users?
     
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Mar 11, 2013, 12:33 PM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
...
Perhaps a filesystem that has distributed data storage built-in such as DragonflyBSD's HAMMER FS.
I read the linked Wiki and the DragonflyBSD's HAMMER FS author's name sounded familiar so I looked into him and he wrote the Assembly Compiler I used back in the Amiga days. I remember it as a fantastic and unique compiler that allowed me to write assembly code embedded in a BASIC-like environment. Very neat...and if it's any sign of his skills, this FS should prove interesting.
"Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes." Frank Drebin, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult
     
 
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