Apple Reportedly Tempering Expectations as iPad Content Deals Remain Unfinalized

[lifeinhd]

Sorry, but iPad's 10" touchscreen is going to be it's first killer app, despite how so many seem to dismiss it.

The only thing a larger screen is good for is multitasking, something the iPad lacks. If I want to carry a 10" screen with me, I might as well get something that will fill in the holes the iPad doesn't, and for a lesser price might I add.

$50 says you own one within two years.

Unless they make an OS X version, you're on.

BTW I'm ordering a Dell Mini 10V tomorrow that I'll be installing OS 10.6 on.

 

[iRACK]

The only thing a larger screen is good for is multitasking, something the iPad lacks.

Come again? The only thing a 10" screen is god fore is multitasking?

What about: Video Websurfing pictures reading typing sharing creating and so f'n on. Dude land in real world.

 

[Piggie]

Come again? The only thing a 10" screen is god fore is multitasking?

What about: Video Websurfing pictures reading typing sharing creating and so f'n on. Dude land in real world.

Actually 1024x768 is not really THAT GREAT for web surfing.

it's just about ok (with some scrolling needed)

I'd regard 1280x1024 the point where the web page has room to breath.

I used to own an laptop with only a 1024x768 screen and I swore never again. Much too low res for me to enjoy the web on.

 

[mex4eric]

Well it took a year before the app store showed up on the iphone, so i'm sure it's going to take them almost that long before we start seeing good quality content on the iPad.

I think this is just how Apple is doing it now to drop products and then worry about development on it because they want to scoop the competition.

I also think the pre-order number and the install base over the next 12 months will motivate developers and publishers.

Right on! They have a great start on the numbers and a few good newspapers and magazines. Books and 99¢ TV shows are also likely at launch.

 

[kdarling]

Wasn't it the senior WSJ media editor that Jobs yelled at not long ago for tweeting from an iPad?

Just saying... it wasn't the smartest thing he ever did.

 

[diabolic]

The only thing a larger screen is good for is multitasking, something the iPad lacks.

If you are talking about running multiple apps on the same screen in different windows, I personally wouldn't choose to do that with anything less than 17". I don't ever do multiple windows split screen on my laptop because the screen is too small for that in my opinion.

I think you'll find most people will be plenty happy with the iPad and it's 10" touchscreen, and most won't be wanting to run multiple windows side-by-side on it either.

 

[Friscohoya]

$50 says you own one within two years.

Only $50? He owns both a mac laptop and ipod. He's also posting on an Apple rumor website. He doesnt even need to be converted. I'll double that bet to $100.

 

[Mister Snitch]

This news is no surprise...

Publishers have ZERO vision and a notable aversion for risk-taking. It's the music industry meets the digital age, Take Two.

 

[John McCollum]

Only $50? He owns both a mac laptop and ipod. He's also posting on an Apple rumor website. He doesnt even need to be converted. I'll double that bet to $100.

I work for a small non-profit. I can't take the risk... He might be a complete hardass.

 

[skate71290]

Newspapers, Magazines and University Books + Journals

i'm hoping that UK Newspapers, such as Financial Times and The Guardian etc make it on the iPad, perhaps a monthly subscription service?

Get the UK GQ Magazine on there and Wired

I would love University Books and Journals to be made available, while i think i can get Journals online via University already, but not sure if i can do it via iPad, but i would be cool to like save PDF files and view them, perhaps as icons on the front screen Offline

I'm well looking forward to this iPad, end of April, Student Loan comes in

 

[oban14]

Please, no one is going to pay for content they can get for free online. If Apple wants this to do well, they should setup a program that downloads/stores your favorite blogs, newspaper websites, etc every morning and whenever you're within wifi range.

 

[matticus008]

The thing is, Every other new tablet I've seen coming out does play flash and as I understand it, the Nvidea Tegra 2 chipset (the dogs danglies chipset that we all want as it kicks iPads ass) supports Flash in hardware acceleration, so there is no reason for all this anti flash talk.

No chipset "supports Flash in hardware acceleration".

The Tegra 2 will support H.264 hardware-accelerated video decoding (so does the iPad and just about every other platform out there, for that matter). The issue with Flash and hardware acceleration is one on Adobe's end.

Moreover, there are countless reasons for hating Flash and almost no actual reasons for its ongoing existence apart from web games (and Dashboard widget games show that even that is a surmountable hurdle). It's just pointless overhead for video delivery, it's an accessibility nightmare when used for navigation, the only thing it does for advertising is make it more obnoxious, and it's a resource-hogging waste on all platforms, even Windows, where it fares far better than under Linux or OS X.

It's only really Mr Steve that has the problem with it.

It's really not. Flash has been despised since long before Steve Jobs and Google decided to try to sober up the Internets from the drunken Adobe binge.

If the iPad had Tegra 2 and Flash hardware speed up built in, we'd all be bouncing up and down about how great it was to have this.

The only functional difference between Tegra 2 (which doesn't exist yet) and the iPad is a second CPU core. We have no performance benchmarks of either platform yet to care about the difference.

Actually 1024x768 is not really THAT GREAT for web surfing.

On a 14-15" screen with a 1:1 browser rendering, sure it's a low resolution. But similar resolutions on 9-10" netbooks are great, and coupled with scaling mobile browsers, you get the same basic experience (in terms of the physical size of objects) as viewing a 14" laptop with a resolution of around 1600x1200.

 

[Don Kosak]

I honestly don't want Flash on the iPhone or iPad.

Most Flash apps assume you have a mouse - with a single pixel sized pointer, and the ability to Hover, Click, Double Click, and Drag.

Multitouch doesn't do Hover -- at all. Dragging generally moves the view port (drag your finger in iPhone Safari, vs. Dragging your mouse on your Mac Safari to see what I mean.) And a touch on Multitouch is a rough 20x20 pixel sized area, not a single pixel target.

Adobe needs to do a re-working of Flash to make it natively support multi-touch. It then needs a way to map a finger sized area to a pixel, simulate hover, handle both types of dragging... Maybe they could make a "fake mouse" puck appear on screen, and you could slide it around (like the magnifying glass in text mode.) It's not going to be a beautiful experience unless all of the Flash applications, and Flash itself is re-engineered.

Flash was created for 1996 and the limitations that existed back then. With current versions of Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc, those limitations are gone.

Adobe (like the existing media companies) needs to rethink their value proposition to the customer, and adapt.

I for one, would rather see content creators move to 21st century technology for new content.

 

[LagunaSol]

No, I hope that Apple won't put Ipad content inside its walled garden.

Let history be your guide.

 

[lordonuthin]

In two years, one way or another, the flash issue will be resolved. There'll likely (I hope) be some reasonable form of multitasking on the OS. The hardware will have been upgraded with greater space, a camera, widescreen etc. And then I presume it'll be worth owning.

What's frustrating is having to wait those two years in the first place.

I agree, all of its weaknesses will be addressed in a year or two. Either from Apple or someone else.

The real reason to get one? it's way better than an original Mac or even an original iMac, an iPod or iPhone. It or slates in general will become VERY prevalent in the coming years and like all tech the iPad and others will improve dramatically over the years. Everyone will have some form of iPad, slate etc.

Slightly off topic:graphanewill be the basis of all future microelctronics in say 20 years and the iPad will be paper thin and have the computing power of 10 or 20 current Mac pro's...

 

[ghost187]

I Think I Know Ipad 3g Release Date

OK I am not 100% sure about this but here me out. I preordered the 64gb 3g iPad with the case. The case is to be delivered by april 20th. Now I have ordered from apple lots of times and it never said delivered by a certain date for a product. So I strongly believe this will be the day the ipad 3g will be delivered and be available. If anyone else preordered the ipad 3g with some accessories please confirm the date.

 

[AbblePC]

The report notes that potential partners have been reluctant to sign on with Apple, weighing the benefits of bringing their content to new platforms against risks to their revenue streams as they consider forging new revenue models.

I have one thing to say about these "people" ... They are short sighted and have no faith in business forwardness. Small towns have grown from looking forward and taking risks, small towns have become ghost towns from simply remaining in a stale thought process and never expanding or growing from greed or defeatism.

 

[DanielSw]

Gee without content deals on the device, people will have to use the web browser. Apple will not gain a portion of all revenue for these newspapers and magazines making iPad-specific apps. Oh no!

I think the eBooks thing is a good idea, since no student wants to carry around 10 textbooks to class. But other than that, I can't see this ADDING significant enough revenue to content provider pockets. If it's not adding to their pockets, there is no reason to sign up with Apple. They have websites, why not just utilize these more?

Talk about a myopic point of view!

This is just a waiting game, plain and simple.

To ignore the number of iPad pre-orders COUPLED with the virtual ABSENCE of any answering product COUPLED with the likely absence of loyalty of a good portion of Kindle owners for their particular machine COUPLED with the amount of press from big name publishers talking about the iPad and NOT talking about any other device pretty much establishes a stark lack of perception on your part.

Publishers and Apple both know there are going to be deals struck. It's inevitable. The iPad is too sweet a machine, and the Apple infrastructure to handle content is already proven to be quite workable.

But they might as well wait for the sales statistics.

You also have no vision of the potential for the iPad platform as distinct from the web. It will be quite distinct and viable of its own accord. People with foresight far better than yours are already working to jump aboard this new bandwagon.

 

[MikhailT]

Apple is very experienced in getting those content deals, I don't foresee any issues with this, just a matter of time.

The only problem with the publishers is that they aren't taking the full advantage of the technology to customize their content. We will wait a long time before publishers could get used to creating content for iPad as well as other ebook devices but I don't blame them fully for this. Too many variables out there, not to mention the ePub format isn't really...capable for all type of content like textbooks type IIRC.

I still don't see a lot of ebooks being sold with graphical content in it. They are mostly just text, which loses some of the "book" experience. Just look at the difference between the text view and scanned view in Google Books for classical books and you can understand what I mean.

 

[Scarpad]

Yes, I guess they’ll have to make do with 150,000+ apps available in the App Store, the 12,000,000+ songs, the 150,000+ podcasts, the 55,000+ TV shows and 8,500+ films. And, of course, the millions of Web sites and media portals (YouTube, etc) available via Safari.

What a bummer.

Well Said.

 

[AidenShaw]

Originally Posted by AidenShaw
No, I hope that Apple won't put Ipad content inside its walled garden.

Let history be your guide.

So you're pessimistic too - and probably correct.

 

[TheSlush]

Wrong Focus

Apple also hoped to work closely with newspaper, magazines and textbook publishers on new ways to digitally present print content on the iPad, but has for now put the effort on backburner in favor of focusing on other content

I have to believe that Apple backburnering newspaper/magazine innovation in favor of e-books and App Store porting is a mistake in iPad priorities. E-books and App Store scale-ups do not make the iPad a "must have". A new, exciting approach to print media consumption would.

The only problem with the publishers is that they aren't taking the full advantage of the technology to customize their content. We will wait a long time before publishers could get used to creating content for iPad as well as other ebook devices but I don't blame them fully for this. Too many variables out there, not to mention the ePub format isn't really...capable for all type of content like textbooks type IIRC.

Some publishers have been wading into the water on this, even pre-iPad launch. But I had assumed Apple would have taken the reins (as usual) and taken a stab at solving the user interface issues for digital newspapers and magazines, to help create some delicious content for their new device. I expected them to create an innovative, standardized approach to digital published content on the iPad, both the front end and the back end. The fact is, Apple is genius at touch user interface -- publishers aren't. With all of them trying to solve the same UI problems differently, it's going to be a mess!

I know some people are annoyed when Apple declares "martial law" on how 3rd-party programs should look, feel, and behave... But user interface is an area where 9 times out of 10 you're going to be better off with Apple's solution.

The iPad's bigger screen means the UI stakes are higher than they are on the iPhone. A "Wild West" of user interfaces will hurt publishers and hurt the iPad. Some degree of Apple standardization -- with flexibility of course -- would be better.

 

[Mackan]

Well, I hope those who preordered enjoy the sparse content they'll get upon launch. See, this is why you don't buy something until you've actually used it or at the absolute minimum read reviews from other consumers-- not tech journalists.

It's the hardcore Apple fans that have preordered the iPad so far.

 

[kernkraft]

Wasn't it the senior WSJ media editor that Jobs yelled at not long ago for tweeting from an iPad?

Just saying... it wasn't the smartest thing he ever did.

It wasn't just the shouting but all the intimidation and arrogance that followed. With a stupid incident, Jobs made one more enemy for himself and for his oversized iPod Touch. Here's the proof of his complete recovery.

 

[tillathenun]

The thing is, Every other new tablet I've seen coming out does play flash and as I understand it, the Nvidea Tegra 2 chipset (the dogs danglies chipset that we all want as it kicks iPads ass) supports Flash in hardware acceleration, so there is no reason for all this anti flash talk.

Have a look at the HP Slate demo video when you get a chance - yes it runs Flash, but even on a simple 'Spongebob Squarepants' game, it's slow and stuttering. (And every time you press the screen there's an attractive mouse cursor that appears).

Also, I'm not sure we "all want" Nvidia Tegra 2 in it? Who cares what chip it's got as long as it feels fast… and everyone who's used the iPad says it is.