iPad 2 vs. PC

[jsh1120]

What tasks is the iPad not doing in the background that you need?

Your example of listening to music while browsing has worked just fine for me, what's supposedly so limited about it? Seems like playing music while doing other tasks is an example that multitasking does work on the iPad.

Meanee provided a pretty good response to your question. So let me just add a couple of points.

() I didn't say multitasking does not work on an iPad (or perhaps I wasn't clear.) iOS DOES support multitasking, potentially far more than Apple has implemented. What Apple has done is to LIMIT multitasking to a few categories of apps. They've done that to avoid overloading the limited processing power of the iPad processor and its limited RAM.

Compared to Android (where multitasking is more or less unlimited) the iPad is unable to carry on most tasks simultaneously except for those few categories (e.g. music) where Apple has enabled it.

This isn't a failure on Apple's part; it's a conscious choice to provide a consistent user experience without lags, timeouts, or slowdown in processing. The folks at Google have a different (and neither better nor worse) strategy. Since they don't manufacture hardware they count on manufacturers to provide the processor muscle and RAM required to support more comprehensive multitasking. The latest generation of hardware is getting there and with "ice cream sandwich" the software/hardware match is likely to be better than it has been in the past.

() What am I (are we) missing on the iPad? Not a lot, really. Background processing that provides real-time information with widgets, for example. The capability to support multiple active windows simultaneously. I cannot view or have my email updated immediately on the iPad in a window of its own as I do on my laptop. (But how useful is that on a 10" screen?) Real-time communication among applications where changes in one app are reflected in another app. (Again, not a big deal on a limited function device.)

All of these features are difficult to implement in the iOS architecture but Apple believes (and they're largely correct, I think) that the true advantages of multitasking are not likely to be as important on a 10" tablet devoted mainly to content consumption than on a computer devoted to content creation and complex multitasking.

() My main "complaint" about Apple's treatment of multitasking is that they use "marketing speak" to describe a technical feature. As noted in the earlier post, Apple tends to confuse the issue by implying that a user can "multitask" with an iPad. That's true in a sort of loose sense of the term. But except for a few favored application combination, Apple has chosen not to implement "multitasking" while claiming that it is "multitasking done right."

 

[milo]

Good points. As you say, the multitasking issues for the most part aren't a problem on a device like this, nor for the kinds of things the OP would be using it for. Meenee's complaint pretty much boiled down to background loading of online material when you have a slow connection. Makes sense but hasn't been an issue for me.

 

[zap2]

There is no mouse. Just a touch screen. I would think that mouse on tablet would be very counter intuitive. There are cases with keyboards, but onscreen keyboard is pretty well done.

I found it worked on Android 3.X quite well...after all most of the time you end up poking one thing with your finger, and the mouse functions to replace it.