Hours after release, the FSF comments on the iPad
Literally hours after its release, the Free Software Foundation already released their statement re: their general dissatisfaction with the inclusion of "digital rights management" controls in Apple's iPad operating system. They've made similar statements in the past (and then some) about the iPod touch and the iPhone platforms.
Note that "digital restrictions management" is FSF's creative misnomer of the proper term "digital rights management". Very creative indeed.
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General disappointment with the iPad
Sure it looks sexy,
But basically it's a larger version of the iPhone with a better (custom A4 version) processor and large higher resolution screen and battery. The iPad runs iPhone OS 3.2 so I am not surprised they added that functionality - it's no different than the iPhone. I must say I am disappointed with what they have done with it (at least with the current version to be released). The fact that you need to purchase a case to protect the hardware which given the fact that it's magazine thin (has a glass face which is susceptible to all kinds of damage) and has no out-of-the-box front face protection (found in all other larger tablet devices with that form factor) is kinda ridiculous as these little details tend to discourage some from considering the device out of principal. I will say that one benefit to their decision to use the iPhone OS is now App development for the iPhone is going to be compatible with the iPad which is nice... but is not really that great a selling point for hardware that will most likely cost $500+ -- except maybe for games. If they decide to add an official BSD terminal and user accessible multitasking (i.e. make the OS more open right out of the box) the product will have more practical use in terms of a Netbook replacement.
Now this is my initial assessment given what I have seen from the keynote, but I am sure people will come up new and innovative ways to utilize the hardware and hopefully further stimulate apple's competitors to push into the mobile multi-touch tablet market. Will I get one? Maybe, if they decide to open the OS a bit more in a year or two once they iron out some of the kinks that always creeps it's head out of any newly released hardware. Of course if the hardware happened to fall (well maybe fall isn't the right word in this context) on my lap for research purposes - I wouldn't object ;)
Hopefully Google will see this as an opportunity and come out with an Android Tablet - Haha! Maybe Google can steal some of apple's design engineers and pump out some nice hardware to go along with the Android OS, which in my opinion has a lot of promise of becoming something great with a little fine tuning.
Just my $2.50,
Michael
In addition...
In addition,
I do want to mention that because of it's size you do get added functionality and gesture capability due to the iPad's increased size, but perhaps they should have focused on leveraging their Macbook air lines to make a smaller reversible screen (tablet-pc style device) with a multi-touch capable screen. And one more thing - just to clarify it runs a modified version of the iPhone of the iPhone 3.2 OS and is not compatible with all pre-existing app store apps. Still the hardware and what the hardware represents in terms of tactile interfaces is definitely promising so it will be interesting to see what happens next...
Cheers,
Michael