[OT] Apple shrinks

[Richmond]

On 10/24/2012 01:22 PM, Bernard Devlin wrote:
> When it came to choosing a tablet earlier this year, I could not see myself
> using something in the original iPad form-factor - it just felt too
> uncomfortable in my hand.  I went for a 7" HTC Android tablet.
>
> The 7" form-factor is like going back to the good old days of the Apple
> Newton.  Only the thinness of modern tablets is much to be desired compared
> to the chunkiness of the Newton!

Ahah!

So; while the iPad is a tablet computer, I suppose the iPad mini (trying 
to be cutesy with the
lower case M) is a PDA.

But . . .  "Every inch an iPad"

which, if you think about it, is not strictly true: it's a shrunken iPad.

And, as such, should be seen as a PDA rather than a tablet computer.

The only problem is that PDAs tend to have some sort of physical 
keyboard you can tap with a stylus or pencil, and the iPad mini will 
have about 2-3 letters under my fat fingers on its virtual keyboard, and
it is unlikely that its screen is going to take nicely to being tapped 
with a sharp pencil.

Sorry to be negative, but the iPad mini looks like something for Paris 
Hilton and all the other
posers, and not much else.

>
> I find it almost impossible to use the on-screen keyboard on my Android
> phone (I find myself yearning for an old Nokia with a numeric keypad - it
> would probably be quicker to type with that inappropriate design).  But on
> the 7" form-factor I find the on-screen keyboard is surprisingly usable,
> with the error rate a tiny fraction of that on the phone.  Whether or not
> the error rate would drop further on a 10" screen I have no desire to find
> out, as it is low enough on the 7" to be a non-issue.
>
> When I was in the market for a tablet, I predicted to my style-conscious,
> Apple-everything, metrosexual friends that Apple would have to release
> something in that shape.  Shortly after my purchase, Google released a
> tablet in that form-factor.  So Apple is late to the party.  Steve Jobs was
> probably blinded by wanting the iPad not to be anything like the Newton
> (the Newton being a landmark product when he was not a Apple).
>
> Bernard
>
>