01-11-2013, 01:49 PM
guitarist wrote: Here's the thing. I can't stand those moments, using my iPad, when I want to use it the ways we take for granted we can use a laptop. When typing text, for example, and I wish I could navigate a cursor via a trackpad, or reach for a mouse, and there isn't one.
This. I have an Apple Bluetooth keyboard and I find the experience only slightly better than just typing straight on the iPad.
guitarist wrote: The competing platforms (the Surface, for example) are smart to make a hybrid product that responds to mouse gestures. Even if you sync a bluetooth keyboard to an iPad, you still have to touch the screen, there's no choice. It's mandatory.
Normally, I prefer Apple's design and Apple's wisdom in such matters, but as a consumer, with no laptop option, I find it vexing. My impulses are limited by the design. And I think it's aimed more at protecting Apple's product categories (not cannibalizing potential sales of its own products) than it is at serving the user's needs, frankly.
Agree. What's weird is the fact I can connect an older Symbian smartphone to my HDTV via HDMI and then control it with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Still a compromise, but it works surprisingly well. I really wish my iPad supported an external clicker. Even if it required a touchpad like the Magic Trackpad.
Apple does have a bit of history of artificial product stratification. Too bad really.