Apple Tablet: iPad

[haven]

Gizmodo has posted a table that compares the iPad specifications with competitors' tablet products.
http://gizmodo.com/5459308/slate-sh...te-vs-joojoo-vs-android-tablets--more-updated

screen larger than 9 inches
Apple iPad
HP Slate
JooJoo
Notion Ink Adam

9 inch screen or smaller
Dell Mini 5
Archos 7
Archos 9
Lenovo U1

None of these products are actually available to buy today, so
specs could change before introduction.

 

[haven]

Does the iPhone (and presumably, the iPad) multi-task? The answer is, yes and no. The iPhone allows bundled app (the apps Apple includes with the OS) to run while you run one additional app. Examples of bundled apps are the phone app, the web browser, the push email monitor, and the Contacts list.

So you can talk on the phone while checking the contacts list for an address. Or the iPhone can monitor for push email while you're playing a game.

But the iPhone won't allow you to simultaneously run more than one app from third party developers. Instead, the iPhone switches quickly from one app to the next.

The iPhone hardware can handle multi-tasking. The limiting factor is the OS.

 

[nwoods]

The limiting factor is the OS.

And RAM? When switching between applications, they are not closed, just minimized, moved out of RAM so to speak. I frequently cut and paste between applications, such a text, safari, notes, email, etc.... Also, another example of multitasking is with the iPod portion of the iPhone, you can listen to music and do anything else on the phone simultaneously, including downloading purchased albums (which would be three things simultaneously, right?)

 

[Root Moose]

I think the best way to visualize this is thusly:

The bundled OS applications such as the media player, the phone, etc. are all running as a normal mulit-tasking operating system does.

Third party applications are only given one thread of execution in parallel to the OS. As such, only the third party application in the foreground is allowed to execute. Any other application that you have started but in the background does not execute.

I don't know what the priority levels are to the threads. 3rd party has one level, but does the entire multi-tasking subsystem for the Apple apps share a single thread at the same level or does each application within the multi-tasking susbsystem get its own, equal priority level?

 

[haven]

If you "jailbreak" your phone, then you can run full multi-tasking,
limited only by system resources like nwoods said. Apple must
have decided to limit the number of third party apps that can be
run simultaneously in order to protect the less sophisticated iPhone
owner from system freezes and crashes.

 

[Root Moose]

If you "jailbreak" your phone, then you can run full multi-tasking,
limited only by system resources like nwoods said. Apple must
have decided to limit the number of third party apps that can be
run simultaneously in order to protect the less sophisticated iPhone
owner from system freezes and crashes.

Yep, I think you are bang on. That plus the potential for a console-less application from acting as a DoS style attack.

 

[efuentes]

Yep, I think you are bang on. That plus the potential for a console-less application from acting as a DoS style attack.

Just try a windows Mobile phone with some apps installed to see the nightmare that Apple prevented. (We develop for windows mobile and basically hate it).

 

[Root Moose]

We use BBs... I hate it.

 

[haven]

Here's an article from PC magazine listing a range of features
found in netbooks and missing from the iPad. (A few assertions
in the article are mistaken, but most are accurate.)
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2358590,00.asp

 

[adelatoa]

So does Overland Journal plan on making ebooks for the IPad? Does anyone know if Overland Journal is slightly thinking about it?:coffeedrink:

I might be a sucker for Ebooks on the Ipad due to the graphics quality that will be out there. Kindle never got me excited about it as pictures aren't there. Overland Journal would be a pleasure experience to read with good images of great photography Overland uses as well as other magazine out there.

Would any of you be a sucker for the Ipad if such magazines provide their material on the Ipad?

 

[Root Moose]

JPFreak mag must be thinking about this...

 

[Purple People Eater]

Haven't they been selling iPads in Boston since 2001?


:ylsmoke:

 

[Scott Brady]

So does Overland Journal plan on making ebooks for the IPad? Does anyone know if Overland Journal is slightly thinking about it?:coffeedrink:

I can assure you we will test the publication on that platform. However, Overland Journal, or any other graphics/design rich presentation cannot use the current eBook standards. Once we find a presentation method that meets our expectations, we will start some testing and evaluation.

 

[adelatoa]

Scott. It seems that they are going to develop the apple book store to be richer in quality for images than the current ebook formats. Apple's philosophy rides on the experience of the user so no doubt that the books will be very interactive. You guys at overland journal should take a look at zinio.com if you haven't already. I used to enjoy Architectural Record there on zinio. I am sure the books store from Apple will be on steroids and hope is no a let down.

 

[mandywilliams]

Hmmm this may make sense, i've been thinking that if there were a base station for an iPhone or iPod Touch to use it as a desk top computer, it would meet my needs. After all, how many of us really need a computer (well, the reader's here prolly quite a bit)? After all, i check email, surf the net, listen to music, look at pictures and watch the occasional video. That's it, and all of that can be handled by either device, or a tablet computer.