Consumer choice doesn’t necessarily mean the most numerous list of applications (android would have the largest creator base) within a single ecosystem. Apple wants to make the baseline quality of the applications THEY’RE selling to millions of people be above competing phones/mobile-devices. Complaints about the method of production implies (however accurately) engineers care more for the tools than the production.

Which would my sister or girlfriend prefer: open platform or prettier, faster, apps? Hell, even I’d prefer faster, nicer looking applications.

Keyboard
There’s no denying that a FULL SIZED physical keyboard is faster, more responsive, and easier to use than a virtual keyboard. Since I have the apple branded keyboard it has all the buttons listed, and with the exception of Expose and Dashboard the buttons correspond to the iPhone feature. Apple even included Mac OS style indicators for brightness, and pressing the eject key will hide/reveal the keyboard. There was a real concern that when the BT keyboard is on the iPhone ceases to show the virtual keyboard. If you press the eject key and show the keyboard it’ll let you continue using the virtual keyboard while keeping the BT one on.
What is of issue is whether toting a keyboard around with you is easier than lugging a laptop. If you carry a laptop around already, then you can ignore my opinion — it simply doesn’t apply to your case. Some people (myself included) don’t usually carry a computer around, but carry an iPhone or iPod and the idea of adding a small keyboard into your bag only when you know you’ll need it is more reasonable than taking a computer.

What does this mean for the iPad, will it fall to the same arguments I’m using against a laptop? Since I haven’t had a chance to play with one I can only go with the internets opinion of having a 9 inch window into another world. The main them has been it’s not a laptop, if you want a laptop go buy one. They feel it justifies its own weight in your carry on, and I will let it be.

Multitask/Fast App Switching
Unfortunately my favorite applications haven’t been updated to utilize the multiple APIs available for multitasking. The first party apps are mundane enough that I won’t espouse how freaking awesome it is. We’ll all have to wait for the next updates for that opinion.
As for fast app switching I’m becoming accustomed to double clicking Home and then tapping the app I just used. Badges are present in fast app switching too, letting me see which application just buzzed me.

Folders
Calling this feature folders is misleading, as John Gruber said in his post (http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/04/15/mathis-iphone-4), “Regarding “folders”, I’ll add that they’re not really folders at all, not in the sense of the Mac. There is no “folder” icon, nor any folder object that you create as a first step. There is no nesting. You just pile icons on top of each other.”

All in all, the 4.0 is something everyone should look forward to.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/801

I must wonder if Sam Harris understands the presumptions that are foundational to his claims about using science for determining ethics.

I don’t think there’s any real reason to be happy about not having class. Because there was nothing to be learned by my lack of philosophic jabbing at the opinions of the students. I am an equal opportunity poker.

Class is half done and I’m ready to get a move on. Maybe we’ll get to write a fun paper. Just please no more abortion, I’m tired of hearing about the points.

Who would have thought

A special thanks to my loving family who were supportive last year during my thesis work. The rest of you giving me a hard time? well, you know where you belong.

That’s it.

Everything else follows. We respect our fellow dialectician as we would ourselves, and have a consistent argument lest it be called out and invalidated.

Even this post is succinct.

Look kids, it’s a 400 level class. The reading was pretty self explanatory, the discussions were interesting and shouldn’t have left people puzzled. Why then were they asking what the exam questions were going to be like?

The good doctor didn’t chose to give us a practice exam or any sort of primer because he knew the questions would be easily answered by anyone who 1) read the assignments and 2) participated in class discussion, at the very least refrained from falling asleep. This wasn’t a very big secret, he pretty much said so. That it was open book meant he could ask questions that at the most required reexamining a section pertaining to the question.

Am I too harsh on my classmates?

It’s Not a Big iPhone: “

Marco Arment isn’t quite getting it yet. He’s on the cusp of it, though. He writes:

Most of us had some crazy ideas. John Gruber wanted Apple to reinvent mobile computing. I wanted Apple to reinvent portable input mechanics and novice usability. I think a lot of other people wanted Apple to reinvent the laws of physics.

In reality, none of this happened. The iPad is effectively a giant iPod Touch, which itself is effectively a data-app-only iPhone.

I would say that redefining mobile computing is exactly what happened. It is surprisingly, delightfully, iPhone-esque in many ways. But if you use it for just a few minutes, it becomes obvious that the iPad is not a big stretched-out iPhone, but rather that the iPhone is a shrunken stripped-down version of the iPad. The iPad is what they’ve been building toward all along.

The iWork apps are amazing. Totally usable. Totally new UI for office apps. Maybe the best comparison is the Calendar app. It doesn’t look anything like the iPhone Calendar app.

In terms of, say, style and UI grammar, yes, it’s the same vibe as the iPhone. But in terms of scope and ambition, it’s a far bigger thing.

“

(Via Daring Fireball.)

I’ll temper my excitement with moths flying out of my wallet.

Let me just say I want that image painted on my next macbook.