More Steve Jobs iPad mini attacks from beyond the grave

@ An0n C0w4rd

* will need REDOING

or

will need TO BE redone.

Let's go to the effort of forming complete sentences, shall we?

Steve Jobs made the crucial point that screen size dictates UI design, and this is crystal clear on the iOS platforms: a "universal" app that runs on both iPhone and iPad has two different GUIs, not just one.

Contrast with Android where many app developers simply stretch their small smartphone GUIs up to fit a larger tablet display, with no other concession to the display's size and its opportunities for providing a richer, more streamlined, user experience.

Steve Jobs nailed Apple's design philosophy with this one paragraph:

"You're looking at it wrong. You're looking at it as a hardware person in a fragmented world. You're looking at it as a hardware manufacturer that doesn't really know much about software, who doesn't really think about an integrated product, but assumes the software will somehow take care of itself."

Hardware without software is just a brick. Software without hardware is just bits in the aether. You cannot separate the two during the design phase for a product. This has ALWAYS been Jonathan Ive's design approach and neither Ive nor Jobs have ever made a secret of this, despite their competitors' best efforts to jam their fingers in their ears and sing "La-la-la! We're not listening!"

Again: Apple have never made any secret of their holistic, unified hardware-and-software-combined design approach. Ever. Even Microsoft have finally twigged that it makes sense to control both aspects of the design instead of just the one. They've since had a roaring success with their games consoles, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if their "Surface" tablets do better than expected too.

The IT industry's old guard—including the crusty beardos in the IT media—are still obsessing over raw technical specifications, feature bullet-lists (utterly ignoring their usability, which is a damned sight more important than their mere inclusion), pointless benchmarks, and other such nerdy bollocks. So much for being progressive: there are more conservatives in the IT industry than there are in the British Tory Party.

One size fits all?

I think the 7-inch tablet size is an excellent one, myself.

It's portable enough to whip out of a pocket, check something and put back within 15 seconds - as accessible and transportable as a phone - where as I find a full 10-inch screen too big for any of my pockets - digging the larger tablet out the bag is fine but it's simply not as accessible as a smaller tablet.

I think there's a good place for a 10-inch tablet in the home (as a living-room device, say) but I feel the 7-inch form factor has greater utility for travel. If I was travelling and felt a need for the screen-real estate, processing power, etc offered by a 10-inch tablet, I'd use my laptop instead and do it properly. I'd have to dig that out my bag just as I would with a 10-inch tablet, anyway!

Wrong. Since the OS and software on a phone has been written its size in mind.

If you take the existing iPad 10" where the software has been designed for its screen then load that software onto a 7" device then you'll find many things will be hard to press.

Re: Build

The past tense of build is BUILT.

Re: If a 7" device is not an iPhone and not an iPad - what is it?

It's a GiPod touch!

*ahem*

Re: If a 7" device is not an iPhone and not an iPad - what is it?

"But I'm guessing the 7" device is an iPod."

It might just be the remote control for the iTV

Re: Developers, Developers, Developers!

> chomping at the bit

champing at the bit

Re: Ummmm Yeah. Right.

I've got a Nexus 7 on order. I was offered a used iPad 2G by a co-worker who lined up for the "new" ipad but decided it was too big. Would have liked an SD slot but otherwise the Nexus is just about what I was waiting for.

Jobs got this one wrong.

Except that the expensive, cumbersome 10" iPad sells more than all 7" tab manufacturers combined :)

I have no issue with a 7-8" tablet... his arguments have some sense but remember things change and those comments were from a while ago.

Re: Edge to edge

"Take the bezel away ...." .... then you'd definitely have to "hold it the right way"

Re: Perhaps not 7"...

When two devices are the same aspect ratio you can just divide the one diagonal by the other and square what you get — that makes 65.49% in my book.

Doing it all at length, a 7" 16:9 screen has a width of about 15.5cm and a height of 8.7cm. Surface area is about 135 square centimetres.

A 9.7" 4:3 screen has a width of about 19.7cm and a height of about 14.8cm. So surface area is about 291.6 square centimetres.

A 7.85" 4:3 screen is approximately 16cm by 12cm, for a surface area close to 192 square centimetres.

So the 7" is about 46% as large as the 9.7" and 70% as large as the 7.85". The 7.85" is about 42% larger than the 7" and almost 66% as large as the 9.7". The 9.7" is about 117% larger than the 7" and 52% larger than the 7.85".

So that no doubt clears everything up!

Re: Reality distortion

So in that case, Apple SHOULD launch a 7" tablet because most people them aren't anti-Apple, they just want a 7" iPad and are forced to find an approximation elsewhere.

Re: Reality distortion

I probably spend a few hours a day on my iPad all the time. It's perfect for browsing and book reading, and it's also not bad - but not so perfect - for music, video and photo editing.

I can't see an 8" tablet being nearly as useful for any of the above. Text is going to be too small, the UI is going to be fiddly, and the size is a bad compromise between pocket and briefcase.

Unless it's tied to specific content, an 8" would be a me-too product - which is exactly what Jobs was trying to avoid.

I don't doubt it would sell, and there might even be a pick-up for OS X laptop sales as a result.

But it's not a particularly elegant or clever thing to be putting out.

Re: one of the lucky ones to get a Nexus 7 early

I used Android tabs only briefly but I see no advantage to them. I never owned an iPhone or other touch device and recently got an iPad... everything was massively intuitive.

Re: "I don't like it therefore it is shit"

"And moreover, anyone who says they do like them is stupid and wrong".

Eat up Martha.

Re: I've had a chat to the wife

Ya, but I'll bet she also said that 4.5" is better than 3.5" too

Re: "One naturally thinks that a 7-inch screen would offer 70 per cent..............

Most people aren't thick, but it doesn't mean they're actually using their brain on every problem. I had to explain to someone the difference in sizes of various tablets yesterday, and he didn't understand this at all. I ended up having to measure screen sizes with my hands on my iPad screen.

He's an accountant, so the maths isn't a problem, but I suspect screen size isn't a subject he's ever thought about. Also most people probably don't know (or at least don't remember) that screen size is measured across the diagonal, they assume it's the length of one side - at least until they think about it.

As with many things techy, most people just hear, "blah, blah, blah, blah, umpty million megabyte-thingamyjigs, blah, blah, squillion pixels, blah, blah, £500, how much!?!?" This isn't because they can't understand it, just that they're bored by it. They don't want you to explain how it works, just as they don't want an in-depth explanation of how their hammer was manufactured. They just want a tool, to do a job.

Re: Hmm

I really want to play with a Nexus 7. So far, I've resisted temptation. I've got an iPad 3, so no excuse for buying more shiny tech. But it does look very tempting. I'm looking at some kind of media server set up, and I really like the idea of using a tablet as a remote controller. This is likely to be the excuse I use to buy more shiny that I don't really need...

I can really see the attraction of a more portable tablet. Many people really do seem to work out what suits them best, and then assume this applies to everyone else as well. Often getting grumpy when someone dares to voice a different opinion...

Why should someone be above criticism just because they're dead?

You're either a hypocrite who operates a double-standard for Steve Jobs because you're a mindless hero-worshipper, OR you say only nice things about Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Genghis Khan, and all the other monsters from history. Which is it?

(And yes, trying to claim that it's ok to speak ill of the dead if they were "bad guys" but not if they were "good people" is still that same double-standard, because you're presupposing your own moral judgement of someone to be objective truth; how else could we, and history, evaluate someone's moral character if we're not allowed to criticize them? So inb4 that.)

Of course I noticed.

How could I not, I'm still laughing about it!