This is a “ranty” episode (after a long hiatus). I talk of the major mobile platforms out right now and their service offerings and a little in how it shows the difference in philosophy between the companies involved.
Warning, I have no idea what I’m talking about. Merely opinions here.
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I have been able to play with an iPad mini for the past week or so and I have to say, it is a spectacular device.
However, there has been a lot of crazy talk about how this is “the real iPad”. I’m going to link to Harry Marks’s take on all of this because I agree pretty much with everything he wrote. I’m not done, however.
I find the iPad and iPad mini holding very different places in the workflow of different people. For one, most of the people who are declaring this “the real iPad” are using the iPad mini as a secondary device almost exclusively. That’s what happens when bloggers add a device, it doesn’t usually supplant the old one, but is added to the large array of devices that the person already owns.
That’s how they’ve built their lifestyle. That’s what they’ve already done with the laptop, desktop, gaming console(s), handheld gaming console(s), TV, smart phone, microwave, and fridge that they are already owning. They have tailored their life around using multiple devices.
The iPad mini is perfect for that because it fills that void between their 4″ smart phone and their 13″ laptop very well. 8″ is a great size for that.
It also helps that the iPad mini is crazy thin and light. I’m still shocked sometimes by how light it is, yet how rigid at the same time.
Does this mean the iPad mini is “the real iPad”? Heck no.
The iPad, the original one that is still being sold and just received a DOUBLE SPEED BOOST from Apple, is a much different device. The iPad can remove the need for a computer for many people almost completely. My dad has no need for a laptop or desktop … he needs something that allows very few things to take place:
The iPad mini would not work for him as well as the 10″ iPad already does. That last point above can’t be stressed enough either. By eliminating choices, Apple has freed people to just use the iPad without having to worry about doing something bad. Automatic backups to iCloud are a huge plus as well.
I’m not mentioning the Retina display because no one is expecting the iPad mini to stay non-Retina forever.
The iPad mini might very well be “the real iPad” for some people, but the iPad is also “the real iPad” for others. The iPad mini might very well fit what many people wanted from the original iPad, but that doesn’t mean there is no room for a 10″ iPad or that original iPad is somehow “the faux iPad” … it just means that it is different, it fits a different role, and that Apple has a lot of room to improve things on both ends for years to come.
That excites me almost as much as the idea of tablet computing in general.
If you haven’t heard, Apple just announced some shuffling on their executive team. Here is the overview:
That’s a pretty big shakeup. Bob Mansfield went from retiring to the SVP of an entirely new Technologies group in less than a half-year. Scott Forstall went from the stage of WWDC announcing iOS 6 to … nothing. John Browett seemed to be heading this direction from the start, I’m just glad it happened sooner rather than later.
The Apple Stores are probably the single biggest advantage Apple holds over every competitor outside of the actual products they are selling. Having a direct link with customers is so incredibly valuable that anything, or anyone who could damage that link should be tossed out and handled quickly. Browett seemed to be getting in the way of making the Apple Stores even better, so getting rid of him seems like a great move. I will closely watch who they might tap as the next SVP of Apple Retail.
The other departure was Scott Forstall. He always seemed just slightly creepy as “Mr. Intense Eyes”, but he shepherded iOS from the beginning so I have to give him some respect. It seems, though, that his departure has more to do with his personality and management style than the “skeuomorphism wars” that were supposedly going on within Apple. I have liked the move to more textured software, but I’m also strange … so take that as you like.
However, the interesting thing is that now you have much greater integration amongst the SVPs. The separation between products is no longer there, but the divisions happening on a more general level. Here is how I see things now:
Of course, it isn’t quite that clear-cut, but what you now notice that it takes collaboration across multiple areas to get things done. This means that the executives, at least, are more generalists than anything else.
Ive, Federighi, and Cue will be in charge of making sure iOS and OS X are great and wonderful. Ive, Riccio, and Mansfield will be in charge of making sure each piece of hardware is great and wonderful.
Notice a name that is in both of those groups?
Jony Ive now has really taken on an even greater roll in Apple than anyone else. He touches pretty much every aspect of every device that will now leave Cupertino. He’s involved not just in the hardware design but the UI design for the software as well. That’s really interesting, and I think entirely deliberate on Tim Cook’s part.
Needless to say, this is going to take a while to settle in at Apple, but it really does change some more of the culture as well. The SVPs are now more generalists than ever and, hopefully, this will lead to even better software and hardware integration which is really the hallmark or the company as a whole.
As an addition: I have to say that Bob Mansfield is maybe my favorite executive at Apple at the moment. Always like his appearances in the promotional videos as well. When I was training in Cupertino our group ate breakfast every morning at the cafe inside of 1 Infinite Loop. There we saw Mansfield eating his breakfast every morning. Always was pleasant and seemed like a nice guy.
Yes, Apple had an event on October 23 and announced a batch of new products. You can read coverage in many other places about the event … so feel free. I’m not going to cover everything (or most things) here.
I’m excited about most of what was announced (even if iTunes 11 was a no-show), but I’m going to focus on what I am probably going to be purchasing in the next few days or weeks.
Yessir, I am happy that they bumped the Mac mini just a little bit. I wasn’t looking for anything spectacular, so I’m more than pleased with what was announced.
Basically it fulfilled the following list:
That’s it. I’m waiting for the first look at the speed of the quad-vs-dual core processors and then I’ll make my final decision. I’m working with a 2011 13″ MacBook Pro with a 2.7 Ghz Core i7 processor, so speed is not an issue in the slightest. I’ll see if I outlay the extra $200 for the faster processor.
It will take over as my development machine at home and will sit in my basement and never move. Great little box just for that.
For me, this is the strange.
I’m not committing to anything yet, because I really need to see this thing for myself and hold it to get an idea of what it will be like, but the iPad mini really seems like a great companion device. This isn’t something that I would consider a “replacement” for a computer for anyone (the iPad can be, for some), but it looks like something I might enjoy.
Crazy.
Like I said, I’ll need to take a look. While I’m hesitant mostly because of the lack of a Retina display (which I am assuming will come in the 2nd or 3rd generation), the smaller form factor looks great and if it is as fast as my iPhone 4S, it will work perfectly well as my “sit on the couch and look up stuff” device.
It will also hold most of my programming books and periodicals.
However, I need to temper my enthusiasm because I haven’t even seen one in person. The price is higher than I would want, but it looks to be a better product than I was expecting.
Not many, but I am holding out on a Retina display Mac for at least another generation. The thing about purchasing the new Mac mini is that it can be reused as a home server if I would ever get the next generation of MacBook Pro.
Or I could find out that I really like my setup of a desktop + iPad at home and work. We shall see.
Tapbots recently released Tweetbot for Mac on the App Store and, to the chagrin of some people, is charging $20 for it. I, personally, think that it is worth it, but Tweetbot still makes me sad.
The sadness is because Tweetbot is what Twitter could be, or what Twitter could have, and what Twitter DID have when it purchased Tweetie all that time ago. Tweetbot makes me sad because there is a definite possibility that Twitter will just turn its back completely on 3rd party clients (even more than it has) and shut them out … and killing the best Twitter experiences available.
Tweetbot makes me sad because they care more about Twitter and the mobile and desktop experience than Twitter does. While Twitter for Mac lies as a waste, Tweetbot releases a truly excellent client for the Mac and we all wait for the final shoe to drop and for it to be discontinued.
Tweetbot for Mac is truly an excellent piece of software and the best Twitter client available on both OS X and iOS, and that’s the problem … Twitter should be the one with the best client, but they just don’t seem to care.