iPad

[Rick]

will all the companies that've sold 8.1 million iphones in just the first quarter of 2010 raise their hands...

 

This isn't a phone though. People know what phones are about. They need a phone. Everyone has a phone. Even the iPod. It's music. You can listen to music while you do a million other things. Plus all this stuff was small enough to fit in your pocket. But a media center, this size? I just don't see it selling like the iPhone or iPod. If the OS was more like a normal OS where you do everything a normal OS can do, then it might sell because it can act as a really cool business tool as well.

[Guest Red Ocktober]

This isn't a phone though.

true... true...

 

People know what phones are about.

they do... huh? i mean, back in the day, when i, and many others used a phone to talk to another person... well, then you could say that people knew what phones were all about... but in today's virtual verbage, onbe might expect their phone to text... to take pictures... to browse the net... to play games... and, well, me thinks you see were i'm heading with this... people today don't have a clue as to what a phone is about... they're more willing to let marketers tell em what a phone is... and how they should use it...

 

They need a phone.

hahahahaaaa... need... most of em never talk to anyone directly on their 'phone' device...

they need a 'phone' like i need a lear jet... what they need is some direction in their life...

 

Plus all this stuff was small enough to fit in your pocket.

well... now it'll be small enough to fit in your briefcase... or your stylish carry bag...

 

I just don't see it selling like the iPhone or iPod

you may be right... but i see it putting the iPod out to pasture... as well as the mac mini... i think they'll be hard pressed to fill the demand for these things... and that they'll outsell iPods by a factor of 6 to 1... iPhone is a different matter... i'll wait until i've got a lil more to go on before i draw any conclusions there...

 

If the OS was more like a normal OS where you do everything a normal OS can do, then it might sell because it can act as a really cool business tool as well.

i think that the OS is the least improtant factor here... in the context that you're putting it... if the OS is intuitive enough so that the OS 'dissapears', and the user is comfortable enough doing what they want to do with their lil fingers... then this won't be an issue...

 

on this OS point... i think you're going to see the emergence of the stage in which human interaction with electonic data devices, and devices as a whole, are going to depart from the traditional windowing ui... and become something more natural and intuitive... if you know how to use your finger to point... then you're already halfway there...

 

--Mike

[Rick]

on this OS point... i think you're going to see the emergence of the stage in which human interaction with electonic data devices, and devices as a whole, are going to depart from the traditional windowing ui... and become something more natural and intuitive... if you know how to use your finger to point... then you're already halfway there...

 

Maybe it's because I'm a programmer professionally and as a hobby and I spend all day typing code, but I can't see this being useful for that at all.

[Guest Red Ocktober]

i may have to agree with you on that point... i mean, from all preliminary indications... hard to tell for sure untill i've had a lil hands on though...

 

 

--Mike

[Flexman]

Well..hmm. It's certainly a tablet in the sense of form factor. Once I got over giggling about the name (jokes about feminine hygiene products and incontinence pads are beginning to snowball) I can see it being very useful as a thin client for web based applications. I developed program used in ASDA/Walmat for day to day operations, one of the big problems using it is the daily process going around a store or warehouse gathering data. And such a device would be handy for that and more but bloody expensive atm.

 

It's a consumer device (for consuming content). Delivery of movies, books, apps and games. Lot of people just want that. I think the unintended consequence will be an explosion of the language of machine interaction through touch. As ubiquitous as the mouse is today, it's use will become second nature, even trivial. I was reminded the other day that eighty percent of the jobs that will be around when my children reach adulthood, haven't been invented yet.

 

Touch has spreading slowly, quite often in the history of technology something happens that nobody expected really kicks it off. I suspect we haven't seen that yet and this is only the beginning.

 

But what bugs me about devices like this and this happened with the Kindle too, is the prediction that they mark the end of traditional printed books. I can take my old fashioned, well thumbed and yes, heavy books on a long plane flight to Hong Kong but it won't run out of power mid flight. I can loan my latest Neil Stephenson doorstop to someone without any DRM issues. We can discuss it afterwards, even write in the margins.

 

There is a department in the British Library devoted to the cataloging and study of margin notes in books going back as far as the 16th century. They tell a rich history of the time the books were printed, the people who read them, they lend character to those books. It's not just the book itself but it's place within time and the people it touched. My (now ex) wife sold her first edition Terry Pratchet Colour of Magic (she typeset it). With the hand written notes and dedication for her diligent work on the material it stands out. Sadly poverty required it to be sold on ebay for nearly four grand. To suggest that books are only meant to be read is admitting they don't understand the nature of books and how people relate to them, and such predictions coming from Amazon beggars belief. These devices are sterile, passive delivery systems.

 

A BBC reporter described the iPad as a giant iPhone ("HELLO?? YEAH?? I'M IN A BOOKSHOP"). So it's not so much the hardware that's important but the infrastructure. AND you can't stick it in your pocket, sit down and crack the screen.

 

All of the above is of course IMHO and clearly the deranged ramblings of someone who really doesn't care but didn't have anything else better to do but write all this ****. Now where is that Ed Macy book I was reading?

 

 

p.s. It just occurred to me that the quoted 10 hour battery life (which seems too good to be true) is perhaps best case scenario. Although, once the battery does run out the iPad handily converts into the iTray.

[Scott Richmond]

I think everyone has made some really good points, and it'll certainly be interesting to see how tablet PCs evolve this year. Because whether this iPad is a real hit or not is almost irrelevent - I think we'll start seeing all the other big companies (ASUS, MS, Samsung, etc) really kick it up a notch because Apple will create a market with this thing. And now that they've shown their cards, everyone else can now start touting their "better" product with more innovative features.

Personally I'm more excited to see what the others come up with: The Courier concept MS came up with completely blew me away and I would buy that device in a heartbeat. Lenovo have also show-cased a laptop at CES that is basically a laptop but you pull off the screen whenever you want and it turns into a touchscreen tablet. Now that is cool.

 

With that said everything I've seen so far, iPad included, has been half-way there. I don't think anything out on the market right now is worth our money just yet.

[L B]

$29.95 for unlimited...

Alright, apart from that incredibly seducing thing:

• No multi-tasking
  
• Apple controlled apps
  
• No camera
  
• Huge bezel
  
• Oversized keyboard
  
• Hardly usable with a keyboard
  

I'd like to be able to put whatever app I want on my "replacement for a netbook", or at least be able to be on WLM iChat while I'm on browsing on Chrome Safari.

 

 

But hey. 30$ for unlimited wifi. I'll just wait for iPad 2, featuring what I miss and better sanitary protection.

[Scott Richmond]

Oh and don't think for a second that the iPad can actually browse the web, because it doesn't support Flash:

It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple's DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers. And without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.

 

If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate, or JibJab -- not to mention the millions of other sites on the web -- I'll be out of luck.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/28/adobe-on-flash-and-the-ipad-apple-is-continuing-to-impose-rest/

 

Thank you for nothing Apple.

[Marcus]

Don't you have to vote Democrat to buy an Apple product, though?

 

Democrat and brain dead actually...wait a minute. One and the same.

[Niosop]

Them's fighting words Might wanna be careful, I'm just finishing up a non-stop marathon of seasons 1-3 of Dexter....once I run out of episodes I might need to start making my own.

[Marcus]

Them's fighting words Might wanna be careful, I'm just finishing up a non-stop marathon of seasons 1-3 of Dexter....once I run out of episodes I might need to start making my own.

 

Don't like Republicans either. I'm actually a Libertarian. So I fight with both.

[Niosop]

Ahh, ok. You might not meet the criteria dictated by the code.

[Josh]

So it's basically a portable media consumption device, for use only with Apple books, music, and movies? That's okay if that's what it is, but I can't afford to pay $1000 to watch movies I already have. It's still a cool idea, but just seems too expensive for what it is.

 

I think there's a huge untapped market for a home entertainment PC. You can go to YouTube and type in almost any movie or song and see it. Why isn't there a commercial offering like this? Why can't I sit on the couch and type in a wireless keyboard the name of a song or movie I want to hear/see, and have it play?

 

I think streaming media, and maybe even streaming games, is the surprise ultimate solution to piracy. It's easier to use than pirated materials, and it lets the publisher retain control. Sure, you could capture the incoming data, but when it's easier just to pick what you want and play it, who would bother with physical media and local files?

[Niosop]

Most Apple products are too expensive for what they are. Nice hardware, very pretty software, but overpriced. But yeah, that's basically what it is. Unless you jailbreak it (and thus void any warranty, risk them bricking it w/ an update, etc), then you can only put stuff on it via iTunes and the AppStore. No Flash, no Java, no scripting languages allowed, etc.

 

And there are systems like that. Boxee is a great software solution and is coming out w/ hardware that runs it. There's a couple other similar devices around. Add in Netflix streaming and Hulu desktop and you have a pretty decent solution.

[Scott Richmond]

Josh, thats simple: Politics.

 

All the tech is there, always has been. All the big guys sitting in their decision making chairs don't want to change business model. Why should they? They make billions where they are. If they change it up and loose some money then they get a golden handshake and leave (Read: Paid 10M+ to go find another job).

 

Why do you think Apple is so restrictive in their file formats and supported software (Java, flash, etc). Its because they want to corner the market. Personally it makes me sick, specially when I see companies like MS who have done nothing but support every third party get slammed with a 8 billion dollar fine by the EU union for being 'uncompedative'.

[junior ii]

So in the future I could see a low-res renderer being added to work with things like the Apple Tablet

hi,

I decided to register after reading this

the day you confirm that it will "just begin" to make a iphone and ipad version

I will pay/buy in advance.

[Josh]

If I may ask, why are you interested in Leadwerks for mobile device development?

[junior ii]

If I may ask, why are you interested in Leadwerks for mobile device development?

 

hi,

iphone is the best platform for indies.

I want to port my simple 3d platform game to the iphone and ipad.

your engine is powerful and easy to use the same way blitz3d.

 

I gave up on unity after discovering that my character could not be pushed laterally by a moving platform("a wall" or something) and even slip in accordance with the inclination of a rotating platform.

 

and I bet I can do this with your character controller.

[Guest Red Ocktober]

I gave up on unity after discovering that my character could not be pushed laterally by a moving platform("a wall" or something) and even slip in accordance with the inclination of a rotating platform.

i find that difficult to accept... i mean, unity uses a rigidbody based physics package similar to those used most 3D dev solutions, LW included... and you should easily be able to push one object around with another regardles...

 

but hey... i don't have that much experience with Unity, so i can't say anything conclusively... and i'm just beginning to explore physics based motion in LW (ship bouyancy, propulsion, and steering)...

 

the LWE approach is very straight forward and should be easy to pick up... the character controller video tut will and the intro to bodies tut should be all you'll need to get started...

 

all you need is an iPhone version of LW to make your game a reality...

 

i think it's coming...

 

 

--Mike

[junior ii]

i find that difficult to accept...

is exactly that all 100.000 unity users(including me) think before testing the character controller

 

just testing to see that a moving platform will go through the character rather than pushing it

and this is written in the documentation:

"Kinematic Rigidbodies wake up other Rigidbodies when they collide with them.

Kinematic Rigidbodies apply friction to Rigidbodies placed on top of them"

 

as i said can´t be pushed laterally

and rotating a rigidbody character does not work correctly

 

with BGE bullet physics "good implementation"

i just check "dynamic" option instead of rigidbody

and my character can be rotated properly,can be pushed by any dynamic geometry laterally(any side) and slip automatically with a rotating platform.

 

and I believe I can do the same with leadwerks character controller.

[Guest Red Ocktober]

sorry Jun... but i just don't buy it...

 

i don't doubt that you may have tried to get it to work, but i can't see the rigid body physics used over in Unityland being sooo different from those used by any other game "engine"...

 

have you tried adding (not replacing) another collider to the player, tag it, make it a trigger, and then using an OnTriggerEnter-call to detect it from the moving wall script...

 

i'm sure there's also a way to get a character to slide down an incline... look for ball rolling posts over there to give you an idea...

 

but hey... since we're on the Leadwerks forum, i'm gonna stop all this talk about another tool focus on Leadwerks... i think you'll find that you can indeed get your character motivated by a moving wall in LW, and it'll be a very straightforward process...

 

good luck...

 

--Mike

[junior ii]

but i can't see the rigid body physics used over in Unityland being sooo different from those used by any other game "engine"...

 

why not?

 

1.just put the FPS Controller in front of a moving platform and see the platform pass through the player

 

2.the developers say that the character controller "is not perfect" in threads where people are complaining about the character controller!

 

3.is written in the documentation!

 

 

any engine?

 

with ODE and blitz3D i can do what i want!

with blitz3d and simonh dynamic collision lib i can do what i want!

with dpro or c++ and Nuclear Glory Collision plug in i can do what i want!

with Nuclear Glory and Nuclear Basic engine with in built NGC collision plug in i can do what i want!

with blender and bullet i can do what i want!

with leadwerks i don´t know yet,but you said "and it'll be a very straightforward process..." so i can do what i want!

 

and with unity not!

for me is sooo different

 

just on top? ridiculous! pathetic!

for a game engine that supports all consoles buttons!

 

unity developers do not care about the **** character controller!

 

user community do not care about this!

because all they want is to continue doing those lot of iphone "apps"!

 

 

 

when you say you are looking for a iphone 3D engine is inevitable that someone does not ask why not use the unity!

well that is my opinion about unity and I need a better solution

and that is why I'm here