Drinking the Kool-Aid

[BigJim]

1. Bought an iPad 2. Its pretty cool, but its dawning on my how annoying Apple's control over content is. I mean people already learned how to organize and manage their content using what's called the operating system (or Finder). Then Apple has to go and munge it all around, so I have to convert my music to ALAC, convert my videos to quicktime, then give them all to iTunes so it can duplicate them and move them around and confuse me. All so they can control us. Its an inevitable collision. I want to just use all my content all day long. Apple wants to control me and make me buy all my content from them. They want to lock me in to their formats. Remember, at first Apple didn't even want third party developers for the iPhone!

2. iBooks ain't showing the covers for 80% of the .pdf files. iTunes has them ALL, but iBooks fumbles the ball badly. On top of this, I can't just put .pdf files on it and share them between apps, I have to assign them to iBooks or to GoodReader. Jobs is a control freak and so is Apple. I thought a decent pdf reader wasn't too much to ask, but I can't help suspect Apple and Amazon want to kill or main PDF. iBooks is adequate, I like its bookshelf display, if only it worked properly. EDIT: A free program called Bookman shows the covers properly, so I'm dumping iBooks.

3. Music on the iPad is disappointing. What I like to do is access my music library from my NAS over the wireless, then push music into my stereo system over the airport. (so my iPad could act as a giant color remote control) The iPod app on the iPad supports the second part. But I can't access my SHARED library on my network. I guess I'll have to wait for the iPad with a terabyte in it... Wait how about putting in an SD card!... Nope, Apple thought of that one, no expandability... And no consistent OS based access to shared network volumes!

I always wonder whether to blame problems on conspiracy or incompetence. But there's an old saying: once is coincidence, twice is happenstance, but three times is enemy activity. There's just a common them running through my 3 above questions, and they all revolve around deliberate restrictions and control on Apple's part. Three strikes and you're out, Apple. I know it may take some time, but anyone want to guess how long it will take Android to clean Apple's clock in tablets, like happened with the iPhone? I know all the faithful will say, oh but its not a computer, but what is telling is that the hardware is fully capable of the above, but Apple deliberately neutered the device (hardware and software alike) to control us. Sorry to pee on the campfire folks. I just call 'em like I see 'em. Would value any solutions to the above bugs.

 

[SweetPoison]

Welcome, Jim!

So ~ you drank the K00L-Aid seem to be very disappointed in taste. Are you going to take the iPad back?

 

[BigJim]

Yes, the Kool-aid® leaves a bitter after-taste. I know you can't return iPad software. Can you return iPad hardware?

Now that I discovered Bookman I'll probably hang onto it. But I'll keep griping too, never fear.

 

[SweetPoison]

So ~ Jim, did you edit your own post for illegal content? I have never seen that before!

 

[col.bris]

Sorry Jim you fall into a small number of dissatisfied users. It is obvious you are not satisfied with both the iPad , iTunes and Apple that's fine maybe you have a point. I suspect you are a power user and a person that expects a device to provide every thing you want. Personally I have never found a power user who can be satisfied regardless of brand, software or hardware..regardless of platform or device.

The other point I find interesting most power users like your self will never invest in technology like the iPad as it will never provide a solution to your wants and desires It is like I don't care buy it any way and see what it can do..... It is your personal choice to buy a product regardless of make and that is fine my point is simple I suggest you made the mistake of buying the iPad and now you want us to justify why it does not meet your expectations and no I do not intend to enter into that discussion.

If you find your holly grail then so be it take it and run and enjoy. No one has stated the iPad is the ultimate answer to the laptop, but to many millions of users they are more than happy with what the iPad offers.

 

[BigJim]

I just wanted to offer my review that all is not rosy. Since I am new to the iPad, these patterns, flaws if you will, seem very glaring, and I thought maybe I'm missing something.

It seems to me though, that you are putting me into a box labelled "power user"... they'll never be happy... no point discussing even one of the issues they raise. I would just note that the converse could be true, I could put you in a box labelled "kool-aid drinker"... better not enter into a discussion with such! And I'm in the "non-kool-aid drinker" box, or at least the teetotaler box.

Anyway, I do think the iPad is great hardware, and actually I find myself wanting to control how my children use it, so maybe there's a lesson there.

I bought it because the other (windows, android) tablets are just as expensive yet even less mature. I bought it to serve 2 purposes: to let my kids read books, and to run skritter (they expect to port it this summer). In trying to do the outrageous task that only a power user would want, read pdf files, I ran into some of the issues above. Anyway, on a positive note, I found lots of great educational apps for the iPad, turned off YouTube and Safari, and its child ready.

 

[AppleNut]

I never understand these posts. If your not happy then rid the problem and move on!

 

[col.bris]

I am not being personal but where I live Kool-aid does not exist My point is simple if you come in to the forum expecting answers to your questions please donot do it in a rage as no one will respond This is a private forum we have many users with experiance in all levels of issues that members have and are willing to provide that in most cases satisfy their needs. Blasting Apple and making wild negative statements will not give you positive responses.

I respect the fact you are new to the iPad and to our forum but I believe you should give our members a chance to assist you and at the end of the day I am sure you will find the answers right here. You mentioned other alternatives are not mature and you are right they are not so let's see if we can help make your experience with the iPad more enjoyable.

I ask our experience members to respond to BigJim

 

[BigJim]

I'm unhappy that the best hardware has been crippled in a scheme to manipulate users. I'm surprised that the iPad has been designed to hinder access to shared iTunes libraries and shared files. Apparently this is considered a feature not a bug. I thought reviews could contain negative as well as positive insights. I thought people actually discussed the specific technical issues in forums.

 

[Hasty]

That's the trouble right there.
"Crippled"

It's not crippled, but your expectations are faulty, based on assumptions about what computers can and can't do.
It's a tablet.

Tablets are light, fast, portable with instant on/off and long battery life, consequently they diverge greatly from computers we know and love/hate.
Their limitations/design decisions are a consequence of these requirements. Like the heavy lifting being consigned to iTunes. Or backup by cable. Think how long it would take to backup 64gb by wifi for example.
Usually there is a work around for most of the drawbacks but it does require some research to find them. A good use of these forums search button is very useful.

Some will love them despite their drawbacks and some will not. I hate mine because it won't run Lightroom but love it because the things it does do it does so well.

It's a complimentary device in it's infancy. They can only get better.

 

[iPadCharlie]

That's the trouble right there.
"Crippled"

It's not crippled, but your expectations are faulty, based on assumptions about what computers can and can't do.
It's a tablet.

This!

I wonder if you realize that this is a private forum and that we have nothing to do with Apple or any of the products they sell.

This forum exists so that iPad owners (and potential owners) can exchange in formation and ideas that will hopefully maximize the enjoyment and utility of the iPad. So as my esteemed colleague Col.Bris has said, if you come here and start enumerating the perceived "faults" of the iPad in terms of how they do not meet your needs or expectations, then you shouldn't really be surprised by the tone of the answers you have been getting.

And just for the record, all of the followers of Jim Jones that died from being poisoned with a mixture of Valium, chloral hydrate, cyanide, and Phenergan in 1978, drank this "suicide cocktail" mixed with Flavor-Aid, NOT Kool-Aid.

 

[msukc]

I am with you jim. Apparently you aren't supposed to provide any negative reviews in the review section. I think my droid is better than my iPad 2. But I am still trying to use it.

As for the kool aid reference, apparently not everyone gets it. It's not a reference to the suicide cult. It is a pop culture saying that implies people go along without questioning something. I think it describes in general the apple community and media. They love Steve.

 

[Catfiend]

As for the kool aid reference, apparently not everyone gets it. It's not a reference to the suicide cult. It is a pop culture saying that implies people go along without questioning something. I think it describes in general the apple community and media. They love Steve.

You might want to look that up before posting. It IS a pop culture reference, at least in the United States, but I'm almost positive it originated as a reference to the Jonestown mass murder/suicide.

 

[Catfiend]

I always wonder whether to blame problems on conspiracy or incompetence. But there's an old saying: once is coincidence, twice is happenstance, but three times is enemy activity. There's just a common them running through my 3 above questions, and they all revolve around deliberate restrictions and control on Apple's part.

Would value any solutions to the above bugs.

Let's see. Your first concern was that Apple controls the content. Check - though a lot of people get around that just fine. Your second was that for some reason one particular app isn't working properly. How does that equate to your common theme? The third was that it won't handle your music in your favorite fashion. Again, how does this demonstrate your thesis?

As for the implication that we're all blindly following St. Steve, huh? Did it ever occur to you that the iPad might actually do the things that some of us want so its shortcomings, which are certainly present, aren't as big a deal to us as they are to you? I guess I just don't understand why you would choose to transform a moderately reasoned exposition of the iPad's shortcomings as it relates to your uses into an attack on the people for whom it does work?

A bug, BTW, is when a program doesn't do what it was designed to do (your point 2 above), not when it doesn't do what you want it to do. As far as I can see only the iBook issue is a bug, the others are examples of design decisions that don't mesh with your desires. That's not to say that your desires are wrong, it's just that as a developer I get tired of people trying to tell me that because a program isn't working the way they want it to it's a bug.

Oh, and I'll believe that Android has 'cleaned the iPhone's clock' when a) any one Android phone outsells the iPhone and b) Apple doesn't sell as many iPhones as they make. No horse in this race personally since I don't own either of them but it seems to me that Apple is still doing just fine with their phone sales.

 

[msukc]

My point is missed. When someone says something like "they are drinking the kool aid". It doesn't mean they are going along on a suicide pact even if the reference originated from that. I have heard the saying countless times and have never even heard that was the origin. I would bet that many, even most, people that state the phrase never even heard of Jonestown.

My point is that people are referencing Jonestown and flavor aid or taste. I may be wrong but I think Jim meant people are blindly following Steve jobs a bit including Jim himself; which he kind of regrets drinking the kool aid.