iPad morning

...took these pics at 9 a.m. in suburbia, Washington. A buddy and I headed out to the Apple store, the line was around the block for *reserved* iPads. Many of these people had undoubtedly never seen or touched one, but were buying one. There was a separate line for unreserved. A handful of police on hand to keep the peace.

Amazing brand to compel surburban-ites out of their homes on an early weekend morning, in the 39 degree weather to wait for a product they have only heard about and seen videos about. What else has had that kind of reception? The Kindle was sold out for months online. I can only think of concerts and celebrity viewings as comparing. There is nothing like it in nerd world. What would you compare it to?

Tim and I turned around almost immediately, hopped in the car and drove to BestBuy (well, BB opened at 10, so on the way stopped at Trader Joe's, as my buddy recommended a 6-pack of Hofbrau Bock to each take home). No lines at BestBuy.

imo the iPad fits as a machine for the living room, while you're horsing around with family/friends, but don't want to sit there with a laptop ...for emails, looking up items during games, remote, tv guide, Facebooking, Twitter, EyeOnMajors... also for travel. eBook reader looks nice, but personally prefer the reflective/natural light Kindle. It's not as comfortable as a laptop for typing, for example, and I wouldn't want the iPad as a laptop replacement.

A very cool device. ...but such a carefully crafted, and remarkably well-received brand.

App Store censors a dictionary?

This is pretty lame:

http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/ninjawords

In other words, not only must the dictionary be censored — a dictionary — but even after being purged of “objectionable” words it would only be considered with a 17+ rating. Even after agreeing to these terms, it took another two weeks for Ninjawords to appear in the App Store. According to Crosby, “We gave in and said fine, hoping that we could get on the App Store immediately since the solution to their rejection was a simple metadata change. However, the App Store reviewer would have none of that. We would have to resubmit an entirely new binary and get to the back of the queue before they would look at it again.”

John Lilly objects to iTunes install options

I disagree with John Lilly. I understand why he objects, but I find that smart move on Apple’s part, not anything other than that. You have the ability to opt out. It’s not a breach of trust. They should use their market share in iTunes to their advantage. FF is in a position where they cannot distribute their browser as easily... but it’s fair. FireFox has done a great job teaming up with Google and distributing FireFox through those channels.

http://john.jubjubs.net/2008/03/21/apple-software-update/

Apple ++
Firefox - -

The browsers are getting very competitive, which is a great thing. The standards baseline is improving and technology is advancing.

But I’d rather not see these two fight -- their market share is still not big enough to fight like this, among themselves. They should still be fighting IE to push standards, not each other for the 'scraps'. I would find that more inspiring.

Phenomenal Execution by Apple with iPhone

Apple executes when it comes to designing, engineering, and marketing their products. Better than anyone in the hardware world.


http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=18539

"The Most Successful Product Intro of the 21st Century"

"Apple's iPhone could emerge as the most successful product introduction of the 21st century, new research suggests." Conducted by Lightspeed Research, "the research findings are staggering," reports Jonny Evans (Macworld). "Nearly 90 percent" of the respondents had heard about iPhone, and 32% of those who didn't already own one intend to purchase one. In a separate survey, Lightspeed Research also learned that "nearly half of those who would like to own an iPhone stated that the benefits of having music, movie, internet and wireless all in one was the top reason."