On 10/06/2010, at 9:42 AM, Hamish Allan wrote: > On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 12:30 AM, Tony Arnold <[email protected]> wrote: > > iPad is a not a good replacement for anything that requires you to have > > more than one context visible onscreen at a time. Sorry, but you'll have a > > hard time convincing existing computer users that only being able to see one > > thing on screen at a time is a better way of working. Unless it's a game, or > > a media player. > > > > The iPhone's small display mandated a single-context approach. The iPad > introduced UISplitViewController.
Which doesn't address multiple contexts across applications - within an app, sure - but who keeps just one application open and visible at a time on their desktop machine? Even the most casual of users would still likely have Mail and Safari running at the same time. I often keep a Safari window to one side of my Xcode window while I'm working, amongst other arrangements of apps - being able to quickly glance back and forth is integral to the way I work. > Most modern software (including, allegedly, Xcode 4) is moving to a > single-window-multiple-view model now that screens are large enough to > accommodate. > > The "iPad Cinema Pro" is just waiting for 30-inch touchscreens to become > affordable ;) Sure, but so long as you can only see one application onscreen at a time, I believe they'll always be a shadow of their desktop brothers for productivity-based apps - no matter the size of the display. Perhaps this will be in iOS 5.0? Heh, I think we'd all chuckle if that were to happen. I'm keen as mustard to see what comes next (and to work with/on those technologies), but I get annoyed at the idealistic chicken little mentality that seems to be spreading. In my opinion, desktop Macs/PCs aren't going anywhere for a while yet. -Tony
