Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
Mr. T

iPad 3 (with Retina Doom screenshots!)

Recommended Posts

So as part of my performance bonus at work, I got a new iPad. My thoughts:

• The "post-PC world" isn't just Apple propaganda. I think that for 90% of people this is about all the computer they need. Opening apps and enjoying them has never been so damn easy; I think desktop metaphor OSes have really reached the limit of their evolution (see: the (lack) of difference between Win7 and OSX), and the "choose and app and run it" paradigm is slick.

• The retina display really is something else. Doom "just worked" at the new resolution (2048x1536), and here are some screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/xI1Qk#SVUdd

I usually play Doom at 800x600 in a window, so it was really nice to see how *clear* distant objects look.

Rage HD is pretty amazing too. Both run silky smooth and are a lot of fun to fool around with. I haven't tried Wolf3D yet, but it should be the same resolution. It's a pretty fucked up port (the actual gameplay itself is fine, but the whole thing is a graphically a mishmash of different ports of the game, and feels a bit odd.)

• My only gripe would be the lack of storage space, especially considering how much cheaper flash memory has gotten in the last two years. My guess is that Apple wants you to use iCloud instead of loading your device up with the kitchen sink and more. Oh well.

Share this post


Link to post

Lemme guess...do you work for Apple?

Share this post


Link to post
Maes said:

Lemme guess...do you work for Apple?


Nope, but it's my first iPad and I can really see why tablets probably signal the beginning of the end for general purpose PCs, for the "mom" segment of the population at least.

Share this post


Link to post

It's not that I support monopolistic corporations, but most people who read this are doing so through a pc. iPads are neat and all, but they don't have everything I need on a computer.

Share this post


Link to post

Mr. T may have a point if the "moms" he's speaking of only need to use apps that require a lot of passive watching and maybe the occasional click on a big-ass button, e.g. watching youtube, maybe reading FB profiles etc. Emphasis on the only part, which means using a fairly controlled/restricted pool of applications.

This restricts the use of tablets to pure unproductivity/leisure, as even the lowliest position involving the use of a PC (that boils down to clerical jobs) requires a great deal more sophistication, and a lot of typing and familiarization with certain uncomfortable concepts like "files" and "document interchange".

Let alone that even the "moms" may get bitterly disappointed when they learn that they need a PC to play an AAA game or do some task like digitizing some tapes or printing a photo, while they thought the tablet "would cover it all and just work"...

Share this post


Link to post

W/E Maes. There are word processing, photo editing, video editing, programming, etc. apps now. "There's an app for that" pretty much sums things up.

Anyway. I'm not saying they are a replacement for PCs entirely, but rather a more than adequate replacement for most purposes. Unless you digitize a tape every day. Lmao

Share this post


Link to post
Mr. T said:

W/E Maes. There are word processing, photo editing, video editing, programming, etc. apps now. "There's an app for that" pretty much sums things up.


That a certain type of software is available for a certain platform doesn't mean much, if the platform is inherently unsuitable for certain types of work or tasks. The awkward control schemes that have to be devised for games "ported" to tablet/touchscreen platforms are stunning proof of that. Sure, you may get used to them...in the same way that you eventually get used to bad coffee or horrible food, maybe, not because the are awesome.

And programming on a tablet? _-_ Assuming you weren't bullshitting me and just threw it there to murk waters, programming is hard and mentally/physically straining enough with a keyboard on a proper desk, sitting on a proper chair and double and even triple full-size monitors (aka, even in an ergonomically perfect environment). I don't see any serious programmer switching to a keyboard-less tablet setup any soon.

For the same reason, I wouldn't expect an employer to trash its PCs and equip all of its clerks with tablets anytime soon.

Tablet usability is a myth and a scam even worse than the one perpetrated with laptop ads showing people working with them while reclined on a couch.

Share this post


Link to post
Maes said:

That a certain type of software is available for a certain platform doesn't mean much, if the platform is inherently unsuitable for certain types of work or tasks. The awkward control schemes that have to be devised for games "ported" to tablet/touchscreen platforms are stunning proof of that. Sure, you may get used to them...in the same way that you eventually get used to bad coffee or horrible food, maybe, not because the are awesome.

And programming on a tablet? _-_ Assuming you weren't bullshitting me and just threw it there to murk waters, programming is hard and mentally/physically straining enough with a keyboard and double and even triple full-size monitors (aka, even in an ergonomically perfect environment). I don't see any serious programmer switching to a keyboard-less tablet setup any soon.

For the same reason, I wouldn't expect an employer to trash its PCs and equip all of its clerks with tablets anytime soon.

Tablet usability is a myth and a scam even worse than the one perpetrated with laptop ads showing people working with them while reclined on a couch.


OK, I am just going to say something that makes your entire wall of text rant invalid and useless:

BLUETOOTH

I'm sure you can figure out the rest ;-)

Share this post


Link to post

What about existing non-bluetooth devices? Let alone that if you need to re-purchase everything and tether a fuckton of devices to a tablet to make it somewhat usable as a productivity device, you have lost the game right off the bat.

But what you say makes perfect sense in the mind of an Apple marketroid, that envisions metrosexual,minimally-furnished lofts with small, scattered bluetooth-connected printers, scanners and iDildos, all "just working" together.

And at that point you wake up, and realize that the fantasies of marketers have little contact with consumer-on-a-budget reality. Replace the metrosexual loft with a shithole appartment/crummy cubicle and the overpriced iCrap with a $300 generic Wintel box and a mess of tangled cables running fro-and-to every kind of generic chinese gadgetry, and you will have a vivid depiction of reality.

Share this post


Link to post

I don't think a wireless keyboard is exactly a big ticket item in 2012, but hey have fun rubbing sticks together in your cave ;-).

/E I also explicitly said that it isn't a full replacement for a PC for pro users, so plz use your sticks to make a fire and set your lame ass strawman on fire.

Share this post


Link to post

Lemme guess again...you own Apple stock or work for a retail chain that has Apple interests?

And I need no straw arguments to prevail: down-to-the-street consumer and office reality do a fine job of smashing the clay feet of your vain iGiant themselves, thank you.

Share this post


Link to post
Mr. T said:

OK, I am just going to say something that makes your entire wall of text rant invalid and useless:

BLUETOOTH

I'm sure you can figure out the rest ;-)

Doesn't help you with seeing things. I'd hate to use a tiny tablet screen for programming, even if I had a bluetooth keyboad. Don't know if it's possible to plug it into a monitor, but even if it's possible: 1) WHY would I get that tablet in the first place? and 2) That wouldn't help me when I need to go visit a customer with my programming laptop (which I do do every now and then).

Heck, it's not just programming alone. The tablet screen size is okay when you've got it up your face, but if you need to place it further away to use an external keyboard it quickly becomes a detriment.

Share this post


Link to post

Sigh, love the shit-posting.

Anyway, I can see the point of iPads. I hate Apple as a company, but as of yet, I haven't really seen any competitors release anything that compares. Once that happens, I might even grab one for myself. It's a lot less annoying to carry around than a laptop, and I hear they have a longer battery life. I, of course, will be keeping my desktop for programming and gaming, but there's no reason to get a desktop replacement when you can get all you need without paying as much. (That is, once the whole tablet PC thing gets cheaper and the non-Apple app market kicks up a bit.)

Share this post


Link to post
Jodwin said:

Doesn't help you with seeing things. I'd hate to use a tiny tablet screen for programming, even if I had a bluetooth keyboad. Don't know if it's possible to plug it into a monitor, but even if it's possible: 1) WHY would I get that tablet in the first place? and 2) That wouldn't help me when I need to go visit a customer with my programming laptop (which I do do every now and then).

Heck, it's not just programming alone. The tablet screen size is okay when you've got it up your face, but if you need to place it further away to use an external keyboard it quickly becomes a detriment.


10" isn't bad considering a lot of people do just fine with a 13" laptop as a secondary machine, especially taking the extreme resolution into account.

Share this post


Link to post
Jodwin said:

2) That wouldn't help me when I need to go visit a customer with my programming laptop (which I do do every now and then).


Because you're not iHip and/or iCool enough. Let alone that if you don't have an iPad3, you won't be able to interface with the customer's iMonitor (it goes without saying that the customer, unlike you, WILL be iCool & iHip). Damn, I see you retreating in the same cave as me and soon there won't be enough sticks for everybody :-(

Mr. T said:

10" isn't bad considering a lot of people do just fine with a 13" laptop as a secondary machine


Thank you for spontaneously confirming my "you eventually get used to something bad/inferior and even learn to love it" point I made before. It's no big secret that post-purchase rationalization is a big driving force behind Apple's marketing model.

Share this post


Link to post
Maes said:

Lemme guess again...you own Apple stock or work for a retail chain that has Apple interests?


No


And I need no straw arguments to prevail: down-to-the-street consumer and office reality do a fine job of smashing the clay feet of your vain iGiant themselves, thank you.


Consumer reality?

"Apple touches record high as iPad 3 sales run hot"

Share this post


Link to post

Consumer and office reality is defined by each one's neck of the wood. Since I'm in an academic/engineering/IT environment, I often see people with work/study laptops (even a couple of MacBooks) running heavy FE simulation programs, MATLAB, Autocad and of course a lot of document editing, but not a single soul with a tablet of any type. And of course most computers are office fixtures (quad-core workstations for all programming types, like me and a colleague, each with his own quad-core, multi-GB, dual-monitor beast).

On the street? A company simply keeping its books/inventory will have a normal PC to do so. Never seen someone using a contraption made of tablets + wireless gizmos.

Now, if you work in some sort of creativity park where "innovators" roam around flashing their tablet PCs with finger-drawn doodles to each other....good for you, and let us "grunts" and "boxed thinkers" grind away on our stone-age PCs.

Share this post


Link to post
Mr. T said:

I also explicitly said that it isn't a full replacement for a PC for pro users, so plz use your sticks to make a fire and set your lame ass strawman on fire.

Share this post


Link to post

People who support Apple support slave labor. </workers' (utter lack of) rights in China>

Share this post


Link to post

I don't like Apple at all, but about a year ago I was given a free iPad 1. The device didn't change my views about Apple, but it certainly warmed me to the uses of tablets. The tablet has replaced the PC for most of my casual computing. I hope to see more real competition in this market soon.

Share this post


Link to post
Gez said:

People who support Apple support slave labor. </workers' (utter lack of) rights in China>


Apple, being high-profile, still gets away with this. Just imagine what the cheap brands are managing. China is a hellhole for workers.

Anyway, Maes is right. Even my mother would have a tough time doing everything on an iPad. She likes iPads and so do I, but the set of things that are better on an iPad only partially overlaps with what we do with PCs. Even posting on forums would compel you to lug a keyboard around for the thing.

The ability to run DOOM at higher than 800x600 isn't a selling point. We've been doing that on PCs since the 90s, and with proper controls to boot!

Share this post


Link to post

My gf has tons of apple computers in her home. I've really tried to get anything done on them and it is slow, cumbersome and stupidly difficult. Like having a right mouse click I need to hold CTRL or command and then push the mouse... even when there are 2 mouse buttons... stupidly difficult. A lot of my designer friends stand by Apple and its like why? Takes so much longer just to do the simplest things... at least their computers do.

Share this post


Link to post

Until smartphones and tablets veer away from this "Appstore" bullshit where you have to pay for things that you normally wouldn't need to pay for, where developers have to pay the company who makes the device, and where users can be told what apps they can and can't put on a device they bought, I am refusing to buy a Tablet or Smartphone.

Share this post


Link to post

A computer without keyboard is no computer at all.

And a computer where I can't run the software I want is worthless in my opinion.

In the end this is nothing more than a sophisticated internet accesss/multimedia playback device - but not a computer. But for that it costs too much.

I have been working on several iPhone projects professionally and I can tell you, when Apple doesn't like an app they try to find something to reject it just to annoy the developers.

Android is better in that regard - but the tablet market doesn't seem to exist outside Appleland. Whether that is because Apple users are just the company's minions buying everything being shoved at them or that other tablets are just not good enough - I leave up for debate.

But this thing is definitely not for me - especially as a replacement for a real computer.

Share this post


Link to post
Mr. T said:

10" isn't bad considering a lot of people do just fine with a 13" laptop as a secondary machine, especially taking the extreme resolution into account.

Since you specifically mentioned programming, put Visual Studio 2010 into a 10" screen in a way that's actually usable, and then we'll talk. I use it daily on a 15" HD laptop (1920x1080), and more often than not even that is too small to fit all the stuff I need at once.

Share this post


Link to post

I have VS2010 on my laptop as well (actually a Macbook). It sucks. It's even worse because I can't read it unless I blow up the fonts. Large, widescreen monitors are the only way I can get anything done while programming.

Geo, you're doing something wrong. Right-clicking has worked on Mac for years. I have yet to find a way to change any of the font sizes in Apple software, so until I can read the Finder I'm sticking with other OSes.

Share this post


Link to post
Aliotroph? said:

Right-clicking has worked on Mac for years.


Not with one-button mice, it doesn't :-(

OFC I know that you can connect even a 20-button mouse if you like...but let's be honest here, how many people would buy a Mac just to plug a bog-standard, regular Microsoft 3-button mouse into it? And how many Mac users do you know that actually use 2 or 3-button mice and acknowledge that the 1-button one has its limitations?

Very few, because it would be like admitting that there was something wrong with the initial design after all, and would utterly destroy the post-purchase rationalization that a Mac is sleeker, more "designer oriented", "just works" and is generally perfect in every way.

Share this post


Link to post

Maybe he didn't even bother checking out if the 2nd button worked, conditioned as he was from the one-button brainwashing? With geo, I wouldn't be surprised.

Oh and Mr.T, where are the "Retina Doom screenshots"? :-(

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×