[geeks] iPad - a 'Miss' for me I'm afraid

[Joshua Boyd]

On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 03:21:54PM -0800, velociraptor wrote:

> Both hubby and I have been reading almost exclusively on LCDs for a
> while, so from that perspective, I think it'll be fine.

I spend most of the day reading on an LCD.  I don't really like books on
LCD for a few more hours in a day.
 
> As for the "Cintiq" notion--well, I'm not going to pony up $999 for a
> 12" Cintiq that *only* does that so, "near enough" is a good
> compromise for my useage.

Along the lines of using an iPad as a "cheap" cintiq, lack of pen
support is a killer.

I wouldn't bother with a 12" cintiq.  For slightly more you can get a
ModBook, which is a licensed Mac tablet based on wacom techology.  That
could be actually useful.
 

> > Too much google in them?  You realize that a third party supplied
> > Chromium or Android can be monitored, audited, and modified to eliminate
> > google reporting (if they actually do anything unpleasant) now or in the
> > future.
> >
> > I'd much rather see similar hardware running a modified android with
> > proper multi-touch support.
> 
> Sure, but what team has the resources to do that and keep it up to
> date?  

The sort of team that kept khtml semi-viable, or the sort of group that
continues to drive gecko, or groups driving webkit.

> Likewise Linux (in the broad sense) has supported Wacom tablet
> screens for quite a while, but there's been no real push to integrate
> that into OSS software.  I just don't think the impetus is there.
> Apple on the other hand, has a driving reason to pursue these
> technologies in HW and SW.

First, wacom isn't multi-touch (well, they do have the bamboo fun touch,
but that is really new).  So, the only thing missing would be
handwriting recognition, and I think that the iPad doesn't have that
either. 

Gimp, inkscape work pretty well using the presure sensitivity.  I hear
that Blender and Krita also have good presure support, but I haven't
tried using the wacom on linux with them yet.