Brooke Bates: Dieting failure?
I had recently watched a documentary that discussed Brooke Bates. At the time, she was 12 years old when she had liposuction to remove 35 pounds of fat. She was 220 before the surgery. After the liposuction, she began to gain the weight back and opted for lap band surgery to help her slow food consumption. The one thing that I didn’t see discussed was proper food counseling for Brooke or her parents. It may have happened, but it wasn’t discussed in this film. While dieting is part of the answer, the whole answer is in getting to the bottom of the eating and ultimately teaching Brooke (and people like her) about food.
Exercise alone is not enough to prevent weight gain. Why? It’s actually simple, more calories in than expended. The FDA and food industry conspire to keep us fat. Perhaps not intentionally, but then again who knows. The issue, though is that we see commercials showing us ‘healthy portions’. Yet the packages contain 3, 4 or 5 servings. But, the package appears as though it’s one serving. In fact, much of the front of the packaging is designed to mislead you into believing the package contains only one portion. Worse, though, is that many packages are extremely perishable once opened. So, you eat it or toss it. This perishable nature of the foods leads us to eat the whole package to keep from throwing anything away. Bad move, calorically. So, these are two strikes against the food industry… first, misleading advertising practices and second, packaging foods to intentionally spoil rapidly once opened.
The reality, though, is that restaurant portions are not healthy portions. If you visit any restaurant, the portion size is usually 900-1200 calories just for a meal. One meal. Multiply that times 3 + snacks. That’s 2700-3600 calories a day in meals alone (assuming 3 similar sized meals). Add snacks and you’re likely well over 4000 calories! That’s over twice the recommended calories for an adult (let alone for a child). Prepackaged food portions don’t really fare much better if you’re not looking at Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine or other intentionally designed lower calorie meals. For example, Marie Calendar’s and Stouffer’s regular meals are exceedingly high in calories per portion.
Looking at FDA’s recommendations of at most 2000 calories a day, I’d suggest with our latest sedentary lifestyles, it needs to be lower than that. Perhaps 1500-1700 calories a day just to maintain… and then even less to lose weight without adding substantial exercise.
There is no way to maintain weight, let alone lose fat, other than to calorie restrict. And, restrict we must. That said, the food and medical industry makes that exceedingly difficult. Not only do restaurants make it difficult, but so do prepackaged foods. For kids, it’s even more difficult because of school cafeteria food and vending machines. The foods they are serving are very calorically dense and processed. That is, these foods contain far more calories than these children should be eating in a single meal. But, this information is not being taught to children. Children see the portion sizes the cafeteria offers and the knowledge is implicitly taught that this is how you’re supposed to eat and these are the foods you are supposed to eat. Sorry, but pizza, tater tots and chicken nuggets do not make for healthy meals. These are meals that should be offered as a treat, a birthday dinner or other special occasion. These are not the types of foods that need to be served every day. Yet, here we are. Children need fresh, not frozen reheated foods.
Worse, our doctors tell us to lose weight. Yet, the medical industry tells is we are unhealthy when we do calorie restrict. How is that? You want us to lose weight, yet when we do we are eating unhealthy? That doesn’t add up. The diet that McDonald’s is serving is healthier than a calorie restricted diet that helps us lose fat? These are all mixed signals. Advertisers show us and tell us one thing. The medical industry tells us another. Our doctors tell us something else. Worse, no one really helps us. We’re actually left to fend for ourselves on finding our way. Because no one can agree, most people just naturally assume that what the restaurants and packages say is the truth. Hence, we are obese because of misinformation, lack of proper information and the need for convenience. After all, it’s far easier (and cheaper in many cases) to drive through McDonald’s and pick up a meal than it is to make something from scratch.
Anyway, as far as Brooke Bates, was liposuction and then inserting a lap-band the answer for Brooke? Clearly both she and her parents thought so. What does that mean for the rest of Brooke’s life? She has still not been taught the proper information about foods. With proper food counseling and teaching proper nutrition, teaching about calories and combining that with testing resting metabolic rate, a diet could have been devised to help Brooke eat the things she likes (in much smaller quantities) and still have the body she wanted. After all, if you want to lose the weight, you have to put your mind to that goal. Not for just a day, not for a week, or a month, but for the rest of your life. Dieting isn’t as much about restricting foods as it is rethinking your outlook on foods so that food consumption becomes a lifestyle for the rest of your life. Dieting isn’t temporary. It’s a permanent way of thinking about food that must start first with rational thought and then put into action through proper food consumption. Knowledge is the key and that’s where a successful healthy food lifestyle must start.
Milk: Does it really do a body good?
Let’s consider milk for a moment. I know, we all think of the advertisements with some celebrity wearing a milk mustache. Yah, yah, whatever. It’s an ad, it takes up space. But, what does it really say about milk? I mean, really. Just because ‘insert famous celebrity here’ allegedly drinks milk, we’re supposed to too? Has that celebrity somehow become the authority on milk? No. It’s just a gimmick to make you think that because they drink milk, everyone should. Blah blah blah. It’s all rhetoric.
What exactly is milk?
Milk is an infant food. It was designed for unweened babies to help them grow. After all, babies cannot eat solid food right away. So, milk is designed as an interim food until the baby reaches the point where it can be weened from milk and eat solid food. To prove this point, female animals and human women only lactate (produce milk) for a short period of time after pregnancy to feed the baby and aid its growth. How does milk aid a baby’s growth? With hormones.
So, what about cow milk, that’s ok right? Wrong. Humans are the only known animal that intentionally drink the milk from other animal species. Milk is specifically designed for growing babies. I’ll repeat that. Milk is a food designed for growing babies, not adults. As such, it contains proteins and sugars, like most foods, but it also contains hormones to help the baby grow (hormones that the baby may not yet be producing) it also contains additional ingredients that help the baby’s immune system grow. So, cow milk contains cow hormones to help calves grow. These hormones were not designed for the human body. Yet, the milk and dairy industry would have us believe that these products are ‘good’ for the human body. How can they be? They contain hormones designed for calves. So, unless humans have somehow become cows, cow milk isn’t designed for human consumption. Let alone adult human consumption.
Infant food
As I stated, milk is a food designed for infants. It is not designed nor is it necessary for adults. After we’ve been weened from milk, we should eat solid foods for nutrition. For example, would any human today consider drinking female breast milk as an adult? Granted, there are probably a few people who would (and do), but most people are likely repulsed by that thought. So, why is it that no one is repulsed by the thought of drinking cow or goat milk? I mean, these aren’t even the same species as humans. Milk from human mothers is at least designed for human consumption where cow and goat milk are not. Human breast milk has the necessary nutrients for human infants and contains the proper human hormones to stimulate growth in a human infant. So, this type of milk is designed for human consumption. Yet, you don’t find the dairy industry milking lactating human mothers for cartons of milk. No, instead we exploit the infant food from other animals.
Cows and Goats
In order for any animal to give milk, it must be kept pregnant (or at least, given hormones so the animal’s body thinks that it’s pregnant). The hormones in the pregnancy tell the animal’s body to produce milk. So, whenever you buy cow’s milk, this milk is obviously from a cow who’s pregnant. This also means there is a measure of growth hormones in the milk itself. These are natural hormones that exist in the milk to aid growth of the calves. So, milk at the store also contains these hormones. So, even if ‘organic’ milk claims to be rBGH free, the milk still contains calve hormones that naturally occur to help calves grow. Because these hormones do not aid in human growth, they are unnecessary for (and possibly harmful to) the human body.
Hormones
What are hormones? They are lock and key molecules that stimulate some specific part of an animal (or human). For example, Human Growth Hormone (HGH) stimulates cellular growth in humans. Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone (MSH) stimulates melanocytes to produce melanin in the presence of UV. These are but two hormones that drive specific body functions. Milk contains growth hormones necessary to help babies grow. So, feeding an infant cow milk instead of human milk, overlooking casein and other potential allergens, may not have the appropriate lock and key effect on a human child. So, a human baby fed cow milk instead of human milk might not grow properly in the same way as a human breast milk fed baby.
Milk does a body good?
Considering that milk is an infant food and the fact that it contains hormones to stimulate growth, adults don’t need these. Adult human bodies produce their own hormones in the necessary levels. Consider that cow hormones might, in fact, interfere with the absorption of human hormones by fitting the keyhole of human receptors. But, instead of producing the necessary stimulation to do what’s necessary in a human, it might do nothing at all. So, this bovine hormone key blocks the lock from human hormone keys and prevents the human hormone from functioning. That’s at least one potential scenario with cow hormones. It has also been theorized that these hormones may even be responsible for interfering with the functioning of the pancreas eyelet cells that produce insulin. The human body produces insulin to counter blood sugar levels. However, drinking cow milk could introduce bovine hormones that key into these locks in the pancreas and interfere with the workings of the human hormone to stimulate insulin production. This interference could result in lower or less production of insulin than is necessary for proper bodily functions. This could then leave higher blood sugar levels leading to diabetes. It might further produce altered insulin that’s ineffective at reducing blood glucose levels. There are any number of ways that bovine hormones could interfere with human body functions. So, with that in mind, it’s quite possible that milk is at least partially responsible for diabetes. Drink enough milk often enough with enough hormones and it’s possible.
Other dairy products
Milk is only part of the problem here. Cheese and other dairy products made from milk are just as problematic. For example, cheese requires gallons of milk to produce a much smaller amount of cheese. The reason is that the milk solids separate from the whey and leave the solid cheese. Because the whey liquid is pulled out, the cheese condenses into a smaller more compact space. Because cheese is, then, concentrated, so are any hormones present in the cheese. Again, milk is an infant food. Thus, it follows that because cheese is made from an infant food, it is also and still an infant food. I know this may seem contrary, but think about it for about 2 minutes logically and you will come to this same realization.
This issue exists with yogurt, kefir, butter, cream and cottage cheese (to name a few). Anything that is made from milk (and specifically cow or goat milk) is still a problematic food.
Avoiding dairy
Some advertisements claim that milk is the perfect food. Yes, it’s perfect… perfect for babies. They need this formula to help them grow. It is not perfect for adults. Adults need solid food to survive. After infancy, we need to give up milk. That’s why the mother stops producing milk. But, humans have used their knowledge and engineering skills to take the cow and keep her continually pregnant so that she’ll give off milk. Because cows produce a lot of milk, it seemed a no brainer. I’m not sure, though, who first thought up the idea of adult humans drinking cow milk or why. But, someone did and here we are today. We have an industry that is based solely on stocking grocery store shelves with something we should have long given up past infancy.
If you are concerned about health issues, you might want to consider giving up dairy products. Above and beyond the hormone issues that can interfere with the adult body, there are also allergy issues because of casein (among other ingredients). Giving up milk and milk products may help you in your own personal health goals. Certainly, the two primary substances in milk that the industry harps on is calcium and vitamin D. You can get the same amount or more calcium from eating green vegetables such as Broccoli, Spinach, Collard Greens and even Kelp (seaweed). You can get vitamin D from sunlight. There are also questions about how bio-available both the calcium and vitamin D are within milk.
Alternatives
If not cow or goat milk, what alternatives are there? There are several. Those that come to mind include soy milk, coconut milk and almond milk. I’ve tried all three and of the three I prefer almond milk for flavor and consistency. It doesn’t really taste a whole lot like cow milk, but it’s still creamy enough that for baking or cereal, it works fine. Since these milks are produced from plant products rather than other animals, it won’t contain stray animal hormones… especially not related to growing babies. As far as I know, though, you may not be able to produce cheeses from any of these milks. Although, in the process of producing almond milk, the leftovers can be turned into an almond cheese and soy produces tofu.
Are these alternatives healthier than cow milk? Well, clearly, they don’t contain unnecessary animal hormones. So, from that point of view, they probably are healthier for the human body. Overall, it’s still a processed and concentrated product. The human body really does better when foods are eaten in the proportions and concentrations found in nature instead of being condensed into highly concentrated versions.
Health Issues, let’s start with milk!
While animal milk cannot be blamed on every illness out there, no one seems to point fingers at the dairy industry at all. In fact, way too many people tout the benefits of milk and few are willing to say anything negative. We are all so ready to blame soft drink, hamburger and potato chip manufacturers for society’s ills, but what about all of the alleged food staples? Why should these foods be allowed a free ticket from health reviews? They shouldn’t. Clearly, our food sources need to be examined thoroughly from top to bottom. Yes, these examinations need to not only include potato chips, hamburgers, fries and soda, but it also needs to include eggs, cheese, dairy and also processed and canned foods.
We’ve all heard the adage, “You are what you eat” and this phrase is as true as it always was. This adage also should and does include those foods we have always considered healthy and beneficial. We need to rethink foods in a more intelligent way. Unfortunately, we have agencies like the FDA, USDA and FTC that are there to help subsidize big agro-business. After all, we can’t have those farmers out of business now can we? It’s always more important to keep business humming along than help keep people healthy, or is it?
iPad or iPod?
If you’re considering an iPad purchase, you’ll want to contemplate the following before you buy. The iPad has several ergonomic design problems that really prevent it from being truly hand and body friendly. Let’s explore and then compare that with the iPod Touch.
Curved back
All of Apple’s mobile products tend to have a curved back (excluding notebooks). I guess they like this design because they keep producing it. In the iPod, this isn’t so much of an issue. With the iPad, however, the curved back is a problem. If you lay it down, it wobbles and spins. So, if you want to put it on a surface, it will have to be a soft surface (a pillow, rug or other conforming surface). If you place it onto a hard surface, you’ll need to be prepared for the wobble. You will have a similar problem with an iPod, but if you add a case, you can somewhat manage this issue.
Higher power requirements
To operate an iPad, it needs a higher power requirement to charge and use it when plugged in. So, you may find that some notebooks cannot charge the iPad when docked. You may have to plug it into an outlet to adequately charge the iPad. With the iPod, however, it requires a much smaller power footprint, so charging off of a USB port is not a problem.
Weight
The iPad is heavy. It may only weigh in at 1.5 or 1.6 pounds with 3G, but when you’re holding that in your hand for a while, it does start to get heavy. So, don’t expect for this weight to remain comfortable in your hand for long. That means, for a book reading experience where you might want to hold it for several hours, you’re going to have to find a way to prop it up. The iPod touch is a comfortable weight and fits in the hand nicely.
Kickstand (or lack thereof)
It’s quite clear that due to the curvature of the back and the weight of this device, it desperately needs a kickstand to hold it in a proper position and still allow it to be touchable. Without such an accessory, the iPad quickly becomes unwieldy and clumsy (as if it wasn’t clumsy already).
Design
Some people think the design is sleek and simple. I’m not really convinced of that. The thick black border looks dated. The curved back prevents it from sitting flat. The weight of it is too heavy. The battery only lasts 10 hours and requires a higher power charging adapter. So, don’t expect to plug it into your old iPhone or iPod chargers and have it work on the iPad. It might power it, but it’s not going to charge it.
The touch interface is both at once sleek and cumbersome. It works, but in some cases it doesn’t (when wearing gloves). The glossy screen looks slick until you have thousands of smeary fingerprints and oil all over it. Then it’s just gross.
It’s not truly a portable device. The physical size of the device precludes putting it in your pocket. So, you have to carry it around in a case. It may look cool when you take it out to use it, but it’s still clumsy and big. If I’m going to carry around a device of this size, I would prefer to carry around a netbook with a real keyboard and real mouse pad.
Price
The iPad is effectively Apple’s netbook. They didn’t want to do a netbook, so they compromised by producing a large iPod touch (the iPad). This device has a larger screen and bigger touch surface, but that also means it has more chances of breakage if bumped, jarred or dropped. So, if you buy one, you need a case for it.
Overall
The iPad’s design is a bit clumsy. It tries to improve on the iPod touch, but the only thing that is really an improvement is the screen size. If Apple would release a 3G iPod Touch or a paperback book sized iPad with 3G, I might actually consider one. The iPad’s current size is too big and needs to be scaled back. The weight needs to be about a quarter of the iPad (or less). A smaller screen means that it’s probably harder to break. Finally, the price needs to get down to $250 or so. Right now, the price is too high at $629 with 3G for a glorified iPod touch. If it had a full Mac OS X system on it, then it could be worth it.
Apple’s got a lot of work to be done before the next iteration of the iPad. Let’s hope the device actually succeeds. I’m just not so sure of that with past tablet device successes.
Shopping and haggling at the checkout lane
While I know the economy is not in its best shape right now and people are looking to pinch every penny, there is one pet peeve of mine that I just have to write about here. That peeve is when someone gets to the checkout lane at a store and begins price haggling over every item in their cart. The thing that annoys me about this practice is that the checkout lane is not the place to haggle or argue about the price of a garment or item. I mention garments because it’s almost always a garment that’s in dispute. Worse, though, is that it’s not just a single item, it’s usually every item in the cart. So, those of us behind you are stuck waiting while you haggle and argue with the checker.
The checkout is not the place to shop
Once you get in line to check out, you need to have already decided what you will and won’t purchase. If there is something in your cart that you don’t need or want, then politely tell the cashier and they will take it from you. Don’t stand there and argue over the price (or lack thereof) of that item with the cashier. Don’t hem and haw and decide if you want it. The checkout is not the plate for making long decisions or doing additional shopping. The store is where you shop, the checkout is where you buy. It’s really a very simple concept.
Getting price checks
In most department stores today, it’s easy to find a price so long as it has a barcode. If so, locate a sales person on the floor or find a bar code scanner. Most stores today offer scanners around the store for just this purpose. However, should you find a garment or item without a barcode, don’t wait until you get to the check out line for for pricing and then decide if you want it. Go to Customer Service or ask a floor person to price the item. It will save you and everyone behind you lots of time at the checkout. You might even be able to derive the price by finding the rack of items and looking for a similar style, color or design. So, use your own resources to find something similar and decide if you really want it at that price. If you really can’t find the item on the floor or the price, take it to the Customer Service desk. They can always help find the price. In fact, Customer Service is probably more efficient at finding prices than just about anyone else in the store. Considering they do returns all day long, they have to have an easy way to locate prices. So, take it to Customer Service and ask them attach a price tag to the item before you get in line to check out.
Haggling
If you live and work in the US, then you know big box retailers don’t haggle. So, why do people try anyway? Seriously! I understand there are a lot of non-US citizens living in the US on visas or maybe they’re working towards a green card. And yes, many countries require haggling to get the best prices. But, not in the US. So, when you live in the US, you don’t go to Wal-Mart and try to haggle with the cashier. Not only does the cashier not have any power to haggle, it wastes your time, their time and everyone else’s time who is in line behind you. So, don’t haggle with the cashier. Once in line, you either want the item at the price that’s marked or you don’t. If feel the need to haggle on pricing, then go to stores that sell on commission or talk to the manager on duty. Granted, there are no big box department retailers that use commission sales, but car dealerships, furniture stores, appliance stores and even some electronics retailers are still on commissions. Some more expensive clothing stores may even be on commission, but never deep discounters like Wal-Mart or Target. If you really want to know if a store is using commissions to pay their employees, then ask. If they say yes, then feel free to haggle all you want. Other places you can haggle include swap meets, garage sales, flea markets and farmer’s markets. You may even be able to haggle pricing shopping in locally owned and operated stores.
But, once again, don’t haggle at Wal-Mart, Target, Safeway, Whole Foods, Lucky, Albertson’s, Sears, JC Penney or any other well known big bix chain. And don’t even try to do it with the cashier. The only exception to this rule and only for Sears and JC Penney is the furniture department, appliances and possibly big ticket electronics. But, never on clothing at the stores and never with the cashier. Only haggle with someone working in the department prior to purchasing.
Time wasting practices
Once you get into line to check out, you need to have already decided what you want to buy. In fact, you should have decided what you are buying when you placed the item(s) into your cart. The other thing you need to do before getting into line is check for price tags or bar codes. If the item doesn’t have a bar code, take it to representative on the floor or the Customer Service desk and ask them to locate the price and price it. This not only saves you time checking out, it saves time for everyone behind you. It also shows you the price so you can decide long before you get in line if you want to pay that price.
Too many times I’ve seen someone bring up 10-20 garments to the checkout lane and hand them to the cashier for scanning. But, the items do not seem to have any bar codes. It’s not just one garment either. It’s like this person specifically searched for items that didn’t have bar codes (or somehow removed them all). I’m guessing they think that if the cashier can’t scan it, they can haggle for a price. This tactic doesn’t work. In many stores, garments or items where prices cannot be located will not be sold. That means you will have completely wasted your time and everyone else’s. In fact, I’d really prefer it if every store adopted a policy of not selling items where prices or bar codes cannot be located. Worse, though, is if the cashier decides to be nice and try to look up the price of the items. So, the cashier calls or radios for a price. That means someone on the floor has to go look for a similar item or stop by the checkout lane and pickup the item for reference.
When a cashier uses a floor runner to price an item usually takes 3-5 minutes. That’s 3-5 minutes that cashier is tied up doing nothing and everyone in line is caught waiting. So, get your items priced before you get in line.
If you feel the need to rip the price tags and bar codes off of items at Target, don’t. It’s not going to save you any money and will just cause you (and everyone else) to wait longer to check out (or possibly, you won’t purchase those items at all). If you don’t want to pay retail at places like Target or Wal-Mart, then go to Ross, Marshall’s, TJ Max or even Steinmart. If you want designer stuff, then visit outlet malls where you can find outlet stores for Coach, Tommy Bahama, Ralph Lauren and other name designers. You may even be able to haggle at an outlet store.
Ultimately, when you get in line, make sure your items have bar codes, don’t rip tags off hoping to get lower prices and don’t shop at the checkout. If you can’t find a price, ask at Customer Service. Make your decision to purchase before you get in line, not after. If there’s something you don’t want, then give it to the cashier who can send it back to the floor. If you forgot something, don’t hang the whole lane by running and getting it. Ask the cashier to suspend your transaction. Most stores can do this now. Then, go get your item(s) and get back in line (at the end of the line). The cashier can then bring up the suspended transaction with your new items and proceed checking you out. And most of all, think about all of the people behind you in line that you are making wait by not observing these most basic shopping courtesies.
iPad: After the dust settles
We are now a month post iPad launch and where are we? Some news sites are postulating the the use of iPad in the enterprise world. I can’t even fathom a use for it at home, much less putting it into the hands of corporate users. Let’s examine this platform more carefully to understand the reasons for its lack of viability in Enterprise, much less for simple home uses.
Multitasking
I know a lot of media outlets have harped endlessly on the lack of multitasking. Granted, it is a computing device and most computing devices do require some level of multitasking. I know that the iPod and the iPhone had very little internal memory (at least up to 3rd gen editions). So, it could only comfortably run one app. That was primarily a memory limitation. With the latest iPhone and iPod touch, that may have all changed. To be perfectly honest, I don’t keep up with Apple’s hardware spec details. Why? Because it’s not really that much of an interest. I mean, that’s the point. It shouldn’t be. Apple has always touted their devices ‘just work’. So, why should I need to dig inside one of their devices to find out the gritty details? I shouldn’t need to.
This issue is also what bites Apple many times over. They decide to under design the device by putting in not enough resources. So, they have to make concessions in the operating system by removing things like multitasking. Of course, with the iPod touch and the iPhone, we’re talking about very small devices that may not have the physical room to hold the amount of resources necessary to support multitasking.
The iPad’s physical size should no longer hinder their ability to put in the necessary resources to fully support multitasking (and then some). So, there is no reason why the iPad shouldn’t have supported multitasking out of the gate. But, it doesn’t. The iPhone 4.0 OS is supposed to address this issue, but not until the fall of 2010.
Multitasking and how it relates to computing
So, is it required that a PC support multitasking? Good question. It’s also a question not easily answered. In general, though, the answer should be ‘yes’. It should be ‘yes’ because the ability to run multiple apps is necessary to get things done. For example, to copy and paste between two different documents or to share information through application conduits. Even the simple act of embedding one app inside another requires multitasking. Quitting and restarting each app to move between them is cumbersome and time wasting.
In the end, yes, multitasking is required to make the computing experience be what we’ve come to expect. In the iPad, that computing experience isn’t there. So, for this reason, iPad won’t be fully accepted without multitasking. We’ll revisit this topic, however, once multitasking is (re) introduced in iPhone 4.0 OS.
Enterprise computing and the iPad
Is it ready for enterprise? I personally would say no. I’ve owned an iPod touch for several years and since the iPad really has no better selection in enterprise apps than does the iPod touch, the answer to this question is still no. Even though the screen on iPad is larger, it doesn’t offer the necessary productivity apps to fully work in a corporate enterprise. Yes, it does have a mail app. That’s a big part of what makes it work in Enterprise. Unfortunately, that mail app is so locked down and limited, that it may not fully work for the enterprise. That’s not to say that the mail app isn’t good in a pinch or to read a quick current email or two. But, don’t try to go searching for emails buried in your folders, that just doesn’t work well.
For enterprise computing, the current incarnation of the iPad is nowhere near ready.
What uses does the iPad offer?
Good question, once again. It isn’t a media PC, so that’s out. It isn’t good for enterprise level computing, that’s out. It can watch movies and read books, so coffee table literature, ok. Ignoring the touch screen and sleek design (which are just amenities, after all), it has to come down to the apps and features. The apps are limited, at this point, and I don’t really see much of that changing due to Apple’s app lockout situation.
Until Apple opens the platform up for general development, the platform will continue to be tightly controlled and, thus, limiting the applications that are available. Until this situation is resolved, this device may never end up anything more than a novelty.
HP’s slate cancelled
Looking back at history shows us that the tablet has had an extremely rocky past that always leads to failure. I’m not sure that even Apple can overcome this rocky past even with the success of the iPhone. The iPad is really too big and clunky to be truly portable. It’s too closed to allow open development. So, it’s no surprise that HP and other companies who had previously announced their intent to release a tablet are now reconsidering that release. In fact, HP announced the slate on the heels of Apple’s iPad announcement and has now cancelled the slate completely before it was even released.
Some people blame the ‘success’ of the iPad. Well, success is very much subjective. Putting 500,000 of the iPad into circulation is nothing to sneeze at. But, that doesn’t necessarily indicate success. The Newton comes to mind here. It was a hot new item that all but died in about two years. Where is the Newton now? Apple has a past history of deleting products rapidly and the iPad may be one of those items.
Apple’s past failures
If you really want an iPad, then get it now while it’s hot. Don’t wait. The reason I say this is that in 6-12 months, you could find yourself with a doorstop that Apple no longer supports. Apple has a history of killing off failing devices rapidly. So, with this particular device, don’t wait to buy it. If you wait until spring of 2011, you may find that the device is dead and buried. You could be holding a flat doorstop that iTunes no longer supports and with no active development. I can very easily see this device becoming one of Apple’s most recent failures.
Working while traveling
The tablet format has a questionable past anyway. The form factor isn’t pleasing to use. It isn’t easy to carry and, getting past the touch screen, it’s cumbersome to write text into it. So, it’s going to need a dock with a keyboard and mouse. A real keyboard and a real mouse. But, that takes the portability out of it. If you’re sitting on a plane, you’re locked into using the touch surface. Now consider that you can’t lay the device flat and work easily. I mean, you can lay it down, but then it’s not at the correct viewing angle. To get it into the correct viewing angle, you have to hold it in one hand, you have to balance it in your lap in a contorted way or you have to carry along a kickstand when you’re on a plane.
In this instance, a notebook, iphone, itouch or netbook works much better. For a netbook, the top pops open at the correct viewing angle and you have a real keyboard and mouse available. Granted, it’s not a touch surface, but that’s just a novelty anyway. Once the novelty of touch wears off, then you have to determine how to make use of this input method in an actual usable way.
Using an iPod touch or iPhone is also easy. It fits easily in one hand, is light in weight and works without the need for kickstands, contorted positions or clumsy positioning issues. Clearly, not a lot of usability was discussed when the iPad was designed. Usability is one of the things Apple usually prides itself in its designs. In the iPad, usability was clearly an afterthought.
3G iPad
This is the one and only one saving grace of the iPad. Internet everywhere is where we need to be. The supposed $29.95 monthly plan associated with the 3G version of the iPad is a reasonable price. Unfortunately, the iPad itself is marked up by an additional $130. So, instead of $499, it’s $629 (and that’s the smallest iPad). But, the iPad with 3G is the only version that I would personally consider. I already have an iPod touch and its uses are extremely limited unless you have WiFi handy (which isn’t very often). And, even when you do find a place that claims to have WiFi, 8 times out of 10, the connectivity is either slow or limited. So much for free WiFi. While 3G isn’t that fast, it’s at least always on pretty much anywhere you need it.
Form factor is the key to success
The problem with the current iPad is its size. This is the wrong form factor to release. It’s the wrong size and wrong weight. The size that the iPad should have been was about the size of a paperback book. Bigger than an iPod touch, small enough to fit in a pocket. This will take computing to the truly portable level. The screen will be bigger than a Sony PSP (which is a decent size to watch movies), but small enough to still be portable. Combine that with 3G and you have a device that people will want to use. The iPad is not that portable and still requires a case with handles. After all, you don’t really want to drop a $600+ device. But, a device the size of a paperback book at the cost of maybe $399, that’s in a price range that could work.
First Gen iPad
Remember that this is the first generation iPad. You really have to wait until the third gen of an Apple device to get to the features that make it worthwhile. The question remains, will the iPad even make it to a third incarnation? Only time will tell. Apple won’t abandon the iPhone OS on devices for quite some time. But, the form factor of the iPad is likely to change several times before it’s over. Like I said, if you want this thing, buy into it now. Otherwise, if you want to wait a year, you may not be able to get this form factor again and you may find that Apple has backtracked into smaller more portable devices.
Random Thoughts - Randocity! 
9 comments