In this episode, Dan and Jason bring you the latest news and have developers weigh in on the recently announced iPad.
Show Notes
- HipHop for PHP
- Rich-Text Editors for 2010 and Beyond
- 50 Brilliant CSS3/JavaScript Coding Techniques
- 10 Basic SEO Tips Every Web Developer Should Follow
- Django Links
- PyCharm IDE
- Explore GitHub
- The Changelog Podcast
- MacRuby 0.5 Released
- The Irony of the iPad: A GREAT Day for Open Technologies
Developers Weigh In
Peter Cooper of Ruby Inside and Coder.IO
"Migrating iPhone apps to the iPad has been made dead easy, thankfully, so even if the iPad takes a while to become a popular, much loved device, it doesn’t even matter. I think, though, that the iPad will be HUGE in certain niches and there are lots of things that you can build that just wouldn’t work on the iPhone or typical computer form factor. I’m also excited about the webapp opportunities. Forget native apps for a minute – the browser on the iPad is so fast that HTML5 webapps are bound to take off – at last!"
JP Toto at Vice Clown
"I’m excited to see that the iPad has binary compatibility with the iPhone which guarantees that current MonoTouch applications will work out of the box on iPad. At least, according to the team. As a C# developer I’m pretty reliant on the MonoTouch team to maintain their tools with every new Apple product or SDK change. My only qualm with the iPad device itself is that I wish it had multi-tasking support. I could see myself sitting on my couch, reading a book or newspaper, and wanting to have a Twitter application and Pandora running in the background. Hopefully with future revs and software updates we’ll see support added for multi-tasking!"
Al Buchala at Mega Yummo!
The iPad may not be the best device for healthcare. Doctors like to dictate and write and shy away from on-screen keyboards. Mobility is always a big one, the smaller the better. Devices that can fit in your pocket are preferred by doctors. Multitasking is also a must, since doctors are always performing several tasks in their daily routine.
The advantage of the iPad is the screen size, weight and the active internet connection. In my opinion, the iPad was not designed to compete with smart devices (PDAs) and mobile phones. It is a more of a multimedia device that allows the users to browse the internet, read e-books, watch videos, and play movies along with many other possibilities.
Corey Johnson of Probably Interactive
From a developer’s perspective I’m torn because I like the potential of the expanded screen space, but I also worry about having to support a growing number of screen resolutions.
It is also more of a recreational device; so unlike the iPhone, which you carry around with you all the time, you will probably stash the iPad next to your couch. This will make it more difficult to sell gaming/entertainment/utility apps. I doubt people will be so bored they will buy iPad apps instead of watching TV or playing XBox/Playstation/Wii/TurboGrafx-16.
Mike Girouard of Love Mike G
Personally, I think the pad is cool, but it's not for me and certainly not for development. My iPhone is nice enough and I simply don't need a bigger one. It's feature set is too basic and media options are pretty weak too (4x3 screen, adapters galore, etc). Bashing aside, it could be an interesting portable gaming device.
Gaston Mendez of XPander Communications
"We do have plans to support mobile devices, both in web interfaces and native applications. In the case of Apple mobile devices, developing applications specifically for the iPad would be a natural extension of our iPhone app plan."
Erika Greco of Domo Design
"Everything we create is always 1024 safe anyway, unless the client specifically requests otherwise so we’ll just continue to build them as usual. The iPad will not change web design standards. As much as Apple wishes it is a “game changer” like the iPhone, it is not."