On ZDNet, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes writes an article summing up many of the frustrations I’ve had when trying to blog for TeleRead from Android devices. For productivity-related tasks, Windows is simply better at multi-tasking. Android and iOS were built for primarily mobile uses, where you only need to use one app at a time, and any multitasking that’s come about has been kludged retrofitting.
The problems start when I want to do research, or fact-check something, or pull a link or a quote from somewhere, such as this link to data showing how iPad sales have declined. That’s when things start getting messy on an iPad or some Android-powered beast. Switching apps is a pain. Switching tabs in a browser is a pain. Entering data into a spreadsheet requires painstaking concentration, and the scope for messing things up is high. And if I have to access information from a video or audio clip, then the whole thing falls apart rapidly because some apps — YouTube, I’m looking at you — are rubbish at keeping their place in media files.
This is just the sort of thing I pointed out when reviewing the Teclast Kindow tablet the other day. Even if its hard drive footprint is teensy, it nonetheless runs the exact same flavor of Windows that my full-sized desktop does—64-bit Windows 10—and can do any of the productivity-related tasks my desktop can. (Just with, y’know, considerably less screen real-estate to do it in.)
But what Kingsley-Hughes doesn’t touch on is that Windows simply isn’t as good for doing mobile things as Android and iOS. Too many of the functions available in iOS and Android mobile apps can only be done via a browser or desktop apps in Windows—which means teensy interface elements you have to fat-finger on a tablet or phone screen.
That’s one of the reasons I’m happy with the Kindow for its dual-boot nature. It can be a Windows device when I need it to be, or an Android device when I need it to be: the best of both worlds. It’s only too bad Microsoft and Google don’t want to let major brands get away with doing that.
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Tablet hardware is simply too limited for complex tasks or multitasking. For that, you need a keyboard, a mouse and a large screen. No amount of trickery can make up for deficient hardware. That’s also why the idea that desktop and tablet OSs can merge is as stupid as ideas for a combined car/boat or car/plane. Or, in the case of the F-35, the idea that you can have one airframe that does VTOL and high-performance dogfighting.
The real lack in today’s computer market is that Apple doesn’t make any products that are suitable for working people. It makes only pretty toys for dilantees. It’s laptops are designed for silly twits who think super-thin will impress the cute girl at Starbucks with how artistic they are, never mind that they’re feature-deficient and impossible to repair or upgrade. It that cute girl is smart, she’d take a pass on a guy so stupid he thinks thin is all that matters in a laptop.
And Apple’s desktop lineup is even worse. What’s the most popular business computer on the planet? An easily upgraded component desktop with a separate display. Very cost effective, easily upgraded, and easily repaired. Savvy businesses buy them in huge quantities. Does Apple make one? Not since they downgraded the Mac mini to media center status.
Apple has begun to wonder why sales are dropping off. The reason is simple. They have a good OS, although the gap with Windows is narrowing, but their hardware stinks. My Apple products are 4 to 9 years old, a record for me, and I feel no compunction to upgrade because Apple isn’t making a product that is a step up. At the practical level, they’re all a gigantic step down from what I have now.
I’m a member of Apple’s kick-around customer base, the ‘creatives’ that used to love Apple but are now ticked off that it offers no macOS hardware suitable for our needs. My 2012 Mac mini has lots of good years left and, if it dies, I may just replace it with a third-pary refurb. But in the end, if Apple doesn’t offer a desktop that’s worth buying, I’ll shift to Windows. As an Adobe Creative Cloud member, I can shift all my design and layout work to Windows in a single morning without spending a penny.
What’s Apple’s response to criticism from creatives like me? To sneer like an upscale, over-priced jewelry store. “We don’t cater to the likes of you,” it says. “Take what we offer or get lost.”
There seems to be a huge gap growing between the snootry of Apple’s artist-in-residence, Jonathan Ives, and actual work-a-day creatives who have deadlines to meet and budgets to balance. They want productive tools. All Apple provides are pretty toys.
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You’d think that we would have come up with ways to get beyond the keyboard by now. Dictation can work well but hasn’t really caught on. I used to think that was because people were self-conscious when dictating in public but after observing mobile phone behaviors I have begun to wonder. Perhaps a brain transplant that can use my subvocalization in STT fashion will emerge to save the day.
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