Joe Wilcox takes iPad to task for no Flash, Multitasking

Betanews writer Joe Wilcox on Monday posted his story on Apple’s recently released iPad. Personally, I didn’t expect to ever see an iPad story from Wilcox, because he said he would never buy one. Like many PC tech journalists, Wilcox criticizes the iPad for not having support for Flash or multitasking. He does praise it for some things, but the criticisms for the same old things are getting a bit old. I haven’t had any trouble using my iPad without Flash support and Apple recently announced multitasking support in iPhone OS 4.0.

Can you rub your tummy, wave your hand, chew bubblegum and blink your eyes at the same time? If so, iPad isn’t for you. The device is a multitasking-free zone. OK, some Apple applications kind of work at the same time — on par with rubbing your tummy and chewing gum together. But iPad is, for now, mainly a one-thing-at-a-time device, which is one of several reasons why in early March I singled out the 55-and-older set as a viable market segment.

10 questions to ask before buying iPad [Betanews]

http://intensedebate.com/people/jdalrymple Jim Dalrymple

I'm just not missing anything that I can think of.
http://twitter.com/scottaw @scottaw

I can see why he's upset about the flash thing, I had to click "skip this ad" to get past the ANNOYING FLASH AD JUST TO SEE THE ARTICLE IN THE FIRST PLACE!! (can you sense my hatred of those ads?)

Joe is not very well informed in general. The multitasking gripe which is old news and no longer relevant as a long term complaint is just the most obvious one (and it is indeed silly at this point). Humans seem to be wired to need enemies, it's just a shame when a writer chooses accurate information as his enemy.
http://intensedebate.com/profiles/deanlewis Dean Lewis

Clicked through to that Wilcox article. Lost half my brian cells while reading it. I lost the other half reading the comments. I'm typing this by reflex until they recover. When they do, I think next time I'll just take your word for it, Jim, and stay here.

http://intensedebate.com/people/jdalrymple Jim Dalrymple

ROTFL!!!

jared

The chorus of "no multitasking" gripes made more sense before the iPhone OS 4.x announcements.

http://intensedebate.com/people/jdalrymple Jim Dalrymple

Agreed.

Chiron1

Let's face it, even when 4.0 comes out with multi-tasking, these people are going to hate the OS for not having the "right kind" of multi-taking.

http://debono.com.au Joe

I agree about the Flash thing but it would be nice to have the choice, even if we have to check an own-risk box. Then again, HTML 5 will leave Flash for dead.

Lucas

For me the issue was over the moment that several Flash developers came out and admitted that Flash doesn't natively support touch tech and mapping touch over Flash can be problematic, so they get why Apple isn't supporting Flash in the mobile OS.