[pooriaazimi]

Maybe some people use their iPads for Facebook/Twitter/YouTube. I don't give a damn. They're the same boys/girls that were watching celebrity news and other useless TV shows 10 years ago, when you and I were watching "scientific/educational" shows on TV and hacking away with computers.

I'm getting sick of this "iPad is for consumption" thing. How are you going to "produce" something if you haven't learned anything yet? For me, iPad is a learning device. In the past year, I've read maybe 15 (technical) books on my iPad. I wanted to read them for the past 3 years, I had downloaded their ebooks and stashed them neatly in a 'To-Read' folder, but never get to do so on a Mac or PC because of their form factor.

In the past 2 weeks alone, I read 'JavaScript: The Good Parts' and first 5 chapters of 'Git Pro' (ePub, in iBooks), 70% of 'Head-First C' (PDF, in the fantastic ReaddleDocs[1] app) and 20 other technical/"intellectual" articles in Instapaper. Without iPad, I wouldn't have read them.

---

[1]: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/readdledocs-for-ipad-pdf-view... - Believe me, this app is fantastic. You don't know how great it is until you use it.

[saraid216]

> I'm getting sick of this "iPad is for consumption" thing.

Something you miss is that the central directive for the iPad was a consumer experience. It's intended to be roughly equivalent to a TV. It's great that you choose to use it for Discovery Channel and the like, but you're probably not using it to write code. And that's fine; it's not meant for that. And that's the point: it's not meant for that.

[snowwrestler]

The consumer experience extends beyond just watching TV, to things like managing and viewing photos, drawing, music, and interacting with others online. Here on HN it is easy to reduce "production" to coding. And it's true--the iPad is not a good platform for coding because the user does not have shell access, and Apple does not allow IDE apps in the App Store. However, the simplicity of the interface, the quality of the display, and the extreme mobility of the form factor, make it great for the more "consumer" type of production I mention above.

Incidentally the original Macintosh did not grant shell access to the user either, and for that reason was a favored web server platform of certain DOD programs. Those worried that Apple is closing off the possibility of programming should consider a longer view: with OS X, Apple introduced shell access to their OS, which is a certified Unix. Even with Mountain Lion, they are still introducing additional CLI functionality.

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/07/30/new-command-line-tools-in-mou...

[pooriaazimi]

You're quite right. My problem with the term 'consumption' is that it's almost always used negatively, as opposed to 'doing real work'.

A better word might be 'passive learning'.

[saraid216]

It's an Americanism, too. The last time I was playing tourist in Mexico, they talked about how amazing TVs were because they were basically used as free, national education.

[ashayh]

The problem is, that if more and more people use these "consumption" devices, the choices becomes increasingly closed and restricted for the producers.

[joelrunyon]

True, but you're (hopefully) taking that knowledge and putting it towards actually DOING something.

Consumption without purpose is pointless. Your case may be an exception, but unfortunately I think it's more of a rarity than it is a representation of the common use of the device.