Hello, Windows 8

[Jericoke]

The whole idea of My Ford Touch, and systems like it, is incredibly stupid. Why would I want to take my eyes off the road and look at a screen to adjust the radio or HVAC? I can perform those function by touch, with my eyes still on the road, in every vehicle I own. Who decided that creating a single point of failure that can knock out almost every system in the car was a grand idea? 

Yeah, all controls in the car should be controlled by touch.  Ideally from the steering wheel.  (I do love voice commands for my iPod though.  I don't want to use touch to turn on Lady Gaga  )

As for those nav screens, they give off WAY too much light for night driving.

[Canada Darrell™]

To me, other than advertising dollars, Google is nothing more than the junk-bonds of the 1990's translated to junk-tech of the 2000's. Free yes, with the evil underlying motive of tracking your every move on the 'net and translating that to targeted advertising. They also lack a CEO with the vision to innovate.

There's a reason the trucks are delivering billions in pure profit to Apple vs. the relatively puny (in comparison) amount of revenue profit generated by Google...People want Apple products and the experience they deliver. If Google actually started charging for their products people would revolt and leave in droves. People pay money to Apple, either directly through hardware purchases or indirectly through App-Store purchases for one simple reason. IT JUST WORKS.

Again, just my opinion, but if you think Apple is even CLOSE to reaching the top of their "bubble" then you're going to be eating a lot of crow over the next few years. No tablets to speak of to even consider a challenge and the iPad 3 is gonna drive a stake through the heart of virtually every R&D room of every major player.

Emerging markets, such as China are poised to make Apple's net worth close to the Trillion dollar mark in the next 2 years. Microsoft is on the verge of becoming a business only company while consumers shift to the philosophy of Steve Jobs by relegating PC's to basement dwelling media servers. For the most part they already are in Casa Darrell.

Just to reiterate, I only own an iPad and all the other 4 PC's in the house are Windows-powered. Wifey has an iPhone 3GS and the kidlet has an iPod 4G.

[John S]

MS' real problem lies in whether iPads will replace PCs.

I think you have hit the nail on the head there Lonny, already laptops have taken over from desktops in the the retail market(mores the pity in my opinion), in time no doubt tablets will become the king.

Microsoft is on the verge of becoming a business only company while consumers shift to the philosophy of Steve Jobs by relegating PC's to basement dwelling media servers. For the most part they already are in Casa Darrell.

Yeah as a consequence it's the PC desktop makers who have taken the real hit. I am amazed how little choice there is now in the market place if you want a new desktop PC, there's dozens of laptop brands but very few desktops. 

[Canada Darrell™]

John, the only real way to get a desktop YOU want is to build it yourself. Super easy and super cheap with none of the crapware installed by all manufacturers.

[cosworth151]

I agree, CD. I haven't gotten an RTR desktop since the mid-90's.

The iPad has a long, long way to go before it makes a dent in the desktop/laptop market. Like most Apple products, there is just way too much that it won't do.

[Dare]

I'm a little off subject here but I thought Windows 7 was pretty
darn good,what improvements have they made in Windows 8

My last pc was a lower end gaming pc and thank God it only came
with Windows 7 and no added software

[Canada Darrell™]

I agree, CD. I haven't gotten an RTR desktop since the mid-90's.

The iPad has a long, long way to go before it makes a dent in the desktop/laptop market. Like most Apple products, there is just way too much that it won't do.

I've marked my calendar to revisit this in 2 years Cos to see how the market looks to you.    While compared to the sheer volume of PC's in the world it can appear that Apple is still a David vs. Goliath scenario, overall worldwide shipments of PC's are down whilst Apple is pretty much the only company that is up...way up:

http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/11/gartner-pc-shipments-slip-6-percent-q4-apple-jump-21-percent/

That's just one source, many others will echo the same data.

The fact is that with an iPad you can happily do all of the following:

-email
-web browsing
-transfer and view/edit pictures from your digital camera (and send them to your server via iCloud)
-read books and magazines (and comics )
-eBay, paypal, craigslist etc
-play great games
-KILLER (and I do mean KILLER) battery life
-Youtube/Vimeo etc
-video editing

The above list comprises pretty much what 98% of ALL consumer PC users really do with their PC's and put into their hands, an iPad quickly becomes the only device they use while the PC suffers neglect, or to back up the data in the link above, forgo that PC purchase they thought they needed.

In other words everything you can do on a PC or laptop you can do on iPad without the hassles of the PC such as:

-endless tweaking
-virus/malware concerns
-bulk
-having to sit in one area (in the case of a PC)
-noise and heat
-watch more than one movie on a flight (hello business users)
-overbloated apps (oops, I mean programs )

I'm not a fanboy, simply a realist. The days of the traditional PC and laptop are coming to an end and Apple has the bull by the horns.

That being said, I really really REALLY hope Windows and Steve Ballmer stick around for a long time.....I make far too much pocket money fixing their products for my clients. I don't do it as a full-time business (used to, both retail and wholesale) but just by word-of-mouth. The ONLY call I've ever had from a client for help with an Apple product was because they had forgetten their SSID network password.

Speaking of Steve Ballmer, I have to end this with a truly CLASSIC Steve Jobs interview from a few years back when asked about Mr. Ballmer:

Excerpts from a BusinessWeek interview with Steve Jobs, October 12, 2004:
 
Steve Jobs:

Apple had a monopoly on the graphical user interface for almost 10 years. That’s a long time. And how are monopolies lost? Think about it. Some very good product people invent some very good products, and the company achieves a monopoly. But after that, the product people aren’t the ones that drive the company forward anymore. It’s the marketing guys or the ones who expand the business into Latin America or whatever. Because what’s the point of focusing on making the product even better when the only company you can take business from is yourself? So a different group of people start to move up. And who usually ends up running the show? The sales guy… Then one day, the monopoly expires for whatever reason. But by then the best product people have left, or they’re no longer listened to. And so the company goes through this tumultuous time, and it either survives or it doesn’t.
 
BusinessWeek: Is this common in the industry?

Steve Jobs: Look at Microsoft — who’s running Microsoft?
 
BusinessWeek: Steve Ballmer.

Steve Jobs: Right, the sales guy. Case closed.

[Canada Darrell™]

I'm a little off subject here but I thought Windows 7 was pretty
darn good,what improvements have they made in Windows 8

My last pc was a lower end gaming pc and thank God it only came
with Windows 7 and no added software

Dare, check out this from Paul Thurrott's site:

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows8/improvements-mouse-keyboard-navigation-142337

[Canada Darrell™]

Excellent video from The Verge on Windows 8 running on a tablet. These tablets are still many months away from release and there was no iPad 3 to include in the video either.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/1/2835309/windows-8-vs-ipad-feature-by-feature

[Scott]

Darrell, do you actually do some of your video editing on your iPad?  I downloaded the iMovie app, but I'm just not comfortable without a mouse and keyboard shortcuts so far to attempt it on the iPad. 

[cosworth151]

I remember the last time people were so sure that this new device was going to change everything in the world and send Microsoft to the scrap heap. It was called the Macintosh. 

Things I can't do on an iPad

-anything that requires Flash

-transfer and view/edit pictures from your digital camera (the software I use won't run on i-Anything)

-anything to do with our business. (Almost no commercial level retail/financial software will run on it)

-use the classic British car restoration software from British Motor Heritage.

I will agree the Apple has the the bull by the horns.

[Canada Darrell™]

Darrell, do you actually do some of your video editing on your iPad?  I downloaded the iMovie app, but I'm just not comfortable without a mouse and keyboard shortcuts so far to attempt it on the iPad. 

I've edited with the iPad 2 when at a clients house helping him get his iPad communicating with his laptop. The iPad 1 has just enough horsepower to edit SD video.

Short answer is once you get used to editing with iMovie you can crank out quality vids worthy of YouTube in a jiffy.

[Canada Darrell™]

I remember the last time people were so sure that this new device was going to change everything in the world and send Microsoft to the scrap heap. It was called the Macintosh. 

Things I can't do on an iPad

-anything that requires Flash

-transfer and view/edit pictures from your digital camera (the software I use won't run on i-Anything)

-anything to do with our business. (Almost no commercial level retail/financial software will run on it)

-use the classic British car restoration software from British Motor Heritage.

I will agree the Apple has the the bull by the horns.

Flash - correct. Haven't missed it but for the chat on this site! 

Pics - use iCloud to handle the transfer. It's free and it works. You're a smart guy.

Business - vertically integrated POS is popular but this is not their target. Business users coming into the fray are a bonus.

British Motor Heritage??? - Talk about your niche market! LOL

You're obviously immune to the reality distortion field!

[cosworth151]

iCloud (or any Cloud) - Why in the world would I want to put my personal stuff out where I have no real control over it?   

[Canada Darrell™]

iCloud (or any Cloud) - Why in the world would I want to put my personal stuff out where I have no real control over it?   

Not "THOSE" photos! 

Like it or not cloud-based computing is here to stay. We could argue about it's potential pitfalls till we're blue in the face.

Your only option then is a $39 camera connection kit or a wi-fi SD storage card.

You have an iPad 1 or 2?