When I was a kid, the Apple ][ was the system I coveted most to learn how to program. Instead, my computer club could only afford a teletype interface to some remote system (think 1982) and up until recently I've always suffered from at least a partial Mac envy.
Did it just become ridiculous with this current rejection, or was it one of the dozens of previous similar ones where it started becoming ridiculous? And is this really news any more?
I've always suffered from at least a partial Mac envy.
So you don't own a Mac? Let me explain: Apple makes some devices: a phone called iPhone; a music player called iPod. About two weeks ago they started to ship their new product iPad — kind of media consumption device.
And they also make computers, which happen to be called Macs: Mac Pro, iMac, Mac mini and Macbooks. These are great for programming: you get UNIX with GUI what makes sense. Also you get a half a dozen or so programming languages out of the box, including free IDEs.
If the personal computer was just coming of age today, the Mac would be a locked down platform with an App Store. Luckily for us, I think it's too late to get away with anything like that on a device that people consider a general purpose computer.
Build for the internet! Instead of writing a ROM chip, you wrote easy-to-port software. So build code for a web browser, and route around the arbitrary limitations.
It seems completely understandable to me that Apple would not want kids using ipads as toys when they are trying to build a premium product.
They seem acutely aware that the software that most commonly run will define the purpose of the new device and will ultimately define the price. Cheap looking flash widgets and kids toys could damage the image.
I'm sure that there will be plenty of cheap tablets that kids can use, they just won't be using daddy's iPad.
So they are getting rid of all kid toy apps? No, they aren't. Only the ones with these learning through programming aspirations. There are all sorts of other cheap looking toy apps let in, therefore your argument doesn't really work.
Apple has been much maligned in recent weeks, but I support Steve Jobs on this.
Allowing kids to program on the iPad would empower them, and unleash their creativity; these are clearly undesirable side-effects that Reichsfuehrer Jobs is quite right to suppress.
I think Apple should do an ad campaign to highlight this: "Don't think different. In fact, don't think at all. Let us do your thinking for you. By the way, you owe us $$$$"
Someone needs to make an app for handicapped minorities that comes with an embedded interpreter so we can get properly outraged. I'm not sure you can top children, but then we could call Jobs a racist...
Doesn't the article state that it was "removed" from the App Store meaning that it had made it through one of the earlier development agreements, but has since been removed?
I learned to program on an Apple IIe, so I have mixed feelings about this.
The more sensible part of me says that the iPad isn't my kids only option for getting their hands dirty with code. Last count, we have around 12-13 computing devices in the house, including iPhones, iTouches, iPads, MacBooks, iMacs, and Linux servers.
When I coded on my Apple IIe, that was it. I had access to some TRS-80s at school, but the Apple was the only computer in a radius of 5 miles from my house.
If Apple were ever to even half consider locking down my desktop/laptop, I'd lead the revolt right to the doors of One Infinite Loop. I doubt they do it though. Hopefully.
What if Apple developed an API specifically for sandboxed scripting engines? They might consider this to be a bad precedent that will later allow something that they don't want. It would be perfect for enabling educational software of this sort, however. If they tweaked the sandbox just right, it could separate the UX of such sandbox environments from the UX of the iPad/iPhone. This could certainly be done in a way which excludes Flash/Adobe as a general purpose application programming language.
No more. This is ridiculous.