While the App Store allows (at Apple's discretion) many people to write applications and have them available to a large user base, that is not even close to being 'open'.
All of these apps, and any content you want to buy and consume on your iPad, is going to be routed through Apple. To paraphrase an insightful author (who I cannot remember right now), it is an expensive device: apart from the initial investment, you will be paying Apple in order to tailor the device to your own desires, whether that involves downloading an app, a book, or a magazine to read.
Also, there's something else that gives me something to consider before contemplating another Apple purchase: the whole Flash dilemma seems to fit in too well with Apple's business goals for everything to be about Adobe being 'lazy' and having a poor-quality product in Flash. While Adobe may have its issues (can have high RAM requirements, particularly in Linux), I think they have enough talent that it could be fixed, at least for target platforms (probably not Linux, sadly, but at least popular mobile devices). On the other hand, Apple has no reason to allow flash. Why would you buy a $5 game if there were other, ad-supported versions that you could get for free through Safari?
I'm not panning Apple in general. I run Linux for work, but just started to complement those workstations with a couple Apple products for personal use.
It just doesn't ring the free/open platform bell for me; however, it's an ambitious and interesting project...I'm curious to see where it goes.
All of these apps, and any content you want to buy and consume on your iPad, is going to be routed through Apple. To paraphrase an insightful author (who I cannot remember right now), it is an expensive device: apart from the initial investment, you will be paying Apple in order to tailor the device to your own desires, whether that involves downloading an app, a book, or a magazine to read.
Also, there's something else that gives me something to consider before contemplating another Apple purchase: the whole Flash dilemma seems to fit in too well with Apple's business goals for everything to be about Adobe being 'lazy' and having a poor-quality product in Flash. While Adobe may have its issues (can have high RAM requirements, particularly in Linux), I think they have enough talent that it could be fixed, at least for target platforms (probably not Linux, sadly, but at least popular mobile devices). On the other hand, Apple has no reason to allow flash. Why would you buy a $5 game if there were other, ad-supported versions that you could get for free through Safari?
I'm not panning Apple in general. I run Linux for work, but just started to complement those workstations with a couple Apple products for personal use.
It just doesn't ring the free/open platform bell for me; however, it's an ambitious and interesting project...I'm curious to see where it goes.