★ Photoshop for iPad – I’m still not sold.

via Gizmodo: (who wrote a great piece that I feel everyone should click through and read)

When it came out, many said that the “Oversized iPhone” was doomed from the start. Others shrugged at its potential, dismissing it as “just a good way to consume” content, like web pages, books and Netflix movies. Many of those even said it wouldn’t be good to play games. And almost everyone declared that it would never ever be a good content creation device: “There will never be Photoshop for iPad!”

It seems all of those people were wrong.

and

There are people who can’t understand this evolution. Why normal people prefer tablets over full, powerful computers? Why should we change when, what we have now works just fine?

The problem is that it doesn’t work just fine. Ask anyone who is not a nerd or a computer hobbyist and they will tell you that they hate them with the same passion they love their iPhones and iPads. The answer is in the complexity of the computer vs the simplicity of the touch interface. It’s a subtle difference, but it’s extremely powerful. And the result is that productivity has a lower cost on the latter than in the former.

To understand this, let’s get back to the Photoshop example. Old schoolers remember how it was to manipulate photos in the lab, with your own hands and not a “cursor” and a “mouse.” When the computers came, the traditionalist cried. Why would I want to use a computer when I can do the same thing in the lab? “It’s too underpowered! The quality is not the same! It’s much slower!” they cried (I know because I was one of the ones using the computer and had to endure their tirades).

Touch computers are giving back the tools to the masses because the masses no longer feel alienated by the tools

Then, as tools evolved, they discovered that they could be faster with the computer—all hail UNDO!—and the desktop publishing revolution took off, followed by the digital music and video revolutions. And this is where we are now: The complexity layer of computers became second nature in many people. Photoshop, like Final Cut Pro or After Effects, are no longer computer programs. They are so complex that they have become entire professions.

I still think iOS and “post-PC” devices aren’t really post-PC at all. I’m still not convinced.