Apple Swears iPad Partners To Secrecy

BusinessWeek:

Apple makes big demands of software developers who want an early crack at the iPad. Would-be testers of the tablet-style computer, due to be released Apr. 3, must promise to keep it isolated in a room with blacked-out windows, according to four people familiar with the more than 10-page pact that bars partners from disclosing information about the iPad.

Read the whole story: BusinessWeek

Comments

[jalaroc]

10:40 AM on 03/23/2010

They tried the same thing with the I-phone and it was still copied. Remember the chinese engineer who committed suicide after he was found sneaking I-phones out of the factory for criminals to copy? The tech is going to get copied, that's the many route for technological innovation that china has, the question is whether all this security will stop them from copying the product before the launch? I say it probably won't work. It does have a perverse marketing appeal, though.

[A Flock Of Budgies]

08:18 AM on 03/23/2010

As a future high school Social Science teacher, I see a huge market for the iPad in education. Especially for teachers! I would like to get one for when I start teaching, just to make my daily teaching life much easier.

[ticjlo]

10:15 AM on 03/21/2010

Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is required reading at Apple. Loose lips sink ships another adage, taken to heart by Apple.

[LA2000]

04:40 PM on 03/20/2010

Well, if those secrecy demands did nothing, they got you talking about the iPad.

Again.

And all you nay sayers who claim disinterest still clicked on the story.

Apple made you look.

Deep down you know you wouldn't have clicked if it didn't still intrigue you.

[Cryostatic]

07:37 AM on 03/22/2010

Or, instead of being intrigued by the iPad, we could simply be fascinated by Apple's increasingly over-the-top security demands, which is the topic of the article.

[hypnotoad72]

03:15 PM on 03/20/2010

My wife asks the same thing of me! Isolated room, locked doors, lights out, windows darkened, tethered... we're real kinky that way...

Oh, wait, I'm single. Never mind...

/ducksforcover

[MrVee]

01:18 PM on 03/20/2010

Jobs liver rejection meds have some odd side affects.

[iamvalid]

08:05 AM on 03/20/2010

OMG! What a pack of Jim Jones grape drinking technological zealots. Careful, it's the new Apple super collider iphone that threatens to destroy all of mankind if exposed. The ipad must be a new kind of quantum computing device that if observed, fails.

I am no fan of Microsoft and certainly no fan of the new religious Apple sect, but if I can't get an Android portable device soon, I may have to resort to purchasing a HP Slate just to spite Apple.

There is a satisfying feeling to walk into one of our City Brew coffee shops and smirk at the Birkenstock wearing dudes, sucking down a expensive double frothed Latte. I don't know about the Apple cult, but my friends drink regular coffee and brag about how little we spend and how cheap we are. Cheap is good, less is good, and arrogance is not an attribute.

[AlexFTW]

10:43 AM on 03/20/2010

Yeah, you're definitely not arrogant.

[KillTheTV]

03:28 PM on 03/20/2010

Hmmmmn let's see.... I don't wear Birkenstocks. I do enjoy a $5 Frap once in awhile. I do enjoy quality built products whether they are cheap or expensive (which is entirely subjective). I do not like all the headaches caused by PC's when running an electronic music studio and therefore use Macs. I will buy an iPad although I might wait for the 128GB version due to my specific needs (also going to Ultra in Miami around the iPad launch which will be pricey and delay my purchase).

I guess what I'm really saying is that there is a satisfying feeling associated with knowing that when I purchase an Apple product it will integrate seamlessly with all of my existing studio hardware and software.

Would you classify your brand of arrogance as "anti-arrogance"? If so, I'm not quite sure that computes.

Unlike you, I don't feel superior one way or the other. We are all just people slogging around on a planet within an astoundingly vast universe.

[MaxPowerXP]

12:32 AM on 03/20/2010

Another day, another puff piece about THE DEVICE THAT WILL SAVE THE WORLD from HP

[hypnotoad72]

03:16 PM on 03/20/2010

No, that device is from Apple. Not HP. Hewlett-Packard wouldn't have the ingenuity - they just license something from some other company and won't be bothered. Real R&D is too costly, you see...

[MaxPowerXP]

11:48 AM on 03/21/2010

HP is "Huffington Post" you scrub. Ignoring the fact that HP has already *had* tablet devices out for years....

[GoDogGo]

12:19 AM on 03/20/2010

It's called smart business, that's all: The two-year lead it had on everything else is the source of its success, as much as anything else. That huge base of users gave developers a viable platform, increasing its utility and reinforcing its position.

iPad's no different. By surprising users and competition alike, they create interest, loyalty and fend off challengers with a bit of lead-time. It's not "paranoia" or anything worthy of a pejorative in sult, it's just good marketing.

[darthmaul]

12:18 PM on 03/20/2010

Two year lead? I think not. Both HP and Lenovo have had tablet PC's for years. Apples "Innovation" has been to remove the keyboard, and make a unit that doesn't support flash, thus crippling it's use on many websites. I'm still waiting "for the most important thing apple has ever done."

[GoDogGo]

02:27 PM on 03/20/2010

You got a reading comprehension fail: Secrecy gave *iPhone* both buzz and a near two year lead and given it a foundation that others are still chipping at. Secrecy, such as with the iPad partners, is simply good business.

[hypnotoad72]

03:18 PM on 03/20/2010

Both HP and Lenovo are slaves to Windows.

Having said that, I won't deny Apple makes rants against Adobe Flash. Maybe Apple will buy Adobe and fix those problems; HTML5 will not usurp Flash any time soon, and by the time HTML5 is out there, every player company will have mucked it up to become a closed standard as well. "Hmmm, learn 5 versions of HTML5 or learn Flash and be done." Take a guess; Flash is going nowhere and Apple would be smart to acknowledge that.

[rotorhead1871]

12:03 AM on 03/20/2010

its paraniod little stevie jobs...and his new decoder ring...its the voices.....its the force its,,its,,,,its,,,,,BS!!!!!

[lockDown]

10:26 PM on 03/19/2010

It's not that deep, and I say this as a HUGE Apple fan.

[hypnotoad72]

03:22 PM on 03/20/2010

I absconded Windows a year ago, after nearly two decades of increasingly poor quality dilettante fluff scribbled out by toddlers. Too buggy, amongst other reasons...

I too am a huge Apple fan. Certainly by comparison to any Windows shill.

The iPad isn't that great and it's ripe for making crude jokes at it. If it's only a glorified iPhone. Even in web development/programming class, students preferred an actual Mac to develop on. The iPad, like the iPhone, is a user device. Not a development tool.

[Layman23]

04:12 PM on 03/19/2010

Give it a break. Its a friggin internet appliance not some magic device from another galaxy. Cover it with black, pour tar on it, the people using it must be dressed as gremlins... Geez..

[wilray]

03:53 PM on 03/19/2010

Hype

[Perry Clease]

10:59 AM on 03/20/2010

Yes, and you are part of it, a big part. Not only did you read the article, or at least skimmed over it, but you took the time to post a response.

[hypnotoad72]

03:23 PM on 03/20/2010

Or he fell for it, or has a beef with the company.

After all, I loathe a certain section on HP (not the computer company, the political media website), and I comment there with the same one-liners all the time. As a form of protest. In the same said section, if something worthwhile is posted, I openly praise it. The section needn't be nearly as lowbrow as it is.