Corolinth wrote:
Actually we began talking about tablets. Taly is upset that she can't run BitTorrent on an iPad. I tried, unsuccessfully, to explain to her that tablets ware not the appropriate device for peer to peer file transfer, and therefore BitTorrent is not, and shouldn't be, a priority for the design of a mobile OS. I now know what she feels like when she has to provide support to customers.
Coro's unusually illogical reasoning for this is the circular "tablets are not the appropriate device for peer to peer file transfer because Apple disallows them." This is not because of "design priority" as it takes Apple no effort for someone else to write a p2p app for them and them to rubber stamp it. This is about Apple trying to tell users appropriate uses for hardware. Coro drinks the Apple koolaid. "Tablets aren't an appropriate device," why, exactly? Android can do it. Win8 tablets can. My PHONE can. All just as easily and efficiently as a computer, which belies this bizarre analogy he gave me about using a hammer to drive in a screw. Computer devices do computer functions, regardless of how mobile they are. The hardware in a tablet is no less powerful than the hardware in a laptop. (Not that BitTorrent requires any hardware capabilities that weren't already in every computer 15 years ago.) They are the same thing. Besides, the purpose and function of BitTorrent is identical to the purpose and function of iTunes...maybe we should remove iTunes from the tablet, too? That, of course, is why Apple blocks it...they want iTunes to be your only source of content on the iPad.
BitTorrent was just one of many complaints I've had about this experience.