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As opposed to starting with the MS Surface?

Well, I'd say the central theme is human connection, and then the question is what you need to make that work.

All I can say is that the iPad's screen seems to be over the hump for this! We have beta testers, and they honestly seem to be doing great. You can see a few tweets they've made at https://twitter.com/understudyapp . You might also be interested in this video of it in use - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrdjKvka558 . If you look at it _statically_, it looks bad, but when you see it in motion, you see that it's effectively gesture.

You're trying to visually communicate and gesture, not create an artifact to refer back to. My handwriting on real physical whiteboards is terrible, but they still work.

It would be interesting to try on an MS Surface. To literally answer your question, (1) there are a lot more iPads out there than Surfaces, (2) I worked at Apple for 7.5 years, on the Cocoa Frameworks for most of it, and I'm very productive in this environment.




Agreed on the count of potential customers with iPads and productivity within the platform you know. I, for one, wish you all the best and I think its a great idea to be sure. I said this elsewhere, I think this could be super useful for a variety of disciplines, but the underlying technology has to be right. Heres to hoping Apple releases a tablet like the Surface Pro!


I am the other guy working on Understudy. The iPad has been the best platform for Understudy so far, but I still have my fingers crossed that Apple builds a better touch screen into their next iPad. Who should I pray to for that wish?


They don't need to build a better touch screen... they just need to add wacom or ntrig digitizer layer with a stylus. Think: Macbook Air with a flip or detachable screen and wacom baked in. This would probably vaporize the iPad as the duality of fully tablet and fully laptop negates the need for both. I like my MBP, but I am seriously considering a Surface Pro so I can get the tablet form factor and a full PC in one. The added bonus is handwritten notes and practicing digital art which used to require a Cintiq or another peripheral device.




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