More than that - you shouldn't even need a full blown PC or Mac to use an iDevice [1]. Syncing should largely be over-the-air, with a Time Capsule/Airport Extreme style device. OS updates could be done from such a device, too - they have USB ports after all.
Although it's risky as Apple might shut you down, I think it could be done by a third party with some effort. If our startup ends up going nowhere and nobody has done it by then, we will.[2] The potential is insane, IMO. It's crazy how many people we know who either have an iPad as their main computing device, or who would be served well by it if they didn't have to maintain a classic personal computer to back up/update the iPad.
[1] Syncing should still be better than the current iTunes situation if you do.
[2] Maybe, maybe we can eventually do it as a side project without losing too much focus. I think the market is bigger than for our current product, but it's also much riskier, and would realistically require investment, whereas we can in theory bootstrap indefinitely right now.
I seem to recall having to give them a credit card number to activate the iPad, am I wrong on this? If so, that's a good incentive for them not to offer OTA updates, etc. It puts consumers in front of content for sale, at worst.
They could move the activation into an on-device app that launches on first boot before proceeding to the home screen. In any case there currently exist hacks for activating your iDevice from a Linux (!) box [1], so it clearly works without a credit card, additional restrictions imposed by iTunes itself notwithstanding.
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More than that - you shouldn't even need a full blown PC or Mac to use an iDevice [1]. Syncing should largely be over-the-air, with a Time Capsule/Airport Extreme style device. OS updates could be done from such a device, too - they have USB ports after all.
Although it's risky as Apple might shut you down, I think it could be done by a third party with some effort. If our startup ends up going nowhere and nobody has done it by then, we will.[2] The potential is insane, IMO. It's crazy how many people we know who either have an iPad as their main computing device, or who would be served well by it if they didn't have to maintain a classic personal computer to back up/update the iPad.
[1] Syncing should still be better than the current iTunes situation if you do.
[2] Maybe, maybe we can eventually do it as a side project without losing too much focus. I think the market is bigger than for our current product, but it's also much riskier, and would realistically require investment, whereas we can in theory bootstrap indefinitely right now.
I seem to recall having to give them a credit card number to activate the iPad, am I wrong on this? If so, that's a good incentive for them not to offer OTA updates, etc. It puts consumers in front of content for sale, at worst.
They could move the activation into an on-device app that launches on first boot before proceeding to the home screen. In any case there currently exist hacks for activating your iDevice from a Linux (!) box [1], so it clearly works without a credit card, additional restrictions imposed by iTunes itself notwithstanding.
[1] https://github.com/posixninja/ideviceactivate