Further to a similar recent story about AMX on IE Residential, Stardraw.com has announced support for Apple’s iPad. The latest innovation to roll out of Steve Jobs’s dream factory, the iPad was reported to have sold 450,000 tablets as of 8 April.
Stardraw.com has confirmed support for the iPad through its universal system control platform, Stardraw Control 2010, and is demonstrating use of the iPad as a system control device at its website (link below).
The iPad’s perceived limitations – for example, it can only run one application at a time and does not support Flash – have been the subject of extensive debate, but Stardraw.com believes the device has great potential in the control market.
“It isn’t really an issue if people say that the iPad isn’t as good as a netbook, or that it doesn’t have a camera or support Flash or multi-tasking,” said Stardraw.com CEO David Snipp. “If the worst you can say is that it’s a big iPod touch – and a lot of people are saying that – then it will excel as a touchpanel interface for system control: for Stardraw Control, a big iPod touch is ideal.”
The iPad features a 9.7in 1024 x 768 touchscreen, WiFi connectivity, 10-hour in-use battery life (30 days on standby), a depth of 0.5in and a weight of around 0.68kg.
“The form factor and technical specs are such that the iPad could almost have been designed specifically as a user interface device for system control and, since pricing starts at less than $500, it makes one wonder why anyone would spend maybe 10 times more on a ‘proprietary’ touchscreen. The iPad is a great way to deliver more to the end user at a lower cost, with the advantage that it’s a sexy gadget,” said Snipp.
Support for Webservices enables Stardraw Control to employ the iPad or any device that supports a browser or talks HTTP. Webservices permit direct machine-to-machine communications, and the complementary technology ‘Ajax’ (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) makes for a very rich, bidirectional user experience delivered through standard HTML.
Snipp added: “It is important to note that we are not using an App to deliver the control interface: Apps as understood in the context of the App Store are restrictive commercially, logistically and technologically. Instead we are using WebApp technology which delivers a user experience indistinguishable from an App but with far more flexibility and no restrictions. Systems integrators can now build great-looking UIs and deliver them through the device of their choice, including the iPad, to control and monitor any hardware in any system using Stardraw Control.”
