Writing about “Paper”, an iPad app unrelated to music, Paul Miller of The Verge inadvertently sums up the whole “toy app” vs. “real app” debate:
At times I’ve chafed against the “beautiful handcuffs” of Apple, the faux-creativity of pre-made themes and styles built into every iLife app. And it’s true that for a professional, those tools are completely inadequate. But for a layman, as I consider myself in the pursuits of drawing and photography, there’s a real freedom in limitation. At least, limitation done right.
A word of warning, however: the “training wheels” can be seductive. GarageBand lets you play a guitar chord, and Figure lets you build a beat, but while they’re about music, and capable of creating music, they’re not really teaching you how to be a musician — you’re not learning how to drum, or how to play a real guitar.
