The iPad....

[Buffy]

Want one? Gonna wait?

 

What do you like? What don't you like?

 

Why will/won't it succeed?

 

You know what to do....

 

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works, ;)

Buffy

[Tormod]

It's a fantastic piece of brilliant insight! It's going to revolutionize online apps and availability. I'm getting one for sure.

[Mercedes Benzene]

This product is not at all revolutionary. The Apple fanboys are obviously happy whenever a new product is released, but I predict this to be a flop... at least until Jobs decides to address some of this version's shortcomings.

 

Now, I'm highly biased because I've been an extreme Microsoft shareholder my entire life. I hate Apple. I've never owned an Apple product, and never will. But putting my personal objections aside, I just don't see this product succeeding from a business standpoint. Products like the iPhone had a legitimate, revolutionary edge on the market. Not so with this product.

 

Now, whenever someone mentions the iPad, all I can think of is MADtv's skit from a couple years back...

YouTube - Mad Tv - IPad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsjU0K8QPhs

[Zythryn]

The iPhone wasn't all that revolutionary either.

However, I agree it was more of a revolutionary step than the iPad.

I'm a MS shareholder as well, but I love the great interfaces Apple builds into their products (with the exception of Mice, don't know why but they fall flat with computer mice). Besides, I put windows on all the macs I own (just don't like Leopard:)). So MS isn't loosing anything by me buying macs, although those :shrug::censored: at Dell are (but that is another story;))

I enjoy sitting in my recliner surfing the net while watching TV. But a laptop/notbook just takes up too much space.

This will be perfect, an almost full sized kb when I need it, when I don't it takes up no room.

How much it heats up will be an important point for me though.

I have also been considering an ebook reader but just haven't liked what I have seen out there quite enough.

The iPad will be perfect for that (with more readable space than even the Kindle dx).

Almost all of my iPhone apps will work on the iPad and the few that cost money won't need to be bought again.

Nice battery life (10 hours of Video playing according to the announcement).

[Erasmus00]

The iPad will be perfect for that (with more readable space than even the Kindle dx).

 

The nice thing about ebook readers is that they have the nice high-contrast digital ink. I find staring at a back lit screen all the time quite hard on the eyes. Unfortunately, ebook readers consistently mangle the equations in pdfs, so it'll be awhile before I pick one up.

-Will

[Zythryn]

That is one area they are superior. The contrast and ability to read in bright light is awesome.

It will be interesting to see how the iPad handles that, or if it addresses it at all.

Fortunately, I never really read outside, and rarely in bright light.

This will be a big point, IMO, on the iPad's impact on the ebook reader market.

[Tormod]

I travel a bit, and when I do I sit in airports and on planes a lot. I read on my iPhone, which is fantastic as an ereader. Plus I listen to music and play some games.

 

The iPad is the answer to my prayers in many respects - a multimedia machine with a decent size and (virtually) no weight.

 

The office applications for it (iWork) and the online-centric way the iPad is built, is truly revolutionary when you compare it to the alternatives. It just fits the needs of someone who spends most of their time online. No more lugging keyboards etc around, no more squinting at small screens, no more booting up laptops.

 

The concept itself may not be revolutionary, but the launch is! It is years ahead of the competitors. The Kindle can't even begin to compare. eInk is already outdated technology, and sorely needs color screens even to begin to be useful for nerds like myself.

[Topper]

YouTube- Hitler responds to the iPad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQnT0zp8Ya4

Some limits to Ipad utility.

[alexander]

What do i think about the iPad? Well let me preface this with 2 things, 1, i run an MBP as my primary computer, i also administer a multitude of xserve boxes and work in a mixed, mostly OS X office and i recommend Macs to most people who ask me what computer they should get. I also own 2 iphones, have written a couple of iphone apps, and so forth.

 

So onto my thoughts about the iPads: stooopid, absolutely odiously appauling piece of equipment with very limited application field, and a complete waste of money outside that limited field of applications that it may have... That said, i know a few apple fan boys rushing to get one.

 

What is an iPad:

he iPad is a tablet computer developed by Apple Inc. It will be released in March 2010.[1] It features multi-touch interaction with print, video, photo, and audio multimedia, internet browsing, and runs most iPhone OS apps. The device has an LED-backlit 9.7-inch (25 cm) colour LCD display and uses a virtual keyboard for text input.

 

And that is pure, Apple-grade bulloneum (mix between bull and balloneoum, which in itself is a heavy superset of baloney). The iPad features an apple 1ghz chip, that runs the same hacked up excuse of a unix that is behind the iphone os, that is completely closed from the user until you jailbreak your os, which ofcourse violates the TOS and voids your warrantee. And that chip in itself is maybe not have been super bad, had you had access to a decent OS and were able to port nice and full apps to it, but since its the iphone OS, and its limited in resources, processing and gpu power, you get crippled apps and limited functionality... It is not a tablet computer, because it's not a computer, its an oversized iphone, but iphones are cool because they are small, ipads are neither cool nor phones! Touchpad computer is something like the Touchbook, its a full computer, runs real OS and real apps, including an e-reader.

So then what is it? perhaps a glorified e-reader? perhaps, but it's in no way a kindle-killer. Amazon built an amazing infrastructure around kindles. From publishing to the end hardware device, kindles are joy on your eyes to read, and you get books on the go for free without a subsctiption to any wireless network, or the need to pay for it. Publishers are not going to switch to publishing apps on itunes without a damn good reason to do it, and there is currently no good incentive with the ipad and itunes... So then it's not a really decent e-reader, it's not a touchpad computer. Is it a text entry device? Hardly, keyboard is separate from the monitor on laptops for a reason, that is because its hard to see what you are doing if you have to lay your screen down to type, most people will resort to holding the iPad in one hand and one finger tapping the screen with the other, so the ipad is not a text input device by any measure! E-tablet, hardly, the limited safari that cant do flash will be a giant draw-back to most people's browsing experience, that combined with it being a crappy input device, and it's just a recipe for a disaster...

So where is it applicable? its applicable in fields of limited input, and where having access to a remote database with your application can be useful. Healthcare field is a possibility, so doctors don't have to carry folders with people's information in them, and they can have alerts streamed wirelessly to tablets, as well as near-live monitoring of their most critical patients.

 

All that said, my verdict is that the iPad is an iFail, unless they iFix the things i mentioned above...

 

Enjoy

[CraigD]

I’d love to have a pretty i-anything, but:

1. my employer won’t give me one for free
   
2. Apple is the epitomy of closed-everything evil
   

I’d really like to have one of these OLPC XO-3 tablets, and the fact that none actually exists other than in our collective graphical imaginations doesn’t deter me in the least! :shrug:

[Zythryn]

But tell us how you really feel Alexander;)

 

You seem to have made up your mind and created some facts to support your opinion.

As for:

So then what is it? perhaps a glorified e-reader? perhaps, but it's in no way a kindle-killer. Amazon built an amazing infrastructure around kindles. From publishing to the end hardware device, kindles are joy on your eyes to read, and you get books on the go for free without a subsctiption to any wireless network, or the need to pay for it. Publishers are not going to switch to publishing apps on itunes without a damn good reason to do it,

 

Amazon has also built proprietary formats for it's books. You can't read a Kindle book on your Amazon ebook reader, or the Sony reader. The iPad will use the open format (epub I think?).

The iPad will also have an app called iBook. The books are downloaded directly through iBook, not iTunes (although I would be surprised if they are not also available through iTunes).

No subscription is necessary, although the availability of books is limited without the subscription. I would have to find a wifi spot, so you are correct that you could get books with your kindle in areas you couldn't get them on the iPad without the subscription. However, you could still get the books anywhere you can get a wifi connection.

Publishers need do absolutely NOTHING if they are already publishing in the open source epub format. With the iPad you can get epub books for free from your library or any other source (google I believe??). And of course, you have color with the iPad.

I have been considering an ebook for a few months now. The kindle DX was at the head of the pack, until the iPad came out. Now there is no question, the iPad is, for my needs, far superior.

If someone does a fair amount of reading outside, or under bright lights, the Kindle would definately be easier to read. I am more likely to be reading at night before I go to sleep, so the ability to not need a reading light is great:)

 

No, the iPad isn't for everyone, niether is the iPhone or iPod. But I would hardly call it iFail before it even hits the shelves.

[Zythryn]

I’d love to have a pretty i-anything, but:

1. my employer won’t give me one for free
   
2. Apple is the epitomy of closed-everything evil
   

 

That is why I was so surprised (pleasantly so) that they went with the epub open source format for their books!

With that caveat though, I agree.

[alexander]

Amazon has also built proprietary formats for it's books.

DRM's been cracked... and i dont like that either, infact i really don't like drm, but amazon will be forced to comply, there are also people who have been working on a native kindle app that will allow you to seemlessly convert epub and pdf to the kindle format and have it working. The thing is, kindle's grey and white screen is perfectly suited for reading, a lot better then iPad, its a lot less reflective, a lot more efficient and better geared for the task of reading.

 

I'm not saying that kindle is the best, i dont really like either, but i think that iPad is basically a toy that you buy, play with for a week, realize that its totally useless and use it once every few months to show it off to your friends...

[maikeru]

Not particularly interested in it, since I just got a new notebook and have it running Linux. (Alexander thanks for your comments in that thread a ways back. Was very helpful in making my choice.) :shrug:

[Zythryn]

DRM's been cracked... and i dont like that either, infact i really don't like drm, but amazon will be forced to comply, there are also people who have been working on a native kindle app that will allow you to seemlessly convert epub and pdf to the kindle format and have it working.

 

So out of the box, the iPad has some advantages then?

I also prefer supporting companies that build products/use technologies that I like, rather than buying a product that does something I don't like and then try to 'fix' it.

 

The thing is, kindle's grey and white screen is perfectly suited for reading, a lot better then iPad, its a lot less reflective, a lot more efficient and better geared for the task of reading.

 

I completely agree unless the user is looking to read in color (national geographic magazine or some such publication).

However, I would also say the backlit display is better suited to reading in a dark room, such as where I expect to be using it, to read, much of the time.

 

I'm not saying that kindle is the best, i dont really like either, but i think that iPad is basically a toy that you buy, play with for a week, realize that its totally useless and use it once every few months to show it off to your friends...

 

And I think the iPad, for $10 more than the Kindle DX is as good as the Kindle DX (better in some areas, not as good in others) AND gives me a lot more than the Kindle currently does.

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

Where's never ever ever ever will buy one?.......or any other Apple product ever again?

 

If my experiences with my daughters iphone and my ipod are anything to go on...it would most likely be the most infuriating device I ever owned....it is funny that a company that pushes how user friendly it's products are makes the most user unfriendly products and software I've ever encountered....it is the only instance where I'd rather deal with MS-doze based goodies.

[LightningPonderer]

The iPad is basically a iTouch with a 10 inch screen that you can put a background on. I would never buy something like that fo about $600 since I could just get an iTouch for much less