01-30-2010, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by bluefox9er

People who are disappointed were expecting a tool or hardware to make their productivity easier...instead they get a giant ipod touch.These are folks who care more about editing software/compiling music etc than playing 'angry birds' or 'flight control'.

What joobie-poos casually ignored to mention in his presentation is that a netbook is a gazillion times more productive than an ipad....

Just giving my perspective on this: I have a Dell Mini 9, and I fully intend to sell it and get an iPad sometime during the summer if I can swing it. From my usage, a netbook is not a "gazillon" times more productive than anything. It's slow, it pretends to be able to multitask and fails, and its screen is tiny.

An iPad will allow me to do everything I do with my netbook, but better. Now, I will reserve final judgement on it until I can play with one and type on it, but as I have no problem typing on an iPhone I doubt I'll have one on the iPad.

As for the first part of the above comment, clearly you've never been to the Productivity section of the App Store. For that matter, third party devs will be adding capability to this device all the time (OmniGroup has already announced wanting to port all of their products to the device, for example). This is all a win from what I can see.

01-30-2010, 06:43 PM

Productivity? Multitask? Full OS?

Windows 7 on the iPad? There's an App for That - InternetNews.com

There ya go!! :cool:

01-30-2010, 06:47 PM

That article has me thinking - remote control for my Win 7 HTPC - that'd be pretty cool.

01-30-2010, 06:48 PM

I'll bet that KILLS the battery life though. I might be wrong, but I can imagine it will probably cut the battery life in half. Still better than most netbooks, and I don't really like the Windows 7 touch interface, seems clumsy. Interesting.

01-30-2010, 11:33 PM

I suppose it would take down battery life quite a bit, but probably wouldn't be any worse than any typical laptop, so six of one, half dozen of the other.

01-31-2010, 01:03 AM

Originally Posted by fleurya

Productivity? Multitask? Full OS?

Windows 7 on the iPad? There's an App for That - InternetNews.com

There ya go!! :cool:

I could be totally misunderstanding what that is, but is it different from using, say, logmein's app to access my mac from my iPhone or iPad?

01-31-2010, 08:54 AM

^^ Pretty much. I had seen these kinds of apps some time ago when they were available for jailbroken iPhone only, but dismissed it because it seemed like the screen size would make it a pretty poor experience. iPad takes care of that problem though.

The power of a Mac Pro on a 1.5 pound touchscreen device...that's a game-changer!

01-31-2010, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by eliehass

I could be totally misunderstanding what that is, but is it different from using, say, logmein's app to access my mac from my iPhone or iPad?

The big difference would be in performance. When you use LogMeIn, you're using a relatively low-performance protocol to basically send a slideshow to your client device.

Citrix is extremely fast, so it's basically indiscernible from working locally on the server - even on low-bandwidth connections.

01-31-2010, 07:32 PM

Im very excited. Think about it. If people will pay 500$ for a kindle, then they will pay 500 dollars for the i-pad that can do loads of more activities.

02-01-2010, 02:07 AM

Not really sure how this is "better than a netbook". I mean I won't even be able to view a flash website...I think its a cool device, but it wont be used as a portable computer. People buy netbooks because they want the basic needs of a computer... Not a 10" screen to use their iphone apps on. Although I think it will be an amazing media device.

02-01-2010, 04:39 PM

Originally Posted by superbike81

I don't understand why people keep saying this. Maybe my eyes are less sensitive to LCD screens than others, but I have zero problem reading medical/psychological journals that I subscribe to, and those are just walls of text like many books. I spend hours at a time reading through journals, and my eyes never hurt or feel strained, and I have better than 20/20 vision. I switched over from paper journals to e-journals about 6 years ago, and been doing it ever since.

I'm saying it because, IN MY EXPERIENCE, backlit lcd screens are uncomfortable for use over long periods of reading. And I use technology extensively and read on lcd screens all the time, and did so extensively in grad school for journal articles. Reading for pleasure is a different beast.

02-01-2010, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by dan828

I'm saying it because, IN MY EXPERIENCE, backlit lcd screens are uncomfortable for use over long periods of reading. And I use technology extensively and read on lcd screens all the time, and did so extensively in grad school for journal articles. Reading for pleasure is a different beast.

I also agree. Strains the eyes very badly. >_<"

02-01-2010, 09:30 PM

(this is reprinted from my post in another thread)

I think the main problem with the iPad is that nerds don't get it. That's okay, though, because non-nerds DO get it.

If I had to describe the iPad in just a few words, I would say it is an simplified internet device aimed at people who want a mobile gadget that does many specific tasks extremely well, basically one at a time, with no learning curve, no maintenance, no configuration needed. It is not intended to replace a "real" laptop, merely to push the full-blown laptop back to the audience that really needs it: professionals. Most consumers have no use for 95% of what a laptop can do.

Geeks like us have internalised and normalised much of the "hassle" of owning a computer so much that we don't even notice that its a hassle. We think clearing web caches and defragging and having to wait 30 seconds for the thing to start up is perfectly normal and everybody should just learn to accept these things.

But "everybody" politely disagrees. Non-nerds do not see a reason why getting on the net or checking email should be any more complicated than operating a toaster (to use the classic example). Many of them just want to surf, check mail, read, listen to music, watch videos and play time-killing games. They see no reason why this should be so complicated that many of them feel frustrated, afraid and/or stupid when using it. And frankly, they're right.

Apple has been trying all of its "life" to move consumer computers toward being that straightforward. The iPad is, if anything, the next evolution of the original idea of the iMac: hide the "computer."

What the introduction of the iPad tells me is that Apple is trying to more clearly define machines for the two different audiences. Consumer machines should get simpler; professional machines should get more powerful.

Thus, the iPad excites me both for what IT can do for me, as well as what this means for the future of Apple's professional efforts, which will also benefit me as a power-user.