The iPad is out!

Originally Posted by Kash
It's perfect for my needs, I'm always wishing that my iPhone had a bigger screen when I'm using it in bed.

Click to expand...

Discerptor said:

Holy crap, Kash and I agree on something. Sort of. From opposite directions.

Click to expand...

I also agree with both of you. Excellent use for the iPad. Just give me some multitasking and it would be ideal for that usage.

A lot of people here are saying it's a toy and nothing new.
For me people winged there is no Apple netbook. Well I think ipad=netbook. So I think Apple didn't blow it but made a revolutionary product because it will change people's perception of what a netbook should be.

And +rep for comments here. I thnk that's an awesome idea. I can't read in bed or computer in bed, too uncomfortable. But ipad in bad seems really possible.

Kindle is a nice Product but not for Me

JeremyZ said:

OT:

Razormac: Have you seen a Kindle screen in person. The grayscale and lack of a backlight is actually an advantage for reading lots of text. One doesn't find one's attention wandering like one does when reading on an LCD computer monitor.

You're right that it is huge that it does so many other things. The eBook reader is an afterthought. With this much computing power, why not put an eBook reader in too.

Nevertheless, I bet the Kindle 2 price will go down again pretty soon.

Click to expand...

I read a lot on my iPhone and have no issue with the LCD screen, only the size. My main reasons not to go Kindle are lack of color screen and lack of native ePub and PDF support without conversion. I actually use the Kindle reader on my iPhone, but most of my reading is done with Stanza and Calibre to manage my library.
My only remaining concern is how the iPad will handle my existing library of ePubs.

Bags, you may be right, but that's not the impression I got, and still isn't, since you can get computers with "go-bi" chips built in that will run on any network, I'd imagine the 3G chip in the ipad would be similar. I realize it uses MICRO SIMs, but that seemed more a European thing.

Most of you who are claiming that Apple failed are repeating techblog complaints that you think make you look like you have minds of your own and meanwhile ignoring all of the great things that this has done for not only Apple as a company, but for all of us.

We can get it out of the way right off that pads are the future. We've known this for many years now. Yes, this pad doesn't multitask yet. It's supposed to be half way between an iphone and an e-reader, and it is that. Beyond that though, you can see the power of the chip Apple is using when you see the device play games. It's impressive as all **** for a little 1GHz custom piece of silicon. Let's explore reasons Apple may not have made this device multitasking... 1) Hardware limitations. The A4 is brand new, and though impressive, maybe lacks the power (or RAM/cache) to run multiple apps at once. In a generation or two... ? 2) Money. When you're transitioning people to a new UI, you don't want to completely screw over your old method of income (macs), so you get people used to it before you put an entire multifunctional OS on the device. So what has this done for the market?

1) Driven the cost of mobile internet access down to half of what it was before without having to lock into a 2 year contract. This was a must if we were to ever realize the future of pads and cloud computing.

2) Singlehandedly saved the publishing industry with the iBookstore, and the iBooks app looks pretty nice, especially in landscape when you can see both pages at once.

3) Because of the fact that apple is making their own silicon, it keeps heat on intel to keep delivering top notch chips for our laptops and desktops.

4) May have stumbled upon something that can make the mac/ipad a viable gaming console.

5) Made browsing in the morning as easy as picking up your ipad and tapping the screen, rather than having to locate your computer and wake it up/turn it on.

I think most people are just afraid to transition. And what does the netbook do better than ipad other than multi task? It's still running a crap OS (unless you've hackintoshed it) and it's tiny and almost unusable. It's like an oversized flip phone. Really, you can barely multitask with one of those anyway since it only has a gig of RAM in it.

Anyway, I guess my point is get your heads out of gizmodo and arstechnica's butts and step back. Enjoy what the future holds.

Razormac said:

I read a lot on my iPhone and have no issue with the LCD screen, only the size. My main reasons not to go Kindle are lack of color screen and lack of native ePub and PDF support without conversion. I actually use the Kindle reader on my iPhone, but most of my reading is done with Stanza and Calibre to manage my library.
My only remaining concern is how the iPad will handle my existing library of ePubs.

Click to expand...

I would imagine with itunes style ease.

"The Future" is Cloud computing. I am totally against all my data and applications on a server not in my house. Sure the iPad is not there yet, but that is the plan for the future.

DarkestRitual said:

1) Driven the cost of mobile internet access down to half of what it was before without having to lock into a 2 year contract. This was a must if we were to ever realize the future of pads and cloud computing.

Click to expand...

The same was true for the original iPhone. The next year, they started requiring a contract, jacked up the data plan, and took away the included SMS messages. Sure… the iPhone is now "subsidized", but after 2 years those costs don't go down. I'm concerned that this cost drop for the iPad is just a carrot to get the ball rolling.

2) Singlehandedly saved the publishing industry with the iBookstore, and the iBooks app looks pretty nice, especially in landscape when you can see both pages at once.

Click to expand...

Well that's a bit premature to say that the industry has been "saved". If I was a college student and all my textbooks were on it, I'd be all-in. Ditto if I read a lot AND wanted an e-reader. But this is just existing customers switching to a different way of reading. I doubt hordes of people are going to go back to school or start reading more just because they have a gadget to do it on.

dtravis7 said:

"The Future" is Cloud computing. I am totally against all my data and applications on a server not in my house. Sure the iPad is not there yet, but that is the plan for the future.

Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more.

I'm against cloud computing that I don't control too, and a lot of people are... why do you think the open source, or even Apple, community won't be developing ways to use your own house as your own secure cloud server? Mozy is obviously not the way, and while mobileme is cool, Apple knows it's not for everyone.

I guess it's kind of neat if you don't want to haul around a laptop but a Macbook is just a little more money and only a little bigger and it does a lot more. Hard to tell who this is aimed at. If I read a lot or if I just wanted a light, easy means of having web access I'd probably get one. But my MBP is way more powerful and an iphone is way more portable.

At any rate, I never get these things when they first come out. The price usually drops and they add more features usually within the year. I remember those suckers who got iPhones as soon as they came out... then Apple dropped the price, added a camera, and now those first ones seem like a total waste of money.

This is aimed at old people and younger consumers who don't want to spend all of their time trying to learn why they have to defrag their hard drive or install a driver set... I think of my fiancee. For the most part, this could be her main computer. All she uses her eMac for is surfing the web, checking email, and occasionally connecting to her school's server through remote desktop to check her case logs. That last, she couldn't do on an iPad (yet), but the rest she can do easily. Beyond that, she enjoys reading novels and magazines on a regular basis, and the iBooks store solves novels, and it's only a matter of time until magazines are made available on the iPad, and voila... all of a sudden, she isn't stealing my MacBook to do something as simple as go and browse lolcats.

This product will sell a TON of units, and if you don't see the possible applications yet, you will sooner or later. Most consumers aren't nerds like us. They don't need the same things we do out of a machine. Heck, we don't even need what we get out of our machines most of the time. Why not bring a little pad with us and save the space when we don't need a ridiculous amount of computing power?

DarkestRitual said:

Most consumers aren't nerds like us. They don't need the same things we do out of a machine. Heck, we don't even need what we get out of our machines most of the time.

Click to expand...

I agree completely with this. I realized that, if someone stole my home machine and replaced it with an iPad, it would probably take two weeks for me to notice the lack of functionality. And yet this thing is a third the cost. (At work, things would be different, of course....)

Many people may never run up against its limitations. Browsing, checking mail, writing the occasional Pages document, playing simple puzzle games...that's the definition of "computing" for a lot of people. Even if they do, they may find the lack of hassles more than outweighs the lack of functionality.

Having sat back and reflected a bit on it, my impressions have changed - particularly when I started thinking about my observations on ChromeOS.

Especially when you start comparing to what you get with a Kindle, this thing really starts to make a lot of sense. If you think of it in terms of a netbook running a full desktop OS and the experience it provides, it may seem to fall a bit short. But in reality, DarkestRitual is right, this thing does what 90% of the market needs a netbook for. It boots instantly, has a novel touch interface and a nice formfactor and screen.

It took me a bit to let it absorb and "get it", but it's really not bad at $499. I'm not sure that I'd go with one of the more expensive models, however.

I admit, when i saw no osx i was bit disappointed but bear in mind this is a consumer product, foro people who just want it to 'work' which apple has done well in. If people want to play with coding and drivers, etc they wouldnt go for a iPad. Apple and apple customers have always been about rich media and ease of use otherwise you would go for a PC.

People that keep saying its another iPod/iPhone i dont think its right. Many times i've used my iphone and feel restricted by screen size or be more careful of where itouch. With the ipad is going to be alot more free. The OS is much much richer, smoother and user friendly than iphone OS. I'm not complaining bout the iphone cos its a phone and i wouldnt want it to be much bigger as a phone.

As a computer it can do almost as much as any other computer can with the support of the app store. With its bigger screen and extra power apps for it will just evolve and develop to better apps.

Already theres iworks ready to ship. Professionals needing keynote, pages and numbers are sorted. No doubt photoshop, illustrator would be rewritten for ipad. If only Apple can develop a way to make a stylus compatible with its capacitive screen then they've got all the designers in the bag. Designers would grab them like hot buns, tablet, screen, Apple built hardware and software all in one. At that price, who wouldn't want one?

CWA, Agreed and well said.

Multitasking is coming BTW with the next major OS release I am told for both the iPhone and the iPad. Only other issue for me at this time is Flash but I can deal with it for most use I would have for the iPad.

I do have my Netbook for other uses like I mentioned in another post which are far from typical home user type uses anyway. If I never went on Network and computer calls, I would probably never use the netbook anyway!

I can think about a lot of possible uses for the casual - non power user - how about taking a huge quantity of your photos with you - on the Ipad - to a family gathering? Pass it around and show your relatives all your photos! I can see sitting in my recliner on Sunday morning and reading various Sunday papers from the internet.

I am sure there are a large number of apps that don't work well on the Iphone, but would work great on the much larger Ipad.

DarkestRitual said:

This is aimed at old people and younger consumers who don't want to spend all of their time trying to learn why they have to defrag their hard drive or install a driver set...

Click to expand...

never mind whether young or old, are these functions not chores? Would you really get enjoyment out of defragging/installing drivers? Would you WANT to perform these functions if you don't have to or needed to?

Disappointing no camera or multitask. Then again if multitask is enabled batt would drop considerably and if apples claims are true this can offer 10hrs of batt life. Not many products out can last as long as this.

What I am most annoyed at is apples monopoly on apps almost reminds me of a company that made windows.

fash said:

. Apple and apple customers have always been about rich media and ease of use otherwise you would go for a PC.

Click to expand...

Look, that's just a silly statement. As much as I dislike Windows, it's not because I was missing out on "rich media experience". The same rich experience can be had on windows and Linux machines. There's so much more to OS X than that.

As a computer it can do almost as much as any other computer can with the support of the app store.

Click to expand...

. No, it can't. The app store won't add any USB ports or an Ethernet port. Nor will it add multitasking unless it's through a jailbreak type of hack. It also can't run real programs. Only "apps".

None of this is bad however, depending on the audience which the product is aimed at. And in my opinion, it's aimed at anyone whom doesn't already have a laptop or netbook, and is perfectly fine with the Pads restrictions. But it would be an absolute waste for almost everybody who has a MacBook or something similar. Because why would that person want to lug yet another device which in it's self is redundant at that point ?

No doubt photoshop, illustrator would be rewritten for ipad. If only Apple can develop a way to make a stylus compatible with its capacitive screen then they've got all the designers in the bag. Designers would grab them like hot buns, tablet, screen, Apple built hardware and software all in one. At that price, who wouldn't want one?

Click to expand...

Ain't gonna happen. Professionals who rely on Photoshop or Lightroom etc would have little to no use for a stripped down version of these important tools. And stripped down to almost nothing is what they'd have to be in order to run them on current hardware. You don't realize perhaps how many resources are needed for these programs. But if you do, then you know what I'm saying is true. What use would those progams be if they weren't fully compatible with their older siblings, or were stripped of their full capabilities ?

I just can't see the iPad being much more useful than what it's apparently been designed to do, and for whom it was designed for. That being whatever you can do on an iPod Touch plus the bonus of a new GUI for eBooks, and the casual and very non power user. But even those people know about and use apps such as skype.

My cousin, whom is fully computer illeterate, manages skype calls with me from her MacBook. The same can be said for my wife. I've taught her how to use our MacBook pros more efficiently, but she doesn't care to retain the more geeky aspects of it all. However, she would still consider the ipad a silly toy just for the simple fact that there's no iCam built in.

If I ever get an iPad it would only be used for note taking, and displaying images. That is not worth $499 USD to me. Nor do I care about using it as a ebook reader, web browser or anything else.

I already stare at light for 15 hrs + a day. The last thing I want to read large amounts of text on a screen.