Apple's iPad Megathread

[Frequitude]

Give me my touch and swivel screen tablet MacBook with OS damnit!!!

Call it the iWant.

[QuadCityImages]

Although I am generally anti-Apple, I feel this thing fails to live up to even the lowest expectations. It doesn't do much that the iPod Touch doesn't already do. If they allowed you to tether your iPhone to it for a mere $10 a month that'd be a good feature. It would reward people for brand loyalty.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by QuadCityImages

Although I am generally anti-Apple, I feel this thing fails to live up to even the lowest expectations. It doesn't do much that the iPod Touch doesn't already do. If they allowed you to tether your iPhone to it for a mere $10 a month that'd be a good feature. It would reward people for brand loyalty.

Actually, it does live up the lowest expectations. We thought it would probably be exactly what it is.

[HPLovecraft]

The iPad is a dumb name!

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by HPLovecraft

The iPad is a dumb name!

Yeah, but at least it offers 3G for the heavy days.

[HPLovecraft]

Is it true there is no multi-tasking with it? That's a deal breaker for me, easily. Probably the biggest issue I'd have with it along with it not being wide screen.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by Raoul Duke

You're going to stand on the train with a 500 dollar unit in one hand?
I did read Atlas Shrugged, in paperback it's not that big of a hassle. I mean if you're fumbling around with that book in paper format perhaps an expensive unit in one hand isn't the best idea.

Books aren't ever going to go digital widespread. The majority of readers want no part in digital, and authors hate it - they're already signing clauses in publishing contracts that their books cannot be sold that way. They don't make enough money to become victims of piracy.

It's going to happen whether they like it or not.

They can stick their head in the sand like The Beatles did when iTunes started their music store, or they can embrace it and find a way to make money off of it.

I read a lot, and I'd love to try a Kindle.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Raoul Duke

...

Books aren't ever going to go digital widespread. The majority of readers want no part in digital, and authors hate it - they're already signing clauses in publishing contracts that their books cannot be sold that way. They don't make enough money to become victims of piracy.

Haha. Yeah. Next thing you know, cities will be opening up buildings all over the place that will just allow everyone to go in and read ebooks without buying them. All you'll have to do is pay a small amount for a piracy er... library card.

[bluejays]

There are a few problems with it. Sure it's thin, but getting away from that, the bezel boarder is too thick (I understand the need for finger area while holding, but it's still too thick). Standard features on other similar peripherals (ie camera, usb) aren't on this, along with some really basic memory. The biggest is the aforementioned lack of multi-tasking. Jobs really flopped on this one IMO. Granted Apple will probably get sales of the lower model, but who in their right mind would buy the $1000 model? IMO, it's just not worth it. Unlike true Jobs fashion, there was no out of the box thinking and by announcing it this early, I'm going to go out of limb and say Apple's next quarter will be hurting bigtime with lack of Macbook sales while people hold out to fiddle with this thing when it does come out in a couple months. Would it have been that bad if it were thicker in order to get better performance and processor? Furthermore, I have a big problem trusting anyone aside from Intel. If anything I'd just buy a Macbook. Does much more and actually has an OS.

[GrrlGoalie33]

I would read and subscribe to many more magazines if they came in digital format. I forget to buy them now, or if I have a subscription, I never get around to reading them.

As an aside, my professional organization as of this month, stopped producing the hard copy version of it's magazine and only distributes in digital format now.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

He has a point about multitasking, but his example is flawed. If it is anything like my iPhone the one thing I can do is listen to iTunes while I'm running most of my other apps.

His example was listening to Pandora, and is valid.

I so don't get the point of this thing. It is so drastically inferior to a netbook at so much more money.

[photon]

A netbook is just a laptop with low power and smaller. This is a touch screen tablet that's not intended to be a generic computing device it's intended to do a very specific set of things and that's it.

I held off buying a Sony eBook reader for $200 (the smaller screened one) to see what this would end up being, now I kind of regret it. From an ebook reader point of view this device is great except that it's still an LCD screen, and the screens of the Kindle et al are what make the devices for many people.

On one hand this is pretty much what was expected (a really big iPod touch), which is a bit disappointing.. the iPhone took phones and did them better than everyone else at the time (and still better than everyone else in some ways, but others are catching up now). This doesn't really feel the same, it just a big iPod touch.

On the other hand, I can't think of the # of times I've been using my iPhone and wished "if this was only just a bit bigger"... So who knows, maybe this'll really be the thing. I was hoping for at least a great keyboard for that type of device rather than just a big iPhone keyboard.

For me things that would seal the deal.. a different screen, the Pixel Qi one that operates as an LCD or a ebook type screen. A camera for video conferencing, and a outward facing camera for augmented reality apps. And multitasking. Really I want a full bore OSX but they'd rather run the iPhone OS blazing fast than run OSX dead slow.

[FanIn80]

There are an awful lot of people of the "non-reading" variety who don't seem to get that this thing wasn't built for them.

I will be buying one, and I can't wait until the day when the Calgary Herald offers an online digital subscription through iTunes (like the NY Times). I'm seriously looking forward to the day I can get my text books on it, and I'm already making a mental list of all the mags I miss having a print subscription for. I canceled my mag subs because I was tired of issues piling up, and I quit reading newspapers years ago because of the ink.

All the other stuff is just gravy for me. Videos, music, photos, internet, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, applications, WiFi, Bluetooth keyboard, etc etc.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by photon

A netbook is just a laptop with low power and smaller. This is a touch screen tablet that's not intended to be a generic computing device it's intended to do a very specific set of things and that's it.

I'm not seeing the potential here. If it did a specific set of things really well, okay. But it looks like it sucks as a ebook reader(lack of e-ink), sucks as a video player(no widescreen, no hdmi out). So where are these specific things that are unique to it vs a netbook that is a third of the price or less? Iphone apps are cool for a phone, but are they cool on a big device (lots of windows/linux apps too!).

[photon]

A big question will be can I put any book I want on it. It uses ePub so it should, but will it.

Oh, and NO FLASH!!! Holy crap Apple. It's like a guy that's had a stroke that can't see the left side of things afterward, jeez. Maybe the HTML5 uptake will be fast enough to get around Apple's irrational aversions.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

I'm not seeing the potential here. If it did a specific set of things really well, okay. But it looks like it sucks as a ebook reader(lack of e-ink), sucks as a video player(no widescreen, no hdmi out). So where are these specific things that are unique to it vs a netbook that is a third of the price or less? Iphone apps are cool for a phone, but are they cool on a big device (lots of windows/linux apps too!).

I don't understand what you mean by "no widescreen video."

[photon]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

I'm not seeing the potential here. If it did a specific set of things really well, okay. But it looks like it sucks as a ebook reader(lack of e-ink), sucks as a video player(no widescreen, no hdmi out). So where are these specific things that are unique to it vs a netbook that is a third of the price or less? Iphone apps are cool for a phone, but are they cool on a big device (lots of windows/linux apps too!).

I wouldn't say it sucks as an ebook reader, looks like they've got it all together, eink isn't the be all for everyone (though I admit that for me it's pretty high on the list). Widescreen might be awkward for holding the device too. I agree with HDMI out, in fact the fact you have to have a big ugly adapter to do ANYTHING sucks, but that's Apple being Apple.

I didn't mean that it was great for a specific set of things, that's just the design constraint that Apple has in their mind (as opposed to making a generic computing device).

[photon]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

I don't understand what you mean by "no widescreen video."

The screen is 1024x768, not a 16:9 ratio screen.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by photon

I didn't mean that it was great for a specific set of things, that's just the design constraint that Apple has in their mind (as opposed to making a generic computing device).

Seems that if it only does a specific set of things compared to other devices, it should either do that specific set of things really well, or do it a lot cheaper. Instead, it doesn't do anything really well, and is outrageously priced. And where's the capacity? 16 GB, really?

And I can't imagine reading a novel on a lcd screen.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Ah, I know what magazine you were working for; one of the more tragic ones to fold in the last year, along with Gourmet.

Oh it was a good one, but I could see the writing on the wall and got out of the sinking ship about a year before it actually happened. The magazine industry was doing badly before the economy crashed....since then, it's not beyond destroyed.