Apple's iPad Megathread

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Delgar

Anyone else having trouble setting up the iPad email to connect to a Shaw email account? I've tried all morning and can't get mine to work.

Try shawmail.cg.shawcable.net instead of shawmail

[Kjesse]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Try shawmail.cg.shawcable.net instead of shawmail

Yeah I tried that, the error I get is "the SMTP server" doesn't support authentication.

[Kjesse]

Problem solved.... for configuring the outgoing server you have to leave username and password blank, if anyone else has the same problem. Also, say yes when it asks if you want to try to connect without using SSL authentication.

Also it takes about 4 to 5 minutes to verify, according to the shaw rep that is normal for macs connecting to shaw for the first time.

[QuadCityImages]

Originally Posted by KTrain

See, I didn't even know Epicurious had the same features on a website. I only knew it from the iPhone/iPad apps.

Apps are a great way to extend your presence and engage new users. Even if the same functionality exists on the web.

I think that's a good argument for what that author was trying to say. If people only find things by browsing the App Store, if a great website doesn't have an iPhone app, they may not get discovered. Its similar to how every big company had to have an AOL Keyword 10 years ago, or in modern times, a Facebook fan page. AOL (10 years ago), Facebook, and to a lesser extent Apple, want to become "the internet."

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by QuadCityImages

I think that's a good argument for what that author was trying to say. If people only find things by browsing the App Store, if a great website doesn't have an iPhone app, they may not get discovered. Its similar to how every big company had to have an AOL Keyword 10 years ago, or in modern times, a Facebook fan page. AOL (10 years ago), Facebook, and to a lesser extent Apple, want to become "the internet."

This is an absurd argument - how is browsing or searching the app store any different than browsing or searching Google to find new content? Especially since app store entries often have links to the publisher’s website, and google indexes the html landing pages that link to app store entries, so you have indexing happening bi-directionally.

Edit: Unless you are trying to say that it forces content producers to create apps, but I fail to see the downside to having more content producers creating mobile and touchscreen optimized versions of their stuff.

[FanIn80]

I still don't get why you guys think people don't use the web browser on the iPad or iPhone. This notion that people won't know about or visit a website unless it has an app in iTunes is very strange.

The Internet on the iPad is the same as the one on your desktop. It just runs more efficiently without Flash.

[QuadCityImages]

I'm not saying that people don't use the browser. I certainly use the browser far more than I use apps. I quoted KTrain because he basically said that he didn't even know a particular website existed because he uses apps.

This isn't an Apple issue, so this might not even be the place for it, but the whole "app" thing brings up interesting open vs closed arguments. If people start using apps more than the browser, it does force people who want successful websites to develop apps for each platform. When each platform already has a browser capable of viewing the regular website, why should they have to create a bunch of apps? Like I said, this isn't some attack on Apple, because the same questions can be asked of Android or Blackberry.

[FanIn80]

Oh I see what you're saying. That's a pretty interesting point. Kinda like how I use the Engaget app more than I go to their site...

[Russic]

So many things impress me so far. One thing hadn't heard of before is how many apps deal with in-app emailing. On the iPhone most apps I've seen kick you out to the mail app, but many I've seen on the iPad just open a window within the app and do everything from there.

My wife and i are in banff for a wedding and had to retire at 7pm due to the baby. We laid in bed and watched a movie and I was impressed by how much it didn't feel like watching a movie on an iPhone. I like watching stuff on my iPhone, but i rarely get overly engaged in the movie due to it being on such a small screen.

Downloaded sketchbook pro ... very damn cool. I can't draw at all, but it's so responsive it just feels great. Yet again I've stayed up far too late playing. So many great apps. I'll have to bump the iPad must have apps thread.

[sclitheroe]

Penultimate is a nice simple pen and paper app that loks good, and behaves like real ink

[sclitheroe]

For Rogers users, something important I found out - if you don’t use your data plan for six months, the microsim because invalidated and a new one must be obtained. I assume this is so they can re-use the phone number associated with the sim, but its something to keep in mind if you have a sim in there just for next summers vacation or whatever.

[Mike F]

Originally Posted by QuadCityImages

I'm not saying that people don't use the browser. I certainly use the browser far more than I use apps. I quoted KTrain because he basically said that he didn't even know a particular website existed because he uses apps.

This isn't an Apple issue, so this might not even be the place for it, but the whole "app" thing brings up interesting open vs closed arguments. If people start using apps more than the browser, it does force people who want successful websites to develop apps for each platform. When each platform already has a browser capable of viewing the regular website, why should they have to create a bunch of apps? Like I said, this isn't some attack on Apple, because the same questions can be asked of Android or Blackberry.

This is a great point.

Forget Apple vs. Google vs. Microsoft, we need to look at this as consumers and producers vs. technology providers.

Regardless of whether you plan on buying Apple products exclusively from now until you die, you have to see that the best thing for consumers is for there to be competition in the marketplace, which will drive both lower prices and innovation.

The more consumers interact with the internet through apps, and the longer we go with platform-tied apps like Apple Apps and Android Apps, the more we as consumers will suffer due to reduced innovation, as internet content producers will be subject to the control of companies with dominant positions (i.e. Apple), and there will be reduced competition as new players will be unable to enter the market without tethering to an existing company, because without the right apps their users won't be able to really access the internet.

Would the internet be as nearly as rich a place today if every website had been required to gain approval from Microsoft in order for their site to display on Internet Explorer? Would browser development, and internet interaction in general, have developed nearly as far if firefox, google opera, safari, etc. had each been required to convince content producers to design a site specific to their browser?

Until we have rich mobile internet access that is independent of our mobile hardware, all consumers will be losing.

[narbeZ]

Honestly I played with one of these today, and I just don't understand who's gonna buy this product.

Its just a bigger version of an iPhone/iTouch. Unless apple has made some unbelievable breakthrough with the front glass of this unit, its still gonna shatter like NO ones buisness.

I actually get excited thinking about someone on the c-train, whipping out his iPurse, opening it up, and getting cut by thousands of iShard's from the iPad.

Steve Job's is a dark lord of sith.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by narbeZ

Honestly I played with one of these today, and I just don't understand who's gonna buy this product.

Its just a bigger version of an iPhone/iTouch. Unless apple has made some unbelievable breakthrough with the front glass of this unit, its still gonna shatter like NO ones buisness.

I actually get excited thinking about someone on the c-train, whipping out his iPurse, opening it up, and getting cut by thousands of iShard's from the iPad.

Steve Job's is a dark lord of sith.

Come on, I'm obviously no fan of Apple and yet I know for certain that this thing has major appeal and is a game changer in terms of casual computing and the portable enjoyment of media. It's basically what people have been predicting for years as a flat device that lets you enjoy knowledge and content easily.

Most people carry iphones in their pockets and purses and you don't have much screen breakage. People are going to treat these pricey things like their babies.

[narbeZ]

^^ All just because it has a bigger screen? I cant figure how this thing is portable, unless of course you have an iPurse.

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by narbeZ

^^ All just because it has a bigger screen? I cant figure how this thing is portable, unless of course you have an iPurse.

If you actually researched products instead of bashing them, you would find out that the quality on apps on the iPad are *way* higher quality then the iPhone counterparts, due to the power and size of the screen they have to work with.

Some of the apps for the iPad are INCREDIBLE.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Mike F

This is a great point.

The more consumers interact with the internet through apps, and the longer we go with platform-tied apps like Apple Apps and Android Apps, the more we as consumers will suffer due to reduced innovation, as internet content producers will be subject to the control of companies with dominant positions (i.e. Apple), and there will be reduced competition as new players will be unable to enter the market without tethering to an existing company, because without the right apps their users won't be able to really access the internet.

The content being delivered to these apps is by and large the same content being delivered by the browser, consisting of XML, HTML, SIP, H.264, AAC and MP3 audio, etc. What you are seeing is data being liberated from a single point of presence, the browser, and creeping into all manner of devices, being presented to users in ways that make sense given the platform.

In essence, ALL these apps ARE browsers - they are browsing and consuming content that is available on the internet, and are displaying that content in the best format possible for the form factor. HTML was never designed nor intended to exist only in a browser - the multi-purpose browser running on a personal computer was simply the first of many ways for HTML formatted information to be presented on computers.

PDF’s are an interesting counterpoint - a PDF is designed to dictate EXACTLY how a document should be rendered, so that it looks the same everywhere. That’s the entire point of that format. HTML and XML, on the other hand, are meant to be interpreted by the client side application to be used to display information in the format that is most relevant to the intended use.

There won’t be reduced competition for anyone trying to get an app into the market. If anything, app and content producers should be ecstatic that companies like MS, Apple, Google, Sony, etc, are creating new, enormously capable platforms for their content to get out there.

Apple originally tried to promote the idea of HTML only apps running in a browser, and consumers HATED it. There is absolutely zero chance that anyone would be excited about any phone or tablet product today if all it had was a browser to do everything. The fact that Google, as close to a web pure-play as anyone, is allowing and promoting Android apps should tell you something is afoot in the mobile computing space, and it ain’t just a browser.

The non-internet driven apps on these platforms are slightly troubling, in the sense that you are locking into an application and data workflow that is specific to that app, on that device. My fuel mileage app, for example, is iPhone only as far as I know. But that’s no different than my choice of desktop operating systems and applications either - OmniFocus, OmniGraffle, Pages, Numbers, Notational Velocity, etc, are all non-existent on other platforms too. In this regard, you simply have to choose your apps carefully, and ensure that you are buying quality software that allows you to re-patriate your data when you choose to move on. In the example of my fuel mileage app, it will email you a CSV formatted copy of your data on demand, so I know I can get my data out of it in the future.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by narbeZ

Its just a bigger version of an iPhone/iTouch. Unless apple has made some unbelievable breakthrough with the front glass of this unit, its still gonna shatter like NO ones buisness.

In other news, I have to be careful with the crystal on my watch and the windshield on my car, as well as the windows on my house. Damn this glass and its pervasiveness.

[sclitheroe]

Arie Altena puts what I was thinking best. This is why we need apps - to untie the shackles that the modern browser has put on our information, and on its delivery and presentation.

The Browser Is Dead

The myth of the graphical browser is that it can be used universally. This browser and no other brings the Web home to you as it's meant to be. But the Web has gotten big and meets a variety of needs - from finding the departure times of trains to looking up academic papers and playing games. And it's beginning to dawn on the everyday user that the existence of a universal browser that communicates all these experiences in the best manner possible is a myth.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by narbeZ

Honestly I played with one of these today, and I just don't understand who's gonna buy this product.

Its just a bigger version of an iPhone/iTouch. Unless apple has made some unbelievable breakthrough with the front glass of this unit, its still gonna shatter like NO ones buisness.

I actually get excited thinking about someone on the c-train, whipping out his iPurse, opening it up, and getting cut by thousands of iShard's from the iPad.

Steve Job's is a dark lord of sith.

Not sure why you'd get a swimming pool either, after all it's just a big bath tub.

In many ways it is just a big iPod Touch, but in the most important ways it is not. Screen real estate may not seem like a big deal, but once you start using certain apps you realize the added size changes the user experience drastically. There are many types of apps that lots of people won't use on the phone because they are too small. Something like a notebook emulator or an organizer are examples of this. Why write your notes out in a notebook when you can use post-it notes? A page from a notebook is essentially just a big post it note.

The same goes for the web browser. The web browser on the iPhone is incredible imo, but many times I still found myself going to the computer for bigger jobs (like shopping for a freezer). Being able to see an entire web page clearly in one frame on a device that fits in your hands is a different experience to that of a Touch or iPod.

You mention portability. True many won't carry it around, but many other people (like myself) carry a backpack, briefcase or shoulder-bag to work or school ... It's about the size of a notebook, so I don't see portability to be a problem.

You think the glass is going to shatter "like NO ones business"? I don't know what to say to this one ... how many people have the same glass on their iPod shatter? Those things have been out for about 3 years now and I can't say shattering is a persistent issue. Even if you drop it, it's just a piece of glass and there are several companies in town that will fix it for you relatively cheap.