Apple's iPad Megathread

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by photon

It's the iPhone screen that has the coating, the iPad screens don't have the same coating.

The manual that came with the iPad says not to use any cleaners or abrasive materials to clean the iPad. Only a soft, lint free cloth. It says it has an oleophobic coating. Page 3.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/...tion_Guide.pdf

These cloths are a necessity too. I'll need to buy a couple and keep one in my bag, one at the office and another at home.

[FanIn80]

Oh neat. I didn't realize they put the oleophobic coating on them too.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Burninator

The manual that came with the iPad says not to use any cleaners or abrasive materials to clean the iPad. Only a soft, lint free cloth. It says it has an oleophobic coating. Page 3.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/...tion_Guide.pdf

These cloths are a necessity too. I'll need to buy a couple and keep one in my bag, one at the office and another at home.

I’ve used iKlear with no apparent ill effects on my iPad. I did notice its far less necessary to use any spray compared to the Macbook, so the coating is definitely there.

[Russic]

My case came last light. Oh. Yes. I don't really understand a lot of the hate for the Apple case ... I love the feel of it. Typing on it is much much better now that it's slightly propped up and using it in bed is so much easier. I have it set up next to my monitor right now as a picture frame and it's just awesome. Wish I could change lengthen the amount of time the pictures display (3 seconds only it would see), but that's a minor gripe.

Also, curiously the NHL app is only available in the states at this time. I picked it up, and while there are some design issues, the video plays beautifully and having a 20 minute recap of Monday's game was awesome. I love that you can tap a players name and get video of his last 10 goals or big plays. Really really cool.

Originally Posted by silentsim

Pogo Sketch is great- Apple Store in Canada didn't seem to have it but found it online for 15$ shipped- which is retail price.

The UofC Microstore has (had) Pogo sketches, but apparently I bought the last one yesterday. I'm sure they'll get more in. I'm not a good artist. I might even venture to say I'm a poor artist, but I had a ton of fun with it. My favorite thing is to take a photo from my library into sketchbook pro and draw over top of it. Yes it's tracing and yes it's cheating, but my bird looks like a bird dammit.

Also of note with the UofC Microstore, I think they are getting about 60 iPads in today. Might be good if you're a student. Not sure if there's much of a student discount, but you might get $10 or $20 off. They also have displays set up that you can play with.

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

So this isn’t a bragging or snooty kind of question, but I’m just curious - in people’s travels with their iPads, have you run across anyone else with one? So far mine is the only one I’ve seen in the wild.

I wonder how many iPads are floating around Calgary right now. I also wonder if they will hit that weird critical mass that happened with the iPod - at first, nobody had one, then, it seemed like overnight there were white earbuds everywhere you looked.

I haven't seen one yet. I get plenty of stares on the train and I had one guy wave at me until I took my earbuds out.

[photon]

Ah sorry my bad, I was sure I'd read that the iPad didn't have the coating, but it just seems it's people complaining about it not that it doesn't exist.

[sclitheroe]

In “hahaha, now you are getting raped too” news, AT&T has eliminated their unlimited data plan for new US iPad customers. The new plan is $25 a month for 2 GB’s. $35 CAD for 5 GB’s is squarely in the ballpark now, and almost looks like a deal.

http://gizmodo.com/5553139/say-goodb...on-the-ipad-3g

[Russic]

Wow AT&T is going to get raked over the coals for that one. That was pretty much the only respectable move they've made in the tech community in a very long time. I see they are also offering tethering when 4.0 rolls out ... for $20/month.

[photon]

The whole "change the rules whenever we feel like it" thing is rubbing off from Apple to AT&T

[OilKiller]

Had a chance to play with one of these yesterday at BB. Meh, I really can't see myself spending $550 on something like this when I can get a netbook for $249.

[Sliver]

lol OilKiller you're about to get an earful from the Apple enthusiasts.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by photon

Ah sorry my bad, I was sure I'd read that the iPad didn't have the coating, but it just seems it's people complaining about it not that it doesn't exist.

Probably the screen is so big and glossy, people notice their fingerprints all over it. Oleophobic means oil resistant but not oil proof.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

Had a chance to play with one of these yesterday at BB. Meh, I really can't see myself spending $550 on something like this when I can get a netbook for $249.

You can bet on tons of Android based tablets (nicknamed Slatedroids) coming out at those low pricepoints in the future.

There are some ugly ones right now but since it works on Android and is customizable, I'm guessing you could get a close to iPad experience (basic internet, books, movies, android apps) for 1/8th the cost in the future. Give it a year or two and you'll probably see some nice ones. Plus they actually come with USB ports and SD card slots.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39448

[Art Vandelay]

FYI The Market Mall Apple Store has tons of Apple cases and a bunch of the camera connection kits.

[sclitheroe]

This is something neat that I noticed. In my car, I have an FM transmitter that uses the headphone jack - for decent sound quality, I need to set the volume on the iPad up to around 3/4’s or so, which is way too loud for my earbuds that I use when listening to headphones.

The car FM transmitter is a regular 3 conductor cable (ground, left and right channels), while my headphones are the four conductor (mic and remote).

When I plug in in the car, the volume jumps up to the 3/4 mark where I had it. When I plug in my headphones with the remote, the volume jumps down to the 1/4 mark or whatever it was at when I plugged it in.

I bet the iPhone has this same behavior, but I don’t have one to test with. Still, pretty neat that it distinguishes between the two and remembers their settings.

[silentsim]

Documents to go Premiium updated, now a universal app. Works great on iPad, has built in cloud access such as Dropbox, and let's you save or saveas right back directly to the cloud.

Great integration, solid app. It is how document, excel editing from the cloud should be handled.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Sliver

lol OilKiller you're about to get an earful from the Apple enthusiasts.

Not really ... I can see many people not having their needs met by the iPad. It really depends on what is important to you about your computing experience. If power and flexibility is your bag, then a netbook would most likely be the more attractive choice. If you were more attracted to style and ease of use, then the iPad may be up your alley. No use in getting on his case if a netbook floats his boat.

I do agree with Hack though. If I were in the market for something like this and the iPad wasn't up my alley I'd probably hold off for the android offering before entertaining a netbook. You can bet your ass now that the sales numbers are coming out that google will push out a tablet in the next little while and it should kick some ass. I'm not a big google fan myself, but they make some great stuff.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by silentsim

Documents to go Premiium updated, now a universal app. Works great on iPad, has built in cloud access such as Dropbox, and let's you save or saveas right back directly to the cloud.

Great integration, solid app. It is how document, excel editing from the cloud should be handled.

what what WHAT?

edit: according to the comments on iTunes this feature is advertised but not currently working.

As an aside ... can anybody else plug their ipad into a different computer than the one they sync with and access the content on it? I plug my phone into my work computer and it shows up in itunes, but the music, videos and other content is all greyed out (it'll only play on my main machine that I sync with). But if I plug in my iPad I can play any file on it. This is different isn't it?

[silentsim]

Russic
This morning I was able to use it to access my dropbox, open the file, edit it and save it without an error.
Checking my dropbox right now and it indeed saved my files.

The exchange might not be working. But with dropbox it was 100 percent working!!!

[Russic]

Originally Posted by silentsim

Russic
This morning I was able to use it to access my dropbox, open the file, edit it and save it without an error.
Checking my dropbox right now and it indeed saved my files.

The exchange might not be working. But with dropbox it was 100 percent working!!!

I hate iTunes reviews.

This app isn't one that I use, but I'm more excited that it is being done. I wasn't sure how long we'd have to wait for developers to add this functionality. I wonder if the iWork apps will ever allow this? In other "yes it can be done" news, apparently updating your app to use the vga-out adaptor is incredibly easy and only consists of a few lines of code. Hopefully more developers do this (I'm looking at you, Elements).

[sclitheroe]

Apple needs to buy Dropbox and rebrand it MobileMe...sigh....