Apple's iPad Megathread

[Flaming Choy]

There are a couple things I would have wanted in it.

- Camera
- USB ports (does it have it?)

I thought it'd be a good device to teach my mom the computer (touch interface is much easier then mouse), but no camera means no video skype. Also, can safari read chinese text?

From the sounds of things, all your media has to go through itunes, so I can't watching a movie I downloaded on another computer on it (divx, xvid, mkv files).

I use my netbook when I travel to storage store my photos as I go, doesn't look like that is possible on this thing as well.

Overall, it seems like a nice product, but between my iphone and macbook, I don't see a need for it.

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by Keeko_ca

Why? Just why would they put their popular MacBook line out in the cold? Perhaps they'll eventually merge the tech into all their products, but certainly would have been a poor business decision out of the gates.

How are you putting one of your products out in the cold by coming out with something better? That's like saying the iPhone 3G put original iPhone out in the cold. That's business. You make new products and you sell them.

You have to believe that the laptop industry will head in the direction I'm talking about. Mac could have killed it by getting there not only first, but best. I'm sure every MacBook user would buy one eventually.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

For sure, but in that case we're talking about a market driven at its core by the need to carry around a cell phone. They killed that market by making an awesomely fun cell phone.

That's a fair point, definitely they're trying to manufacture a market rather than tap into an existing market. For myself, I can definitely see it filling a role between my 19 inch macbook pro (great computer, but too big to carry around everywhere I go), and my iphone. And when I'm sitting around on the couch and browsing the web or watching something on my laptop, much of the laptop is overkill for the amount of keystrokes and clicks that I make. I won't be an early adopter, though; I only just got an iphone, and it'll be at least a couple years before I could justify a gadget like this.

[Raoul Duke]

Originally Posted by Russic

People who have ebook readers seem to absolutely adore them. Can you imagine if you could go to university or college and have all your textbooks on one device? Same thing if you were a big reader ... books are in the 1-2 mb range (and pirateable ... which I don't condone) ... can you imagine how many books you could hold on it?
.

THe thing is you'll never see textbooks for sale on the apple site. Why would they do that when they can charge students 115 bucks a book? Look at the book selection already for the iPhone, it's complete . On occassion when I'm in a waiting room I'll read the classics I downloaded but it's not something I'm cracking open at home.

And I'm a big reader, I want no part in some electronic tablet in my face to read on. There's something about a book that can't be replaced by a electronic device. I can't haul that thing in the bathtub, I don't get the satisfaction of cracking a new book, or putting it on the bookshelf after. Or being on chapter ten only to realize my book is almost out of power so I have to plug it in.

I'm a huge Apple fan, I have the computer, phone, but I see no viable reason for this tablet. It does what my macbook does only half the ability, it does what my iPhone does, only twice the size.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

That's where I'm going here. Imagine if this thing could open up into a traditional laptop, then swivel and close into this iPad tablet thing. That would be siiiiiiick. I'd line up to buy one.

Then it would be significantly heavier and thicker. Just sort of a mini laptop.

IMO, this is much better.

For sitting on the couch, surfing the web, this is the perfect device. I think that's the idea. Developers are going to make apps that can make full use of the screen, and that will be powerful.

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by Raoul Duke

THe thing is you'll never see textbooks for sale on the apple site. Why would they do that when they can charge students 115 bucks a book? Look at the book selection already for the iPhone, it's complete . On occassion when I'm in a waiting room I'll read the classics I downloaded but it's not something I'm cracking open at home.

And I'm a big reader, I want no part in some electronic tablet in my face to read on. There's something about a book that can't be replaced by a electronic device. I can't haul that thing in the bathtub, I don't get the satisfaction of cracking a new book, or putting it on the bookshelf after. Or being on chapter ten only to realize my book is almost out of power so I have to plug it in.

I'm a huge Apple fan, I have the computer, phone, but I see no viable reason for this tablet. It does what my macbook does only half the ability, it does what my iPhone does, only twice the size.

95% of the McGraw Hill library will be available on the Apple iBook site, according to their CEO yesterday.

[Raoul Duke]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

95% of the McGraw Hill library will be available on the Apple iBook site, according to their CEO yesterday.

OK, that's wonderful and all but at what price? Then when the semester is over I can't exactly sell it to someone else or back to the bookstore to recoup any of the insane costs university books are.

[mykalberta]

I agree with the MacBreak people, how often would you leave the house with this if not for business.

I think its an amazing device at an amazing price point. The only thing that would be better would have just 1 device with or without 3g with a memory card slot. Honestly, none of the hard drive sizes really satisfies me for this device, so why not have a mem card slot.

[Yeah_Baby]

Furthermore I know a guy who got a Sony eReader for Christmas and is putting all his pdf online readings etc on it.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by Raoul Duke

OK, that's wonderful and all but at what price? Then when the semester is over I can't exactly sell it to someone else or back to the bookstore to recoup any of the insane costs university books are.

One of my classes last term had the option to only buy the eText online. It was something like 30ish dollars cheaper for the online text verses the hard copy.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by BlackEleven

I like that its unlocked 3G and it's a decent price. But to me its missing a certain wow factor like the iPhone and iPods had when they were first introduced. I can't see any really compelling reason to own one. Sure, there are a few things that would be nice, but nothing really that exciting.

I was really underwhelmed with the iPhone when it was first announced. No apps, 4 and 8 gig...

I appreciate the iPad but I have zero interest in books because I am shallow and my house already has 2 iPhones, 2 Macbooks, an iMac and a shoebox full of iPods. Yeah, maybe I would be a little bit more comfortable surfing on the toilet but my iPhone works quite well.

Maybe, I might be interested if I could plug in my iPhones sim but I would really need text messaging in order for it to replace my phone. I don't want to pay a third subscription to access the internet.

[Keeko_ca]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

You have to believe that the laptop industry will head in the direction I'm talking about. Mac could have killed it by getting there not only first, but best.

...but that's just it, they are.

This is iPad 1.0 my friend...

[Raoul Duke]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

One of my classes last term had the option to only buy the eText online. It was something like 30ish dollars cheaper for the online text verses the hard copy.

With the overhead of a 1000 dollar tablet, and the inability to resell the book to someone else for more than 30 bucks.

I'll pass.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Raoul Duke

I'm a huge Apple fan, I have the computer, phone, but I see no viable reason for this tablet. It does what my macbook does only half the ability, it does what my iPhone does, only twice the size.

Same here, don't see what this can do for me.

When apple comes out with fully capable Macbooks, with tablet screens I will be all over it.

[anyonebutedmonton]

Originally Posted by Raoul Duke

With the overhead of a 1000 dollar tablet, and the inability to resell the book to someone else for more than 30 bucks.

I'll pass.

Did you miss the memo? what $1000 dollar tablet? This is priced at $500...

It would be incredible to not have to drag multiple textbooks around everywhere.

[Burninator]

Here my first thoughts on the iPad.

I was a little disappointed when they first showed it. Not the iPad itself. I think it looks great. But the UI. The lock screen and home screen are literally just a scaled up iPhone OS. It looked sparse with only a few icons, but later in the presentation when more icons were added it looked better, more natural. I thought they might have had a different UI design considering there is so much more screen to work with. Perhaps in the future this could change with software updates. But lots of other aspects (calender, mail etc) looked great.

The aspect that I am the most interested in with the iPad is the e-reader capabilities. I was never totally sold on the Kindle. It seems too expensive for what it does. This product could be only $170-$200 more for much more of a product. The Kindle doesn't have full internet, doesn't do colour, doesn't do video, doesn't do photos, have a calendar, applications, games, etc. However the Kindle has a different screen which might be better for eye strain when reading, it has a much longer battery life, you can download books without a data contract and it is cheaper. Side by side even with the price difference I think the iPad wins out.

I think the hard drive is a disappointment as well. Like someone mentioned it won't hold a lot of video unless you spring for the larger sizes. Personally I doubt I would ever use it for video. Unless I was traveling then I could probably cull some of music and throw some movies onto it. It would make for much better watching that the iPhone and presumably have a much better battery life than a laptop. I was hoping I could put a larger portion of my music on it than I could my 8GB iPhone. Browsing the internet looks way better. As does the calender and mail. I would be much more inclined to the browse the internet on the couch on this thing than I would my iPhone.

The price isn't bad. Of course I would like it cheaper (who wouldn't), but I was expecting worse. Seeing as I would be using it primarily as an e-reader I don't see a need for anything bigger than the 16GB (books are small) and no need for 3G either.

I will be following this product closely, watching where the development is heading, seeing how many books are available and reading lots of reviews. I am not looking for a laptop. A laptop would do a crappy job of filling my needs. My biggest concern is reading the screen like a book. It is an LCD screen and I am worried about eye strain. I will be most interested to see how the reviews like or dislike this aspect.

[Table 5]

I wonder if the iPad will have a built-in glitch every 28 days....

[Barnes]

From Apple's site:

iPad Camera Connection Kit
The Camera Connection Kit gives you two ways to import photos and videos from a digital camera. The Camera Connector lets you import your photos and videos to iPad using the camera’s USB cable. Or you can use the SD Card Reader to import photos and videos directly from the camera’s SD card.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Raoul Duke

And I'm a big reader, I want no part in some electronic tablet in my face to read on. There's something about a book that can't be replaced by a electronic device. I can't haul that thing in the bathtub, I don't get the satisfaction of cracking a new book, or putting it on the bookshelf after. Or being on chapter ten only to realize my book is almost out of power so I have to plug it in.

I am a big reader as well and physical books have draw backs as well. I do a lot of my reading on the train and sometimes I have to stand up. Reading a hardcover or a bigger book with one hand isn't always great same with reading a big book in bed. Heck any book (not mass-market paper back) over about 500 pages can be annoying to hold. Have you read Atlas Shrugged? 1200 pages! I would have loved to read that on a device that is the same small size, same thinness and same light weight as the iPad. You would never have to worry about a light source when reading in dim light.

I like the idea of holding something comfortable and doesn't have different thicknesses, different shapes and different weights.

Does an e-reader have drawbacks? Of course. No book shelf at home. That is a big one, I agree. It is nice to have a physical copy. But I use to think the same way about music. The CD's on my shelf just collect dust. Books will go digital eventually. Is the iPad the device to do it? No idea. Would I take the iPad to the beach or get wet, sandy and unreadable with the glare? Nope.

[KTrain]

I like the price points. I don't think the hard drives are large enough though. A camera would have been nice as well.

It would have been cool to see a deal struck with Marvel or DC in time for this announcement so we could see comics on the iPad. It seems like a perfect fit for their subscription model.

I can't see myself buying this yet. I have an iMac, iPhone, Macbook and Apple TV. I think I have my bases covered until the iPad has been improved more in a later version.