iPad or not to iPad

Well I personally see things differently. People say "Those mac-haters say blah blah blah" while others say "Well those mac-lovers just buy whatever jobs pulls out." To me, I like what I like. I buy based off functionality and price. Theres no hating on a specific product, or loving a certain product. Some people really just see this as something inconvient for its price. I noticed the few things people "argue" about.
1. Functionality over a netbook - As it was stated earlier by someone, dont feel like going back, they said something about just taking it out while your in bed and using it. Someone, i think angelic, mentioned a stand and someone shot back well it just doesnt work for you. Realistically, what are you going to do? Hold it up the entire time? Lay it flat? As it has been pointed out it needs a bigger bezel.
2. No multitasking? - So as pointed out, it can only multitask apple apps and not 3rd party. To me this is a downfall.
3. One of my biggest issues is that price with all of it. People say "you pay for quality and style" but how much? It seems awkward to hold for extended periods of time.
4. E-Reader replacement? I think not. It doesnt even possess a thread it it. eInk is much better then a backlit LCD, and if u want to use a backlit LCD you could just use any computer, or even a mobile device. Even the DS has books available.
Bottom line, not being a hater, it just doesn't have what it would need to be a worth while purchase.

 

I deleted a number of posts out of this thread - let's try to stay civil. Thanks.

 

I liked it but the sizes were just too little. So i looked around for alternatives and found the Archos 9 pctablet. The lack of apps running right is turning me away.

Any idea if they will jailbreak it for other apps?

 

You're right. The Newton, Apple TV, Pippin, Macbook Air, etc were all a huge success. Lulz...

 

Why don't you add a "Neener Neener" on the end of your statement as that's exactly the tone it comes across with.

It's really kind of pathetic the length people will go to argue against the iPad. Seriously, you don't have to buy one if you don't want to....no one is going to put a gun to your head and and say "BUY AN IPAD OR ELSE!!" You also don't have to pick it to death like a crow picking apart a drowned rat. No one will think less of you if you just shut up and stop moaning about the iPad, a product which you will never even purchase! (Again, "you" is not pointing the finger directly at you, but the collective of people who take this point of view.)

 

If you want to play that game, how about we discuss Microsoft Bob as a starter?

 

Actually, the glaring omission from his list of Apple products he believes were unsuccessful is the iPhone...you know, that Apple device that no one would buy, was to be useless as a phone, useless for surfing the net, an App store that would never work, cost too much, was too big, etc.?

All of the complainers will disappear when the iPad is released and it sells well. Even the things he listed as Apple failures still sell well...well, most of them, but no company I know of has ever hit it out of part 100% of the time!

 

To be fair, people were saying the iphone was going to be a failure when the price was 600 with a 2 year contract. And it would of failed had apple not changed. They dropped the price within a month because the phone was not selling like they had hoped. And not until they listened to AT&T and started selling them subsidized did people really start buying them

 

I travel a lot and if it could cut down on the number of devices I travel with or be a substantial improvement on an existing device I would be very interested. I really think Apple failed to make thier case about it being "the best experience you've ever had" for the things they mentioned.

If it was a MacBook Air with a Touchscreen instead of a Keyboard I'd get one but not really interested in a hyperthyroid iPod Touch. In a generation or two if it gets a full browser, video calling feature, and better interaction with other devices (tethering, storage, camera's, maybe memory cards or usb drives etc them maybe. If Apple keeps it closed like an iPod for the sake of DRM, I won't much ever be interested.

 

I'm not sure at the moment, normally with products its a yes or no case scenario for me. At the moment the IPAD is appealing, but the present fuctions seem a bit...faint?

My thoughts before release were that the device itself would be running OS X, and therefore i could use this in conjuction with the macs down in college, i'd use the device to say do some light AI design/as well as other creative softwares and file transfer between home and col, but it seems that i won't be able to do that(Well native OS X Softwares), and i can not decide if "yet" is at the end of the sentence.

Multitasking is great to have, but if its not with third party apps, its not so great

And lack of flash support displeases me, (But Steves one did!)

I like the idea behind it dont get me wrong, but with devices these days, i'd like to avoid the whole jailbreaking/flashing process due to the minor chance that it can mess up (even if it means the device doing so much more.)

I recently wen't out and bought an N900 which seems to do the essential tasks of what the IPAD is missing, flash playback and multitasking definately has me locked to it. But i definately hope that the IPAD gets the software/firmware updates to correctly fit into its targetted market (Revolutionary Netbooks!)

 

Right! I'm not sure how I could have missed such a monumental failure on Apple's part! Steve Jobs just keeps chugging out the fail doesn't he! LOL

 

without an intel processor, the apple tab can't run os x...

 

I'd buy if they decide to release it with multitasking /webcam/ Flash

With current condition. No I never buy it.

 

Wow there is some serious forum editing going on here. That's disappointing... I can understand if the posts are argumentative or hostile, but deleting a few pictures that poke fun is overstepping what you should be censoring...

 

No, that is moderating. Those pictures were clearly for trolling and members were reporting it. Apple members are sick of what you call poking fun.

All the iPad threads ive seen on every tech forum gets out of hand so lets try avoid it here.

As Charles said earlier, lets keep it civil and constructive.

 

Fair enough, if you are worried about people getting offended by a humorous picture then I can see the reasoning. I'm a fan of both Apple and PCs, so I really don't know why some people take it so personally.

 

I guess this just isn't the right place for it.

 

Do you think this will ever change in a future possible refresh? I know it would be pure speculation, but a little hope never hurt anyone. XD As soon as I saw a picture of the iPad I wanted one, when I found it would not run OSX I was pretty disappointed. I would have found a lot of uses for it at work, and I am going for Apple certification and would like something to practice on (I was going Mac Mini before I saw the iPad, guess I am back to the mini for now).

Anyway, if there ever is a refresh and the iPad can run OSX, I will be the first in line to buy one. XD

 

I think I would have liked a dual-booting iPad (one for quick use - itouch os and the like, and the other for OS X/Windows), though that has probably been said already.

I would have hoped that the iPad would have been a full fledged netbook / tablet / computer.

 

Reasons to buy the ipad:
You can be the first to overclock it.
You can be the first to add memory to the cheap version to make it like the better one.
You can be the first to add 3g to the cheap version.
You can be the first to crack it.

Lots of fun to be had. Too bad about the price though.

 

this.

product has a large upside, but its lack of these kinds of basic things keep it from being excellent at anything. as it stands, it not good enough to buy. maybe Gen 2 will resolve some of our concerns.

also, why are people shocked that this product is generating so much conversation? every source of information, from news stations to news websites to the blogosphere spent a disproportionate amount of time talking about it. as such, more people than normal feel compelled to talk about the product.

all complaining will cease after a few months...not because the haters will be proven wrong, but because they'll stop caring.

my personal opinion - it's too costly to be such an imperfect product. am disappointed.

 

if it had a webcam for skype, ichat, and the like it would really be a tempting toy, it just doesn't offer any new features over my iPhone :\

 

Aww I wanted to see too but i guess I was a bit to late to see them.
I think it will be great as a picture frame or ebook reader. I won't be getting one since it doesn't have OSX like I hoped.

 

also, you know where a lot of the resentment comes from?

watching ignorant masses clamor over features that already exist, or already exist in a better way.

for example, I just read that someone plans to use this device *primarily* as an e-book reader, and that they had been looking at e-book readers only to now plan on waiting for the iPad.

Now. I'm sure we can all agree that LCD is okay for very light reading, but because of how hard LCD is on the eyes, it is undesirable to read say...a full novel. right? right. this is why e-ink is so attractive: it's like looking at paper.

unfortunately, n00bs who don't know any better hear "Apple" and "e-books available" and assume it'll be good. No, it's using an LCD display...so no, it won't be any better than any of the other LCD display experiences we're all familiar with.

Would this person have had a much better experience with a Nook or Kindle considering they want to use it *primarily* to read books? Yes and it's not even a debate. But their ignorance with regard to e-ink coupled with Apple buzz results in another person buying a product that will be inferior for their usages when compared to other, less expensive products while thinking they are getting a pretty good deal.

Idunno. Just a thought. It just pains me to see people think that they'll be able to use this to comfortably read 400-page novels on a backlit display. I blame Apple. lol.

and so this is the kind of thing that frustrates.

 

Theres a lot of truth in this post.

 

Same can be said when people buy Dell. They hear cheap, same specs as a Mac and jump at the chance to buy it thinking they're gonna get the same great experience as owning a Mac, then they come here and brag about it, but after the plastic starts getting creaky and the usual Dell junk breaks down nobody's bragging anymore.
Bottom line, people buy what's popular, but in the case of the iPad, yes, it WILL be popular, but your post about how the screen doesn't stack up to the Kindle is not even an opinion at this point because you haven't even used it as of yet. Apple obviously is confident that the screen will be very well accepted for eBook reading or they wouldn't be putting cash into a iBook Store.
I don't give a rats behind if the e-ink is a bit better, at the end of the day when I'm done with the set of books that I want to read on the Kindle, I'm stuck with a $500 eBook reading brick that can't do anything else. Just the opposite with the iPad, it does MUCH more and the App store brings endless possibilities for a $500 unit.

 

I voted "not a chance" on the grounds that between my 1201N and my iPod Touch 3G 64GB, I can do everything the iPad can and then some.

 

Not sure for me.
For now.
Biggest killer for me is not suporting any FLASH video format.
I could maybe understand not having one with the 3G model(AT&T would be more overwhelmed by an already overwhelmed network) but c'mon over a WiFi network it should be no brainer.
This would be perfect for it.

 

No!

My laptop could do almost everything that iPad could do. The only great advantages of iPad are ultra portability and touch screen capability. But I am perfectly happy with my laptop portability. As for the touchscreen, I don't like to have fingerprint all over my screen.

 

We can all agree that this would be a great travel assistant over the iPod if you did a lot of long flights and it would make a great multimedia companion... better or worse then other options is all opinionated... but the price makes it a bit difficult to see in my hands instead of a netbook is all. If it was like 299-399 I'd probably buy one, just to play with. The entry-level model is just a little too high priced to buy as a toy. I think at the very least we'll see a slight price drop early in the products life.

 

IF...and it's a big IF...the masses read novels like that (400 pages without ever stopping or taking a break), you would be correct. However, most of us read a few chapters and come back later...kind of like the few sub-forums I catch up on everyday on notebookreview. There is zero threat of any additional eyestrain whether I read those on this laptop I'm typing on, my iMac on my desk, or the iPad.

 

Outside of click through ads, what is Flash necessary for...once html5 is in full force?

 

youtube, crackbook games, business and govt sites ... quite alot actually

second problem is WHEN will html5 be widly implemented, its still in a very much changing DRAFT format

 

All those things will still need flash once HTML5 is in full force?

 

someone correct me if im wrong but HTML5 seems to be almost all the page coding and optimizing of multimedia enhancements made to work WITH flash and other plugins, not to replace them atleast at this point in the development. I dont code websites anymore but some people that I know who do say we wont be getting rid of flash, just updating it and optimizing it more and more with better page enhancements

 

I'll just leave this here:
http://www.joemonster.org/art/13297/iPad_co_o_nim_mysla_internauci_

 

People who think HTML5 will replace flash and other plug-ins are nuts.

HTML5 has the capability to do some pretty cool things, but those cool things are years away from ever coming close to what Flash and actionscripting can do, and thats on top of HTML5 being several years away from even being finalized.

 

They said the same thing about the iPhone, that it would it some years before it would catch on. Now it's one of the biggest successes in the wireless industry in the 2 years it's been out. Don't underestimate how fast the tech industry grows.

 

This isn't about some new product. This is about implementing a new technology to replace/enhance one that the entire world uses that will need to be fully compatible across hundreds of different platforms and cofigurations.

That comparison doesn't even work!

 

Well, Flash may be the "defacto standard" but in terms of video playback it has not been in existence for a long time. Remember Windows Media was vastly becoming the standard until Adobe pushed Flash video to the internet, it happened pretty fast. Doesn't sound like you want HTML5 to hit the street too quickly, I'm very optimistic about it. Flash is dying a slow death.

 

I'm almost lusting for HTML-5, I'm just realistic about when it will likely become the standard.

Do you have any idea how many years Wireless N took to reach a public draft, and THEN it was in draft-N stage for even longer... it's literally just finally been finished and removed out of draft stage.

Apple is claming compatibility, but the format is so far from finished that it may not even work on these devices with out some major updates. That's how far out it is.

The real meat and potatoes is that they don't Flash programs and tools cutting into the app sales.

 

802.11n is a hardware standard, html5 is a software standard.

html5 will work just fine on the iphone in place of flash. the biggest problem is wrapping up the standard, like you said, which could be a while...

and also migrating the internet over to html5 in place of flash...

but device compatibility is a non-issue.

 

I was just using the process as an example, they are very very different technologies for sure. But the process is still very volatile... for all we know, HTML5 could be suddenly abandoned in favor of HTML6 (unlikely, just making a point) and we're pushed even further back... steve is banking on a tech that isn't even done yet, and you just can't assume that is the answer.

If android catches on a bit more, there is going to be some things that steve will have to give in to, and flash might be one of them, otherwise his phone will no longer be the top-dawn in terms of features.

 

Google is pushing HTML5 as well since Apple and Google both have vested interest in it. I don't see Flash being one of the must have things in an iPhone to keep up with Android. Just a few years ago ActiveX was the "standard" that everyone needed to have.

 

I voted not sure......earlier i said no, but now looking at a few things and what i am currently using my tablet for, i just might. But that would only be if i could upload PDF files to it so i can read my own ebooks (Mainly tech).
aside from that i use my current tablet for input at meetings etc. So i would have to do that to be a true replacement.
It would make a good accessory to my MBP.