In what everybody already saw coming for weeks (months) now, Apple has just unveiled its latest product, a tablet called the iPad. Basically a bigger version of the iPhone, Steve Jobs presented the iPad during a press event in San Francisco. The most interesting news? It’s powered by… An Apple processor, called the A4. The most shocking news? The price.
The best way to describe the iPad is to simply take your iPhone, and stretch is on all sides until it has a 9.7″ multitouch display, and replace the plastic back with a brushed aluminium one. Oddly enough, the iPad has a truly massive bezel, which really hinders the aesthetic appeal of the device (at least, that’s my opinion).
Hardware-wise, it all gets a little more interesting. It’s powered by a 1Ghz Apple A4 chip (P.A.Semi, no doubt), and has a battery life of ten hours, and a month’s worth of standby time. It has very little in the way of ports (dock connectors), but comes with WiFi and BlueTooth (some models have 3G). It has the usual accelerometer and compass, and comes with either 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of storage space.
It runs most iPhone applications unmodified, but what about screen size, you wonder? Well, the iPad can either run iPhone applications in their “native” resolution (i.e., a small iPhone-sized window in the middle of the screen, the rest black), or you can tap the 2x button, which will double the pixels, cover the screen, and enter a low-resolution mode. A new SDK is released today, too, so that applications can be modified to run “natively” on the bigger screen.
One such application was a special New York Times application which looks stunning. Videos are embedded within what looks like real newspaper articles, and photos can be maximised in pop-ups. Looks really slick.
Text input is handled by a larger variant of the iPhone’s keyboard, so be prepared to hold the tablet with one hand while typing with the other. A very unimaginative solution, and one that just doesn’t look very comfortable.
What Apple itself showed off software-wise didn’t really impress me at all, in all honesty. Everything looks a bit goofy, because basically what they’ve done is taken the iPhone interface and blow up all the widgets. On top of that, some of the applications have a Microsoft Bob-kind of vibe to them – like the Contacts application looking like a real-world address book. The ghastly wood theme (from Garageband) makes its comeback too in the calendar application.
The home screen has the highest goofiness factor, since it’s filled with the same amount of icons as on an iPhone, and those icons are not even resized, leaving massive whitespace in between. It just looks… Rushed, cobbled together. Very un-Apple.
Usually, Apple shows 3rd parties how it’s done, but with the iPad it feels as if the 3rd party stuff that was demonstrated was far better adapted to the iPad than Apple’s own stuff. Of course, the usual disclaimers apply when it comes to UI: proper judgement can only be made after usage, so take all this with a grain of salt.
E-books are of course an important aspect of the iPad, so Apple showed off something called iBooks. You can buy, read, and organise your e-books in an interface which is more or less an exact copy of Delicious Library. The store currently carries books from Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette book group. Surprisingly good news: it uses the open ePub format!
Apple has also created a version of iWork for the iPad (USD 9.99 per iWorks applications). In other words, they’ve created iPad-specific interfaces for Numbers, Pages, and Keynote, which obviously rely on the multitouch functionality to work. These interfaces, too, sport some truly obnoxious chrome colour and pattern choices.
As said, there’s 3G support in there too, and Apple has negotiated a special deal with At&T (yes, At&T only): USD 14.99 per month for 250MB of data, USD 29.99 per month for unlimited data, and both options include free use of AT&T’s WiFi hotpsots. These are pre-paid; you can cancel any time you wish. International deals will be in place by June, but since all 3G iPads are unlocked and support micro SIMs, you can get them to work anywhere.
And here’s the big shocker. The big whoop-di-doo. The big surprise that really made a lot of people’s eyes pop out, and kind of renders some of the above complaints moot: the price. Apple will sell the cheapest iPad for only USD 499 – which will have 16GB, and no 3G.
The first iPads, the ones without 3G, will start shipping in 60 days; the 3G models will follow 30 days later. There are several accessories as well, such as a regular dock, and even a full-size regular keyboard.
There are of course also a number of things it doesn’t do: it doesn’t have a camera (front nor back), it doesn’t do multitasking, and it’s a completely closed ecosystem, like the iPhone. This renders it useless for my personal needs, as if I were to ever buy a tablet, I’d need the ability to install additional codecs and such so I can play my collection of TV shows and films stored on my media centre.
In conclusion, apart from the price, there’s very little here that impressed me. From the keynote it simply didn’t become clear to me what, exactly, the iPad has to offer over other tablets; text input is still cumbersome, the bezel is massive, and, of course, it comes with problems other, Windows/Linux based tablets do not have: a closed environment, no way of expanding functionality, and so on.
That in and of itself isn’t a problem; usually, Apple’s takes on products come with attention to detail and polish which justifies buying them over competitor’s products. However, I find current tablets inherently useless, and seeing as the iPad doesn’t seem to add any additional functionality to the tablet spectrum, I just can’t come up with a reason to buy one…
…if it wasn’t for the price, of course. USD 499 for the 16GB 3G-less model is one heck of an aggressive price point.
But, my talk is all pointless. I’m a geek (as evidenced by the fact I want Jobs to get on with it so I resume playing Mass Effect 2), and I’m not the target consumer for the iPad. The thing will sell like hotcakes – as Jobs said during the keynote, the iPad is “our most advanced technology in a magical & revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.”
Does that mean I can purchase these and use Calibre to load them on my Kindle?
Wouldn’t count on that. Just because the format is Epub doesn’t mean it won’t be encrypted with Fairplay like everything else from iTunes (except music). iTunes movies are standard MP4 with AAC and H.264, but you still can’t play them on anything but Apple devices unless decrypted. Epub is open, Apple… less so, and you can bet there will be publishers demanding DRM.
IRIC, Fairplay has already been cracked, so assuming that making the books DRM-less wouldn’t be that hard. Well, here’s hoping
On the other hand, if these ebooks have video and sound to them, not exactly sure how that would work either.
They’ll play in on your Windows system with iTunes.
And who, pray tell, develops iTunes? *Duuuuh*
just because a format is open, doesn’t mean it doesn’t support drm. there are plenty of drm epubs out there, it totally depends on where you buy the book.
The A4 is a SOC. And the res is only 1024×768!
I won^aEURTMt speak about this device anymore. The future has never been so obvious.
MadTV 2002: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/131515/ipad/
Not so Cube-shaped after all!
I think Apple have done fantastically well to bring it down to that price – they surprised me and I’m happy about that.
I think Thom’s right about tablets in general. It’s funny how all the people in the tablet video have their legs aloft while they’re typing – typing sat upright will be difficult. That’ll all come out in the wash.
Now, should I get my mum one of these?
That price is just not low enough for me. There’s lots of things I use computers for, that I cannot use this thing to do (including type!). $499 may be an aggressive, impressively low price point given the production cost for the device, but it’s just not low enough for me to be willing to pay it for a device on which I cannot effectively work, type large amounts of text, or play my beloved Team Fortress 2.
$499 only sounds good because all Apple products are really expensive and every Apple pundit expected $899 or ^A§999.
But let’s face it. It is a 10 inch screen + a ARM-like CPU + 16 GB of flash + some RAM (how much?) + cool aluminum body.
$499 is not great for that hardware. $299 would have been.
499 is the initial early adopter price, how quickly will that price drop? (remember the original iphones?)…
Watch the video at apple.com. Phil Schill says in this case things were different.
$199 would be reasonable. ATM this thing is three times more expensive than superior netbooks. And less useful. Or put differently. I can buy a dual core x64 laptop with 500 GB harddisk, 16″ monitor and so on for the same price. Or quad core if it is stationary.
And remember, the prices in Europe will be approx. twice those of USA (it’ll cost the same as the sam440).
What new netbook costs $170? Can those netbook give me 10 hours of battery life and does it weigh less than 2 lbs? If the answer to those two questions are no, then I wouldn’t consider those netbook superior.
Again, missing the point. I’m willing to pay extra not have to carry around a 16″ monitor and to not have a battery eating CPU. In this case a 10-11″ monitor is superior to a 16-17″ monitor and the most important spec for a CPU is measured in Watts not Hertz. There is more to computers than simply counting FLOPS.
Well if you don’t mind paying almost tripple price for a netbook without keyboard then more power to you.
I’m not paying for a netbook without a keyboard, I’m paying for a netbook with 10 hour battery life and weighing less than 2 lbs. Show me this sub $200 netbook with 10 hour battery life that weigh less than 2 lbs and I’ll buy two of them tomorrow.
Well, can’t beat the battery lifetime, but Expert in Denmark are selling netbooks for ~199 US$ (mostly variations on asus eee 90x-series). The weight is around 2.2 lbs so I guess that disqualifies every single one. But okay, you don’t mind missing the keyboard in order to get 10 hours of battery lifetime. Fair enough, that’d be great in the brazilian jungle. The rest of us are never that far away from a plug
Compare that with the price of unlocked cell phones. A Google nexus unlocked is around $530 for a similar speed processor.
I’m still not sure its a great deal. Should a bigger screen cost more, like in TV’s? Or does small size carry a premium?
Well,
compare to this:
https://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/
it is $299.
I checked out the link and that touchbook thing does not even come close. Sorry, I would pay $200 more for a much better integrated system and the wealth of apps that will come out…
Ahh, that’s what I was looking for in a tablet. Unfortunately, I don’t actually need a tablet. In Apple’s defense, they do have more memory and a faster processor.
The price of the iPad goes up significantly when you add the 3G hardware. If they added a camera, and other radios, it’d go up even more.
It’s a luxury item. You don’t need one if you already have a computer so why stop at $299? Why not just sell them for $10 a unit and throw in a free set of steak knives for the first fifty callers?
That would entirely depend on the brand/quality of the steak knives…
Who cares, it’s “free”!
Posturally you’re right but then my physiotherapist obliged me to put my laptop on stand so it probably isn’t an issue that will block its popularity.
This looks to me like a winner as a device that people will want to live with and throw into the backpack when setting off for the weekend.
It marks the beginning of the end of the iPodTouch though and I can imagine more than a few technophiles will ditch theirs for a new iPad.
Really? You can walk down the street listening to music on the 10″ iPad tucked in your back pocket? No, I think not – if anything, it’s the iPad struggling to find a niche between compact devices like iPhone/iPod, and traditional laptops…
Luckily, Apple will also sell you a case that lets you prop the iPad up at an angle on your legs… take a look at the very bottom of this link:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/design/
The case also seems to me to be a no-brainer for pretty much all users, especially the target audience of students who might want to lug this around in a bag full of books. So I think thanks to the case, the leg-slant issue isn’t nearly as problematic as it seems.
700 gramms and 1,3 cm thick is nice. Display is 9,7 inch, which is OK (19 cm ~A— 13 cm).
Everything is backlid .. worthless as a ebook reader.
Good as a gaming device and great for Apple fans.
But I will buy a one of those Android tablet with a high res Pixel Qi screen (1024×600 minimum), that can work without a backlight. I want to read my PDFs. Thank you very much.
Edited 2010-01-27 20:06 UTC
Sounds good, I hadn’t heard of that up to now. Is this the one you mean?
http://www.slashgear.com/notion-ink-tegra-android-smartpad-uses-pix…
Exactly!
This thing blow the iPad out of the water for reading.(although iPad sounds like a womens hygiene product, so maybe water is the wrong word here.)
CES 2010 videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLEtIOBdRIM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy9fPc1yGSU
(It can do “no backlight” and 1080p)
Edited 2010-01-27 23:50 UTC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK2drIylnDw the iPad according to Mad TV.
I can’t seem to find any information about when it (the tegra thingy) will hit the shops, nor about the price, do you have any link to that?
Well, atm it is still vaporware. But if you think about it:
Android is fairly ready and can be customized by a small team.
Nvidia tegra is ready.
Pixel Qi screens seem to be getting along quite well judging from the CES videos.
I really hope they make the June shipping date and hit the price point around $350.
Total iPad killer for me.
More infos:
http://techie-buzz.com/mobile-news/notion-ink-adam-android-tablet.h…
Yeah, I got to play with a friend’s Android mobile phone a few weeks ago. At least to my tastes, the interface was far, far and away superior. I would be much more interested in a tablet running Android at a lower price-point.
Heh, altho, I suppose I still don’t know if I’d actually buy it. As I’ve said before, a tablet would have to be… pretty cheap indeed, to get me to spring for it.
Agreed. I was hoping that Apple would do something cool with the screen. And while some people might consider a glossy IPS screen cool, it is not at all what I want. My main use case for this sort of device is reading PDF and HTML documents. Glossy IPS screens aren’t conducive to that. I really hope those Pixel Qi screen based tablets start leaving the proof of concept stage and start entering stores near me. I want a tablet, I have $500, but unfortunately the iPad isn’t quite what I want.
I agree. I’m actually more excited about an Android device with Pixel Qi tech now than I was before the iPad announcement.
Not sure exactly what to think about the iPad (what a very unoriginal name). On one hand, it’s basically everything a tablet should be and at, surprisingly for Apple and tablets in general, a reasonable price point. It could very easily give most netbooks a serious run for their money.
On the other hand, however, it’s more app store lock-in and Apple gatekeeping… and of course more iTunes and no doubt Apple’s continuing attempts to lock the device to iTunes. I’m not surprised by this, just a little saddened. I have an iPhone and really like it but for the Apple control factor. I knew that going in, and I was ok with it on my phone as I don’t feel I need much geek stuff on my phone/PDA. I don’t think, however, I’d be ok with it on a device like this. I’d want more power and more control, and I’d certainly want to be able to manage my documents that I’d make in iWork without iTunes. For a device that, for all intents and purposes would replace my laptop, I wouldn’t want to be locked in to any one particular desktop platform no matter how much I like OS X.
As a long time open source advocate I respect your view point.
On the other hand: my heart delights at the absence of need for anti-virus, anti-malware and all the other paraphenalia that distract me from productive activities and make 64bit megaputers perform just like the 16bit micros of 20 years ago.
The AppStore gatekeeping is a particular value proposition for that vast proportion of the population who aren’t ubergeeks and do just want something that just works. There will be other value propositions around as part of the market scene – so get over it.
On the other hand, it also means you can’t get any apps without Apple’s stamp of approval, which really sucks, and severely cripples the device, IMHO. The right thing to do would be to make it closed by default, but also make it so that people who wanted to could open it up, but make that process JUST hard enough so that Joe Sixpack couldn’t do it accidentally and hurt himself.
Plus, many people (including me) find iTunes to be particularly repulsive. I wouldn’t install that piece of sh*t unless I absolutely had to, and then it would only go in a VM. If the app store(s) just worked in a web browser, with a tiny sync app that ran when you needed to transfer stuff, it would not be so bad.
And if Apple’s reasons were to keep out malware, I wouldn’t object. Their reasons, however, are often politically motivated or else designed to stamp out any competition to their own apps. Anyone want to bet that iWork will be the only office sweet you can get on the iPad? Not that iWork is bad as I actually do like the Mac version, but my point is I shouldn’t be locked into it if I don’t want to be. I want to choose which wordprocessor I use, is that such a bad thing? Further, Apple has already proven they can’t keep out all malware, remember the phishing app that got through a while back? I don’t necessarily dislike the idea of gatekeeping, I just don’t like the way Apple does it. And my opinion can be expressed here too, so get over it.
Considering QuickOffice ( http://www.quickoffice.com/quickoffice_iphone/ ) already exists on the iPhone and can run unmodified on the iPad, I’ll take that bet.
When was the last time you got a virus on OSX? Possible? yes. Probable: no. That was neither a driving force for the closed environment, nor a real benefit.
Its missing one HUGE thing in my book.
No pressure-based stylus input.
Only reason I could see getting one of these is if I could use it as a portable easel. Otherwise its really nothing more than a larger iTouch.
Not to say there won’t be some add-on down the line, but until I see one I’m not at all interested.
Reasonable pricing at $499? Woot, it three times more expensive than a netbook with similar stats. Not to mention you can get much faster laptops for less than that. Come on, it is 2500 DKK (I can get quadcore for that price).
It does appear that Apple is trying to position the iPad as basically a high-end/boutique netbook. What remains to be seen, IMO, is whether it competes successfully against existing ebook readers & netbooks – or if it ends up in a no-man’s land between the two (too limited to compete with netbooks, too expensive to compete with ebook readers).
If nothing else, hopefully it will put an end to the silly claim that the iPhone/iPod touch is a netbook.
P.S.
Regarding the unusually-large bezel, I suspect it’s meant to give you something to grip, so you’re not pressing your thumb into the screen the whole time you’re using the device.
But yeah, it does give the screen a bit an early-90s laptop look.
Edited 2010-01-27 20:22 UTC
It’s a touch-screen, no? Won’t you pressing your fingers into it most of the time you’re using it, by design?
No, you need to hold the damn thing somehow, right?
Yes, exactly. FINALLY. Someone else realized you had to hold the device.
I^aEURTMm sorry but the bezel is still too big, even for that purpose. at least from what I can see on the pics out there.
It remains to be seen when we get to actually touch and see the device.
removed
Edited 2010-01-28 06:01 UTC
Shhh! Don’t tell that to the designers at Apple, they don’t know yet..
Mea culpa, I wasn’t terribly clear; you usually don’t apply constant pressure to one spot on a touch screen. I suspect that would cause damage to the screen before too long, or at least result in a dark spot where you thumbs pressed against it.
The winking smiley… I was trying to be witty. And apparently, I failed utterly.
Yeah, I realized your comment was in jest… then I got self-conscious and noticed that my original post hadn’t been clear.
He’s saying: you don’t want to be triggering false inputs merely by holding it. If the screen goes to the edge, mere grasping is going to cause unintended input.
Id still hit it!
I don’t understand why many people (including Thom) are complaining about the bezel. You can’t hold the device in your hand like an iPhone, you have to hold it as you would a piece of paper. Thumb on the front and your fingers on the back. If the screen ran all the way to the edge… how would you hold the device?
I do agree that the home screen is really inelegant. It reminds me of the Android tablets I’ve seen. They even picked a scenic landscape for it.
I just don’t understand how the device is supposed to be between smartphones and laptops when there isn’t even multitasking. The dogmatic insistence that I do one thing at a time is extremely frustrating at this point.
I’m also exceptionally disappointed with how they handled 3G. If you’re going to pay for the jump from WiFi to 3G you’re making quite a commitment. It’s not an addon, or module that could be resold or returned if you decide you don’t like it, and with AT&T people are guaranteed not to like it.
AT&T’s 3G network is best described as fragile. I can have perfect 3G coverage one moment, and then none at all the next –in the same location! It’s grotesque that they would ally themselves with a company that is seemingly incapable of sustaining the data-heavy devices they already sell.
Having it carrier unlocked is silly. Assuming they bothered to support T-Mobile’s frequencies you’re still stuck with a sub-par experience. Unless, by some miracle, the jump to 3G costs so much because they put an EV-DO chip in it.
Well at least the unlocked 3G support will play well in Europe, where there’s more choice of HSDPA mobile internet providers and they don’t all suck
.
Removed, replied to wrong comment.
Edited 2010-01-27 22:01 UTC
and where is the stylus option?
That’s the main reason I’d get a tablet, so I can scribble down notes…
Use your fingers.
I suppose I could try it… but I have big fat fingers. the last thing I want to see is how detailed notes and diagrams show up on a touch screen. I have trouble pressing touch screen buttons accurately.
Maybe they’ve come up with some super technology that can detect my finger nail or something…
For the older Ipods, there was mits or gloves with conductive fabric on the finger tips so one didn’t need to removed there gloves when skiing and such. If this has the same conductive sensing in the screen then that fabric wrapped around a stylus should give you a nice pencil point.
You can buy a stylus that works on the iPhone for 50 cents … I bet it will work on this too … personally I prefer keyboard/fingers but that’s just me.
]{
Pogo Sketch:
http://tenonedesign.com/sketch.php
That is the solution. though still looks a bit fat… but for sure better than my finger.
Edited 2010-01-27 23:10 UTC
Amazon has a app for the iPhone/iTouch doesn’t it? That would mean you could buy from them and read on the iPad.
This will piss all you whiners off on how fast this sells out.
Heh, I’ll take that bet.
Of course it’s going to sell out! Those who are affected by Apple’s RDF will see to it!
A lot of people (you?) would buy a polished piece of poop as long as there is an Apple logo on it somewhere.(I stole that quote from the twit.tv mac pundits live broadcast. So there is still some R left in the RDF.)
I really don’t care if it sells or not. It will be good for gamers and lamers, but if it doesn’t multitask and doesn’t work without a backlight I AM NOT BUYING.
Just because you’re not the target audience doesn’t automatically make it a piece of poop.
“This will piss all you whiners off on how fast this sells out.”
Simple question. Do you think this will be the success that was iPhone, original iPods, MacBook Air, or even the iTouch?
Honest answer, please.
I have no doubt that Apple will sell a good bunch of these things. Their marketing, their name/reputation, their fans, and their slick packaging, all pretty much guarantee at least moderate success.
But I’m also wondering if will expand sales, or if it will cannibalize iTouch or MacBook sales.
I’m kind of scratching my head on this one. It just seems like a bigger iTouch, or even an overpriced Netbook with the keyboard hacked off.
And, as Thom noted, it seems like it lacks the polish, attention to detail, and general slickness of past Apple products.
Considering Apple doesn’t make a product called the iTouch…..
Jesus people, it’s an iPod.
Right. Just like the Newton, the Pippin, the Cube, the Apple TV, and all the other innumerable Apple failures that I’m forgetting.
I am not suprised that multitasking is not supported yet, but it wouldnt suprise me at all if it shows up in the iphone os 4.0 release. I wonder what PowerVR core is powering the graphics on this thing.
Exactly. Until they finalize 4.0 why turn on multitasking. It’s not that difficult to figure out.
How do we know that it won’t support multitasking at release? I didn’t get around to watching the Stevenote yet–did he specifically say that?
Me either, this is Apple we’re talking after all. AKA the company that, as recently as 10 years ago, was still trying to push a cooperatively-multitasking piece of garbage that didn’t even include proper memory management/protected memory. Though the funny things is that even OS9 was less restricted in its multitasking abilities than the iPhone.
…I will hold out for a year as I am sure there will be some serious updates to both the hardware and software in that time.
My next costly purchase will be a better graphics card for some of the awesome upcoming games… and some that have been recently released. My old 9800GTX+ just ain’t gonna cut it for much longer.
Wow, I’m still on 8800GT, and I thought it was holding up pretty well, lol.
The first person to implement swype as an app to the iPad will make a ton of money in the App Store…
Yes, this is not a product for you. Go back to your cave and play your FPS on your shiny Windows PC! Leave the cool stuff to the rest of us. Thanks again for your inane insight.
OH MY GOD! Cheap and functional Windows PCs, that run actual, feature-rich, productive software and play actual visually impressive, nontrivial games are just not Apple hip! I and my Windows gaming system are going to burn in practical, non-glamorous Not-Apple-Hip hell! What can I do?
Quick! I must send Apple $500! Maybe they’ll mail me an entry-level Token of Hip, and save my soul from such a wretched fate!
Whoah, calm down, mate. For most people it’s really not that bad…
Come to think of it, what do most people do with computers?
Music-check
Mail-check
Photos-Check
Video-check
Web/books-check
Play light games-check
Get it?
Print^aEUR”oh wait!
…because you have some inside knowledge of exactly what it will be capable of at release?
And where, you suppose, we plug the printer in? Not all wireless printers use a standard interface, and most have to be installed and configured via the USB cable first. Out of the box, the iPad could only hope to support five, maybe six different printers.
Google are trying to solve that problem with Chrome OS, but frankly, Apple could care less. Buy a Mac to print, obviously.
The USB Port, or the Wifi access on your printer or the wifi to your base station that has a printer slaved off via an ethernet port.
And where do you think you’ll find drivers? DUUUHHHH
Bonjour? CUPS in the OS (being ^aEURoeunix^aEURlike?
It is possible.
Not all printers are included in cups. I had to use a printer driver from the manufacturer.
Or Bluetooth.
Print is dead.
Just read it on your iPad.
The most interesting and disturbing thing about your post is that it is not sarcasm — at least, I assume it’s not?
Print is not dead, SADLY.
(should be)
There is nothing more satisfying to tote, read, and share, than a dead tree.
And they don’t need recharging.
Too big to be a PMP? Check.
Too small to be the center-piece of a home media center? Check.
An actual use case? …huh, uhm, well…
No, not really, more people stare into tiny Youtube windows than on TVs now. Or they will in a couple of years.
Kroc, you don’t need to print much with is kind of device. Me myself have not printed a single page since I have Goodreader in my iPhone. And nobody’s taking your printer from your real computer, or from computer at your workplace.
The point is, people can do all those things without needing to hassle with cryptic concepts like folder structure, intricate drop down menus or needing to worry about updating, backing up, malware or whatever.
iPad does make sense.
Edited 2010-01-27 22:36 UTC
I know, I know:
Another gadget for a hardcore apple fan?
Does it need any other usage?
porn…check
Might as well wait for the Skiff reader.
well I was guessing that the apple tablet would have great software at a crazy price, but instead they gave me lackluster software at a good price.
Lack of multitasking kills it for me. A device this size and price need multitasking in my opinion. The fact that this is basically a scaled up iphone OS is a bit disappointing, I was hoping for something more like a scaled down OSX with an iphone emulation layer or something. Still I have to admit the hardware is tempting. And some of the new apps are cool, not like they couldn’t have been done on a normal pc, but I guess the promise of apple lock in and drm gave them the motivation to actually try something new.
I’ll be passing on the first gen devices and wait for apple to release the inevitable multitasking os update, and for the equally inevitable android knockoff to see how it stacks up.
Also I would also like the ability to connect this thing to an external hard drive and grab all my media, the article was unclear. Will itunes be the gatekeeper of all media on this thing or can I pull stuff in from elsewhere. If I can this get more tempting.
I predict good sales, though not at the iphone or ipod level. It might kill the itouch though, its pretty much the ipad mini now.
Well, you will at least be able to transfer photos and self-recorded videos from a camera via USB or an SD card…
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
(scroll down to the bottom)
…but whether any other media will be copyable remains to be seen.
Edited 2010-01-27 22:16 UTC
There’s an API for that.
A very strange failing on a 21st century device.
Back in the late 90s my old Psion 5, with its 18Mhz ARM CPU and 4Mb memory (RAM/storage combined), could happily multitask different apps.
It may not be such an issue for a phone, but for a product positioning itself between a laptop and a smartphone, with such a relatively high spec, a non-multitasking OS seems like an anachronism.
Hardly seem to understand where it fits and who would use it. The cost is also on the higher side. You can get a light weight laptop for the same cost. Its a no buy thing for me
The only thing that Apple really nailed for this product is marketing. I can’t believe how people were falling all over themselves about how Apple would revolutionize how we interact with a computer, and now this??!! Come’on even you die-hard fanboys have to admit that after all the hype of the previous weeks, this thing is very underwhelming. It’s basically a scaled up IPhone. I remember the comments about some of the apple fans about the crunchpad news here. That thing is/was infinitely more useful and better looking than the IPhone, but a lot of you guys were saying it’s useless and to wait for the “oh-so-great” ISlate (or whatever it was called at the time).
With the IPad I really fail to see what it great about it. No multitasking, that’s just stupid on a device like this. A normal TFT, makes it useless for reading IMO. You can only install apps from the appstore, that’s a total dealbreaker. I don’t want an Apple approve what sort of programs I can or can’t install on my PC.
Agreed on the multitasking. But as for being underwhelmed, I’m not. A scaled-up iPhone was exactly what I was expecting, based on the rumors I had read; anything predicted beyond that was obviously dreamed up by fanboys with no grasp on reality. And as far as delivering a scaled-up iPhone goes, I’d say they did a pretty decent job.
Actually, you^aEURTMre correct, and the iPhone already changed the way we intereact with computers^aEUR| or you^aEURTMve already forgotten about that?
Some ppl^aEUR|
How has the iPhone changed anything in regard to computers? I haven’t seen a single iPhone user interacting with computers differently than non-iPhone users.
But perhaps you meant something else?
Clearly^aEUR| a lot of applications, devices, developers, etc. are not extracting ideas, copying; empowering, altering and god knows what else, taking the iPhone (UI and Device) as a model^aEUR|
C^aEURTMmon. The whole computer business has changed because of the iPhone. You may like it or not, but that^aEURTMs something that anyone can see. There^aEURTMs an after and before the iPhone in the tech industry. Computers are no exception.
I^aEURTMve seen a few applications add micro details based upon ideas that came from the iPhone UI. Heck we did that in our own Windows application for Dentists. You may not like the device or Apple or whatever, but as the Mouse changed things back then, the iPhone UI and multitouch surfaces are changing it now.
The iPad, is the 1st iteration of what might be very common in the future. Time will tell.
I personally would have added a Camera (for video conference) and it^aEURTMs a very good companion for travelers interested in their media and staying online while on the road. Multitasking would^aEURTMve been nice (to keep, for example, an IM Session running in the background without resorting to ^aEURoepush^aEUR).
Holy… Just… Wow.
You really believe that, don’t you? I like my Iphone but… Dude, you need to lay off the IV.
You might want to know that I do not own an iPhone (although many co-workers here do, so I have access to the device). I had a 1st Gen one for about a month, then it broke and didn^aEURTMt feel like buying another, given that I really only use the phone as phone and even then, I rarely use it.
I also had an iPhone 3GS for a couple of weeks (courtesy of a friend). It^aEURTMs a very nice device, and I still think that it has changed the computer industry as a whole (and the phone industry as well). Now I^aEURTMm back at my old Nokia (and pretty much useless) but very small and simple to use as a Phone. Also I can drop/lose this cheap nokia and they give me another one for free.
I insist, iPhone changed it all. Google, Nokia, LG, Motorola? started to think in terms of iPhoneish^aEUR|
You claimed it changed the entire tech industry – I’m sure if the impact is that profound, you can surely come up with numerous examples quite easily, right?
Obviously, the iPhone’s success impacted the phone business – but the entire tech industry? How? Where? What?
Nevermind. The iPhone didn^aEURTMt change anything but the phone industry.
I haven’t seen a single thing that the iPhone has inspired on desktop computers. Nor have I seen anything related to iPhone apps.
I think you are overestimating the impact of the iPhone, unless you can come with a list of iPhone elements commonly found on the desktop. Which part of the interface (and device) can be commonly found?
Personally I have the opinion that the iPhone has had zero impact on the desktop. It has however had major impact on cellphones.
Hmmn, you buy an iPad and with it, for a monthly subscription, you also buy a channel package – a bundle of newspapers and magazines, delivered daily over the air courtesy of iTunes. Or perhaps you would prefer a bundle of videos, or both, or more. Apple takes a generous cut and passes what’s left on to the publishers. Yup, I see this device as a conduit and if it is relatively inexpensive to buy then the cost of actually using it to do much more than play Solitaire will probably turn out to be reassuringly expensive. This is all about getting in there and trying to own the territory and establish income streams from big media’s content before the wintel boyos get a chance. Locking out Intel in favour of a homebrew chip probably isn’t a coincidence.
If there is a catch then where I live (the UK) it is that over-air content delivery is already so congested it barely works. One thing which could really dent the iPad is lack of capacity in mobile networks.
A Few Years Ago
I banned newsprint from my house, I get 90% of my info on the web maybe more. If it weren’t for the kids I could drop cable TV. Now If I am guessing correctly this box has most of my entertainment and light browsing functionality right there. I often will check my bank account from my iPhone it takes 8 seconds from a locked phone to get to the login ( after that the network is the slowdown)
I hope the publishers will be able to make a comeback. The people who seem to need ‘newsprint’ were born before Viet Nam ( the baby boomers) that dawn is long given. I think that I probably consume more independent media now that I can open eight maybe ten news sites at a glance and follow maybe a dozen web comics. A decade ago I doubt that I would read even one paper. Media cries that it is not getting enough from revenue. Well That isn’t Apple or Google. they are taking web revenue to support a print shop that is closed
This is a reactionary product. Sure, they’re beating most of the competition to market, but it’s still a reaction to the perception that you better have a tablet in 2010, especially if you’re Apple.
A 10″ iPhone isn’t such a bad thing, but with devices announced that make better ereaders and tablets than this, well, I think we’re all a little surprised that this is all Apple had up their sleeve.
Nothing to see here. There are going to be Android tablets in 2010 that are cooler than this, and I really don’t like Android very much. WebOS blows it away. Now there is an os I’d like to see on a tablet.
Funny, how Apple site says “widescreen”, when it is in fact 4:3 format (which isn’t bad, just interesting that people wouldn’t buy it, if it didn’t have a widescreen display?)
I don’t buy one, I prefer my Intel Centrino Duo tablet with a real Wacom stylus…
Frankly, it’s a bit disappointing. This gadget isn’t cheap enough for basic usage and not powerful enough for advanced one. No GPS? No camera? Disappointing.
However, it could have a good chance in learning and education even if it would have been much better with a lower price tag. Education is however a great opportunity for tablets as well as vertical markets are (like LoB apps). That’s another good chance for iPad.
I don’t see it for widespread usage. But this is first generation and usually Apple isn’t very good at first try (first iPhone anyone?).
Device is sleak but hasn’t a very good position in market. Do you really think people will buy this to read New York Times?
No, but they might buy it for Facebook.
That’s a damn expensive facebook reader.
Heck, just a few weeks ago I picked up a core duo (socket upgradeable to core duo 2) dell laptop with a larger screen, more memory, more storage, a backlit TFT LCD, and …
Oh yeah, it can multitask, or run any other OS / Software I want to put on it.
If it ran a full OS X and not a scaled up iPod touch OS, we’d have a fairly compelling product. But the software has castrated this thing out of the gate.
PA Semi should have stuck with a PPC core, so they could have leveraged the whole OS, and not just the parts they’ve ported to ARM.
I wonder if they’ll call the next generation the Max iPad? I know… I know…
Seriously, this is a product without a purpose. Like that speaker thing they made for the iPod a few years back. The AppleTV is more compelling.
Funny, because 3rd party software support and the App Store mechanism is the best argument for buying the tablet.
The range and quality of games & apps available for ^Alb5.99 or less, plus the number of apps specifically designed for multitouch, accelerometer, compass and so on, far from castrate the device.
EDIT: I appreciate the point – the iPhone/iPad shouldn’t need apps to work around the fact you can’t mount them like a USB stick, for instance. You seem very angry though – go get someone to port Haiku to it and see if you like it more then!
Edited 2010-01-28 14:57 UTC
I have some trouble with that assertion. The app store really hasn’t worked that well for me: most of the apps I’ve bought haven’t worked very well, if at all. I’ve tried a number of LDAP access apps, none of which currently work, and a number of task list apps, none of which have working integration with either my office exchange system or Google Tasks — and I require at least one of those. I’ve tried a couple of the cute “light games” apps, only to find them… not nearly satisfactory for a heavy gamer (If I want to game on the go, it’s going to be with my PSP, with it’s much more deep and engaging games. I’ll try iPhone gaming again when someone credibly ports Tekken 6 to it.).
Pretty much the only apps that I use now are the eBay and Amazon apps, the web browser and mail reader distributed with the OS, and occasionally, an RSS reader I downloaded. Value added? Sure, but not much.
But that’s just me: judging by the phone’s success, other people apparently just love the iPhone app store, and have tons and tons of amazing apps they use all the time.
Can someone explain what the mass appeal of this is?
It’s no replacement for an iPhone or iPod for obvious reasons, and for many tasks it isn’t much of a replacement for a NetBook either.
I guess it’s a neat portable entertainment centre, great for watching videos, web browsing, and playing touch screen games, but is that enough?
Personally I think that the iPhone will be pretty stiff competition for this device. The iPhone’s size is a pretty good compromise between portability and access to internet, entertainment and ebooks. Anything much larger, like the iPad, and it isn’t so convenient to carry with you. The iPhone’s a cheaper option, and occasionally it’s even useful as a phone too. How many iPhone owners will drop another $500+ on one of these?
The iPad seems like a niche product to me.
Speaking as someone who doesn’t already own an iPhone, a netbook or an eBook reader, I actually find this class of product pretty appealing.
It’s got enough screen real estate to make me actually want to browse the web with it for long periods of time (unlike an iPhone, which seems good for quick spurts of browsing but annoying for anything longer). Also, there are plenty of times when I would have liked to use my laptop to read while reclining on my couch, but the range of positions I can assume is severely limited compared to what I could do with a tablet device. The same applies for netbooks as well. Not to mention that the battery life is actually conducive for long reading sessions, which again can’t be said about netbooks or notebooks.
And finally, the multitouch is just cool, and the possibilities for what developers can do with so much real estate go way beyong what is possible on the iPhone. Admittedly I’m an interaction design freak and get much more excited about this kind of thing than the average person, but I predict that the real magic of this technology will become clearer and clearer as more and more developers find new ways of using it.
In the end though it’s basically all about lifestyle. Sure, I don’t *need* to lie down while reading stuff or surfing the web, and sure I don’t *need* to read that stuff on a big screen nor do I *need* to be unplugged from the wall for 10 hours at a time. Nor does being able to “touch the web” provide any obvious advantage. But the overall user experience and combined convenience of all these things is what gives this form factor that extra edge over a smartphone/netbook.
IMHO, YMMV.
Yeah, I thought the whole point of the phone becoming a computer was device convergence — so you don’t have to carry five things, and you can use one device that’ll fit in your pocket….
Oh, that’s right, this is a reach-around for the analysis at Gartner.
Looks like Apple is banking on making up for the price cut via accessory sales. (Of course this isn’t new, it’s been going on with the MacBooks for years.) If you figure that the “essential” accessories include a keyboard dock, a protective case, a wall-wart charger, and a camera connection kit, you’ve already got an extra $100 or more right here….
I don’t understand why the iPod Touch doesn’t support Netflix yet!? I’m not going to pay the ridiculous rate for each individual program at the iTunes store. The iPad would be a great platform for paying that flat monthly rate for online movie content.
Because Neflix requires crap software from Microsoft?
If they just started using streaming MPG4, it would “just work.”
Funny, it “just works” on my Windows 7 PC. Never had any problem with watching Netflix videos on it.
Oh wait, that can’t be possible, since I use Windows, right? I must have loads of viruses, random OS crashes, malware, etc. etc. How silly of me to think I don’t deal with any of those things.
I still want an iPod Touch. They can keep the iPad, I see it floundering in the no-man’s land, sitting next to Apple TV.
$499 is still WAY too overpriced. $499 for the 32GB version, maybe. SSD isn’t that expensive anymore.
I’ll wait til V2.0 comes out. There’s nothing to see here.
I doubt that I will ever buy one of these devices. In that form factor, I need a device with a keyboard. A soft touch keyboard isn’t going to cut it. And the lack of a multitasking OS is a pretty glaring omission. No thanks.
They’re selling an optional external keyboard for it – see http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs.
(I wonder if that’ll work with the iPhone?)
apple finally makes a device in an attempt to catch up with the rest of the world (remember, tablets with Vista / XP and netbooks ?), but somehow people say it is “revolutionary”. And the OS is the iPhone OS? WTF? We should have been given atleast a useable version of OSX.
iPad = next Apple Newton, in terms of pure, epic FAIL.
Ya know, I’m not sure if this type of device can actually succeed, or really has a market, or really has a decent use case.
And if Apple, with their great marketing and packaging and product track record, can’t succeed with a Slate type product, then you can pretty much nail the coffin shut on Slate devices.
[sarcasm]
And if Microsoft, with their 90% market share and product track record, can’t succeed with a search product, then you can pretty much nail the coffin shut on search services.
[/sarcasm]
You can never count out the little guys with the big ideas…especially those working out of their garage. Just ask Jobs.
Or ask Bill Gates.
Apple isn’t run out of a garage, and is hardly a little guy, at least in terms of revenue.
(um, pretty sure he was referring to the origins of the company, not present-state. Same with my comment on Gates. IBM thot Gates was a dope, figured there would never be any money in the software. Oops.)
I don’t see any evidence of that. If you look at it from a market share position, then Apple is a small company compared to MS, but compared to most companies, Apple is very large and successful
Rockwell’s correct. My point was that the OP was basically saying if Apple can’t make it work, then no-one can…which is just silly. Never say never.
Personally, I think Apple botched this one. If they’d just added a front-facing camera and a USB port, it’d be hailed as the ‘Next Big Thing’ the world over. Without them it’s just…to quote CNN..”a big iPod Touch”.
I understand they do these things to ensure an upgrade path for v2.0, but it’s bloody annoying all the same.
the point: ——>
BlueNoseJake: *
Ok the bezel is massive but necessary to hold it with your lovely fingers without interfering with the touchscreen, right ?
Otherwise the product looks ace to me… They clearly made the table pc a reality while MS was occupied by who knows what
Edited 2010-01-27 23:56 UTC
http://www.pidjin.net/2010/01/25/iwish/
I wish this would have happened at the Apple event…
))
I still don’t get it, why are people even saying this thing is cheap at $499? If you compare with something like the entourage edge (http://www.entourageedge.com/entourage-edge.html), the Ipad does really offer much at all.
http://www.fakesteve.net/2010/01/live-blog-will-be-here.html
Some highlights:
“9:46^aEUR“ woz just arrived. He^aEURTMs high.”
“10:14^aEUR“touch screen^aEUR“who^aEURTMd a thunk it? just click on a story with your finger and you can read a story from ny times. they said this couldn^aEURTMt be done.
10:16^aEUR“ if i keep talking about how fast it is, maybe people won^aEURTMt notice how slow it is. see how i do that? i say i^aEURTMm ^aEURoezipping around^aEUR and you don^aEURTMt notice that it takes 4 seconds to load a graphics heavy page.
10:18^aEUR“ something is wrong. why are the hacks not sighing and gasping and cheering?”
“10:51^aEUR“and wow you can watch baseball on it. it^aEURTMs just like watching on your TV, only smaller. amazing. it^aEURTMs called ‘paving the cowpath.’ have you heard of it?”
“10:56^aEUR“ just like Kindle, only more expensive. and you know you want it. and yes i did once say that e-readers were pointless because nobody reads books anymore. and now i^aEURTMm making one. does this make sense? absolutely.”
seriously.
…as I don’t have time to read all 7 pages (so far) of replies, but…
I think this machine is not for me or Thom or other so called geeks. It’s not intended for the technically minded. This is the computer for the rest of “them”
I’ve been thinking about it for the past few hours and realised that if you just need a computer for “home” stuff, photos, e-mail, video, the odd simple game, chatting, reading books, newspapers, magazines and reference material…
If you need a computer to tell you the time, weather, stocks, football results, tide times and so on…
If you need a computer to look up a recipe or two…
If you need a computer to do all the things an iPhone can do…
If you need a computer to browse the net.
If you need a computer to set up a simple home budget, write a letter to someone or create a keynote presentation (powerpoint)…
If you need a computer do the “life” stuff that Apple promotes…
Then this could be the computer for you (somethings in there I am assuming will be written as I haven’t seen them yet, such as Keynote and Pages)…
Remember a very important thing, it can bind to a keyboard, so you can prop it up on a desk and use it that way.
I have given my Mum my old Macs (starting around OS 8.6 I think) up till Snow Leopard because I didn’t want her ringing me for support every 2 hours. I rarely hear from Mum with any problems (she did manage to put a mailbox folder inside another one the other day and thought she’d lost it)…
Now imagine if Mum had this UI instead of OS X, this one is even simpler.
This machine is for those that hate computers because they are too hard…
There is one caveat however. If this is your “first” computer, you will also need to figure out how to set up a wifi modem too, not something those that “hate” technology will enjoy…
I also think it needs a camera too, this would allow you to do so much more with one…
Where this will really shine is Education I think. I can imagine the kinds of apps that will be written to demonstrate physics (pushing an object into another one) or reading with animated characters that kids can move around. Even a simple finger painting app would be very nice (and much cleaner) for the teacher. Plus they can print them when done (if needed). That is just scratching the surface…
This device has a huge potential because it has a easy to use finger UI for everything (not just selected apps) with a touch screen, and it’s priced much lower than Apple usually price things, it’s in the range of “cheap”. Apple can now take on the netbook without having one…
Once multitasking is added in 4.0 it will be very nice indeed…
Again, and please note this, not intended for the geek as such, but for everyone else…
Looks like an awesome product that is going to tempt me to purchase one in the future – hopefully the 3G model will arrive in New Zealand. There has been comparisons to other devices such as the kindle with one small problem – many of these alternatives are either considerably more expensive or are not available outside the United States. Kindle looks like a great piece of hardware but I am located in New Zealand and I am unable to purchase it – for all intents and purposes it might as well not exist.
60 days is a long time in the world of IT – it will be interesting to see what Apple pull out of the hat in regards to iPhone OS and possible multitasking. What also comes to mind will be whether the A4 processor will eventually find its way into other Apple products such as the iPhone and iPod Touch. I’m kind of interested in hearing hopefully in the near future an Arstechnica article where the processor is broken down, examined and how it compares to other ARM CPU implementations.
don’t have webcam
big border around screen
not multistaking
don’t support flash
is not magical, it’s just an evolution…
i think we can do more with oter tablet with windows 7, android and linux
when i see the price of a smartq, i find the ipad very expansive
I don’t know if this is going to be the next big change in the computing landscape.
Many of the comments you all are making, I made about netbooks. I have yet to buy one (still have my old Powerbook G4 12″ working fine with a new battery). Could this be the Netbook-killer? It does everything netbooks do… better battery life out of the box… better software… useful applications that connect people with the things they like to do… smaller… thinner… fun… cool.
Of course, it could be a fail, because many tablet PCs are terrible.
But Apple spent as much time talking about the iPad as a device as it did about the software supporting it.
Apple couldn’t do this without the iTunes store and all of the cool stuff it offers. Simple application updates? Pretty awesome security? Colorful and useful apps? Great music selection? Videos, tv shows, movies? eBooks now?
This may become many people’s main computer, especially since you can mount it on a keyboard and type away.
I’m intrigued, but I want to touch it and play it with before I am sold.
Am I the only one to reckon that the iphoneos is structurally multitasking ? It’s based on BSD and it runs a dozen/hundred process in the background (this IS multitasking). They decided to restraint the ability to run several non builtin app simultaneously, ok, but that’s an arguably and arbitrary choice totally unrelated to multitasking. Have anyone tried an android phone ? Once 3 apps are started you dont know how to switch, which one is Still resident or not, and it ends up with a task manager
Regarding the iPhone it doesn’t bother me, for the iPad it might be an issue, but for god’s sake it’s not a question of multitasking
You’re absolutely right. The nimrods on here refuse to see the distinction though
The UI doesn’t support multitasking, so they assume the OS does not.
This is a UI problem for Apple to solve. Nothing more.
Which they have either refused to do or failed to do so far…
Android doesn’t have a good multitasking paradigm, it’s really disappointingly like Windows Mobile, everything multitasks by default and half the time the only way to stop something is a task manager. Something more like WebOS’s “cards” is very good, needs no task manager, and scales well. (Palm’s latest WebOS phone can run over 50 apps at once!) iPhone needs something like WebOS’s cards, though I hope for the sake of Palm they don’t do it.
Someone said the name was “unoriginal”. I’d say so! I already own 2 iPads, both of which run a form of BeOS!
Like another manufacturers product: http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8900/nonamet.jpg
Steve Jobs said that Apple “can’t build a netbook that doesn’t suck”. He was right.
Looks like the cult will support anything Apple puts out. This looks like a large mutated iPod Touch. Revolution? Hardly.
Apple left me behind long ago when they stopped caring about personal computing and started caring about their ability to control the App Store.
Still trying to get a connection to watch it.
Why can’t Apple make the event a download on iTunes and spare the interested the QT streaming suffering?
It will be available as part of the Apple Keynotes podcast feed, but I don’t see it there yet. Look for it on iTunes.
It’s there, finally!
under “Apple annouces iPad”
Just like the iPhone and iPod release there seems to be a lot of nerdfury being thrown about about this latest product.
Analysts, the media and the general population (i.e. non-geeks) are welcoming it.
That’s usually how you can tell Apple are onto something good.
Somehow I’ve got the feeling that this thing must be a pain to hold. I prefer the ThinkPad tablets, if you have the big battery, you can hold it pretty comfortably. But holding the iPad might not be the most comfortable experience, I guess…
The dream is, we will have our own proprietary processor that no-one else uses. This will make it almost impossible to port our OS or apps to any other device. Then, we will control all the apps that are loaded onto our device, by making everyone go through the app store. Then, we’ll compel use of iTunes to buy any media or apps. Finally we will cover the thing with proprietary connectors. And we will cover our media with proprietary DRM so you can’t buy from anyplace else, or take your stuff you buy from us to any other platform.
And you will all stand and salute the insanely great!
I expected more from apple, not because of the hype but because of what they have done before.
Personally like it has been quoted on every forum that this really is an XL iPod Touch.
When Apple first released the iPhone i was amazed, it was like nothing i had ever seen before. The UI and hardware was a perfect combination and i could wait to explore all of the advanced features the phone had. With the iPad announcement i felt none of it. It appeared to me a rather lazy development.
Now a lot of other forums, people have said it’s rather lackluster without really saying why.
The reasons i give is that, im sure first apple could have done a better job with the UI and the way we interact with the tablet. The iPhone OS and UI is ideally suited to the small screen of the iPhone. To me the UI felt really left out that they didn’t try and could have really gone to town and come up with something pretty spectacular with the new screen real estate.
The second is that the OS could have been more functional, i.e. a full blown OS. When i do use this device i want to share files, i don’t want to do it via email and syncing over usb. I want to be able to access network shares and perhaps have an SD card reader. I thought of sharing via bluetooth in a swipe (minority report).
Another thing i would say is that the device is also intended as an ebook reader, however i don’t think the sony e-readers and kindle have much to worry about. As i own a Sony E-Reader with E-Ink and it’s a real pleasure to read books on this device because of the e-ink. Now eye strain and readable in any light source (bright sun and low light). However i can’t imagine reading a book on a device with a backlit screen similar to my laptop, browsing the web and email is fine, but to stare for a good couple of hours would give me eye strain. Again another thing i thought apple would really have put a lot of thought in, having something which could have it’s backlight switched off and have a e-ink type / style to reading books.
I just really thought they would have put more effort into the device and really create the next iPod type consumer electronic (i.e. genre changing).
I can see where they are going with the product and the intended audience is not lost on me (i.e. a coffee table top computer). However i due believe it won’t see in any great numbers and will be a project to group with the Apple TV. Where there is nothing actually wrong with the device, however the niche for the product is smaller than the iPhone and Mac markets.
Edited 2010-01-28 09:44 UTC
The Only Thing,
I have not read a real review. Nothing more in depth than anyone could get from the Apple site. I am not one of the people that this is targeted to.(App Developer not Media Director) The real deal is how it feels in your hands. Is it responsive. Is it something that meets your needs? Can you carry it and get the job done.Think software. Is the SW that is on it going to matter to you.
One of the things that I have always liked about MacOS v. Windows is the speed that it wakes from sleep to the full desktop. It makes me cringe every time that i have to go through an airport or to a federal building with a Windows laptop. I will assume that this is at least as responsive as the past 4 generations of portable HW
Much of what I have seen on the web goes straight to Fanboys v. Haters. And even if you do not like the fanboys the haters seem a little weird.
The iPad may/may not get the foothold in the market Apple would like… iBooks though, will.
Start bundling it on the other tablet offerings alongside itunes and suddenly you have another itunes store on your hands!
I know other eBook stores exist, notably Amazon’s. But they havent had the mainsteam publicity the iBook store will have thanks to the iPad launch
Anyone else have a few seconds of confusion, thinking “wasn’t the iBook renamed to renamed ‘MacBook’ a few years ago?” Before realizing that it’s also the name of Apple’s e-book offering, that is.
I can imagine that leading to some absurd support calls:
“I just bought an iBook, but I can’t view them on my iBook. Can I open it with EMACS on my eMac? And who’s on first, anyway?!?!?”
…I took my laptop.
I lugged it through airports and across the country.
I surfed the net, I responded to some emails, I referenced a spreadsheet at some point (that arrived as an attachment).
I lugged it through airports and back home.
I’m buying one of these.
I laughed when Stevie showed the iPad browsing the New York Times and there was a hole in the web page. Then the iCeo quickly moved on realizing there was missing content (the video).
Apple needs to make up with Adobe and license Flash. There’s video outside apple.com and youtube.
It could be that Adobe has an underperforming and bug laden version of flash that is fantastic (if you like having your fans spool up way fast) Flash video is a kluge and not a very effective one that gets slower each version. Adobe seem sto have come to the party late and convinced people that this closed system is better.
How is having flash an advantage? h264 seems faster than .flv and process viewer and some ballpark benchmarks bear this out. Are we in the days of ubiquitous broadband? so why flash, does it make my life or my users lives easier? And for the obvious ‘because web page X requires it’ dig into the page, most quality (and SFW) sites have a non flash stream available.
I suppose it is not Apple’s Job to support flash but Adobe’s job to support flash.
(time for my bi yearly post)
I have no use or need for a tablet or a cell phone, but did go to Apple’s website and actually read about the device.
Let me clear a couple things up for a few whiners.
I see it comes with accessories, a docking station/charger, a camera connection kit, (two connectors), and a power cable.
Can’t plug in a full size keyboard?
Yes you can.
Need an SD card reader?
Comes with one.
Need usb?
Use the usb connector.
Seems you can run the full iWork suite on it as well.
Do the other tablets run Microsoft Office?
Legitimate question, I don’t know, not up on my tablet and cell phone jargon.
Windows-based tablets run Microsoft Office, photoshop, games, really anything you decide to install. They have full access to the the entire Windows software universe. If you need a tablet to run photoshop, buy one with the power to do it, and you’re good.
This one can’t even run Flash.
Ofcourse you can run Windows software, just need to rethink your whole set up
Download these 2 software and you’re good to go
http://www.jaadurdp.com
http://www.aikotech.com/thinserver.htm
It’s not that it won’t run Windows software, it’s that it only runs software from the iTunes store. It’s a crippled device.
…does it run Linux?
…does it run VM/CMS? That would be AWESOME to run XEDIT on an iTampon…
I can’t wait til there’s a way to HackinPAD that.
Besides the claims of a 10 hour battery life, I can’t see anything about this pad that I didn’t have on my tablet five years ago. Is there anything new that the iPad is doing?
(I don’t count gimped OSs and gimped software selection to be a feature. I realize that in some industrial applications, it is a feature, but not for everyday personal use.)
The Ipad is “revolutionary!”
I just wonder if there is an iTab coming as well sooner or later ….. Since they chose the name iPAD for this lower-ish specced thingie .. !
And so it is no option to me. To celebrate a thing like this seems so crazy to me that I still cannot believe it. It’s a closed piece of hardware, it’s closed software, it’s a crippled device all over. If that is the future of the net, then good night. This kind of Apple-net has to flourish without me. Not interested at all.