599 replies to this topic

[Arbogast777]

Alright, the keyboard dock might change things for me

Stick with what you first said about the Kindle, Righty. I think it will kill it. Amazon's eBooks are propitiatory, while iBooks will use the open ePub.

[marktmurphy]

Looks nice; if I had a load of spare cash I can see it'd be nice to have on the sofa with me. Completely non-essential, though.

[Righty007]

Apple iPad site is now live: http://www.apple.com/ipad

[Professor Dent]

Outside of any Verizon announcements, the rumor mill seemed to hit a lot of the main points. The price point at $499 for the 16 gig model is very good - 9.7" LED screen, Wi-Fi (3G a little more but no subscription required), 10 hours of battery life, & a custom A4 chip inside. Some of the post Keynote coverage has been very positive with the responsiveness of the iPad. I can just imagine playing some of my iPhone games on that screen. I still like my Kindle a lot, though. The screen is perfect for reading & I don't feel like buying all of those Fleming books all over again in yet another digital format. I'm definitely intrigued & mulling the iPad over. The 3G model is 90 days away which is what I would be interested in anyway so there is still plenty of time to figure this one out. Did take the step of signing-up to be notified when they do start taking orders.

[Joe Bond]

I think its probably the best e-book reader on the market since it can do other things but I am certainly never going to get once since I really don't need one. What was disappointing to me was how this event was just about the iPad and nothing else and the only thing about this that makes it better than the iPod touch for me would be the increased screen size and the ability to play iTunes HD movies on it. However, I can do this on a laptop which has a bigger screen and a better resolution plus the internet at least has flash which the iPad does not. If you are looking for the best e-book reader then the iPad is the best choice since it looks like you are actually reading a book since the iPad simulates a page look that other e-book readers have not done. I know from experience that a touch screen device, like my iPod touch, smudges easily so I would imaging it would take more work to clean this device compared to an iPod touch because of the bigger screen while a laptop doesn't need to be cleaned as often.

[bondrules]

I don't think I'll be getting one anytime soon, but it sure looks absolutely AMAZING! Incredible how Apple can take a product that is (out already) here and there in pieces, bring those pieces together and turbo charge it with original features, and a major facelift to boot, turning it one fantastic product sure to become prey to copycats.

Happened with the original Mac OS, OSX, The Ipod, The Iphone, and now the Ipad.

http://www.appleinsi...let_device.html

[[dark]]

It's a slick-looking device, but I too am unconvinced about how it'd fit into my life.

The iBooks look neat but I pretty much have no desire to swap print for yet another screen in my life.

I could potentially see a market for students if the iBooks store has textbooks, but I can't imagine anyone else has so many books on the go at once that they can't carry them about.

Mark me down as unconvinced.

[Righty007]

Mark me down as unconvinced.

I was unsure if I needed one too until I watched this video.

The only things that the iPad cannot do is: (1) Be your friend and (2) have sex with you.

I definitely want one.

[Vauxhall]

Terrible name.

Very cool.

[darkpath]

For people whose primary machine is a desktop, such as a mini or an iMac, then I could see this as a means of getting some tangential portability. Indeed, I think this is a better solution than another Apple product that is clearly aimed at being a secondary machine, the MacBook Air.

That being said, for the size of the media library that I would like such a device to carry, my take is that this product will need about 3 or 4 years to mature, with storage density/price point progressing at the rate that Apple has demonstrated in the iPod Touch and in the iPhone.

Until then, my intention will be to transition from my now 6 year old PowerBook G4 12" to a MacBook Pro that I am salvaging (I think that's a fair term considering that the original owner drove over it with some kind of motor vehicle, destroying the screen and damaging the keyboard).

[bondrules]

What's missing from the iPad

http://www.tuaw.com/...-from-the-ipad/

[Tybre]

Someone on another forum I'm on posted this link. Which just further delays my buying the iBrick. No interest in it to begin with, really, but my iPod might be busted (it still works...kinda) and I figured it's basically a giant iTouch/iPhone with e-reader, so I'd been planning to hold off a generation or two, cause the first generation will always have problems, but that just definites my plan of holding off. But whatever. You guys who want to buy it, buy it. Personally I'm not much for being on the cutting edge of that kind of crap. Emus and stuff, yeah, I keep on top of like a hawk, but iShiz or TVs? Eh, I'll look about movin' up when the little bugger dies off.

And I apologize if this link has already been posted. Didn't go reading through all of the posts relevant to the iBrick. And yes I know it's the iPad, but honestly I hate that name.

[bondrules]

Someone on another forum I'm on posted this link. Which just further delays my buying the iBrick. No interest in it to begin with, really, but my iPod might be busted (it still works...kinda) and I figured it's basically a giant iTouch/iPhone with e-reader, so I'd been planning to hold off a generation or two, cause the first generation will always have problems, but that just definites my plan of holding off. But whatever. You guys who want to buy it, buy it. Personally I'm not much for being on the cutting edge of that kind of crap. Emus and stuff, yeah, I keep on top of like a hawk, but iShiz or TVs? Eh, I'll look about movin' up when the little bugger dies off.

And I apologize if this link has already been posted. Didn't go reading through all of the posts relevant to the iBrick. And yes I know it's the iPad, but honestly I hate that name.

I found this link to be pretty interesting as well.

4 Reasons the Kindle is Dead, 4 Reasons It’s Not
http://mashable.com/...ndle-dead-ipad/

[bondrules]

Someone on another forum I'm on posted this link. Which just further delays my buying the iBrick. No interest in it to begin with, really, but my iPod might be busted (it still works...kinda) and I figured it's basically a giant iTouch/iPhone with e-reader, so I'd been planning to hold off a generation or two, cause the first generation will always have problems, but that just definites my plan of holding off. But whatever. You guys who want to buy it, buy it. Personally I'm not much for being on the cutting edge of that kind of crap. Emus and stuff, yeah, I keep on top of like a hawk, but iShiz or TVs? Eh, I'll look about movin' up when the little bugger dies off.

And I apologize if this link has already been posted. Didn't go reading through all of the posts relevant to the iBrick. And yes I know it's the iPad, but honestly I hate that name.

I found this link to be pretty interesting as well.

4 Reasons the Kindle is Dead, 4 Reasons It’s Not
http://mashable.com/...ndle-dead-ipad/

Wow, try typing on that virtual keyboard! LOL

[Righty007]

MadTV came up with the name iPad 4 years ago...

[Professor Dent]

I'm enjoying a lot of the naysayers iPad coverage. This device is clearly not for everyone. I'm still not sure how it would fit into my life yet. I definitely want to go to an Apple store & spend some time playing with it before I make any decision on buying it. The biggest shocker was the $499 entry level price point. This is significantly lower than what most everyone thought & I look forward to see how the competition responds - both tablet makers & Amazon with the Kindle.

As far as it's shortcomings, they don't seem that important to me. Not having Flash doesn't bother me. I've lived without it on my iPhone. Hulu would be nice to watch on this device but, there are rumblings that it will be moving to a pay service anyway. Once that happens, I'll likely never use it as I will buy my content elsewhere. Besides, while Flash is "the foundation of rich media on the web today," HTML5 is the foundation of tomorrow & Safari on the iPhone supports it so almost a given that the iPad will support it too.

I'm a Kindle 2 owner & love the device (which is also not for everyone). I bought it when it was just released & it cost $100 more than it does today. Reading books is a fantastic experience & I'm a big fan of the display. I use it practically everyday. While the experience reading books is fantastic, that is were it ends. I subscribed to The Wall Street Journal for about six months before canceling. This experience was poor at best. The navigation between articles & sections of the paper was clunky. It has an experimental web browser built in that is painful to use even if you are just going to a text only website. I tried it twice & decided to never use it again in it's current form. Oh yeah, it doesn't support Flash either. As far as backlighting being hard on the eyes, people spend countless hours every day on their laptop or desktop computer that has a backlit display & live with it. Don't see why it's now some big issue on the iPad.

So many people got caught up in the rumor hype that they built-up some mythical device in their heads & are now disappointed. This will evolve if, for no other reason, that Jobs wants to sell everyone a new model next year. The iPhone really didn't get useful until the App Store was rolled out. The iPad is running iPhone OS 3.2 & not 4.0 as a lot suspected it would so expect a software upgrade this year. Besides, the iPad isn't even on sale yet so it's hard to say whether something is or isn't a drawback just yet.

[bondrules]

I'm enjoying a lot of the naysayers iPad coverage. This device is clearly not for everyone. I'm still not sure how it would fit into my life yet. I definitely want to go to an Apple store & spend some time playing with it before I make any decision on buying it. The biggest shocker was the $499 entry level price point. This is significantly lower than what most everyone thought & I look forward to see how the competition responds - both tablet makers & Amazon with the Kindle.

As far as it's shortcomings, they don't seem that important to me. Not having Flash doesn't bother me. I've lived without it on my iPhone. Hulu would be nice to watch on this device but, there are rumblings that it will be moving to a pay service anyway. Once that happens, I'll likely never use it as I will buy my content elsewhere. Besides, while Flash is "the foundation of rich media on the web today," HTML5 is the foundation of tomorrow & Safari on the iPhone supports it so almost a given that the iPad will support it too.

I'm a Kindle 2 owner & love the device (which is also not for everyone). I bought it when it was just released & it cost $100 more than it does today. Reading books is a fantastic experience & I'm a big fan of the display. I use it practically everyday. While the experience reading books is fantastic, that is were it ends. I subscribed to The Wall Street Journal for about six months before canceling. This experience was poor at best. The navigation between articles & sections of the paper was clunky. It has an experimental web browser built in that is painful to use even if you are just going to a text only website. I tried it twice & decided to never use it again in it's current form. Oh yeah, it doesn't support Flash either. As far as backlighting being hard on the eyes, people spend countless hours every day on their laptop or desktop computer that has a backlit display & live with it. Don't see why it's now some big issue on the iPad.

So many people got caught up in the rumor hype that they built-up some mythical device in their heads & are now disappointed. This will evolve if, for no other reason, that Jobs wants to sell everyone a new model next year. The iPhone really didn't get useful until the App Store was rolled out. The iPad is running iPhone OS 3.2 & not 4.0 as a lot suspected it would so expect a software upgrade this year. Besides, the iPad isn't even on sale yet so it's hard to say whether something is or isn't a drawback just yet.

You don't mind that just like with the Iphone, it's restricted for multitasking? That's a dealbreaker for me. The virtual keyboard for me is also major dealbreaker. It's one of the top five reasons why I own a Blackberry instead of an Iphone. I can only imagine how typing on this newer device would be like.

[zencat]

It's not a must have, but I would love to have it. I think of it as a bedside computer, a quick comfortable way to check the net, my email, and fire up the latest book I'm reading. Having 10 hours of a battery life is amazing, and from the day I first touched the iPhone, I wanted a multitouch computer. Now it's here. Can't see myself spending $499 at this time, but maybe I'll be back on my feet and have a little disposable income by the time it's released. I also resisted the iPhone when it was first released, until I touched one. Then I bought one the next day.

[Professor Dent]

You don't mind that just like with the Iphone, it's restricted for multitasking? That's a dealbreaker for me. The virtual keyboard for me is also major dealbreaker. It's one of the top five reasons why I own a Blackberry instead of an Iphone. I can only imagine how typing on this newer device would be like.

I do see multitasking being much more of a need on an iPad device. Depends on how you use it. For me, on my iPhone, I tend to turn off everything I'm not using (push notifications, location services, Wi-Fi, etc) to eek out as much battery life as I can get in a day. I think multitasking is like cut, copy, & paste. Apple held off on this for a long time (way too long in my opinion) & then added it in. Multitasking is one of those holes that I think they will just eventually plug. The rumor was that OS 4.0 would support some level of multitasking but, then again, those same people said it would be debuted yesterday too.

One feature I would really like to see is tabbed web browsing in Safari - not just multiple windows. I want a way to click a link on a page & have just that link open in a new window. If I could set it to open that page in the "background" while I continue to read the current page I'm on, it would be even better.

The onscreen keyboard is a tough one - that's either a love it or hate it. Maybe the bigger style keyboard on the iPad will be easier to use. I use a BlackBerry for work & it has a keyboard. Can't say I like it any more or less than the onscreen keyboard. Both have their advantages & drawbacks. It's whatever you are used to.

[zencat]

I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of selection the iBook store will have. That could be the deciding factor for me. Will love it if they have all the Bond books.

[bondrules]

Wouldn't ones arm/hand/finger tire pretty fast with this type of artifact? I am trying to emulate its usage and it seems that it just would. Any thoughts?

[Professor Dent]

I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of selection the iBook store will have. That could be the deciding factor for me. Will love it if they have all the Bond books.

In the Keynote, there were five publishers listed as being signed on right now. They are Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, & Hachette. Jobs said they would have all their books available in the iBook store.

You can also now download the Keynote through the Apple Keynotes Podcast here. The book publisher comment is at 53:10.

[bondrules]

TBCH I was impressed with the potential for maybe future devices when Schiller was previewing Iwork touch. I read in a blog that most attendees were dozing off during that segment, I however found it to be the most interesting.

[zencat]

The more I see of iPad the more I like. I've really been thinking about getting a Kindle and getting into the whole eBook thing anyway. I'm crazy about the iBookstore and, again, having a "bedside computer" that's touchscreen. It would replace my laptop. I've moved from "probably not" to "maybe" in 24 hours. We'll see where I am after 60 days.

[Arbogast777]

If I got one, and at this stage I'd rather have the more portable iPod Touch to go with my iMac, I'd definitely wait until they added a camera, which seems inevitable since even the iPod Nano has one.

[Tybre]

Yayz!? You be judge.

[bondrules]

Yayz!? You be judge.

Money will exchange hands, and everyone will be fine and dandy. Lord knows Fujitsu can use the extra cash.

[Tybre]

Auto-resize strikes again! Open the image in a new tab/window to see it full.

Cor blimey she's a beast.

Also since my iPod is pretty well and broken and the iPad has awoken my inner-Trekkie's want for a PADD, but not wanting an iPad for a number of reasons (brutish size and it being first generation being two big'uns), pondering spending monies on a 64GB Touch -- less than what I have now, but close, and honestly I only filled something like 10.7GB of my 80. Anyways, before I go out and spend money on it, just wondering if anyone here has one or if they're aware of any drawbacks, etc. Can, of course, do the research myself, but I feel like asking.

[Professor Dent]

Tybre, If you are just looking for something to play your music on, maybe watch some video, & get on the internet for e-mail or quick web surfing, a Touch will do you fine. Good thing is that Apple has been releasing new iPods in September so we aren't even mid-way through the current product cycle. With the iPad not being out, tough to give a lot of drawbacks outside of the obvious ones - the screen is smaller, the processor won't be as fast, no iBooks app, etc.

If you are planning on a second generation iPad, which will likely be out sometime next summer, maybe a 32 gig Touch will work for you until then. You'll save some money & still have enough space to last you until that second gen iPad next year. If you are a Costco member, check there first. They almost always have iPods on sale for at least $20-30 less than the Apple price. Also, if you don't have good album artwork in your music library, now would be the time to start adding it as cover flow looks great with nice album art.

========

On the iPad, I've been wondering if the back of the unit gets hot as you use it like the iPhone does. Haven't seen any mention of it but we probably won't until the reviews get the demo units in hand.

[Righty007]