Posted on 05/15/2010 3:52:04 PM PDT by Swordmaker
I have an iPad. It’s just a giant iTouch. It works fine and has a marketing niche. It synced and runs my iphone apps. Overall, it is a decent product
I used it for this message. .
No camera. Really? My 2 year old vanilla Razr has a camera. My $300 Linux based netbook has a camera.
No multi-tasking, one app at a time. Are you kidding me? In the age of multi-core cpus where even windows has figured out multi-tasking :-) a new device and new interface is limiting the user to one thing at a time? I can see that on an iPhone or iPod touch - small screens. But an iPad? No background music while doing other tasks?
Apparently no VoIP nor Skype? Not real clear on this one but really?
No USB slots. This is a joke right? Oh, yeah, you can buy an adapter and use your one hardware interface to create a USB but no "native" USB? They can't be serious.
No Flash Compatibility. Just what is the beef between Adobe and Apple anyway?
A default of 16GB? Even my low-end netbook has more flash memory than that. And you're going to pay a premium for an iPad? Why?
I've heard other things such as having to move media files through iTunes or some such. I don't remember the details, just that it seemed very limiting.
Went to CBS to download it. Their Flash player skipped and stuttered all through it, and when we went back to review part of the recorded video,, the #$%*& thing lost its place. Rather than replaying smoothly, it started up stutter-downloading again. Then when we attempted to re-record, it produced TWO simultaneous recordings -- staggered a few seconds apart.
"Going nowhere"? Apple has moved a billion dollars worth of new product in 6 weeks flat - product which other major manufactures have gone nowhere with not just for weeks, but for decades.
Stop listening to the naysayers who advocate product paradigms which have proven abject failures. The iPad, for all its real & imagined faults, is succeeding on a huge scale - and it's only been on the market for six weeks.
I don’t detect any anti-apple zealotry in the article. I assume that the headline was written by a different person from the article, because there’s no real relation between the two.
I agree with most of the points. None of the tablets announced so far is likely to be an iPad killer. Let’s get real. The iProducts have had more alleged killers than JFK. It’s the Archos shooting from a storm grate! The Zune in the book depository! The Palm Pre on the grassy knoll!
This author gets that Apple gets it where human interfaces are concerned, and almost no one else does. I also think he’s right that the toughest competitor looming is going to be Palm’s WebOS with HP’s resources backing it.
I have to wonder: what is Verizon demanding, or refusing, which is worth NOT supporting the iP* line? Given the runaway success of the iPhone, you’d think they’d be making any/all deals to offer the device themselves.
There are a couple of hacks that add more multi-touch features to the Magic Mouse: Better Touch Tool, which I used for a while, and MagicPrefs, which I’m using now. I use a three-finger-click as a middle click, and three-finger up and down swipes to trigger Exposé.
The Magic Mouse hardware is capable of a lot more gestures than Apple officially supports. After using the hacks for a while, I understand why; it’s really easy to accidentally trigger the wrong thing. It’s a minor frustration for me, but novice users could get really put off if they expect to open a link normally and accidentally open it in a new tab (what I use middle-click for).
No camera: yeah, my Razr has a camera. It sucks. So does the $300 Linux netbook. Why allocate weight and space and money to a camera which, well, sucks? I have a dedicated camera that takes FAR better photos, which fits nicely in a pocket, and which I can easily transfer photos to the iPad from with a tiny adapter.
No multi-tasking: most people who bitch about this don’t know what they’re asking for, really. Multi-tasking is a very broad term: which subset do you really want? Most people really just want a tiny subset of the term. FWIW: iPhone OS 4 will have it; Android has it and it’s causing users problems (ill-mannered apps chewing up CPU and battery).
VoIP is available. Skype won’t offer it over 3G, but that’s Skype’s decision (seems Verizon has a controlling interest and doesn’t want the competition), not Apple’s.
No USB: the iPad’s usage paradigm is different from what USB was designed for (I was a USB product designer in a prior incarnation). Devoting weight, space & money to a USB port really doesn’t make sense for this kind of device - really. There really shouldn’t be ANY hardware interface on this thing; Bluetooth/WiFi/3G + inductive charging should be enough - really. It’s that big of a paradigm shift. Adding USB is a BIG can of worms; trust me, you don’t want it on this kind of device.
Memory size: 16GB is there if you want it, 64GB is too. This thing is built for “cloud computing” - as in if you need more space, you’re doing it wrong.
It’s an attempt at getting past the problems of the current “notebook” paradigm. Yeah some stuff is abandoned - and for good reason.
Of course, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to buy it. I have one and love it. I’m happy that I don’t have to sacrifice right-there always-on just-works convenience to crappy cameras, ill-mannered multi-tasking, soon-obsolete ports, etc.
ok Must have been another freeper
Great for your friend! We moved to Arizona last year and found just a single IPhone loaded with a few apps was an indispensable tool for finding our way around the area, where to shop,eat and what to pay. It was an amazing tool and I bought my own within 2 months of purchasing one for my wife. I never thought I’d be a convert but here I am.
Never thought of it that way... that's great. Now I don't feel so bad about my 0.0000000003% CD rates.
Apple owes you a commission. Monday I am going to go buy one.
do you have an iphone & an ipad at the same time ?,
i dont know why and i would love to know why people buy ipad. i have an iphone already. i dont even think about buying an ipad.
It is designed to use photographs and videos... and you can link cameras to it. More and more cameras are Bluetooth enabled... and the iPad is Bluetooth enabled. Why place a crippled, simplistic camera in the iPad when you can use a sophisticated camera from a third party and send your photos either directly or through an adaptor to the iPad? I posted an article on how to use an iPhone 3Gs as a camera for an iPad on FreeRepublic last month.
There will be more in the future. This is intentional.
No multi-tasking, one app at a time. Are you kidding me? In the age of multi-core cpus where even windows has figured out multi-tasking :-) a new device and new interface is limiting the user to one thing at a time? I can see that on an iPhone or iPod touch - small screens. But an iPad? No background music while doing other tasks?
Apple has announced that multi-tasking will be part of the next release of iPhone OS... in June... and for the iPad in September. The problem with multitasking on a battery powered portable device is the longevity of the battery. Droid users are discovering this to their dismay. Run multiple apps... and your hour long battery life suddenly can be measured in minutes. And the core functions of the iPhoneOS do multitask on the iPad and always have just as they do on the iPhone. That they don't is propaganda from the anti-Apple people. Besides, WHY do you think you need multitasking on a portable device on which mostly you do a single thing at a time for the most part?
Apparently no VoIP nor Skype? Not real clear on this one but really?
Not true. I have both Skype and iCall on my iPad. . . and there are several other free choices as well.
No USB slots. This is a joke right? Oh, yeah, you can buy an adapter and use your one hardware interface to create a USB but no "native" USB? They can't be serious.
What do you need a USB slot for??? There is one... and if you need to plug in a USB device, there is an adaptor... that plugs iPad connector that IS a USB connector as well as other connections to the device. Most people will never need it. Apple was the first computer manufacturer to make USB the standard and to drop serial and other connectors, making USB actually universal. The geeks howled then about how much they needed the old ADB and SCSI ports and cables. Now Apple is making the next logical move away from wired USB ports and cables to wireless. The iPad has both WIFI and Bluetooth. Many printers today have BlueTooth capability... and the iPad will have Bluetooth printing capabilities. So why have a wired connection? Newer cameras are going to be Bluetooth capable... again, why have a wired connection. What are you going to plug in to it? Why add the weight to support USB ports? Why add the thickness? Why add the complexity?
No Flash Compatibility. Just what is the beef between Adobe and Apple anyway?
Flash. Flash is an energy hog and CPU hog (I'm talking to a friend on Yahoo right now and she was wondering why her fans were roaring on her PC. She just checked and found that 60% of her CPU was involved in running FLASH on a simple online game in FireFox!!! GENERATING HEAT on a desk top computer... think what that would do to a mobile computer and its battery?)... and it is dependent on Mouse over event triggering. The touch screens of mobile devices do not have mouses or pointers... and as such do not support mouse over or pointer event triggering. The much vaunted demonstrations of mobile devices showing flash operating do not show mouse over or pointer event flash operations... they show special Flash applications that are NOT mouse over event flash. And even Adobe's demonstration crashed twice. Will the vast majority of Flash scripts be re-written to exclude mouse-over or pointer event triggering? No. They will not. It would not be economical for them to be rewritten. So, there will always be FLASH websites that will not work with touch screen mobile devices. The fault lies within FLASH at the core of its design. Flash is proprietary, the closed private property of Adobe. Apple is pushing the open standards that are free for everyone to use, that are not dependent on Adobe writing drivers for it to operate on every platform.
A default of 16GB? Even my low-end netbook has more flash memory than that. And you're going to pay a premium for an iPad? Why?
That's not a "default," that is just the starting entry level machine. It is perfectly adequate for many activities. The OS takes 304MB of that RAM to operate... leaving you almost 15.7GB to store your libraries of tunes, movies, books, photos, etc. That's a lot of data. The iPad is not intended as a device for mass storage... it's a device to load with what you want to take with you for the short term, use, then change for the next time... you don't keep your library of every book you own on it... because you aren't going to be reading every book every time you are out with your iPad. Your computer is your primary storage device. If you want more, buy a larger capacity iPad. I did.
I've heard other things such as having to move media files through iTunes or some such. I don't remember the details, just that it seemed very limiting.
Limiting???? Content media file providers such as Netflix, ABC, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, TV.com, YouTube, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Pandora Radio, Zinio, and a host of other content providers would disagree with what you heard rather vehemently. Yes, you can buy media files through iTunes... but there are many other sources, including your own, that you can provide. I have one free app, called "Free Books" that has 28,000 free titles... all out of copyright... including all of Mark Twain's works, All of William Shakespeare's plays, all of the classics... etc. Barack Obama has tossed his inaugural Speech in there too... ugh... trust him to think it qualifies as a classic.
The anti-Apple zealotry is a decade long career... this article is more balanced than usual.
Those are some great pics
Watch TV, read your email, surf the web, stream video, grab netflix or youtube content, display pictures, run apps which give you weather, news, or a stock ticker. That technology could go in many directions.
A merged TV/PC is something that many would like these days. Be able to watch cable, Hulu, YouTube, etc on the same big screen.
Love the Palm OS.
Bought an iPad. Got a bad one. Wifi conks out every 10-15 minutes.
Yes. iPhone and iPad. I also have beer and wine, a touring Bike and a sport bike, salt and pepper, sheets and blankets, beef and pork, a driver and a putter, and a laptop and a desktop.
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