THE IPAD!!!

Apple has a new toy! the IPad! SO pretty much its a giant IPod touch. I dont really understand what it is but its cool. It 500 dollars.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/

http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/4387/771113.html?1264644311

Yeah I saw that like right after I made the post

Why no video camera or Flash?

So it can be cheap.
It's designed to crush the Google Kindle. Which it will. It will also be another rung in the ladder of print media's demise. Magazines/newspapers/books/etc..

Unless providers of print media step into the digital/wireless age and provide viewable content.

I would have loved to have seen a camera for videoconferencing. I think Apple was in a no-win situation because it's either no camera or two cameras.

Do you put a cam on back for taking pictures, or on the front for conferencing? If they choose either, people will have a fit about the one that is left off. Two cameras that ultimately nobody will use is the kind of gimmick that you will get from Dell or HP.

The final decision was probably that either implementation would suck compared to other options. Everyone carries a camera in their pocket already so we don't really *need* it on the iPad...and if you're going to video conference then sit down at your laptop or desktop and do it on something with a little more power (as in, battery/AC).

It's easy to understand why Apple did not include a camera, multi tasking or Flash. If you have ever followed Apples products they wait to the 2nd generation. For example the first generation iPhone did not have MMS, copy/paste or video. Everyone went out and bought that 1st generation iPhone because regardless of the nit pickers requests (no copy and paste, no MMS) people still saw a solid product.

So my theory is when the 2nd Generation iPad comes out it will have the requests people want, camera, multitasking, HDMI Out etc. Thus creating another media frenzy and the desire to have the latest and greatest.

Regardless of what is lacking Apple will still sell millions of units.



(Message edited by Pierce Bronkite on January 28, 2010)

Matt your talking like apple give a sh** about what users want and they don't. I think flash would be a great thing but for some reason they just aren't adding it. on the iphone multitasking is already available, but apple wont let us use it. I jailbroke my phone and now have all kinds of cool things like tethering and multitasking. A lot of apples stuff is cool, but they suck balls.

I do follow Apple, I just think it was stupid to not offer video camera and flash.


No camera and no flash= no go for me, I will wait and see what the 2nd generation has to offer.

I will stick with my Mac book pro, for now.

---

quote:

I would have loved to have seen a camera for videoconferencing. I think Apple was in a no-win situation because it's either no camera or two cameras.

Do you put a cam on back for taking pictures, or on the front for conferencing? If they choose either, people will have a fit about the one that is left off. Two cameras that ultimately nobody will use is the kind of gimmick that you will get from Dell or HP.

The final decision was probably that either implementation would suck compared to other options. Everyone carries a camera in their pocket already so we don't really *need* it on the iPad...and if you're going to video conference then sit down at your laptop or desktop and do it on something with a little more power (as in, battery/AC).

---

Why not a little camera near a corner that you rotate? That if the iPad is flat you can aim it at you for videos, if you have it on it's side you can still rotate it, when taking pics you rotate it up and over to face the subject.

Seams like a simple and cool solution, maybe in the v2 product.

I think the swiveling camera is gimmicky and just not Apple style. Again, it's an issue of how much effort to put into gizmos that I think they truly believe people won't use. Apple doesn't just bolt stuff to their devices for the sake of winning a specwar. Steve's vision is that you have some kind of phone for taking crappy pictures, and a digital cam for taking good ones. Cameras are EVERYWHERE, who needs another one?

Anyway, if you want one with a camera you can always get that from HP, Dell, or HTC.

So many people looking for this to replace the phone or the laptop. It never will, and it was never meant to. If anything, it's going to replace the desktop in the home.

Makes more since to me that this will eventually replace the laptop, then the desk top at home.

I don't see that it will crush the kindle. One of my favorite things about the kindle is that it doesn't have a backlight so it doesn't make my eyes tired. Whereas, this does. Also, the kindle batter lasts forever where this thing will die in a day. Also, doesn't this thing have a monthly fee?

Yes the backlight is potentially an issue for hard core readers. This provides 10 hours runtime and a month of standby (take with a grain of salt). Ongoing fees are only if you choose to use 3g instead of just using wifi hotspots, and it's month to month, no contract.

Too bad the network it's on sucks. It'll be great if they can get it on Verizon anytime soon.

My wife has the kindle. For a reader (w/ email access) I prefer something w/ no monthly charges. We pay enough of those as it is already.

It'll be great if they can get it on Verizon anytime soon.

Mine will be.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/mobilebroadband/?page=products_mifi

Here's my question on the iPad. GPS is only available on the 3G version, but is GPS going to work on a non-subbed iPad 3G?

Seems like it should work, just without the A-GPS function...right?

http://community.citrix.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=115343605&focusedCommentId= 115343797#comment-115343797

woohoo

Why in the hell would anyone buy an Ipad when for the same price you can get a laptop that does everything the "Pad" does except a whole lot more.

with that citrix app there isn't really anything I can't do with the ipad. and I'm not aware of any laptops that are .5" thick and 1.5lbs with 10 hours of battery life...

Because not everyone enjoys using junky disposable $500 laptops.

I have non-techie friends who commented "That's sweet I can't wait, F' my stupid laptop I hate that thing, and love my iPod touch"

Besides, who has a $500 laptop with a multi-touch screen?

(I realize I'm starting to sound evangelical about this device. I believe it will be great. I believe that people will understand why it's different after they have had a chance to see it in the wild for a while. I believe there will be very nice alternatives now that Apple has stepped up. That said...I understand that it's not for everyone.)

I know, I feel weird being excited about an Apple device lol. But the warm support from Citrix pretty much cements it for me.

I can type on a laptop without using hunt-and-peck

Come on Wes...I've seen you compliment the Macbook more than once.

I know - I was half kidding (re: the reputation some people perpetuate that I hate Apple and Christians). Once a MBPro is available with 16GB ram I'll probably get one of those too.

As for the keyboard comment, I can't type on netbook keyboards with my big hands any better than I will be able to on this. It's not for hardcore typing - but will be great for casual email/web browsing/emergency server work.

I can type on a laptop without using hunt-and-peck

And your point is?

In addition to multi-touch and the soft keyboard, there are external hardware keyboard options as well.

You can also plug any usb device into a modern laptop.

You can do a lot of things with a laptop. The iPad isn't trying to be one, but people who hate it keep wanting to make it one for the sake of comparison.

Can you plug USB devices into your phone? Does your phone suck because you can't?

Can you name 3 USB devices that you would want to plug into a tablet device?

External Hard Drive
Flash Drive
Phone

I didn't say name three USB devices, rather...three that you would actually want to connect.

Two of those are basically the same, and I'll give you that removable storage would be nice. Not so important in a connected mobile device, especially going forward with dropboxes and cloud storage.

WTF would anyone want to plug a phone into a tablet???

Yeah, that list makes no sense. The tablet IS a storage device itself, and unlike the iphone you can actually use it to transfer files to/from computers which is handy.

...not to mention that there will be *some* Apple supported connectivity to USB devices and SD cards. Details to play out, but the hardware is there.

Charge your phone, transfer files if you have a phone that allows it
USB hard drive/thumb drive
MP3 player
Camera
Input devices
Printer
etc....

Oh wait, they still want you to buy a macbook.

I am not worried though, if I ever have the need for a slate, I'll get a PC version that has the standard features.

You seriously would not want connect a phone? I know I sure would.

Removable storage -for sure, I'll count the two as one... i wouldn't need it if I expected my Ipad to never die/crash...but thats unlikely.

I would guess no form of CD/DVD input... which would be nice to plug in and use.

USB for printing purposes

USB for charging devices

USBs are everywhere and should be on there, least it owuld be nice.

Wouldn't we all. And we'll probably have one without terrible tradeoffs... maybe xmas 2011

You guys are fighting over something they offer. it's a plug for usb and sd card. I'm sure you can you the usb plug for other things though.
check it out the bottom of this page
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/backstage/comments/first-look-in-progress-apple-ipad-and-tons-of-new-details-to-share/

MP3 player? You want to plug an MP3 player into the same device that is being criticised for being too much like an MP3 player?

You can plug your camera into the iPad.

"Input devices?" That's not an answer.

Printing - Ok. That's two. Sorta. I don't print via USB any more. I think your grasping.

Etc - Yeah, like I said...grasping.

Charging...really? You would use a device with a small limited battery, to charge other devices?

Agreed, the iPad is clearly not for either of you.

Well there you have it...haha it would be nice if you didn't need some chunky adapter to plug in standard devices though

yeah, an MP3 player, some of us don't want to use our iPad at the gym

There's no pleasing everyone I guess. This thing is not a laptop, it just a big ipod. This ss cool to have around anywhere to suft the net check email, etc, but dont expect it to be a laptop or netbook which it isn't.

(Message edited by jv210 on January 28, 2010)

It's even more nice that there is no reason, (at least, not yet expressed here) to plug in any kind of 'standard device'.

I can't plug any of that stuff into my microwave and it is still great. I canplug several of those devices into my TV or cable box but it is pointless to do so.

Timmy, you're not making any sense... you want to plug your mp3 player into the ipad? huh? i think your quibble is less with connectivity and more with apple's proprietary setup forcing you to sync with itunes

I understand why you would want to USE an MP3 player...but why would you want to plug it into another one?

Do you also use a phono union to plug headphones into each other like two cans on a string?

NATE. NATE!

can you hear me? i'm on the other side of this series of tubesssssss

There's no pleasing everyone I guess.

Certainly. Nor can you expect everyone to be able to think outside the box a little bit about how to use a technology. Some people need connections to things they know - IT HAS TO BE A LAPTOP OR A PHONE!

Some will just have to be shown.

So...when we will get a really nice, price competitive Android tablet? Really looking forward to that as well.

Yes true fat-client tablets will be great - some day.

Until then, those that can take advantage of the thin client model can more than make do with an always-connected device like this.

I like that the data is on-demand and not contract also.

Timmy, I don't have a non-smartphone mp3 player. Even if I did, I don't think I would absolutely NEED the new Lady Gaga while on vacation...

I deleted that comment because it was obsolete based on that funky adapter.

NATE. NATE!

can you hear me? i'm on the other side of this series of tubesssssss


Barely...but hold on, I'll look for that USB sound card I meant to throw away 10 years ago. Ah...there is is, hiding behind the SCSI printer that I can't plug into my iMac!

And, how very interesting to see all the love for USB. Nobody wanted it until Apple took a chance and actually put it in a computer. Sound familiar?

---

quote:

Certainly. Nor can you expect everyone to be able to think outside the box a little bit about how to use a technology. Some people need connections to things they know - IT HAS TO BE A LAPTOP OR A PHONE!

Some will just have to be shown.

---

Perfect example of new technology and change. The simple fact is people don't like change. I can almost relate this to any new tech device or gadget. (Typically why people who are life long Windows users dont like Macs).

Oh ya, read this on another site thought it was too funny.

Lots of folks are complaining that the iPad doesn’t have a camera. How many cameras do you need? You’ve already got one on your phone and you’ve got a digital camera. Every device doesn’t have to have everything. It also doesn’t have a rotisserie hot dog roaster (which I hope someone at Apple is working on!)

Also Timmy, the jailbreakers will have a field day with this one, and with ipad/iphone/ipod combos. I imagine once they're through you'll be able to transfer things around as you see fit... after coughing up lots of money to apple for adapters :-)

Why put a $2 usb port on the device when they can make $30 selling an adapter? it's the apple way. Jobs is a genius - but a greedy genius =)

But that's OK Matt, there are always options for those who want to take their time adapting to new technologies...

http://www.usbpetrock.net/

Wow really buddy?!

"MP3 player?"
YES. I don't to run with a big ol' computer on my arm... and how will I get my music from my Ipad (which sounds like a digital Tampon) to my mp3 player ?! Magic ? Is the Ipad magic?


"Printing - Ok. That's two. Sorta. I don't print via USB any more. I think your grasping. "
You don't print with USB, some do... and its far easier to do it USB than search for a device, install drivers ETC ETC, and not everywhere has networked printers

"Charging...really? You would use a device with a small limited battery, to charge other devices? "
Lets say you're traveling, right now I bring my laptop, its charger and 1 5-pin mini/USB to charge ALL OF MY OTHER THINGS!!! now I don't need 15 power cords.... so yes charging.

An external USB DVD player would be nice to have considering it doesn't look like there anywhere to add a CD/DVD



Its cool and neat but if it is just a fancy laptop with fewer features you can have it.... take it to starbucks and sit around checking each others blogs, then talk about some indie band that is great still because they haven't been signed.... its looking like it will be a form over function type deal.

Also Timmy, the jailbreakers will have a field day with this one, and with ipad/iphone/ipod combos. I imagine once they're through you'll be able to transfer things around as you see fit

Except that the jailbreaking isn't necessary, and you can transfer things nicely now...

https://www.dropbox.com/

MP3 - The iPad is meant for playing content, not storing it to synch to other devices. You're just thinking about the intent of the device wrong. Do you store your music on one MP3 player, to move to another one right now?

Printing - Like I said, that's two. Though, I network print from my mac and have NEVER installed a driver on it. I guess you have to do stuff like that with Windows?

Anyway, sorry to have sounded so critical. There is nothing wrong with being comfortable with your existing technology and resisting change to new technologies. I have a lot of friends and family who are the same way. Takes them a while to understand how things work when they are different.

If I'm missing the intent of the device please tell me how you see it in a few short easy to follow sentences....

I either see it as a:
crappy laptop
or
A MONSTER mp3/video player

I've tried. We disagree. Time will tell.

Where did you try?

You said its awesome, a lot

You can think of it a tablet pc running the iPhone OS. This obviously is going to introduce some limitations - i.e. you can't load any softwar you want (not that you can do that on a regular Mac anyway) - but again it covers most of what you'd want to do with a computer and it's up to the app developers to continue to expand the possiblilities.

Using a remote desktop app (such as the citrix one i alluded to above) this device (by way of cellular connectivity) becomes a full fledged computer (running Windows so you can actually get at all that software you want to run).

All this is a super slim super light package with strong battery life.

The connectivity options are minimal, as always with an apple product - that's just how they are.

Google will no doubt follow suit, and we may eventually even see something like this from Palm if their WebOS continues to gain popularity now that the Pre finally came to Verizon.

^ thats what I was asking for, thx

I guess you're right, some of that was in the other thread or in talks oustide of WW.

Anyway, I don't know that a few short sentences can do it for people who are truly satisfied with the technology at hand.

The iPhone is hugely popular because it is so easy to use. It blew up because it worked better than the other smart phone options. When the App store came along it provided something entirely new that is now being copied industry wide. Apple started there for a reason, the OS is proven as a 'people's system', it's interesting that this comes up as a criticism.

I think that the iPad is going to be a simplified and better way to do the majority of the things that people do with computers now. People browse the internet, read email, watch videos and play music, enjoy their photos, and do social networking. My own experience is that there are a lot of Apps for the iPhone and Android that are great at doing this stuff without the clumsiness and overhead of a standard desktop OS.

Following that concept, a 10" multi-touch screen is going to provide a different way to interact with your apps. I've used visual/spatial software on a 24" iMac and a 10" netbook and guess what, it sucks on the netbook. Take that same software with a multi-touch interface and it's pretty good on the iPod Touch...but more screen real estate would make if far more powerful (I'm talking mostly about Aperture and Google Earth). Repeating myself from the other thread, the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.

It's going to be about what developers enable us to do with the great screen and the multi-touch interface. I'm imagining that it's going to take the iPhone/iPod experience to a whole new level now that we have some screen space.

The iWork suite serves as a good early example of this. Spreadsheets and word processing on a 3" screen is retarded...but with 10" it's probably going to work. The photo gallery on the iPhone/iPod is just OK, but give it 10" to display and scrub via multi-touch and it's an entirely different experience.

It's simple. It's elegant. It's connected. Some people prefer that over menu bars and control panels and USB cables and stacks of DVDs.

And, it's going to work nicely for $500. That seems like a new low for the Apple tax and the Early Adopter tax combined!

(Message edited by mammoth on January 28, 2010)

^^ and my hope for this product goes beyond Apple. It's the product *category*. Like so many other technologies, Apple is just going to be the first to do it right. I carry an Android phone, and linux computers along with my Apples and I look forward to the rest of the industry catching up on this one.

---

quote:

Following that concept, a 10" multi-touch screen is going to provide a different way to interact with your apps. I've used visual/spatial software on a 24" iMac and a 10" netbook and guess what, it sucks on the netbook. Take that same software with a multi-touch interface and it's pretty good on the iPod Touch...but more screen real estate would make if far more powerful (I'm talking mostly about Aperture and Google Earth).

---

The increased real estate on the iPad would be nice, but there isn't enough difference in processing power to warrant your 'netbook vs iMac' comparison. We're talking only 600mhz vs a 1ghz proc which is optimized for low power, so you can kiss off any power hungry applications like Aperture. You might see iPhoto for editing...maybe a version of Photoshop, but I don't think the A4 proc was designed for anything more than light duty apps. A better comparison might be a 17" monitor vs dual 24" widescreens.

Didn't mean to imply that I think we'll get Aperture on the iPad. As optimistic as I am, I don't think it's going to work (nor is meant for) content creation. Video, audio, and photo production will stay on the desktop/laptop. Earth is much better example since there is a multi-touch version.

But, FWIW, even with the Atom processor in the Netbook...Aperture runs fine in terms of speed. It's the screen size that makes it suck. And, I'm not making a hypothetical comparison, but a real world one that I've used on a daily basis for the last year or so. Desktop OS on a tiny little screen is only good in a pinch. IMO, there is a lower bound on screen size, below which the experience just starts to suck. A lot of netbook owners have a different opinion, but I just think that being Windows users they are just used to things sucking.

Jury is out on what they do with the processor. My 1.2ghz Mini is still very capable, can do much more (processor wise) than I ever expect out of the iPad.

Maybe I have it all wrong and it will go the way of the Apple TV, that's just not the bet I would make. We'll see!

I will say this though, I am happy that Apple is doing its part to try and kill Flash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsjU0K8QPhs

The Original iPad

"I will say this though, I am happy that Apple is doing its part to try and kill Flash"

Agreed, I HATE flash!

I will say this though, I am happy that Apple is doing its part to try and kill Flash

LOL, apple is not trying to kill flash nor is flash bad. Flash implemented improperly = bad, flash the technology = incredible asset.

Apple is not trying to kill flash, but it must not be in there best interest to include it on iphones and ipads. I think games and such can be created in flash and that will take away from the app store. I'm not a mac guy but im pretty sure flash is compatible on macs, just not the Ipxxxx devices. There are so many sites that have some kind of flash that simple don't display on these devices which sucks.

No flash on iphones bc the processing power can't handle it. I would imagine we'll see it as part of OS 4 and they will have some kind of differentiator to allow it to run on the more powerful iPad cpu (and possibly the new A4-based iPhone later this year).

Flash has never worked well on OS X even - watching a Hulu video on a Mac Pro utilized 56 percent of the CPU's processing power. The same video on the same Mac running Vista in Boot Camp used only 7 percent. Adobe/Apple have some serious optimization to do...

Wes, I agree with you there, adobe/apple have some serious optimization to do. I read yesterday adobe is really trying to step up their game for the iphone and ipad. There is a flash hack for the iphone which can be added to watch Hulu and other videos, but websites with flash still aren't displayed.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/01/29/apple_to_target_ipad_at_business_users_through_new _features_sources.html

discusses some of the more business-focused features that are as-yet unannounced. network printing/fileshares, etc...

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/01/29/excitement-about-ipad-a-large-screen-multi-touch-platform/

Developer reactions for the casual user after a few days to think about it.

for every "excited" article, there's one that's disappointment.

Steve Jobs held a town hall meeting with Apple employees late last week following the iPad launch. Wired reports on what was said at the meeting by Steve Jobs. Two of the biggest topics included Google and Adobe.

On Google, Jobs confirms the much-reported competition between the two companies.
On Google: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them, he says.

As for Adobe, Jobs said they are lazy and Jobs blames Adobe for a buggy implementation of Flash on the Mac as one of the reasons they won't support it.
Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.

Those are the main points covered by Wired's article. We had received a more detailed report of the Apple meeting, but hadn't been able to corroborate it until now. Many of the details of the Wired report line up with our anonymous submission, so we believe it likely to be accurate. Some additional key points that we learned:

- Apple will deliver aggressive updates to iPhone that Android/Google won't be able to keep up with
- iPad is up there with the iPhone and Mac as the most important products Jobs has been a part of
- Regarding the Lala acquisition, Apple was interested in bringing those people into the iTunes team
- Next iPhone coming is an A+ update
- New Macs for 2010 are going to take Apple to the next level
- Blu-Ray software is a mess, and Apple will wait until sales really start to take off before implementing it.

On Google: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them, he says.


Google is behind some great products, and there will be many more to come. IF they prove that they can come up with a great user interface Apple will have to be worried, until then, not so much. I have said it before, Apple's biggest advantage over any other company is their UI design. Just look at the iPod. It was not the first MP3 player, it just had the best UI (not to mention support from the RIAA).

As for Adobe, Jobs said they are lazy and Jobs blames Adobe for a buggy implementation of Flash on the Mac as one of the reasons they won't support it.

They are lazy. I despise Adobe. they have gobbled up every technology and company and put a damper on it.

The world is moving to HTML5.

Of course they are, it will be the new standard but we have a long way to go before Flash is history.

Apple marketing knows what they are doing

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/31/stephen-colbert-has-an-ipad/

I want that! Happy to trade in my HP Net book for an Ipad.

http://www.internetnews.com/software/article.php/3861861/Windows+7+on+the+iPad+Theres+an+App+for+That.htm

Windows 7 on the iPad? There's an App for That
Citrix says its Citrix Receiver will be ready for the iPad...