thoughts on the ipad

[redwatch]

This is a great quote from a music based website:

Folks on the Internet were wondering what the iPad would be for, but artists have a clear idea of what they can do with such a pretty device.

[Pugwash]

.1.) On the 7 hour airplane ride, my wife and I upgraded to first class. On my eeePC I had some movies/shows ripped to a 32gb SDHC card. Using a headphone splitter, and because of the traditional clam-shell design we were able to both watch 5 hours of video. (iPad FAIL: the tray tables / extra room / seat configuration in first class would have made it impossible to do what we did if we had an iPad because of its form factor "pad" design without creative propping or cases)

2.) One of the Sail/Dive companies we were interested, an many of the restaurants we wanted to check out from the hotel via the internet were, you guessed, heavily reliant on Flash. (iPad FAIL: If we had the iPad, we could not have browsed the site of the Sail/Dive company or some of the restaurants menus in advance.

3.) Shot tons of photos. Camera uses SDHC. For piece of mind I like to do a nightly dump of the photos from the camera/card to the netbook as backup. (iPad FAIL: no card slot, no way to get my photos onto it from my SD card(s).)

4.) Tethering. I am able to tether my eeePC to my Verizon phone for 3g/EVDO access if no wi-fi. ONE DATA PLAN. Current iPad is/was wi-fi only, and needs another data plan.

The iPad isn't for you, however I'm still going to pick on your points.

1 - you'd have had three hours of battery left after watching video for all seven hours with an iPad. Google "plate stand" for what everyone is using to support their iPads.

2 - yeah, I'll give you the flash one. That is stupid of the websites. Don't they want mobile visitors? Hint: blackberry users have money.

3 - I take it you've not seen the SD card camera connection kit. It's $29 and let's you read SD cards or connect a camera over USB.

4 - your phone can't become a wifi access point? Ok, phone fail.

And yes, I can edit Word/Excel documents on my iPad. I don't even know where you're going with that one. If you don't get the iPad, that's ok, but don't make stuff up.

Ps. As all my recent posts here, this one is written on my iPad.

[plaifender]

Ps. As all my recent posts here, this one is written on my iPad.

amazing... so you're telling me that you can actually input text on an ipad???? sounds almost like.. um..

oh yeah.. MY LAPTOP but less useful

[Ronin]

The iPad isn't for you, however I'm still going to pick on your points.

1 - you'd have had three hours of battery left after watching video for all seven hours with an iPad. Google "plate stand" for what everyone is using to support their iPads.

2 - yeah, I'll give you the flash one. That is stupid of the websites. Don't they want mobile visitors? Hint: blackberry users have money.

3 - I take it you've not seen the SD card camera connection kit. It's $29 and let's you read SD cards or connect a camera over USB.

4 - your phone can't become a wifi access point? Ok, phone fail.

And yes, I can edit Word/Excel documents on my iPad. I don't even know where you're going with that one. If you don't get the iPad, that's ok, but don't make stuff up.

Ps. As all my recent posts here, this one is written on my iPad.

The problem with the above is the "accessory" hell you need to accomplish the above. What good is a small lightweight device if you need to carry around another bag of crap. Back to the Netbook reigning supreme. Not sure what you mean by #4??? I am in fact able to tether my phone to my netbook. ???

Sure you can edit Word/Excel documents (but my experience with Pages/Numbers is it is not 100% compatible with Office, no macros in Excel) but don't plan to do a lot of typing 10-keying without --- an accessory keyboard.

TRUE - iPad great for the music/art scene Red mentions, games and apps. Battery life is awesome, but 5hours of video on my Netbook was about all our eyeballs could handle anyhow.

I just want a "iPad PRO" with full OS-X.... Then I would be happy as a pig in $hit.

Edit: Just googled "Plate Stand" OMFG... 1.) Still Would not have been adequate to share the screen between 2 people in first class on the 777 plane. 2.) If I saw someone whip out that "low-tech" solution for their $500+ iPad I would laugh my ass off. (resourceful none the less)

[redwatch]

Agreed on some points there Ronin. An iPad PRO with full OS X installation, SD card reader on-board, USB port on-board (or 2), and video camera (front facing) on-board. With an App loader to run the apps like they do now. Now that would definitely be the $hit!

[ebzen02]

Just ordered the iPad last week for my wife...Yay..it's really for me:) But, don't you tell her that...

[Mickey Padge]

WOW, retail price of the base model in the UK is a crazy

[jchurch]

Crazy price... I am going to be sending one off to someone off the board today (hopefully, assuming I get over to the fedex place to pick it up, and if the post office is open to let me mail it).

[Pugwash]

WOW, retail price of the base model in the UK is a crazy

[Mickey Padge]

No the base model is $499 in the US, not $630

I know people are buying them, I also know sales staff that are laughing at them for doing so

[jchurch]

nobody pays 630bucks for a base one lol. Well nobody buying one from a reputable dealer. if you pick up one on the ol' craigslist you could be paying something else entirely.

If the going price for a base one is in the 600 range I might be willing to put up with the two week delay to get a 3G one and sell my base one lol.

[Mickey Padge]

The bottom of the line base model ipad costs £429.99 in the UK, which is about $630, so when you say nobody pays 630bucks for one that is not quite true, you do if you're in the UK

People would be better off getting a friend to import one from the US, if they really must have one....

[jeff g]

For what its worth.. I paid retail at about 500.00 here in US.for my IPad.

I love my IPad, just like I love my Mac Book, and just like I love my I phone.

But that's just me of course.

[dbutlerman]

I need to post another positive for the iPad. I did a little experiment today. I decided to shoot some pictures on my D60, download them to my iPad, edit the photos on my iPad using a $2 app called Filterstorm, uploaded them on to my ftp server at work, and then post a topic on RWG, and it all worked seamlessly.

And as a sit in front of the tv and browse the web device, it is killer! Nothing can beat that, not a netbook nor a laptop nor anything else for that matter!

[Ronin]

I need to post another positive for the iPad. I did a little experiment today. I decided to shoot some pictures on my D60, download them to my iPad, edit the photos on my iPad using a $2 app called Filterstorm, uploaded them on to my ftp server at work, and then post a topic on RWG, and it all worked seamlessly.

And as a sit in front of the tv and browse the web device, it is killer! Nothing can beat that, not a netbook nor a laptop nor anything else for that matter!

Let me get this straight-- you took the images from your D60's memory card to some 'intermediary' space??? Spent 2$ on an app, dealt with some old school FTPing, to get them to RWG. By my estimates, not including the 1 time app purchase, this had to be a 5+ minute process. ??? Contrast this with the memory card slot in a laptop or my netbook, in which this could have been accomplished much quicker with $0 spent, and no jumping through hoops. Call me crazy, but I fail to see how this even comes close to rivaling a Note/Netbook. I can just as easily sit in front of the TV with a MacBook, or my eeePC and do it ALL (+flash games, Hulu, et. al.)

Just playing devils advocate here....

Edit to add: If the iPad was sub-$200 in price, this would be "all good" IMHO

Edit to add 2: By the time I type--

ftp xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

hash

type binary

put somefile.jpg

.......My Note/Netbook would have had the image on Imageshack by now...

[Andei3000]

Let me get this straight-- you took the images from your D60's memory card to some 'intermediary' space??? Spent 2$ on an app, dealt with some old school FTPing, to get them to RWG. By my estimates, not including the 1 time app purchase, this had to be a 5+ minute process. ??? Contrast this with the memory card slot in a laptop or my netbook, in which this could have been accomplished much quicker with $0 spent, and no jumping through hoops. Call me crazy, but I fail to see how this even comes close to rivaling a Note/Netbook. I can just as easily sit in front of the TV with a MacBook, or my eeePC and do it ALL (+flash games, Hulu, et. al.)

Just playing devils advocate here....

Edit to add: If the iPad was sub-$200 in price, this would be "all good" IMHO

Edit to add 2: By the time I type--

ftp xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

hash

type binary

put somefile.jpg

.......My Note/Netbook would have had the image on Imageshack by now...

Ronin, I have to disagree a little bit.

First: there aren't many netbooks with a built in CF card reader (which is the common storage medium for dslr)

Second: there is an imageshack app for the ipad - which is free

Third: there is no free image editing software for the ipad until now, oops not so an advantage for the Ipad

All in all I'm a Pc guy over and over and I wouldn't give them up!

But if you have ever experienced browsing the web with an iPad you'll never touch that netbook again. I hate those touchpads since I own the pad!

Justmy two cents - and yes I do miss flash on the iPad

Andei

[opti]

First: there aren't many netbooks with a built in CF card reader (which is the common storage medium for dslr)

Are you kidding? its probably more difficult to find a one without it these days. Its almost standard.

[Mickey Padge]

Are you kidding? its probably more difficult to find a one without it these days. Its almost standard.

People with ipads, or who want an ipad, seem to think every other device shares the total and utter lack of connectivity that the ipad has.....

I will probably pick up a slate PC at some stage, but you can bet that it will be the most powerful and feature packed one that you can find, not the exact oppose (read ipad)

[cornerstone]

Had my first go on one of these today, and it's pretty cool. No idea why people have been saying it weighs too much, just like a book really.

One thought I had though was that if the iPad had come first, we'd currently be blown away that the little iPhone could do the same and more in a smaller package.

[jchurch]

What... laptops come with CF readers... where and when? CF is compact flash. Back in 2004 some gateway one did, and I think there was an e-machines one that had one also but both of those are were 2004 models and chances of finding one now with a built in compact flash reader are slim and none and I think slim just left.

Most people think a new device must replace something else. You know like how your mobile phone can take photos and videos, get email, surf the web, send text messages, play music and movies, act as a GPS, and occasionally make telephone calls. Yet why would someone buy an MP3 player when their phone does that and more, Why would someone buy a dedicated GPS when their phone can do that and more... Why buy a TiVO when your VCR does that and more. Well each has reasons why you get something else. Your phone while it does all of those things can't replace a camera, it can't replace a handheld GPS. The VCR can easily be replaced by a TiVO but if you have a large library of tapes you might want to convert them over to another format. The iPad doesn't replace a computer it is a device in addition to a computer. It is an instant on device you can use to consume content and in some cases create content.

[jchurch]

Had my first go on one of these today, and it's pretty cool. No idea why people have been saying it weighs too much, just like a book really.

One thought I had though was that if the iPad had come first, we'd currently be blown away that the little iPhone could do the same and more in a smaller package.

yeah. but it was the iphone that put the ipad ideas out there.

there were small tablet computers out well before the ipad. but instant on they were not and running windows they were. Windows blows in tablet form.

[Mickey Padge]

Anyone seen the German answer to the slate PC, and ipad? Looks quite feature packed too

Looks like the Germans simply corrected everything that is wrong with the ipad, and improved upon it even more, selling a good piece of hardware is better than selling hype

[Ronin]

Final thoughts on the CF/SD ability to go from Camera -to- Edit -to- Web.

1.) Since Asus practically invented the Netbook market with the eeePC, they have had SD card readers forever. As someone above said it is almost impossible to find a NET/NOTEbook these days that can't accept at least SD cards.

2.) My wifes G4 Powerbook from 2004 with its PCMCIA slot has the ability to read CF/SD/MMC/etc via a PCMCIA card that resides in the slot 24x7. My work provided HP Laptop has a card reader....

3.) Finally, there is always good 'ole USB to either use with a card reader, OR simply plug the damn camera into it.

You simply are not going to convince me that taking a photo on a camera, moving to an iPad, editing it on an iPad, then putting it up on the web is somehow a "great experience". It is too damn laborious. (By the time I get it to the iPad, I would have it cropped, color balanced, and on imageshack...)

I do appreciate all the "work arounds" and creative solutions to solve issues on the iPad that frankly should NOT be issues if in fact this was truly a "magical, revolutionary, technological marvel".

To set the record straight again, I am/was a BIG APPLE FAN. I DON'T HATE the iPad, I DON'T HATE Apple.

What I do hate is Apple's Marketing of this device, and the limitations of this first version. Everyone has "workarounds" for things that should be innate to any modern computing platform, and it simply boggles my mind that everyone accepts it.

(Ohh, and I am sure/agree 'consuming/reading' web content on the iPad is GREAT, I could not image 'interacting' with the web on it - for example: pecking out this post on the forum on the touch screen.)

[jchurch]

Again what laptops have built-in compact flash... LOL. Just curious you because I use a USB cable when moving the photos from my cameras on my net/notebooks.

There isn't any reason to convince anyone. Bottom line is this thing is a new device that has a market and others have found it.

[Ronin]

Anyone seen the German answer to the slate PC, and ipad? Looks quite feature packed too

Looks like the Germans simply corrected everything that is wrong with the ipad, and improved upon it even more, selling a good piece of hardware is better than selling hype

Now that looks better! I really hope the competition gives Apple a run for their money. Competition is good. Who knows, it might PUSH Apple to build a better product or the product they should have built.