Author Topic: I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge  (Read 36116 times)

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Offline hyperlinked

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 00:02:31 »
I'm surely going to get flamed for thinking this, but I'm coming off the fence. One of Think Geek's April Fool's jokes just connected some dots that I've pondered and repondered for many of the past 10 years. I will be getting one eventually not because I really want one, but because I think it'll be important for my career and business to be an early adopter.

I was an early adopter of the Internet in the mid 80's, but other than that I've rarely cared to own anything along the first wave of owners. I've been building a pretty good career for just happening to own a modem before most people knew what one was.

The iPad might be something along the lines of an AOL that introduced an existing technology in a simply packaged format to a wider audience than ever before. It's not the device. It's everything else and it doesn't matter if you think it's the best device of its class or if it's even innovative in the least. It didn't matter that AOL was a dumber version of the Internet, though that fact that eventually caught up to it. It mattered more that AOL had content... cheap second rate content and users.

You hated AOL. I hated AOL. We laughed at AOL users and all types of Internet for dummies type of services out there, but the AOLs had a huge role to play in creating a popular market for what was then only an alter reality for the outsiders of society.

The iPad will have apps and with the impressive mobilization of developers working on staking a spot as an early landmark developer, it's going to hold an advantage in Apps for a while. People are going to come up with novel apps and uses for this thing that really will introduce a new category of computing. It's not going to cause a seismic change in how people use computers... that's silly Apple hype, but it will open a door that has been swinging open and shut for quite a few years. This category of computer has been viable for some time already. It just lacked a carrier capable of hyping it enough to change perceptions of how you use a computer and it lacked developers and apps. It has all of those now.

Ok, the keyboard sucks. Big deal. Did you see the Think Geek april fool's joke in which they made an iPad arcade?  The damn iPad is a mobile screen. Everyone jeering at the one button interface may not be laughing for long. The lack of features and the plainness might make the economics of producing peripherals for this more agreeable. It's a blank slate.

Check out this prototype mod to make an iPhone a dPad controlled mobile gaming device.
http://icontrolpad.com/

A problem of a lot of tablet devices is that they are really laptops and suffer from some of the same problems that laptops have when you try to use them on the go. They want to behave like laptops. They're too large. For a device of this nature, a lack of extra features may not be a bad thing so long as you can add on to it as you wish without ruining the form factor.

Mobile phone apps for all types of phones have been getting more and more interesting. It reflects a genuine acceptance that there is a place for truly mobile computing... not the kind where you tote a laptop around because that's just desktop computing on the go. All of the newly mobile computing to date has been done on mobile phone like devices and in a lot of ways is nothing more than adapted Web surfing. You do not need a fully fledged computer to do this, but you do need the right form factor to make it easier. The mobile phone will never get there. They're simply too small and the fact that there is such a movement to turn mobile phones into mini workstations speaks to the emerging viability of a different kind of mobile computer.

Now, before I get banned, I'll put on my asbestos suit. While I think this will really go somewhere. I don't know if Apple will be at the head of the pack of it in 5 years. Once a new class of device such as the iPad has been branded into popular culture, the barrier of entry to this new market will fall dramatically for anyone else who wants to do it better without the pain in the ass that Apple's legal department will pose for a lot of their initial partners. The huge lead they have in apps will be important and pivotal for a few years, but you don't need to match it app for app to form a viable rival platform. You just need enough comparable offerings where it counts and ironically, Apple is alive today because a lot of people could overlook that they could live with their limited selection of software so long as Photoshop, DreamWeaver, an older version of MS Office and some other stuff could be had.

I'm going to get one of these probably sometime later this year because  the kind of websites I often find myself working on have been on a collision course with mobile computing. I was in no hurry to really bone up on my understanding of mobile computing because it seemed to be way off in the distance.

The horizon just moved up on me. It's time to rethink ways that people might use a viable computer while going about town.
« Last Edit: Sat, 03 April 2010, 00:15:53 by hyperlinked »
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Offline iMav

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #1 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 00:28:27 »
A ginormous iPod touch just seems silly to me.  It seems awkward to hold, doesn't give you want you really need to fully enjoy web content (java and flash), and doesn't really bring anything remarkable to the table.

I am typically pretty quick to drink the Apple koolaid...but I just can't get on board with the ipad.

Offline hyperlinked

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #2 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 00:50:55 »
Quote from: iMav;169164
A ginormous iPod touch just seems silly to me.  It seems awkward to hold, doesn't give you want you really need to fully enjoy web content (java and flash), and doesn't really bring anything remarkable to the table.

I am typically pretty quick to drink the Apple koolaid...but I just can't get on board with the ipad.

And I agree with you completely, but it's (sorry to be cliche'd) inside the box thinking. I'm not planning on getting one because I really want one. I'm getting one as a homework assignment. I hope they release one with an outward pointing camera because the possibilities of augmented reality apps on something like this would be really intriguing.

My wife is a composer and a non-tech geek. She uses our laptop constantly, but not in any tech savvy way. Tech gadgets don't excite her. She caught a glimpse of an iPad app online that puts out sheet music and it instantly captivated her because it never occurred to her that a computing device of the right form factor could solve every musician's dilemma of having to carry around books of sheet music and turning it while you're trying to play.

This is nothing truly new. Surely high end studios have digital devices to do this already, but the form factor unlocks this way of using a device to a whole new population. The app is not something glamorous. It's pretty simple actually, but it was all in the form factor.

And this isn't really Apple's Kool Aid anyway. This Kool Aid's been getting passed around for a while. Apple's just spiking the punch bowl. A lot of things needed to have happened already to make an iPad-like computer truly useful. The biggest thing Apple's doing here is bringing together an army of developers with their marketing machine and a decade of intrigue.
« Last Edit: Sat, 03 April 2010, 00:59:56 by hyperlinked »
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Offline Rajagra

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #3 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 01:47:25 »
Quote from: hyperlinked;169160
developers working on staking a spot as an early landmark developer

Will they? Why bother? Developers can't sell direct to the users. The users can't choose freely what apps they can buy. Because there's this damned company sitting between them controlling everything (and skimming off profit to boot.)

What use is gaining a reputation as an early developer, when the only opinion that determines if your app can sell is Apple's?

By the same argument, how can there be innovative development of apps when everything is so tightly controlled by a company whose interest is their own profit, not improving people's lives?

General-purpose computing devices were a fabulous invention that sparked innovation that changed the world. But every time manufacturers (and laws) start stripping away that general-purpose ability and freedom and crippling the abilities of the things we the customers pay for, the more we become slaves to these devices instead of the other way around.

The public feels they should buy these devices to keep up with the times. Developers like you feel they should cater to them to get a foothold. Both sides are in the same boat, having their strings pulled by the same puppeteers.

I'm not angry because this product exists. I'm angry because it could be so much better if it didn't have limitations built in due to the contemptuous attitude its makers have towards us.

Offline clickclack

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #4 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 01:58:45 »
It sounds like it will find it's niche, and/or will be adopted because its new-tech. I believe more capable devices came before it and most certainly will come after, but because apple threw this down this type of device will finally get some actual meaningful attention.

I wouldn't get one, nor could I ever imagine getting/wanting one, and for one reason and one reason only-
It does not utilize a stylus, and those aftermarket "sticks" that are meant to be a stylus substitute are inaccurate and have no pressure sensitivity.

What I can't understand is why most companies fail on this particular matter in such an epic way. Could it be a problem with copyrighted technology? I don't know or care.

I realize this could just be the "artist" in me complaining, but really c'mon, it's an intuitive part of our lives to use an accurate writing instrument. We basically can all use them and use them very, very well. The technology not only exists but its DAMN GOOD (well it can be atleast)!

I was so upset when I found out it lacked this capability I shouted some garbled explitives and chucked my keyboard!

I don't get how apple can be so very seemingly creative yet pursue narrow minded proprietary products.

With the exception of my Cintiq 21ux (and that's debatable to some) my old intuous tablet now nearing ten (yes 10) years old KICKS THE LIVING CRAP out of all these new "intuitive" input devices.

I don't doubt it will be great for some if not many things but I hope its shortcommings spark a major pursuit in better input tech. Atleast it has finally put this old "slate" technology back on the map, and for that I am greatful.
« Last Edit: Sat, 03 April 2010, 02:04:23 by clickclack »
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Offline hyperlinked

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #5 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 02:32:46 »
Quote from: Rajagra;169171
Will they? Why bother? Developers can't sell direct to the users. The users can't choose freely what apps they can buy. Because there's this damned company sitting between them controlling everything (and skimming off profit to boot.)

Doesn't appear to be stopping developer interest to me.

Quote from: Rajagra;169171
The public feels they should buy these devices to keep up with the times. Developers like you feel they should cater to them to get a foothold. Both sides are in the same boat, having their strings pulled by the same puppeteers.

That's what I was feeling before... great it's another device or service that friends and clients will ask me about and like every other time, it's just going to be a retread of something else, but shinier. Well, in some ways it is indeed a retread, but conditions are different this time and I don't know if any other company other than Apple has the right qualities to bring this forward.

They may "own it" for a while, but if it catches on, they can no more own it than they can wave a wand and send us back in time to the days in which most people owned either an Apple II or a branded IBM PC. I'm not intrigued about this one device. I'm intrigued that this may finally be what unlocks a lot of creative energy and efforts around making social use of computers more fluid.

There can [not] be only one.

Quote from: clickclack;169172
It sounds like it will find it's niche, and/or will be adopted because its new-tech. I believe more capable devices came before it and most certainly will come after, but because apple threw this down this type of device will finally get some actual meaningful attention.

And this is what I'm starting to believe. Some company with a powerful halo has to take the risk to go all in on this and I think the only company that can do that right now is Apple and I do think their window of opportunity is limited. They're not an underdog anymore and the more commonplace they become, the more that halo will lose its luster.

Quote from: Rajagra;169171
I'm not angry because this product exists. I'm angry because it could be so much better if it didn't have limitations built in due to the contemptuous attitude its makers have towards us.
Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good.
« Last Edit: Sat, 03 April 2010, 02:43:08 by hyperlinked »
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Offline clickclack

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #6 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 03:27:13 »
Quote from: hyperlinked;169176

And this is what I'm starting to believe. Some company with a powerful halo has to take the risk to go all in on this and I think the only company that can do that right now is Apple and I do think their window of opportunity is limited. They're not an underdog anymore and the more commonplace they become, the more that halo will lose its luster.


It's a catch 22 that is further complicated by marketing and timing. However, Apple is wearing the target now (and wears it well). For a long time critics thought a slate was stooopid and it had little to do with speed.
In a way I am scared of its success initiating a complacency in the industry regarding interface.
I am with you on the "halo" reference but I also think that many times when things become more commonplace they by default set a standard. And standards seem to go in one of two ways, either all new things need to constantly exceed this "standard"(atleast attempt) or they need to meet it. If it's the latter then a distinct paradigm shift happens and when that happens I think things become perpetually more narrow in their focus.

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Offline ch_123

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #7 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 04:54:34 »
iTL;DR

The only good thing about the iPad is if it makes someone come up with a more sane equivalent.
« Last Edit: Sat, 03 April 2010, 04:59:27 by ch_123 »

Offline ch_123

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #8 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 07:37:24 »
Quote from: webwit;169187
You know, before mobile phones when people traveled home from work and they arrived home, they said, Hi honey, I'm home, what's on tv tonight? Now they call and say Hi honey, I'll be home in 10 minutes, what's on tv tonight?


This. I've found that the sort of constant communication afforded by things like mobile phones, instant messaging and [shudders] facebook has probably done more damage to people's social skills than it has to facilitate them.

In my college, there's a computer lab dedicated to Computer Science students. People come in, have a chat with the others, do whatever work needs to be done and head off. If you go into some of the computer labs for arts students, you find these immaculately dressed people, sitting in dead silence in front of their computers... using facebook. Volumes could be filled describing the irony of internet "communication".

Offline hyperlinked

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #9 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 08:05:57 »
Quote from: ch_123;169191
This. I've found that the sort of constant communication afforded by things like mobile phones, instant messaging and [shudders] facebook has probably done more damage to people's social skills than it has to facilitate them.

This is another reason why I think a hybrid device like this could be different. There may be ways of using it that is less socially isolating in that you are not having to hunch into a tiny mobile device to read tiny text and tap out messages on tiny keys. People have always multi-tasked and rude people will always be rude no matter what. If you have to interact with a device while you're around other people something with a large form factor might work better.

Then again, I might be smoking crack. I have no idea and that's why I think I need to try it in earnest to better understand the potential or lack thereof. We're all coming to this with a lot of assumptions of what will ultimately be useful, how it can be used, and where its strengths are and where its weaknesses are.

There are a lot of smart people, but I don't think any of them really know where this will go and for what reason and for the sole reason that I'm having difficulty fitting this type of usage into a box, I see something I haven't seen before in a mobile device. I doubt that does anything to change the world in any meaningful way, but if you're looking to exercise your imagination, it's a good opportunity.
« Last Edit: Sat, 03 April 2010, 08:12:57 by hyperlinked »
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Offline didjamatic

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #10 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 08:18:15 »
For now, it's just a device that is cool but we don't need because doesn't replace or outperform existing devices.  The iphone had/has the ability to replace your iPod, PDA, cell phone, home phone and take on many functions of your computer while being in your pocket.  The Ipad doesn't do this and won't fit in your pocket.  It has no proper input device, onscreen input is "lived with" on a phone but is not ideal and certainly no replacement for a keyboard and mouse.  But you say "you can use a keyboard with an ipad" but the moment you do that, it loses it's cool "pad-ness" and becomes a very wimpy competitor to a tablet or netbook... and with apple's refusal to let you add storage via memory card slot or install apps that YOU want, it's very big brother, very hyped and though cool is not what iSteve says it is.

It may open the door so iPad v.3 or v.5 or v.25 could do more of what they say it will, time will tell.
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Offline Phaedrus2129

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #11 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 09:55:06 »
I see no future in this device. It does nothing well. At all.

eReader - Fail. LCD screen is terrible for reading, that's the whole point of eReaders, they have those passive eInk eScreens eOk?
Music player - Fail. It's bulky and huge and can't fit in a pocket.
Phone - Fail, doesn't even have the capability
Laptop - Fail, the iPhone OS doesn't support multitasking, a fatal oversight for something wanting to compete with conventional netbooks. They should have had it run OSX or something
Skillet - Fail, doesn't run quite hot enough to cook an egg
Self defense - Fail. Come on, it weighs a quarter as much as my Model M.



So as you can see, it's just a mediocre product. It isn't "the next big thing"; it's Apple trying to drum up hype over something that tries to do everything and thus does nothing well.

I saw an article in the USA Today... I wonder how much Apple paid them? The writer was sucking Apple's **** so hard he must have passed out from asphyxiation and fell on his keyboard in just the right way to make his computer puke out the massive pile of brown-nosing **** that somehow got into the paper during printing.
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Offline kishy

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #12 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 10:32:39 »
Quote from: Phaedrus2129;169211
I see no future in this device.


Doesn't matter. Apple created it...it has a future.

Apple is a company which has built itself on telling you the other way is for losers rather than making a product that actually attracts you.

Quote from: Phaedrus2129;169211
It does nothing well. At all.


This remains to be seen, but I suspect that is correct. If someone gets Windows 98 onto it, it'll become useful, because that OS is substantially more sophisticated than what's on it.

Quote from: Phaedrus2129;169211
So as you can see, it's just a mediocre product.


That is correct.
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Offline ch_123

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #13 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 11:03:11 »
Given the amount of **** software around these days, I really find it hard to blame Apple for making a closed down platform. A fully open platform where everyone can make whatever they want causes all sorts of nonsense - take a look at Windows Vista. On the year Vista came out, early adopters were confronted with lots of blue screens and said "Oh, Vista is ****". In fact, something like a third of all fatal Vista crashes that year were caused by nVidia's drivers. Remember the way people whinged about UAC? That was designed to be completely non-intrusive when operating with correctly designed software. The fact that it bugged everyone every half minute says a lot about the stuff running on it.

At the end of the day, there is a lot of badly designed software out there, I'd go as far as saying that it comprises the majority of software out there. People are idiots, so when the software doesn't work, they blame either a) the hardware vendor or b) the operating system vendor. Apple is both, so they design their platform such that the amount of **** that runs on it is minimized. Combine this with a very limited set of hardware and you have something where very little can go wrong because there are so few variables, and hey, who cares if there isn't a gajillion things that do the same thing? Only a handful of them are worth using anyway. It's a very good way of giving the illusion that your system is better than the competition, the reality is that if Windows was subjected to the same restrictions, it would be just as good.

The alternative to this is an open source model. I hate to sound like an RMS freetard ***, but open source software tends to be very high quality, and this is down to the fact that you have community review, and that you have a bunch of people from different parts of the globe with different ideas and experiences working on something for the love of it, rather than some disheveled code monkey who ****s something together so that he can get paid and move on to the next boring episode of his life. The problem here is that it's difficult for companies to make a profitable open sourced based product for the consumer market. It's simple with enterprise because you can charge obscene amounts of money for support (a lá Red Hat) but that's not something you can do with average Joe Soap.
« Last Edit: Sat, 03 April 2010, 11:05:18 by ch_123 »

Offline kishy

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #14 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 11:11:45 »
Well said, CH. Well said.

That does not, however, address the fact that the iPad is absolutely crippled (and this is considered a selling point, which indicates a problem with the consumer as well). But you're completely right.
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Offline maclover

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #15 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 11:16:44 »
I'll probably wait for their next iteration of it before I buy it.

posted from my iPhone

Offline wellington1869

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #16 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 11:44:10 »
I think it'll sell like gangbusters (for the usual reasons apple "appliances" sell).  The question for me is, should it?  For me this is one of those products that ought not to sell, cuz its bad for the computing industry on just about every level. (Its great for Apple Corp, but Apple Corp isnt the entire computing industry (yet)). But yea, it'll sell.

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Offline Mercen_505

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #17 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 12:11:14 »
I'm not drinking the kool-aid on this one. It has a limited market in the form of people who want something around the house that functions like a netbook, but isn't. These folks want to plop on the couch, check their email, watch a vid, or update their social networking whatever. If they can do all that without having to manage a complicated OS and a keyboard/mouse, they will gravitate toward it.

Business use is out. That virtual keyboard isn't going to cut it, for anything other than light messaging, and anyone who thinks the keyboard add-on is going to fly is nuts.

Portable use is limited. It's too large to ride in a pocket, and without a clamshell design it will be exposed to damage during transit without a case. That glass pane is gonna look ugly when it breaks in your iPouch or whatever you'll be using to protect it.

Developers like it because there is a low barrier of entry, and as proven by the iPhone retards will buy anything in the way of apps.

Offline ch_123

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #18 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 12:39:58 »
It boils down to simple 'product line rationalization'. If the iPad could multitask, have more CPU power, have an inbuilt keyboard (etc) then it's popularity would eat into the sales of the more expensive machines, on which Apple makes more profit. So Apple either has to make something that is good but expensive, or something that is relatively cheap but limited.

Apple's main strategy is appeal to snobbery. They don't do 'cheap' or 'low end', which is why there's no Apple netbook (after all, the primary defining feature of the netbook is that they're small and cheap, and everything else is superfluous). It's a rather cynical strategy, but it works for them, and their experimentation in the 90s with cheap machines and licensed clones didn't exactly end well for them. I can't say that what they are doing is a bad thing, I just wouldn't buy into that whole culture myself.

Then again, the people who get all high and mighty about accusing Apple of being a snob product probably also subscribe to the "No one gets fired for buying IBM" school of thought. Snobbery is snobbery no matter how you market it.

Offline Input Nirvana

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #19 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 13:22:41 »
FYI:
I've been putting an iPad through it's paces for over an hour. The product is without question very, very tight. Easy and enjoyable to use, much more convenient than my net/lap. The real sales question is if it suits a users need functionally, basically less than a net/laptop, more than an iPhone. That's a pretty big gap for many (like us, working in-field a couple hours a day while being mobile). Obviously it's not a desktop/road warrior laptop replacement by any means. We have a use for it (3G model). But, it's not a perfect fit either. I think the second gen. of these will be really something.

EDIT---Add a few more things and lower the price of the upper end models $100 to hit the sweet spot.
« Last Edit: Sat, 03 April 2010, 13:31:56 by input nirvana »
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Offline Mercen_505

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #20 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 14:27:40 »
Oh lawd, is dat sum MOE?

Offline Rajagra

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #21 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 15:23:42 »
Quote from: ripster;169230
iBeer App Developer has made over half a million dollars to date.

OK, I wavered a bit. After following the link to Apple's original list of top sellers* I noted that the downloads are dirt cheap. 60p for an interactive London Underground map and journey planner? Has to be a bargain right? Maybe Apple has made progress towards that micropayment concept that never happened on the Internet. That would be a good thing.

But then I read the reviews. Many comments that it gives information that is just plain wrong. Some good reviews too, admittedly.

So here's the thing. How good does an iPhone/iPad app need to be? It needs to be good enough to make you part with a trivial amount of money then not have to worry about it when it turns out to be of limited use. And 99% of what you get will be precisely of that quality. You will get iFart, iPint, Tetris, and a multitude of other apps that nearly do something useful but don't quite hit the mark.

As Fox Mulder might say about the Apple vision, I want to believe. But the truth is out there.


* It's ironic that you have to load iTunes to view that list. Wait, it's not irony it's just a pain in the ass. I often get them mixed up.

P.S. WTF? I can't use a scroll wheel in iTunes? WTF? Seriously, Apple, are you trying to make me hate you???
(Specifically, it blocks Logitech's Universal Scroll function.)
« Last Edit: Sat, 03 April 2010, 15:29:07 by Rajagra »

Offline Mercen_505

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #22 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 15:31:54 »
Quote

Why are there so many French Maids in Japan? Must be a country of perverts.


Well, it's full of perverts, for sure. Tentacles, man. Tentacles. I've been told that the concept of "service" is baked into their society on a fundamental level, so the idea of having women cruise around in maid uniforms doing things for you (depending on the situation, possibly unspeakable things) is highly desirable.



As for the iPad and its bevvy of cheap apps, I must remain on this side of the fence for now.


Offline clickclack

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #23 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 15:55:53 »
Quote from: ripster;169262
CONGRATS!  I was getting worried about the Geek in Geekhack.

  The other niche market that it addresses is photographers.  In the field photo backup and preview.  At least that's my excuse if I ever get one.  I'm still gonna wait for more on-hands reviews by the DPReview folks.


I have been contemplating the photographer relavance aspect but I get stuck more on portable portfolio and preview than backup, and it would be elegant for that too.

 I don't know a photographer that likes the amount of equipment they have to carry now (including myself and I'm not talking about the 2-3 cameras around my neck) This is then one more thing to carry, because as far as I can tell it doesn't replace anything. If it replaces the portable backup viewers then the photographer has a major choice to make. And that would be portability, convenience and safety vs  impressiveness and convenience. Bigger portable operations will just use laptops but will "showoff" the ipad to the clients. Do they even have a wireless compatibility with proprietary camera transmitters? As I certainly can't imagine it being compatible with a tethered setup.
I always thought tablet pc's were a great compromise in this regard, but I still see more photographers with laptops and portable backup vewiers. And yet I am still a big fan of dual memory slot cameras.

I could see it in the field like at a studio shoot, but not outside on a shoot. When have you seen an outdoor shoot (daytime) using a glossy screen especially without a vewing hood?

I am curious to see what other unique uses will be found, and I hope it will spark more dedication to electromagnetic solutions as opposed to capacitance by other companies.

Or maybe they will just make an app for it called "lick a toad" and then the little amphibian turns into someone hot. Or the screen turns to something psycheedelic =P
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Offline Input Nirvana

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #24 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 18:57:34 »
150,000 apps. I have 300, that's .002% of which, many aren't ready for prime time, or never will be. That's why they are free or a buck. Some that are free are really good AND surprisingly useful and I would pay more for. I use a few in the $20-$90 range as well. Then again, there are many fine apps (paid/unpaid) that are just of no use to me. The app idea is still in its infancy and has already improved, fortunately.

I've always had more cost in software over hardware. (desktop/laptop)

Wow. I sound like such a fan.  :)
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Offline Mercen_505

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #25 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 19:22:17 »
Quote
So nobody here watches movies or TV?

Yes, but I have a HTPC and a projector for that ;)

Offline Rajagra

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« Reply #26 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 19:36:22 »
Quote from: input nirvana;169349
150,000 apps. I have 300, that's .002%


Does it have a calculator? :smile:

Offline sethstorm

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #27 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 20:01:05 »
Quote from: ripster;169299

Plus if I get bored I'll just take it apart.
Show Image



Me? I'd just be interested in the LCD, touchscreen, inverter pinout, touchscreen pinout and rigging that up in in a more standardized package.

At least they had the sanity to use a standard LVDS connector.  Knowing Apple, they'll throw the pinout all over the place.
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Offline Input Nirvana

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #28 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 20:04:33 »
Quote from: Rajagra;169355
Does it have a calculator? :smile:


Touche'
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Offline hyperlinked

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #29 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 20:09:56 »
So it seems like a lot of people think the iPad will sell is because zombies will buy anything that Apple says is "magical." Oh come on, have more imagination than that. They put out tons of stuff that never made it anywhere like the Apple TV, the Mac Mini, the Mac Cube, and Mac Air. There are plenty of people out there who will buy a certain product just because it has the right label or because they think it makes them fit a certain image. That attitude includes plenty of people here, but those people are a tiny fraction of a market.

If the iPad succeeds, everyone will jump off a cliff because this device released 4 years ago was far more visionary and that device that never made it out of prototype had more creativity than the entire Apple corporation. Perhaps, but all would be missing the point that it's far more than the device itself.

The critical mass of users and developers for a device is more important than the device itself. The device just has to not utterly suck. Timing is important too. When Microsoft made a half hearted effort to open up the age of the tablet PC almost ten years ago everyone's idea of a mobile app was running Solitaire on their Nokia phone and the up and coming digital industry was 99 cent cell phone rings.

What have we seen in the past few years? The Web started to encroach the desktop. APIs proliferated like mad. All sorts of mobile apps started popping up to give people access to newly available online streams of information and services and many of these apps were underpowered or difficult to use because it's impossible to design for a tiny interface.

If the Web had not gone 2.0, we might still be trying to one up each other at cell phone solitaire and buying 99 cent ring tones. Each little step unlocks an opportunity for the next outfit to come along to build upon it. Services inform the design of devices and in turn devices influence the design of services and this is why I'm so intrigued by the form factor of the iPad. We really don't know what will happen because it really is a new crossroads. Its predecessors didn't have the advantage of a mountain of services that the iPad has access to and had to be more than a device could possibly be in order to survive.

And please stop with the Apple will kill innovation complaint. That's like saying we're all going to have to be resigned to learning Palm Graffiti because Palm OS has conquered the PDA world. If the iPad succeeds, it will open up quality competition and in the long run, it might just be a stepping stone for another company. Already its opened up opportunities for little known devices that bear some resemblance to it. Who the hell would have ever heard of a JooJoo?
« Last Edit: Sat, 03 April 2010, 22:56:25 by hyperlinked »
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Offline kishy

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #30 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 20:29:22 »
I want one of these.
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Offline hyperlinked

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #31 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 21:33:25 »
Quote from: kishy;169366
I want one of these.


LOL, it looks like some actually did make the MacBook Wheel!
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Offline kishy

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #32 on: Sat, 03 April 2010, 21:55:52 »
Quote from: hyperlinked;169382
LOL, it looks like some actually did make the MacBook Wheel!


Lol wow I didn't even think of that, and I did see the Onion's piece on that way back when too.

Ultimately...that's pretty much what it is, unless the counterfeit ones are equally as trimmed down as real iPads. I know the counterfeit iPhones, at least the good ones, were substantially more feature-rich than the real thing.
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Offline ch_123

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #33 on: Sun, 04 April 2010, 05:11:49 »
Quote from: hyperlinked;169363
They put out tons of stuff that never made it anywhere like the Apple TV, the Mac Mini,


I must confess, I actually want a Mac Mini... They're a very nice little unit.

Offline iMav

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #34 on: Sun, 04 April 2010, 06:11:10 »
Mac minis are nice.  I've owned several of them (currently have one hooked up to my TV in my home office).

Offline hyperlinked

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« Reply #35 on: Sun, 04 April 2010, 06:35:39 »
Ok, LOL, wrong piece of hardware to throw into the "meh" side of the list. ;)
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Offline Manyak

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #36 on: Sun, 04 April 2010, 09:55:39 »
Quote from: iMav;169438
Mac minis are nice.  I've owned several of them (currently have one hooked up to my TV in my home office).

I agree, they're pretty slick. Except they still sacrifice functionality for form, just like pretty much every piece of apple hardware except the Mac Pro. And possibly the iPhone/iPod touch (even though they skimp on some basic functionality like codec support and flash, the 3rd party apps add a lot to them).

1: One thing you always want from an HTPC is for it to be as quiet as possible - meaning that completely eliminating the hard drive is definitely a good thing. But SSDs are really expensive. So what you can do is get a real NIC with TOE and iSCSI offloading and have it boot over iSCSI from a hard drive in a different PC in your house. Mac Minis can't do this, so you're forced to buy an SSD to make it silent.

2: Instead of chalking up $300 for an Xbox, you can spend under $100 on a decent video card and controller for a PC. And since most of the great Xbox games are ported to the PC, it can pretty much completely replace one. Sure, you can still install Windows on a Mac Mini, but it doesn't have anywhere near enough graphics power to handle these games.

3: It only fits slot-load laptop drives, and good luck finding a Bluray player in that form factor. Sure you can get an external one, but that kind of defeats the purpose - you might as well get a standalone player at that point.

4: It's limited in the number of audio formats it can send over it's optical output. It can't output TrueHD or DTS-HD, so you're limited to the lossy AC3 codec for your movies.


So as you can see, hooked up to a TV it's still really not that functional compared to what you can get for the same price.
« Last Edit: Sun, 04 April 2010, 10:02:13 by Manyak »
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Offline hyperlinked

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #37 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 01:56:43 »
I think the reason for no multi-tasking on the iPad has been discovered... and probably the real reason for no Flash too.

It powers itself off once the internal temperature hits 95 degrees. People who were using their iPad in direct sunlight in hot places had their devices auto shut down on them.
Want to use your iPad in the sun? You might have to rethink that.

Sorry ItlnStln, no iPad for you unless you want to move out of Texas. ;)

Hmm... I guess that's why everything has these damn annoyingly loud fans.

Apparently, this can happen on the iPhone too, but few people manage to trigger the safety shutdown.
« Last Edit: Mon, 05 April 2010, 02:41:59 by hyperlinked »
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Offline ch_123

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #38 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 02:48:20 »
The reason why it has no flash is because of a deliberate decision to eschew it in favor of HTML5. Hardware reasons are invalid, because devices using relatively similar hardware such as the Nokia N900 can do it.

Offline iMav

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #39 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 03:56:09 »
Quote from: Manyak;169456
So as you can see, hooked up to a TV it's still really not that functional compared to what you can get for the same price.

I have yet to find something as powerful in such a small form factor (core2duo, able to take 8GB of ram).  They are little power houses.

I use my tv as a display for the mini...doing computing tasks primarily. I couldn't care less what outputs the audio supports, it works with my cheap 32" LCD tv's audio input. :)

The real Mac mini HTPC freaks are over at 123Macmini.

Offline itlnstln

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« Reply #40 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 07:41:03 »
Quote from: hyperlinked;169595
Sorry ItlnStln, no iPad for you unless you want to move out of Texas. ;)

Damn.


Offline hyperlinked

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« Reply #41 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 09:38:54 »
Quote from: ripster;169659
Show Image

Aaarrgghhh! That photo looks painful. What a prick!
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Offline Mercen_505

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #42 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 11:58:28 »
Multitasking is a bit complicated, really. Besides, it gives Apple room to announce Product X, Revision Y, wherein along with one or two other largely forgettable features... you get multitasking. People want that. Insert wav of cash register here.

Offline didjamatic

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« Reply #43 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 12:07:18 »
At least it has expandable memory with those SD card slots.  Oh, wait.
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Offline Mercen_505

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #44 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 12:40:09 »
Things can multitask, but in order to do so they need to be designed for it from the ground up. For instance, multitasking under DOS was a mother****er. Possible? Yup, just ask a Desqview-X user. From a programming standpoint, it was a nightmare. DOS was never meant to multitask, so the architecture was never put in place to facilitate it.

Controlling the "user experience" and forcing certain outcomes is infinitely easier when you don't allow programs to run concurrently. When you allow anyone to open any combination of applications and services, things become murky. I don't fault Apple for approaching this situation with caution. They are jealously protective of their "user experience."

Offline itlnstln

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« Reply #45 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 13:44:54 »
I'm starting to take Ars' Apple comments with a little salt these days.  They're better than Engadget, to be sure, but they have been imbibing on the Kool-Aid an awful lot the past couple of years.


Offline Mercen_505

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #46 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 15:34:17 »
Ars was better in terms of their coverage and general lack of bias before they were acquired by Condé Nast. They haven't fallen off a cliff or anything apocalyptic, but like others, I place significantly less stock in their opinions these days.
« Last Edit: Mon, 05 April 2010, 15:34:50 by Mercen_505 »

Offline itlnstln

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #47 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 15:44:59 »
The core group of writers have also gotten older, too, and they don't seem to be as interested in "hardcore" computing anymore.  I haven't seen a computer buying guide in awhile, let alone the less frequent component (video card, mobo, etc.) reviews.  They still do platform and higher-level processor articles, but they seem to have moved on to a more "bird's-eye-view" look at tech.  I suppose, though, there are about a billion other magazines that do the hardware deep-dive stuff these days.


Offline itlnstln

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #48 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 16:35:01 »
When third-party multitasking is available in OS 1.4 (IIRC), it will make the iPad look a lot more attractive.  I want to listen to Pandora while I do stuff, goddammit.  A "regular user" co-worker of mine played with one this weekend, and said that without multitasking, it was sort of awkward to use.  Single applications were OK, but it was hard to do "productive" things.  He also said there were quite a few apps that looked stupid on the iPad as they were developed for the iPhone/iPod Touch (mainly games).


Offline kishy

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I'm Coming Off the Fence. The iPad Will Be Huge
« Reply #49 on: Mon, 05 April 2010, 16:54:39 »
I'm surprised we haven't seen any photos of it with photoshopped blood on it.

You know why there'd be blood on an iPad.
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