iPad

[Eric Pascarello]

All I can say, what a stupid name.

Eric

[W. Joe Smith]

Frankly, it sounds like someone with a heavy Boston accent trying to say "iPod" to me.

[Gregg Bolinger]

Does it come with wings? What about those not so light days? Is it extra absorbent?

[W. Joe Smith]

Gregg Bolinger wrote:Does it come with wings? What about those not so light days? Is it extra absorbent?

Thank you for making me (nearly) drown my computer with coffee. I was trying to drink when I read that!

[Greg Charles]

Gregg Bolinger wrote:Does it come with wings? What about those not so light days? Is it extra absorbent?

That's in the same theme that jokes around my office have been taking. Did that not occur to Apple? Why does everything have to start with "i" anyway?

[Eric Pascarello]

Greg Charles wrote: Why does everything have to start with "i" anyway?

I think iGreg sounds good. You should legally change your name to that.

Eric

[Bear Bibeault]

Meh, name aside it looks like sweet little machine.

I love my iPod Touch; I'm interested to see where the reader capability goes...

[Eric Pascarello]

Bear Bibeault wrote:Meh, name aside it looks like sweet little machine.

Fan Boy!

[Bear Bibeault]

That's Mr. Fan Boy, to you!

[Paul Clapham]

When I see the word "pad" then (apart from Gregg's comment) I think of something you can write on. But this thing doesn't seem to be that (no keyboard for one thing).

However anything which competes with the Kindle is a good thing in my, um, book.

[Bear Bibeault]

From what I understand it has a software keyboard, can dock to a keyboard accessory, and hook up to a bluetooth keyboard.

[Gregg Bolinger]

Bear Bibeault wrote:From what I understand it has a software keyboard, can dock to a keyboard accessory, and hook up to a bluetooth keyboard.

Yep. It's really just a big iTouch.

[Mark Spritzler]

There is also another discussion going on in the Mac OS forum here
https://coderanch.com/t/480449/Mac-OS/iPad-meh

And MadTV did a parody years ago about an iPad
Not for work consumption

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

After watching real video on the device I am really impressed. At first with just blog text and just audio I was bummed, but the video of the conference does make me say wow.

Apple didn't invent the computer/laptop, but Macs are far and above better machines to me than PCs. I can do everything a PC can do with VMWare Fusion and Mac stuff a PC just can't do.

Mark
Fan Boy since 1984 when I had the original 128K Mac, but went to PC world for 12 years.

[Pat Farrell]

Bear Bibeault wrote:Meh, name aside it looks like sweet little machine. I love my iPod Touch

So do you have pockets big enough to hold this thing?

Perhaps once they ramp up, they can lower the price so that the models with memory and 3G are not grossly overpriced.

As a netbook, its fairly cool, but its hard to see it as more than a rich man's toy.

[Maneesh Godbole]

Mark Spritzler wrote:
Not for work consumption
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsjU0K8QPhs

I had to watch this.
I suppose Mad TV is the same bunch of people from the Mad magazine? You know the Alfred E. Neuman Mad magazine?

[Jesper de Jong]

Steve Jobs was briefly on the news here this morning with his introduction of the iPad.

"This device... it's just incredible!!!" (sounds like he almost has tears in his eyes) "What you can do with this is... you can surf the web!!!"

Wow, great, I want one!

Seriously, I don't see why this thing would become a huge success. It's too big to fit in your pocket, so it's not a thing that you easily always carry with you like a phone, and it's not as powerful and versatile as a laptop.

Ok, netbooks are also somewhat like that and became wildly popular in the last 18 months or so, but the lack of a real keyboard is a serious disadvantage of the iPad in my opinion, compared to netbooks. I would not want to type in documents or do any kind of serious work on a virtual keyboard.

[Monu Tripathi]

[fred rosenberger]

overheard somewhere:

I already have the iPad mini. It fits in my pocket, but can also take pictures and make phone calls!

[Ulf Dittmer]

Back at the Führerhauptquartier, the C-in-C doesn't like it either:

[Gregg Bolinger]

Ulf Dittmer wrote:Back at the Führerhauptquartier, the C-in-C doesn't like it either:

That was awesome!

[ankur rathi]

Why would anyone buy a new gadget for watching videos, listening to music & light computing stuff etc? I believe you can't do any serious stuff on it like programming, documentation, surfing etc.

However, being a new kind of device & cheaper price, it'll surely be a hit initially but I doubt if it's going to enjoy long term success like iPod & iPhone.

[Ulf Dittmer]

ankur rathi wrote:I believe you can't do any serious stuff on it like programming, documentation, surfing etc.

I've yet to see a mobile device short of a full laptop that was realistically usable for development; this is not a workhorse machine. The iWork applications will be available for $10 each, so a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software can be used. Whether one *wants* to type lengthy text on a virtual keyboard is a different matter, but Bluetooth keyboards are available. As to web use, the device has Wifi and 3G connectivity, and the same Webkit-based browser the iPhone has, so internet access, too, is accounted for.

[Jesper de Jong]

The iPad seems to miss some features that would make it much more useful if they were present: no camera, no USB connection (or does it have one?), no way to connect it to a TV or other external screen (no HDMI connector, for example).

It also doesn't support Flash, as you could even see in Steve Job's keynote, where he surfed to a website with a Flash thing on it that displayed only as an empty square. That's really not good for a device which is primarily meant for web surfing.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Jesper Young wrote:no camera, no USB connection (or does it have one?)

Just about everyone already has a camera these days in their mobile phone; and since it has Bluetooth, I wouldn't be surprised if it became possible soon to share images -and possibly other data- with an iPhone (and possibly other phones).

It also doesn't support Flash, ... That's really not good for a device which is primarily meant for web surfing.

I'm not sure that's what it is meant for, or how it will be used primarily; time will tell in what aspects it'll get improved.

[Deepak Bala]

mmm I dont see what the big deal is either. A laptop costing 500$ can deliver much more. It might be just as portable as the ipad anyway.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Deepak Bala wrote:A laptop costing 500$ can deliver much more. It might be just as portable as the ipad anyway.

That'll be heavier, though, possibly as much as two pounds.

[Deepak Bala]

That'll be heavier, though, possibly as much as two pounds.

I agree. But given that you will probably carry both with a bag or using your hands, an extra 2 pounds does not make that much of a difference. Atleast for me.

The advantage of the weight is obvious if you want to lie down and use this in some sort of relaxed position. But I do not see myself doing it. I grab a cup of coffee / tea and sit down to code / read / watch on a good ergonomic chair. Nothing beats that

[Arvind Mahendra]

I'm curious, why would they not give it any flash support?
Also, what is the grip like on this machine? Is it just a smooth shiny surface like the ipod?

[marc weber]

Did anyone really expect this to be a full-fledged laptop? At $499?

Think of it as a Kindle DX ($489), except it's thinner with a high-resolution, color screen. And it has a music/photo/video library, internet browsing, email, contacts/calendar, gaming, and 140,000 other apps available...

[Bear Bibeault]

A laptop replacement is clearly not what this is even trying for.

As for Flash, Apple always holds its reasoning close to the vest, so all we can do is speculate. Most likely speculations:

Flash is a buggy dinosaur; a cancerous scourge that needs to be eradicated from the web. Flash filled a need in first-generation browsers that no longer exists, and it's a crappy video format. The big video players (like YouTube) are migrating towards better formats such as H.264 so Flash will become increasingly irrelevant.

Just as Apple hurried along the demise of the floppy drive as a relevant format by refusing to put floppy drives in the early iMacs, so it goes with Flash.

Apps could be created within the Flash player, introducing instability, and not in line with Apple's business model.

[Gregg Bolinger]

Bear Bibeault wrote:A laptop replacement is clearly not what this is even trying for.

As for Flash, Apple always holds its reasoning close to the vest, so all we can do is speculate. Most likely speculations:

Flash is a buggy dinosaur; a cancerous scourge that needs to be eradicated from the web. Flash filled a need in first-generation browsers that no longer exists, and it's a crappy video format. The big video players (like YouTube) are migrating towards better formats such as H.264 so Flash will become increasingly irrelevant.

Just as Apple hurried along the demise of the floppy drive as a relevant format by refusing to put floppy drives in the early iMacs, so it goes with Flash.

Apps could be created within the Flash player, introducing instability, and not in line with Apple's business model.

Regarding buggy-ness, I don't think flash is that bad and by not support flash Apple has ignored a huge market. There are plenty of sites I enjoy that utilize flash. I wish I had flash support on my iphone. Some of the sites have switched to alternative means to get around the limitation but my opinion is that they shouldn't have to. This isn't an ipad specific complaint. This is an Apple complaint in general. Apple has it's own video format, which leads me to believe the decision to not allow Flash on their non-computer devices (iphone/touch/pad) has more to do with proprietariness (is that a word?) than anything else.

What actually bugs me most at this point is the DRM junk. To me, that's taking a huge step backwards. I'm also not entirely thrilled that they stole the design for iBook from a very popular mac application, including hiring all the developers, and then giving no credit to the original designer at all. Yea, I know the legal reasons for that, but it smells very Microsofty and I don't like it.

I love my iPhone and my macbook. I'm just not entirely thrilled with the direction Apple has taken with the iPad, including the name.

[Gregg Bolinger]

All that said, it looks neat. I wouldn't turn one down if offered to me. I just have no need for one.

[Bear Bibeault]

Same here. If the reader capability turns out to be compelling, I might spring for the v2 rev.

[Mark Spritzler]

Heh, look what people said back in the day when the iPod was announced.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=500

Sound familiar?

Personally I am very excited by this product. I wanted an E-book reader plus a lot more, and at a great price.

Mark

[Bear Bibeault]

LOL -- it can be summed up with this quote:

I'd call it the Cube 2.0 as it wont sell, and be killed off in a short time...and it's not really functional.

Yeah, we all know what a dismal flop the iPod was. Silly Apple!

[Gregg Bolinger]

So yea, everyone underestimated the ipod. However, I don't think we're comparing apples to apples. When Apple launched the iPod, while there were MP3 players galore, Apple subtly revolutionized it. With the help of iTunes and aesthetics. The iPad is really nothing new. It's a big version of an iTouch. Aside from software, can anyone tell me what the iPad does that is different from the iTouch? Different in a way that defines it?

If Apple had said "hey, here's a larger version of the iTouch with some really cool (stolen) software to read e-books" then cool. I think the hype of the whole thing was way too much. And a lot of that is our fault. But Steve's dramatic demo didn't help either. So again, cool, neat, nifty, wouldn't turn down a free one. But overhyped, way overhyped.

[Mark Spritzler]

"Different in a way that defines it? "

There is a different paradigm of applications that make sense on the iPad that the iTouch/iPhone is a little too small for.

For instance, I never use the browser on the iPhone, too small for me, but would on the iPad.

I have some other apps that make way more sense on the iPad than an iPhone. I won't mention them here because I might write those apps.

Mark

[Bear Bibeault]

What you're seeing in the industry's reaction to the iPad is nothing less than future shock.

I think that this blog entry raises some insightful and interesting points.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Bear Bibeault wrote:

What you're seeing in the industry's reaction to the iPad is nothing less than future shock.

I think that this blog entry raises some insightful and interesting points.

+1. That's worthwhile reading.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Indeed, I like that.