Comments on: The iPad.

By: ladypeyton

ladypeyton — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:51:33 +0000

Ok, it’s only loosely related to the iPad, but I’d love to hear your views, MGK, about the Macmillan/Amazon kerfluffle. Is Amazon engaged in price fixing? Is Macmillan setting the groundwork for a future anti-trust case for the big 6 publishers? Is John Scalzi right?

By: Bug-Out: An Electric Miscellany » Archive » “Hulk Enjoy Shiny Format And Touch-Sensitive Buttons!”

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:47:05 +0000

[...] spent the past week lambasting Apple’s new “iPad” for the sheer idiocy of the idea that an iPod Touch built for the use and enjoyment of the [...]

By: Bryce (Mouser)

Bryce (Mouser) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:23:35 +0000

Random order:

You can get a stylus for the iPhone/iTouch through ThinkGeek – I imagine it’s the same screen type, so it should work.

eBook reader only through iBookstore. No word about loading your own books/PDFs
Actually, there are already apps for the iPhone/iTouch that handle this. Bookshelf lets you load them off your local WiFi network (and some other places I believe) and there’s a Kindle app.

The “No Camera” is weird to me since they’re proud of the photo app built in. Maybe they’re planning on giving it better BlueTooth and selling Cameras, or making the WiFi work directly with the Eye-Fi cards (sold at Apple stores).

The data plan price… talk to AT&T but they’re idiots (I can’t tether to a laptop with my iPhone? WTF?)

This is NOT a laptop killer. It’s not really a netbook killer, nor a Kindle killer, but there will be those that would buy one of these instead of a netbook or Kindle. This is designed as an oversized PDA – for those that need to walk around alot and read things and occasionally enter things, not enter them in mass. My best example is doctors in a clinic, waitstaff or floor sales people, warehouse inventory (well, if it had a barcode reader…) – stuff like that.

I wonder if they’ll have a Newton emulator…

Oh, and I’ve seen the designation PAD for Personal Access Device in SciFi stories before…

By: Gloria

Gloria — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:06:54 +0000

I’m not sold on a laptop toy/replacement that requires an optional dongle for USB! Friggin’ USB.

By: ps238principal

ps238principal — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:09:04 +0000

“Apparently Stephen Fry’s sold on it.”

I loves me some Stephen Fry, but his views on computers are rather astonishing at times, given how much he appears to research other topics. It sounds like his mind was made up in 1995 and since then how shiny something is that has anything resembling an internet hookup is the standard he measures by.

By: Jonathan Miller

Jonathan Miller — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:03:30 +0000

Can anyone explain to me how the iPad isn’t just a giant iPod Touch with a keyboard dock?

I’ve been an Apple user/supporter since the ’80s and I have to say, this new product is underwhelming for me.

By: CB

CB — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:14:01 +0000

I just wanted one to feel like I was a doctor in a futuristic movie where they have touch-screen charts and they tap away with one hand on strange, alien symbols to make it look like they’re actually doing something.

By: Jon H

Jon H — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:51:21 +0000

It’s not so much that it can’t multitask, it’s that only Apple’s stuff can run in the background.

Kevin wrote: “(i.e. streaming audio/video) ”

Well, there’s HTML5 video with H.264, which is supported. Vimeo is using it, YouTube is beta’ing it, and others will probably adopt it before too long.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:31:19 +0000

The dealbreakers for me are lack of flash (i.e. streaming audio/video) support and lack of camera. Also, it would be nice if Apple would support non-QT video formats in their devices, but I realize that would be kind of like asking the earth to start revolving backwards for a change.

By: acabaca

acabaca — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:07:05 +0000

(…all in WITH a two and a seven.)

By: acabaca

acabaca — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:06:03 +0000

This is certainly an interesting development. This is the first time I know that Apple has consciously created a product that is completely worthless and without any real uses whatsoever, and markets it as the next big step in technological evolution. They’re going all in a two and a seven. Depending on how well they do, we may finally be rid of the illusion that “quality” or “value” means anything in the brain of the Homo Sapiens.

This isn’t a magical device, but it IS a magical marketing push. Trying to make people feel privileged to be allowed to pay the double price for a directly worse version of a product they already own (iPad = iPod Touch, without portability) is unprecedentedly ballsy.

By: guayec

guayec — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:06:53 +0000

I always appreciate when Apple puts out a new, ‘visionary’ design… because then other companies don’t have to spend the time, effort, and hype designing and marketing their fantastic second-gen versions of the thing, so the off-brand improved version is far, far better a piece of gear and much cheaper.

Exactly! I’ll just wait for a MasterG or LG or some other company’s version of this.

By: MGK

MGK — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:04:41 +0000

I don’t think you actually mean the words “ass-rapingly.” May I suggest “prohibitively” instead?

I can only assume you’ve never dealt with Rogers Wireless.

By: Bryce (Mouser)

Bryce (Mouser) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:00:02 +0000

Aside from the info released by Apple, there’s still only a lot of speculation.

“We shall wait. And Watch. And See.”

By: MrProven3

MrProven3 — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:49:46 +0000

And they said adverbs were dying…”ass-rapingly”…awesome.