I finally got my mitts on an iPad

[jd1138]

The restaurant had a 30 minute wait, so I decided to go over to BestBuy next door and look around. They had an iPad on demo. I played around with it for 10 minutes. I can see it replacing a netbook or even a whole PC/notebook for the most casual of computer users (email, internet surfers, casual games). The home button is nice to have to just quickly get back to the main screen so you can do something else. I think for an older, non-technical person, it could be a simpler and thus better alternative to a regular computer.

It's convenient and natural to just use the swiping motions to navigate pages. I am so used to a mouse and keyboard but they aren't necessary unless you're going to be typing a lot of stuff.

I can't believe there are people who don't like the iPad. When I go to buy a new computer, I may just buy an iPad instead and keep the current 2 year old computers in service longer.

[computoman]

At first I was totally against it as a computer replacement. If the apple was not so proprietary and over priced with it, definitely it would be a good choice for specialised applications. . The best thing for it now is that there are no real competitors with the same form factor yet. That should change soon.

We see all kind of applications where such a device could be real advantageous. i.e. for a waiter in a restaurant. We have been considering such a device for home automation and media control front end. Already have plans to do that with a web based phone. Now we just use a laptop to do all that. It is so darn easy to set up with a home web server.

[masherscf]

The iPad cannot replace a PC. It just isn't that functional. A 30-minute demo is great for seeing a platform's possibilities but lousy for discovering its limitations.

However, it can replace about 85% of what you use the PC for outside the workplace. Since it uses less power than a full-size PC, it is a nice alternative for the energy conscience.

The iPad is pointless for work applications and useless for school. I can't can't run my workspace webmail app becuase it doesn't run the scripts. The whole iTunes marketplace and app environment is inconsistent with enterprise IT services. I can't even use the Wifi at work because I have to re-authenticate very three minutes when the iPad shuts off the Wifi radio to save power.

The lack of Flash support makes it inappropriate for most educational web-apps and online homework and textbook services that are all written in Flash. The ability to load electronic copies of textbooks is irrelevant. Most students never look in their texts anyway. And, I predict we won't use textbooks at all in ten years. We will use text-less online learning products instead. None of these will run on an iPad as long as it won't ever support Flash. Steve Jobs as a bug up is ass about Abobe Flash and has sold a load of BS about it to the Apple Fan-kids. The reality is, the stubborn desire to prohibit Flash is shortsightedness.

The iPad is a toy. But, there's nothing wrong with cool toys. I actually kind of love mine. My six-year old daughter is addicted. But, it hasn't replaced my reliable Dell Laptop. After having an iPad in the household. I gave my wife the option of getting a second one for her own personal use and she opted for a netbook instead. It just more useful. Utterly sexless, but useful.

[tokenuser]

Apple never intended the iPad to be a replacement for a laptop.
It was always placed as a peripheral device for media consumption.
I suspect it will gain greater business focused functionality over time, but it's not there yet.

Until then, as Masher said it handles about 85% of what most people do ... and it does that extremely well.

And, the iOS 4.x update brings it up to where it should have been on release (love having Pandora streaming in the background while I do other things).

I would say it is currently more than a toy, but it's not substitute for a dedicated computer.

[masherscf]

To be fair, the only thing I don't do on the iPad that is not work related is photo processing. My angst about the iPad is the untapped potential. The iPad is the tablet I've been looking for to make the leap to full media in my lectures.

[computoman]

One of my criteria for acquiring a system is,how much can you re-purpose what you have bought. Apple has a history of leaving people with boat anchors. Of all the other Apple equipment we have owned, we could still use it with another operating system or use the parts for other platforms and therefore increase the ROI (return on investment). The Ipad is not there yet. .

[jd1138]

PC's become boat anchors too. You can't run Win 7 on a 486SX CPU based PC, just like you can't get Mac OS X to run on something like a 68040 Motorola based Mac. But now I guess you will say that you can get Damn Small Linux to run on the 486SX, which you can do. :-)

I think it's just the nature of technology, it all becomes boat anchors until it starts to get scarce enough (after most of it's been melted down and turned into toasters) to become a collector's item.

I am amassing some of the video game systems I used to have as a kid. Mattel Aquarius computer, ColecoVision, NES. Still cheap at this point. I bought a fully boxed, complete Aquarius for $20. Betcha I can't get Linux to work on it!

[masherscf]

One of my criteria for acquiring a system is,how much can you re-purpose what you have bought. Apple has a history of leaving people with boat anchors. Of all the other Apple equipment we have owned, we could still use it with another operating system or use the parts for other platforms and therefore increase the ROI (return on investment). The Ipad is not there yet. .

I suppose you don't buy a toaster because you can't cook a stew with it.

[computoman]

I suppose you don't buy a toaster because you can't cook a stew with it.

The appropriate metal insert sleeves and disabling the pop-up feature then you probably could use it to cook a stew. Back to the issue. If the toaster was not legally allowed to be modded (aka to make stew), only used name brand bread from the vendor of the toaster, only used electricity from only one specific vendor the toaster maker approved of which required a minimum monthly fee from you (whether you used it or not) and was more expensive than the price of other toasters on the market, then no I would not purchase it. That's the difference. I can see an SNL skit from this......

For those who did not get the point:
Bread = software.store.
Electric company = mobile phone company.

[tokenuser]

Can you program in Objective C??

No?

The problem isn't that the iPad is a proprietary system.
The problem is that you don't know how to use the tools.

And as the idiom goes ...

"A bad tradesman blames his tools."

[phatlip]

The appropriate metal insert sleeves and disabling the pop-up feature then you probably could use it to cook a stew. Back to the issue. If the toaster was not legally allowed to be modded (aka to make stew), only used name brand bread from the vendor of the toaster, only used electricity from only one specific vendor the toaster maker approved of which required a minimum monthly fee from you (whether you used it or not) and was more expensive than the price of other toasters on the market, then no I would not purchase it. That's the difference. I can see an SNL skit from this......

For those who did not get the point:
Bread = software.store.
Electric company = mobile phone company.

Jailbreaking is now legal. Of course it voids your warranty, but it also voids the toasters warranty if you modify it to cook stew. Whats your point again?

[computoman]

You guys are missing the forest for the trees. While technically it might be legal to hack the ipad, you lose your warranty, so you do get punished as if it were illegal. Whether or not you know how to hack the ipad is irrelevant. You can always hire someone to do it. Personally to get around the limitations of the ipad I would use a web server to push content to the ipad. We already do that for laptops and thin clients,

[jd1138]

The appropriate metal insert sleeves and disabling the pop-up feature then you probably could use it to cook a stew.

lol. plus intall a copy of Damn Small Linux into it.

I bought the wife the "Egg and Muffin" toaster a few years ago. You put your english muffin or toast into it, then crack an egg and put it with a bit of water into this little nonstick cooking pan built into it, then add a piece of canadian bacon or ham on this tray atop where the egg is. And voila, 5 minutes later, you got yourself a homemade Egg McMuffin sandwich complete with poached egg. She didn't like it, but I thought it was cool.

Yeah I know Apple never intended the iPad to replace a laptop or a desktop, but super casual users may get by with it. hobble along with it.

[tokenuser]

You guys are missing the forest for the trees. While technically it might be legal to hack the ipad, you lose your warranty, so you do get punished as if it were illegal. Whether or not you know how to hack the ipad is irrelevant. You can always hire someone to do it. Personally to get around the limitations of the ipad I would use a web server to push content to the ipad. We already do that for laptops and thin clients,We are missing the forest for the trees?

I think you are driving by the orchard and saying I wish those grew poptarts.

Why does everything have to be "hacked"?
What does "hacking" give you that a well designed software application wont?

It makes it "open"? No, not really. Apple already provides the tools you need as a free download.
It unlocks you from the carrier? No, not really. The devices must now be unlockable (without a hack). Just call AT&T, and they have to unlock it.

I think that you are so caught up on the romanticised idea of what FLOSS is that you ignore the fact that these devices are more open than you might expect, and that so called "open" systems have just as many restrictions.

Its fitting that the Linux mascot is a penguin. Ever seen penguins coming in from the ocean to their burrows at night? If you have, you'll understand just how apt the metaphor actually is.

If you ever go to Australia, you need to go to Philip Island and check out the penguins (http://www.penguins.org.au/). Take a jumper (sweater) the wind coming off the Antarctic will chill you to the bone.

[masherscf]

I Love penguins.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3407/3431683621_6b9dcc22ef.jpg

[phatlip]

You guys are missing the forest for the trees. While technically it might be legal to hack the ipad, you lose your warranty, so you do get punished as if it were illegal. Whether or not you know how to hack the ipad is irrelevant. You can always hire someone to do it. Personally to get around the limitations of the ipad I would use a web server to push content to the ipad. We already do that for laptops and thin clients,

And? They personally want nothing to do with jailbreaking and doing so may damage the product. So it voids the warranty. Hack your iPad and you void your warranty. "Hack" your toaster and you void your warranty. "Hack" your car and you void your warranty. Again, whats your point?

[computoman]

The point is:
You do not have to buy your bread (software from apple only per se) and you do not have to use just one electricity vendor that is approved by apple.You might be able to change carriers, but will you get the same service? Do most people know that you can?

You can mod cars to an extent you are not dealing with safety issues. That is when you get a non-dealer pro to take are of it for the more critical things. I can remember years ago when auto dealers went ape when people started do there own maintenance again. They lost so much repair income and of course went to every length to stop it. Now it is happening in the electronics world.

Not against proprietary products, it is just that most of them are crap now. As much money as I have spent on proprietary operating systems both desktop and server over the years, worked decades doing support, and been a computer user, I have every right to be picky.

Do think something like the ipad can be useful, I have mentioned that in previous posts which some of you have ignored. It is just a shame there are no competitors for the ipad. It is a shame apple and microsoft can not build such a superior product that they have to resort to alleged patent threats to fend off competitors. Real corporate immaturity.

[jd1138]

The point is:
You do not have to buy your bread (software from apple only per se) and you do not have to use just one electricity vendor that is approved by apple.You might be able to change carriers, but will you get the same service? Do most people know that you can?

You can mod cars to an extent you are not dealing with safety issues. That is when you get a non-dealer pro to take are of it for the more critical things. I can remember years ago when auto dealers went ape when people started do there own maintenance again. They lost so much repair income and of course went to every length to stop it. Now it is happening in the electronics world.


Sure, Apple locked in with AT&T for the iPad/iPhone for the last 3 years, and it seems boneheaded, but a lot of the complaints over dropped calls and such are not necessarily the carrier's fault (at&t). On one of the last 2 Windows Weekly podcasts, Paul Thurrott says that his new Windows Phone hasn't dropped a SINGLE call yet. And it's on the AT&T network, and it's basically a prototype phone (which you'd think would be more prone to dropping calls), so it may very well be the design of the Apple hardware itself, and not the fault of having the exclusive AT&T monopoly.

[phatlip]

Sure, Apple locked in with AT&T for the iPad/iPhone for the last 3 years, and it seems boneheaded, but a lot of the complaints over dropped calls and such are not necessarily the carrier's fault (at&t). On one of the last 2 Windows Weekly podcasts, Paul Thurrott says that his new Windows Phone hasn't dropped a SINGLE call yet. And it's on the AT&T network, and it's basically a prototype phone (which you'd think would be more prone to dropping calls), so it may very well be the design of the Apple hardware itself, and not the fault of having the exclusive AT&T monopoly.

Or he has good AT&T coverage where he lives.