gonna buy an islate/itablet?

[rabidbadger]

Originally Posted by darknessgp

I think it's a decent idea of why flash won't work with touchscreen only inputs... however, I'm highly doubtful that this is the reason why Apple has been avoiding it. If this was the only reason, why not just say it when you announce no flash?

Oh, I agree. It's most probably just another "frustration" for Apple. But it's a huge frustration for users and flash programeres, for the reason that article articulates, er, articulately...

[phatlip]

Originally Posted by Phatlip

I'm incredibly disappointed. It feels like they threw this together. The hardware is ugly for one. It looks nice on a smaller device like an iPhone/iPod touch. But on a larger scale, I think it looks ugly and odd. The software is almost laughable. Did you see the lock screen? They didn't even bother making the slider larger. This seems like a prototype, not a finished Apple product. In my opinion, it's far below their typical standards.

Steve said their goal was to make it do some things better than your iPhone and laptop. How is that so when it's a giant iPod running almost the exact some OS the iPod touch has? "Better browsing the internet than your laptop". I laughed out loud when he said that. The last I checked, every computer I've had since I can remember could multitask and had support for flash. What is this, 1993? This is something I expect every computer has. A phone is one thing, and even then it's something I'm beginning to expect. But it's unacceptable to have a computer in the year 2010 that can't multitask and doesn't support flash.

Oh, and everyone keeps going on and on about it being an eBook reader. It's going to be a HORRIBLE eBook reader. The Kindle, Nook, and Sony eBook readers are great because of the screen. I played with a Sony eBook reader around the holiday. I forgot I was looking at a screen. It was extremely easy on the eyes, and I felt like I was reading a real book. Last night, I was reading an eBook for one of my classes on my Macbook Pro. I have excellent vision, but after about 30 minutes I had enough. There lies the problem. The iPad has the same screen a laptop has.

That and the price. I thought the pricing was fair at first. Then I heard that was only for the $499 version, and that you would have to pay $600+ for one with the capability to have 3G. Too expensive.

I just don't see the point. Maybe it will sell, I don't know. I just don't think it's for me and I think they could have done better.

This is how I felt up until yesterday. I was a HUGE iPad naysayer with ZERO intention to buying one. That all changed this morning when I got to see it in person. That says A LOT. Needless to say, I'm now saving my money for one. It truly is an awesome product. You can't fully appreciate it until you see it in person. That's all I can really say. Try one for yourself.

I was looking at some demos of it on YouTube, and was surprised at all the people commenting saying that Apple is ripping off people, it's just a big iPod Touch, it's pointless, etc.. I think they aren't grasping the fact that having a MUCH bigger screen than an iPhone/Touch is an advantage and makes it much more useful and more enjoyable to watch movies on. And if they were going to buy a netbook or replace their current netbook with a newer netbook, then the iPad could be purchased instead. The iPad transcends the Touch and can be used in place of a netbook/laptop/portable movie viewer, so it will definitely be worth the price.

At first I was skeptical of it using the iPhone/Touch OS instead of the full Apple desktop OS, but really an operating system is mainly just a file manager. And these smartphone/PDA OS's like the iPhone OS are really similar to a desktop OS.

Originally Posted by dan_hibiki

I'm sure the second generation iPad will be called the MaxiPad.

That gave me an idea for my next homemade tampon ipad. You can easily bend a coat hanger (or two) as an emergency stand.

[davmoo]

A few days ago I finally had time to play with an iPad at a Best Buy. The hardware really is slick and the people working on that half did a good job...although it would have been better if they included a USB port and a slot for an SD card.

But the fact that every other web site that I tried out, sites that I consider important for me to have access to, came up with words to the effect of "Pope Steve says you don't need Flash", really detracts from the device.

Reports say that adobe has given up on the ipad......

[davmoo]

Originally Posted by computoman

Reports say that adobe has given up on the ipad......

I don't blame them. And until an alternative like HTML5 becomes as common as dirty I think the device is only going to appeal mainly to fanboys and the uninformed.

[tokenuser]

There are actually three wins in this:

1. No annoying flash ads. Seriously, how many people run flash blockers for ads?
2. Content provider will move to HTML5 (for video at least) a lot faster. They rely on eyeballs for revenue ... and the Appleverse provides a lot of those. They will not want to lose viewers/readers. You should not need third party plugins to use the internet. It should degrade gracefully. HTML5 allows for this.
3. Huge win for Android. Huh? One of the big problems for Android (like most Linux distros) is the expanding combination of hardware/firmware/carrier that need to be supported and (since these are cellular device whose main reason for being is making telephone calls) tested. They each come with their nuances that might break a developers code. Adobe turning its attention to a Flash to Android compile platform will abstract the code from the platform enough that apps should run across all hardware/firmware/carrier combinations without breaking.

[davmoo]

Originally Posted by tokenuser

There are actually three wins in this:

I would agree with you if the lack of Flash support was *MY* decision. But its not left to me as a choice, its made for me by Pope Steve. That's why I object to it, and it's why I won't buy the piece of crap until its completely jailbroken and shown to support Flash in that form.

[tokenuser]

Originally Posted by davmoo

I would agree with you if the lack of Flash support was *MY* decision. But its not left to me as a choice, its made for me by Pope Steve. That's why I object to it, and it's why I won't buy the piece of crap until its completely jailbroken and shown to support Flash in that form.

You are highlighting one of the issues I have with most of the iPad naysayers. It doesn't have flash. Flash is something you want. Therefore the iPad is not a device that will work for you. End of story.

The choice you have is to not buy an iPad and to get a netbook or some other device (or stick with a fully featured laptop). No one is forcing you to buy an Apple product. Pope Steve (does he have Bishops molesting children?) is not holding a gun to your head. You might have iPad envy, but don't complain that it doesn't do something you want it to do - because that is a well known (possible) limitation.