PC user here, home and work. I do have an iPhone, and find it decent, but I just can’t see a reason for purchasing an iPad. I mean, seriously, what’s it going to do for me?
It is a novel product, I’ll grant, but it really strikes me as being the Fisher-Price version of the iPhone, Bigger, Clunkier, and less functionality.
Not buying it and Boingboing sums up one of the biggest reasons why:
Sorry, but anything that serves a “personal computing” function, I want to own, not lease from Steve Jobs.
Only tangentially related, it’s a similar reason why I’d never buy an Apple laptop, because with a laptop I want the peace of mind of knowing I can run down to a store anywhere in the 50 states and grab a replacement battery if mine dies.
The passion/scorn that this device engenders is amusing.
I don’t mean to imply the same import as movable type, but I wonder if Gutenberg was faced with clergy bemoaning the dumbing down of the Bible and the monks in their scriptoria weeping over the loss of creativity in their manuscripts…
The battery thing I’ll concede to the anti-apples. I honestly do not understand why you can’t replace the friggin battery.
I do find some stuff on PBS that actually captures my attention.
Prime Suspect, The Civil War, The Newshour, Frontline and so on. Much of this is old because I don’t watch much tv anymore.
I can watch all those on my new iPad 3G, when I get it. 
I have, and love, a 2nd generation iPod touch. I’ll get an iPad, but it’ll be 2nd generation. The lack of a camera is a glaring omission, and one I expect will be corrected in later versions.
Qft. Further, nobody bemoans Alienware, Tomtom, or sansa. I’ve been blindsided a number of times, without provacation, simply because I’m sitting behind a ‘fukkin cruit’.
I’m not anti-Apple at all, I owned an Apple II (I don’t tend to type it out Apple ][ like the passage I quoted above), loved it and it was one of my favorite computers I owned in the 1980s. (I also really liked the Amiga I owned, though.)
I just don’t buy stuff I’m not allowed to service myself without voiding a warranty, or something that I have to buy some crazy proprietary battery for that you can’t find at any given electronics store anywhere in the 50 states.
I also don’t buy Cadillacs and have never bought a pair of designer sunglasses. I’m not against either, I just wouldn’t buy them.
I think you just proved my point.
This not the pit.
I’m misunderstanding you then, qft = quoted for truth. I agree with you. The comment was quoted as it was something said to me. (alas, misspelled in the retelling) Not something directed at you.
if your message was more subtle, then I’m afraid I missed it.
A couple of people brought them into the office today. It’s a bit heavier than I thought, but very, very cool.
This is where the car analogy really fits well. There are always going to be hobbyists and shade-tree mechanics who bemoan that you can’t do your own maintenance on cars these days. And they have a point. But the rest of us are thrilled to death to have machines that are much, much faster, cleaner, safer, and more reliable than their predecessors.
I went to the store and tried one out. I had a long discussion with Tony, the CSR. This thing, with my iPhone, will easily fill my needs and I won’t need my computer. Except for storing recipes. I’d like to change my vote from “we’ll see” to “pre-ordered the 64GB 3G model”. Bye bye Earthlink, hello gmail.
I guarantee there will be a recipe app for you. Or a way to store them online somehow.
Well, except for the whole “You need a Computer with iTunes installed and an Internet connection in order to use an iPhone or an iPad” thing.
I must apologize, I totally misunderstood your post and acronym.
I ordered it at the store, and iTunes is on my iPhone and will be on my iPad. I verified that with my Apple Store pal Tony. But I will hold on to Earthlink until I get the iPad all set up and going.
BTW; I pay Earthlink each month, manually, from my online checking account. Some of these services give you a hard time about giving them “The Boot”. 
Not to disagree with your local Genius, but you probably want to have a computer somewhere that you synch to once in a while just for the backup capability (the iPhone/iPad is backed up each time you sync). You can use a friend’s if you want. The device won’t last forever, and having an occasional backup will let your replace it more easily when it dies. This computer wouldn’t have to have a network connection, necessarily, so you could still dump Earthlink.
More importantly, I think the 20MB limitation on app download sizes over 3G still applies with the iPad (I don’t know for sure, of course), so you’ll need at least occasional access to a Wifi (Panera Bread, Starbucks, local hotel, whatever) network to download larger apps and updates.
Finally, you’ll want to do firmware and OS updates as they become available, and that, too, will require a computer with iTunes on it (but it doesn’t have to be YOUR computer – again, you can use a library computer or a friend’s computer to do the occasional update, but you would have to download it using the network to a computer (the iPhone can’t update over the air, and I doubt the iPad can, either).
To add to what TimeWinder said about using a friend’s computer to backup your iPad…
You will have to be careful about your iTunes account. It is true that you will have access to it on your iPad, but first you have to create one on a computer. Then, when you ‘sync’ to with the computer, iTunes insures that what you have on one, you have on the other. The key to this is the iTunes account.
So, if you use a friend’s computer, have them create a userID account for you on it, then setup an iTunes account under that userID, using the iTunes account you use on your iPhone and iPad.
Finally, when you get your new iPad - when you turn it on and before you can do anything with it, you have to connect it to a computer and sync it to iTunes.