AT&T and other carriers will sell you a 3G card for your laptop which is another way to not need an ISP. You would have to compare the cost vs. what you pay for your ISP but the advantage is it’s portable.
I think you’ve about nailed it, Sam.
After 4 hours with my wife’s iPad, it is very, very seductive. It is like holding a ‘live’ piece of paper in your hand. The absence of buttons, keyboards and blicking lights makes the device fade into the background and you are pulled into the content. I may have to get one myself.
I routinely use a laptop at the kitchen bar, on the couch etc. Never in bed and it is clunky to travel with. I can see using a tablet in those and many more situations, it is better on my lap than I would have thought (but now I understand the lack of a camera - the view from below my chin is not great…). Holding it like a book is fine - no heavier than the average trade paperback. Reading in bed or when reclining will be great.
Video is great to boot - I can’t wait for magazines and some real newspaper apps.
As people get their hands on these types of devices, there will be a lot of nay-sayers who become converts.
The iPad, at least as currently released will require an ISP and Wifi.
And I wish people would stop saying that people who don’t want the device don’t “get it”. How smug do you have to be.
Yeah, it’s gonna sell. It’s not a bad idea. But it’s deliberately crippled, and that bothers me. The whole idea of one company telling me what I can and cannot do on my device bothers me. Especially when that company has a large history of being totalitarian.
I am really hoping that the iPad clones etch out a niche quickly enough that Apple cannot completely control the way these devices are handled. I hope the clones are popular enough that the iPad will not be the only tablet that people design software for. I hope I still am given a fair choice about what device I use.
Is the actual issue multitasking, or ‘push’ data?
Isn’t flash memory much speedier than a old school micro hard drive? I would imagine that as permanent memory becomes close to as fast as RAM, it becomes indistinguishable from virtual memory, and the difference between actual multitasking and opening and closing apps rapidly becomes nil.
Yes, the flash memory should be faster than disk access. In my limited hours with my wife’s iPad, starting and stopping an app is very quick and most remember their state, so you pick up where you left off. The benefit is that there are no background programs sucking up processor, memory and battery power. They only consume those when they are active (and then behave like a ‘front’ window as in a true pre-emptive multi-tasking OS)
Not sure about your ‘push’ data question, but while playing scrabble with her daughter (on an iPhone), my wife can quit the game and go back to it when a push notification let’s her know the other player has made a move. (This is with the ‘Words with Friends’ game).
The iPod app will play music in the background while running another app, but you can’t run something like Pandora to stream in the background - yet.
(I wonder if this thread should be moved to a general iPad Q&A thread - not sure of the protocol for doing that)
But why? I get WIFI (there’s 3G, btw), but why an ISP?
Probably now. I first asked this OP question in that other thread but got no answer.
This thread has now wandered from the OP.
But that’s okay too.
Apple fanboys never dissapoint! “Why NEEDS multitasking, some kind of computer geek?” Seriously?
I imagine the next device for the Apple cultists will do nothing but periodically print out pre-addressed envelopes that you mail checks to Steve Jobs in. “Who NEEDS it to actually do anything? It has an Apple logo on it, which advertises my excess disposable income, so it does what I want.”
I was the one that defended the lack of multitasking, and I’m not an Apple fanboy. I’ve never owned an apple product. Not even an iPod.
Sounds like the real fanboy with preconceived notions might be someone else.
Because you need an ISP to have wifi.
You may need an ISP to get WiFi service. Now you may be able to get WiFi by accessing a neighbor’s signal, but unless the neighbor is aware of that and cool with it, it’s unethical at the least and even possibly illegal.
I am sure the device looks and feels very awesome. I’m thrilled with my Motorola Droid after avoiding the smartphone thing for a while. I simply REFUSE, above all else, to support the Apple model of complete control over what I can do with my possessions. Recently they went through and deleted thousands of apps from the app store because they may have contained bikini pictures. Not that I really care about that particular instance, but that level of end-user nannying and content censorship (since there’s no way to even load anything BUT what Apple allows in the App store) is just WAY beyond the pale for what I would be willing to put up with solely on principle. Sure, the Android store has apps that crash and apps with other perhaps undesirable qualities, but you know what, the user ratings and comments always make it pretty clear when an app is junk – I’m still happy to have the freedom, both to load it as a user if I want to, or to write something (I do happen to know Java) and load it for my own use even if nobody else likes it.
Apple can have all that control because of the big cult following . I think they agreed to allow an adult part of their app store and I guess for that anything goes.
I can get WiFi free all over the place, and the sponsors are glad to have me there to use it. But with 3G I won’t need the WiFi. I may still use WiFi where it’s offered though. But I think 3G is more secure.
Most people can’t get free WiFi at home unless you live real close to a business that offers it. (or unless they get it from a neighbor which is not really legit)
When you are out and about that’s when free WiFi is easy to get.
Apple has absolutely no idea about your objections. They don’t know that you’d probably buy all Mac stuff if it weren’t for their meddling. You should form an action group and make them aware of what they’re missing. Be sure though that they’re deleting apps because of bikini pics. You don’t want to look like an idiot.
Peace,
mangeorge, who has a long history of political action.
Of course they do, because TONS of people gripe about it. But they couldn’t care less because they have a crowd that keeps buying the crap anyway, at a ridiculous enough markup that more than makes up for people like me. They’re aiming squarely for “what would your grandma use” like they do with all of their products, and attempting to label anyone who entertains the idea of anything more an “uber-geek” or some such.
Here you go. Far from secret.
Cite for it being crap?
Sounds to me like you’re just talking out your ass about stuff you’ve more opinion on than actual knowledge of.
There are some GQ style facts in question here, do yopu think you could calm your monkey-mind to the point where those issues can be addressed?
If you want to use a SD card or USB port you have to pay extra for an attachment. I guess that’s slightly better than not having them at all.