I expect it to be a huge hit with pilots. It can display charts, approach plates, and download weather. It would make a wonderful emergency backup for the instrument stack even if it’s not certified.
It’s much better if you realize that it’s NOT a bunch of Apple zealots. It’s a small, loud faction of ANTI-Apple zealots.
I don’t own one but I have used one and it seemed too big and heavy to me. It’s a lot smaller than a laptop but I was comparing it to my smartphone so that’s why it seemed heavy. In a year or less there will be competing models out and I will check those out.
Hello. I am the OP. Here is why I posted this thread.
I can see why the iPhone is popular, as it took what was out there already, and improved it beyond measure into something practical and feature-rich. If I could afford to, and if I had any interest in having a mobile phone at all (I don’t currently have any brand of cellphone) I would get an iPhone.
The iPad, on the other hand, seems to me to have filled a niche nobody knew was even missing. The early adopters appeared to fall for its shiny interface and applications rather than see any usefulness as a tool.
Apparently this is because it’s not a tool, it’s something new and hard to define. Okay. Not much help clarifying things, but whatever.
I wanted to know if I was missing something fundamental, and there truly is a practical use for them that other current tech does not provide, that sometime in my future I may see the need for.
So far it seems like that, though nobody’s gotten bored with it or regretted its purchase, it’s not really aimed at me; There’s a subsection of computer users that it suits really well, I don’t fit into that group, so some development time has to pass, and new apps to emerge, before it will be suitable for the way I generally use computers.
As an example of my usage, I do not have a laptop, a mobile phone, or any other portable computing device. I therefore don’t use WiFi, or do anything computery away from my desktop. I am willing to change that practice, but haven’t been compelled into doing so by any impetus that’s passed my way thus far.
I’m not going to dismiss the iPad out of hand, just because it’s Apple with their increasingly frightening control and expansion. Though I hesitate, I am willing to have my doubts dispelled.
I’ve just read that the iPad will be available for sale here in Australia in late May, so soon after that I will probably get a chance to play.
You’re wrong. I stand by my statement. Apple’s innovation is not primarily in technology development these days (maybe I’m naive in thinking it ever was); it’s in product design and marketing.
If it’s Apple’s size that worries you, be VERY afraid. They’re third behind Microsoft and Exxon. They made news last week in being valued higher than Microsoft, but I suspect there was some handwaving there.
Count me in as one who subscribed to this thread, but have nothing to contribute because I don’t have an iPad.
I can sort of see how this device would be useful for me (I don’t need a table any more, I can pick up my iPad and google a recipe or whatever - instant on!) but I’m not sure if it would be really useful.
Oh yes, and I’m sick of the iPad bashers too. Yes, I know you want your tricked out overclocked desktop with SCSI, firewire, SLI-crossfire whatevers. Thank you, your opinions are noted.
Now can we get back to the iPad? At Chateau du Chat, there’s been more than once we’ve squinted at my iPhone when we wanted to google something and we didn’t want to turn on the laptops.
Look, it’s a niche that hadn’t been occupied, but had been much talked about. It didn’t and doesn’t meet some expectations - like running a full blown OS, but that is as much a blessing as a curse. You’d need a fuckload more storage in order to run a full OS, and it would have to be customized all over the place for the device. It also would not be an instant-On device.
I’m old enough to remember when the first personal computers came out. I bought a Vic-20 and hell, I think I still have it in storage. You want limited? Those things couldn’t do jack.
The genius, and the money, is in creating new devices that occupy new niches and do new things. There will ALWAYS be the naysayers who denounce them as useless, and unfortunately, there are a lot of anti-Apple zealots who would light the torches and man the battlements no matter what Apple came out with. But I remember Jack whatshisface from IBM who said that no one needed a personal computer, and I worked in IT through the period when IBM completely and repeatedly shot themselves in the foot and the face regarding anything to do with smaller computers (PCs, servers) to the point where IBM is now nearly irrelevant to the world of computing in any form.
No, it’s not a PC. It’s not trying to be.
Yes, it’s a bit expensive for what it is. If it was 30% cheaper, they’d have probably sold 2 million of them by now. But those profits pay for further innovation and fuel further development, as they do in any other industry.
I’m sorry if my being mind-controlled by Steve Jobs into throwing buckets full of money at him is causing anyone distress. I’d like to say in my defense that, given the large number of superior devices already out there and the fact that I’m easily enticed into buying expensive gadgets, it seems that the companies producing them are almost criminally stupid for not making me more aware of them.
Well, with the caveat that ultimately, the iPad does not create energy, grow food, clean my house or gratify me sexually, back to my iPad experiences:
The Calendar app is much better on the iPad than on an iPhone. It has a good 5-day graphical view that is much more informative and “attractive.” It automatically syncs with my Google Calendar and has pretty colors. However, the iPhone fits in my pocket better than the iPad, so I continue to use Pocket Informant (which also syncs w/Google) during the day. iPad’s failure to fit into my pocket has not escaped my notice.
Surfing the web is really easy and convenient, and there are few compromises, other than seeing a Flash Icon with a slash through it on some sites (as opposed to my home PCs, where I have NoScript installed so I can get a Flash Icon with a slash through it). However, my main desktop Mac has three wide screen monitors, because I frequently access multiple websites while writing software. The iPad really fails with its absence of three wide screen monitors and in its inability to run Visual Studio or XCode. However, I think I’ve been surfing the web more with the iPad because it’s so handy.
Zillow is a great app for searching for real estate, something I’ve been fixated on for awhile. SketchBook and Sketch Pad are great, but I’ve also got Art Studio and Layers, and those last two disappoint me. The iPad does not have the power required for Photoshop, Animation Master or Matlab, so those are slight negatives.
iTeleport is a good VNC client; Mocha VNC has an iPad version, but it’s clunky, and note how these are programs I use to control my “real” computers, as if I don’t think the iPad is the answer to my computing needs.
Skype is good, and I use it without a headset. The built-in microphone and speakers are of good quality.
I’m having a blast with the Glee app – the rotating globe with all the radio towers is really cool. Yes, I did not previously know that I might want an app that would let me hear people from other countries singing karaoke songs from a TV show, but that’s the way my life has worked out.
Weather Bug: On the iPhone, it gives me a good, information-rich summary on that little screen, but on the iPad, the web cams and five-day forecast are also there, as well as a humongous weather map with animated radar graphics. (I live in Southern California, so I look at the weather reports for other parts of the world where they have something other than “sunny and mild, and the marine layer will lift by late morning.”)
Pinball HD and Labyrinth HD. Sorry; I just typed that out and now have to go change my underwear.
Google Earth hasn’t been updated for the iPad, but the upscaled iPhone version is tons easier and more useful on the iPad, particularly when I tilt it to see the terrain.
iBooks: Good interface, but it doesn’t have e-Ink like my Kindle. However, I have a Kindle and didn’t buy the iPad to read e-books.
Other stuff: all of my iPhone apps except for GPS- and camera-related apps work well on the iPad: HanDBase, the HP 41C calculator, PocketPedia and DirecTV. For the GPS apps, well, my iPhone fits in the iPhone holder in my car, so that’ll do, and my iPhone has a camera and is always with me, so that’ll do. For better pictures, I also have a camera that is actually just a camera. I assume there will be some augmented reality program coming out that will cause me to shovel more money out the door, but I’ll see how I feel when that comes.
None of this has anything to do with the fundamental issues facing society, but the iPad has been out for something like six or seven weeks, so I’m not demanding that it perform any vital function. At this point, you’d really only expect hobbyists to be purchasing it. In the long run, though, word-of-mouth will betray its defects and the better products will prevail or it will stumble along with a smaller base of users. I hope Apple has people triangulating on that, because I hear it’s going out of business any day now.
Uhhh…
And software.
Which is the important part.
:smack:
Were you aware of apple’s improvements in large scale CNC aluminum production? How bout the custom processor? They innovate PLENTY on the hardware side, too.
Smacking your forehead isn’t an argument.
No, I don’t think Apple has come out with any particularly innovative software since OS X was first released, and that’s been awhile. And even so, OS X at its kernel was using software developed by NextStep, namely the Mach kernel (which, yes, Steve Jobs was involved with). That was nevertheless a non-Apple development team which created it. Still, I give Apple kudos for purchasing the rights to a solid Unix core when they reacquired Steve Jobs, and then creating a beautiful and polished GUI to lie on top of it.
Since then? I stand by my statement that Apple’s primary innovations have been in marketing and product design. Oh, and getting away with some seriously anti-competitive behavior.
No, they’re good at buying and using other people’s innovations.
Choosing well isn’t nothing, I’ll grant you.
What happened to “TL;WD”?
This is out of line. There was a time that people couldn’t “envision” indoor plumbing, but does that mean toilets are a manufactured need bred from slick marketing? You’re insulting people just because you don’t like a particular product they are buying.
Buy a clue.
Basically, the only thing that Apple has to offer IS software.
The reason that the iPhone was such an enormous success is because of the iPhone OS. When the iPhone was introduced, it was lightyears ahead of anything on the market - I saw the introduction demo, and it was clear that they had leapfrogged past every other other cell phone manufacturer on the planet. This was before the App store, and before there were any third-party apps at all. So, my desire to buy this phone had nothing to do with “marketing” - it had to do with how innovate their software development was.
This isn’t a Mac thread, so I won’t get into a big discussion of OS X, but believe me, Apple would sell very few iMacs and MacBooks if they only ran WIndows - it’s the software that people want. And, that’s more than just the OS - it’s all of the iLife, iWork and Pro apps.
And before that, the iPod was a huge success because of its user interface. I originally bought an Archos MP3 player, but then I tried an iPod in a store and realized what I was missing out on. They both looked similar on paper - both were hard drive based MP3 players. There is a noticeable difference in the refinement of the hardware, but most of all, it’s the user-friendly interface that, for me, made it worth the higher price.
Easy one for me. This is absolutely a device I’ve been dreaming of for years, even before Apple tried Newton. The only thing missing is I’d want two or three, and they’d be a bit more powerful. I have no doubt they’ll get a lot more powerful, and we’ll see them being used in all sorts of ingenious ways we aren’t even seeing now. It’s not a Segway.
It does sound as if the iPad is not a fit for you - it is all about doing ‘computery away from your desktop’. The iPad is essentally a very, very smart peripheral that lets you do just that.
I don’t consider it a computer as much as a display screen that can be loaded with a subset of my documents, music, movies and photos so I can carry them around - as well as being able to access the web. The additional benefit of ‘Apps’ is probably going to surprise us with the possibilities. My concerns with Apple’s control over those Apps are more than balanced by the level of protection from viruses and malware it provides.
It would be interesting if you can update this thread in a few weeks after you get a chance to play with one.
I’ve been wanting a device like this for a long time as well. I’ve been looking at laptops, but really didn’t want to buy another computer. At first, when this came out I didn’t pay much attention, but after reading some of the comments here I think I will consider it and look at it the next time I’m near the Mac store. Don’t know yet if I’ll get one but I am leaning towards it now.