The iPad
 

Unveiled this morning in SF,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU6isGR3PaM

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/vi...short.cnn.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/...id=56083&tsp=1

The last one (the San Francisco Chronicle's live blog) describes using the iPad for ebooks and reading, in the 10:52 entry.

Ten hours of battery life.

Half and inch thick, 1.5 pounds.

Looks like it could be good for touring.

At a mere 10 hours of battery life, only for inn-to-inn. But it does look nice.

It is more interesting, and less expensive than I expected.
- custom 1GHz Apple "A4" chip
- accelerometer
- compass
- can run iPhone apps
- new data plans: 250MB for $14.99 and an unlimited plan for $29.99 a month CONTRACT-FREE.
- Activations are handled on the iPad, so you can activate and cancel whenever you want
- is UNLOCKED and comes with a GSM "micro-SIM"

I for one welcome our new iPad overloards.

The iPad, at 1.5 pounds, is too heavy for me, but I could probably make those 10 hours last 10 days by leaving it off most of the time. So I think it could be practical for campers too.

10 hours is better than almost all smart phones, which have much smaller screens. It's the bright touch screen that chews up the battery.

GSM would limit 3G service to AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S. (neither would be my preference).

There's no camera, but most people carry a separate camera anyway.

After the official unveiling this morning Apple made additional information available on their website,

http://www.apple.com/ipad/design/

http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

From a friend:

All I thought when I saw the press release was; "Huh ... I didn't know Apple was getting into the feminine hygiene business. Interesting"

:lol:

It's just an oversized ipod touch with limited expandability. It's biggest flaw for most people right now is that it doesn't support flash. How many websites use flash? About all of them.

It's not getting a very warm welcome from people over at engadget; even the fanboys. I would not buy one because its Apple and my stuff won't work with it, but I am very surprised with the pricepoints. They're not amazing except for when you compare them to other Apple products.

This explains it quite well:

http://i.gizmodo.com/5458382/8-things-that-suck-about-the-ipad

The batter life maybe 10 hours out of the box but if it is anything like the other portalbe devices I
own, including my Powerbook and Ipod, then in a few weeks it will be down to about half that. After a
year it will be about 2 hours of actual use time. Then you will find out that the replacment of the batter
cost more than the entire machine and there will be a newer "better" version out that cost less than the batter
for your old one. Im kinda tired of these marketing schemes if you cant tell. I like books, they never go bad.

It does seem like a nice option for touring. One of models with 3G+GPS would be handy for mapping, uploading photos, that sort of thing. The weight's lower than any netbook I know of, and the construction (hopefully—looks like an aluminum shell) is rugged. The reported battery life is much better than most netbooks.

Of course, it doesn't really do anything that an iPhone can't do—right now, the only things setting it apart are the screen size and (apparently) processor power. And the fact that you can hook a keyboard up to it, which is not a trivial consideration. Apple's been pretty spare on the specs so far, and I suspect the device may only come into its own with a future update to the OS and future hardware revisions. As it is, it seems artificially hampered by the iPhone OS software (no multitasking!? No file management at all?). I'm intrigued but not ready to splash out on it. Yet.

The iPad is a silly device. I'm not sure what problem it attempts to solve.
"I want something not as portable as the iPod touch, but otherwise the same in nearly every way imaginable!"

Or maybe it's Apple's attempt to gain market share among the aged consumers who can't see the screen of the iPod touch.

Apple's play for the Kindle (ebook reader) market. Basically a large iPod that you can read books on and watch movies. Not terribly revolutionary, but better than it's competition by leaps and bounds.

Give 'em a year. It'll be what I'd like by then. Then, two weeks after I buy one, they'll come out with the supercharged, float-in-thin air model.

Oh noooooooo! The iPad posts/news are everywhere!!!! Heeeeeeeelp!!!

A.

PS.: Yup, wait at least for 3rd generation, or get screwed like original iPhone owners.

IMHO: no.

It's not weatherproof, moisture and dust will kill it quickly, you will need to carry it protected in a pannier and have a regular GPS on your bars anyway. Who would want to attach a 10" pad to the bars anyway? It doesn't run real OS so your programming, software, downloading options are limited to whatever Apple feels like approving. There are lots of free GPS programs for OSX and Windows. It would need stylus support for accurate mapping/routing. Storage capacity is too tiny, I shoot RAW and I tend to acquire up to 20GB of pictures in a single day, I need a laptop to offload these. You need an adapter for USB. I'd rather stick to a portable GPS and carry a netbook in my pannier. If the iPad was running regular OSX (iPad Pro?) and have USB ports and card slots built in (so I won't need to remember to carry adapters for everything) I'll get one without hesitation.

The iPad is meant for people who are not comfortable with computers and want something simple to get on the net, view photos, etc. It's not capable enough to substitute even a cheap, slow laptop.

Adam

The iPhone to me was a game changer though it had it's downside like battery life but the iPad to me is just more of the same just in a larger format. Not having a replaceable battery is ridiculous after the disappointments with every iPod I've owned. Basically, this is a 2 to 3 year throw away gizmo. In this case the product doesn't come close to the hype it got.

I think it's fair to say this puts you near the right edge of the bell curve in terms of GB of data produced per day by an individual.

I think it's meant for them, but not just for them. Believe me, I would love for my mother-in-law to have a gadget like this (my wife had a 30-minute tech-support call with her yesterday explaining how to add an application to the dock). But I also think it's meant for people who have a more capable piece of hardware on their desk, and want something to use when they're out that doesn't need all the power.

I agree that the number of dongles one would need to carry with this thing in its current form is discouraging. And that in its current form, it isn't the right tool for someone who shoots 20 GB of photos a day. But I do think that for many people who are considering bringing something bigger than a smartphone on tour that it (or a future revision of it) may turn out to be an attractive option. Whatever that something is, it's going to be stuffed in a pannier most of the time anyhow, so I don't think that's a knock against it.

In terms of its capabilities, none of us have actually played with one yet. Initial reactions are that it's fast. I imagine the mystery CPU is at least in the same league as an Intel Atom. And I'll wager that we'll be seeing some photo-editing apps appear for the thing that will be attractive to serious photographers. There are a lot of missing pieces to the puzzle still. I'm interested in seeing how it plays out.

Looks like an iPod Touch that won't fit in my pocket. Unimpressed.

I have an ebook reader. When I see that the iPad can be read in full sunlight with ease and has a battery that lasts for a week or more, I might be more interested.

This one I seriously doubt. From what I've heard it's not compatible with a mouse, usb bluetooth or other. The touch screen is just not sensitive enough for photoediting.

I'm a semi-serious photographer and this thing is totally useless to me. As I mentioned above: I capture up to 20GB of RAW images on one daytrip that I need to offload to a laptop. With 64GB this thing won't last a weekend. On longer trips I also make a redundant copy to a small external USB drive, in case the laptop's drive dies. I would like to have USB ports and card readers built-in and stylus support for precise editing. In its current state the iPad, I can't do any of the above. I need a computer, not a big cellphone :)

It's a reader/internet appliance for your living room.

It's really easy with digital SLR these days, one image is like 40MB. I often shoot bursts too. Of course, once I go through them, perhaps 10% is left but still, in the field I need a bit more substantial file storage.

I'm anxiously waiting for what Asus has to say :) I like Windows 7 as much as OSX so I'm fine with either one.

Adam

If you're working in RAW, you'd want to run Aperture too, which iPad can't do. Try a modbook. OMG, the Axiotron site is down and prices on Modbooks are slashed. Did Apple threaten to take them to court too???

Modbook.

EDIT: ahh, I see that vendor's using refurbed base units. That may be their standard price.

You should have a look at this article about RAW.

As a kindle owner, to me this is a bad play. I don't need a bigger screen. As a reader, I don't want to add movies to the mix. The kindle's power in this market is that it doesn't try to do anything other than its intended purpose - which it does exceptionally well. I'd scoff at 10 hour battery life as a reader, I'll take my 2+ weeks of battery I get on my much smaller kindle. In addition, the e-ink technology is perfectly suited to reading. The iPad's backlit traditional screen would give me eyestrain an hour into a novel.

I use a Sony reader (I won't be involved with Amazon/Kindle's DRM market monopoly lockdown). It's a very nice device (same screen as a Kindle, smaller, open, more durable, cheaper). But I agree with DSF above; no LCD screen can compete with the readability of eink.

I think someday we may have nice readable high speed displays, maybe even switchable reflective/backlit (video on a reflective surface probably wouldn't look good) but the iPad isn't it.

Yeah, I think it will be a flop. Too big to be portable, too small to be useful as laptop/desktop replacement.