iPad: The World in the Palm of Your Hand

stjames

stjames

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I was on the lighting crew for the Apple press event debuting the iPad today in San Francisco, so I witnessed the final nail in the coffin of print media.

To be sure, the iPad will not replace your phone or your laptop; it will change the way both you and your children receive information forever. I am an avid reader of books, comics and the web, and I tell you first hand that the iPad is the best electronic interface for those media I have ever held in my hands.

It is really a joy to use, about the size of a graphic novel and maybe twice as heavy, very natural to hold, beautiful screen resolution. The iBook app is great; it completely destroys the Kindle and other e-readers. When my nephew was in High School a few years back they had removed all lockers for security reasons and he had to haul 25 lbs of books with him everywhere he went. By the time my 4 year old daughter reaches middle school all her textbooks will be in a device like the iPad, she’ll place it in a dock on her desk to take notes in class and turn in her assignments via download.

Add to that web surfing and your music and video catalog, and you have a game changer.

If it only had a webcam.
 
Just another overpriced yet nifty gadget for techie consumers to drool over. It would change things if it was $50.
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
Just another overpriced yet nifty gadget for techie consumers to drool over. It would change things if it was $50.
Click to expand...

I know, it'd be so much better if it were made of INFI.


It's unfortunate it doesn't have a webcam or flash support.

Essentially, it's just a bigger, faster iPod Touch or iPhone (depending which version you get) with an optional dock for an external keyboard. I expect to see many, many students with these before long, for the reasons you've mentioned. The full color display and iPod-style touch interface will make textbooks a lot more usable than a comparable eReader.

A lot of people use their iPod/iPhone as a palmtop computer. I use mine quite a bit, and more screen real estate would be nice. It's a specialty item for sure, but an interesting one.
 
While I'm sure thousands will line up outside shops for days waiting for it to go on sale, it holds no interest for me at all.
 
It doesn't multitask. So I'll keep my netbook that costs half as much, has 10 times the storage and does everything a computer can do.

E-readers are great, they use ZERO power until you turn the page
 
Wait and see. Apple is starting with 6 models and giving developers time to upgrade apps from the iPhone/iTouch, which will work on the iPad anyway. Next generation will add functionality and may cheapen memory.

Even as a toy, it stakes out an interesting middle ground. But read what it brings to businesses and you may take it more seriously.

What is the use of a new-born child? (When asked the use of a new invention)
-- Ben Franklin
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Wait and see. Apple is starting with 6 models and giving developers time to upgrade apps from the iPhone/iTouch, which will work on the iPad anyway. Next generation will add functionality and may cheapen memory.

Even as a toy, it stakes out an interesting middle ground. But read what it brings to businesses and you may take it more seriously.

What is the use of a new-born child? (When asked the use of a new invention)
-- Ben Franklin
Click to expand...

I have no doubt that people will think of zillions of uses for it, I can think of many ways of using it business wise, but for ME, personally, it is of little interest. The iPhone works for me because it does most of everything I need an object like that to do and, most importantly, it fits in my pocket. I'd need a fairly serious pocket to fit an iPad into it.
 
I am glad for students everywhere as these devices will cut costs at college. Well i hope so anyway. I worked my a** off to afford new books, used ones were not allowed in many classes. I will stay with print media for now though, can't see myself sipping a cup of tea, sitting in my favorite chair and turning on a device instead of turning the pages of a favorite old book. Lost Horizon just wouldn't be the same on a "pad".
 
Interesting. While I am sure that many would welcome doing their reading on such a device I would miss the feeling of paper too much.
 
How can it "completely destroy the Kindle and other e-book readers" with a whopping mind-boggling 10 hours of battery life? :rolleyes:

For those who are not familiar with the Kindle, it has at least a seven day battery life, and that's with 3G on. Which, by the way, the iPad doesn't have (well, it does, but you have to pay - for the Kindle it's free). And as if battery life wasn't so important, the iPad has a back lit screen, which means to read an e-book on it is just like reading on your PC or Mac with LCD screen - I at least definitively can't do that for hours.

For a graphic novel ("e-comic"), on the other hand, it would rock, since after all a graphic novel is basically pictures, and a Kindle is NOT an image-viewing device. The so called e-ink of the Kindle is primarily to display text as if you were looking at regular paper. So for that end the iPad would be great, though honestly my wife's Asus EEPC can also do that just the same. And with a web cam, internet access and multitasking.

It may be something between a netbook and iPhone, but I really can't see it as serious e-book reader. Well, it is serious if you also consider your PC a good e-book reader. And yes, I do concur that paper books are reaching the of their life on planet Earth in 20 years tops. But not to be read on a LCD screen.
 
Perhaps 15 years ago, when the magazine OMNI (science reporting and science-fiction) was being published, they did a reader survey of what sort of computer gadget they would like to see.
The almost-unanimous reply was some sort of "tablet" computer that would function as phone, reader, internet access, etc. etc. They described size, ability to recognize writing, all that.
It looks like the industry is still trying....
 
no interest in iPad or the iPhone, or even the kindle...i tried electronic book reading; i don't care for it...and to be reading something, and suddenly you're low battery icon starts blinking; that would INFURIATE me...being tethered by batteries sucks bigtime...

for the record, i have a netbook and multiple full sized laptops...
 
I predict that the iPad will be an instant hit and will destroy the Kindle market, as well as Amazon's proprietary ebook format. :D
 
Tough call for Apple. It will sell well in the beginning, since it's the "newest gadget from Apple", but since it's not exactly ground breaking like the iTouch or the iPod before it, I don't think it will be a smashing hit. Let's face it: it's basically a big iPhone, or the product of crossing a netbook with a iPhone :rolleyes:.

Cool, but hardly something that will be a water divider, or at least not like Apple's previous products. After all, cool as it is, it ain't cheap and basically does what an iPhone does (and not everything a netbook does). And of course, it's not an e-reader. Maybe for the one-or-two-books-a-year crowd (though they are the vast majority), but definitively not for those who read a lot. So even if the iPad sells well, I don't think Amazon is at risk.
 
Are they even marketing it as a competitor to the Kindle or any other e-reader? My wife bought me a Kindle for Christmas, and I have to say it is fantastic. The big advantages that is has in terms of readability, battery life, etc. are not features that the iPad possesses.

The iPad looks like a big iTouch, which is what I guess it is. As others have said, I'd rather have a laptop or netbook for email and the Internet and would MUCH rather have my Kindle for reading. I just don't see what they are offering that is anything that any other tablet has not offered in the past, other than the relatively low price. In fact, they are offering much LESS than what other tablets offer. No multi-tasking? Seriously? Granted, the entry price for tablets was around $1000 last I checked.

Maybe they should have named it Newton Part 2. :p
 
mrmaigo said:
It doesn't multitask. So I'll keep my netbook that costs half as much, has 10 times the storage and does everything a computer can do.

E-readers are great, they use ZERO power until you turn the page
Click to expand...

And e-readers are black and white and have no touch support.

What "netbook" costs $250 and has 160GB of disk space?

LUW said:
For those who are not familiar with the Kindle, it has at least a seven day battery life, and that's with 3G on. Which, by the way, the iPad doesn't have (well, it does, but you have to pay - for the Kindle it's free). And as if battery life wasn't so important, the iPad has a back lit screen, which means to read an e-book on it is just like reading on your PC or Mac with LCD screen - I at least definitively can't do that for hours.
Click to expand...


3G is not free, it's still a subscription service that ties you into a contract with a phone company.



Personally I feel that it's a glorified and giant iTouch. It won't fit into my pocket, and it looks quite delicate. You'd have to buy a case, and even then it's too small for me to really "use" like I would a computer.
 
stjames said:
I was on the lighting crew for the Apple press event debuting the iPad today in San Francisco, so I witnessed the final nail in the coffin of print media.
Click to expand...

First off, What company do you work for? I am also in the field of lighting.

Back on topic. Though I am impressed with apple with this product, honestly I would just rather buy a netbook. They are cheaper, semi-upgradable, have a physical key board (which I know there is an add on for this), Most have webcams, and better memory/hard drive space.
 
iPad has no contract for the 3G service, its pay monthly as you choose. I think the 3G model is another $130 usd. I can't wait to play with one, but I think I will stick with my iPhone.
 
Josh K said:
3G is not free, it's still a subscription service that ties you into a contract with a phone company.
Click to expand...
Not really. Even for me here in Brazil as long as I'm in an area with 3G coverage, I can turn on a Kindle and surf through Wikipedia without having any form of contract with a 3G operator, like I have to for my notebook's modem. If I do d/l a book through Whispernet, Amazon's intranet for e-books, then I would pay a fee of $2 on each e-book. So if the books costs $5 for an US citizen, for me it would cost $7. But there are no fees for the use of 3G.
 
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