iPad

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 6:14 pm

The iPad is here. What do you think? Is it something you can ignore, can use, or must have?

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 6:26 pm

I'm wondering about accepted ebook formats. Otherwise it's a color screen kindle/ipod

Enough formats and I'll go for it

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 7:20 pm

It uses the iBook app from the app store for the open EPUB format, used by most publishers, including the B&N Nook. Kindle is not supported, of course.

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 7:26 pm

I'm on the email list with moola in hand. Kool - Aid, anyone?

Level 3 Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Posts: 4303 Location: Home

wsitze wrote:

It uses the iBook app from the app store for the open EPUB format, used by most publishers, including the B&N Nook. Kindle is not supported, of course.

But if it will use iPhone apps. Kindle would be included.

Member Joined: 11 Nov 2006 Posts: 170 Location: Australia

I am a little disappointed. I was hoping it wouldn't be just a big iPod touch and that it would be something really new. Shame.
I can't see where I'd use it. I have my iPhone for when I'm out and that's in my pocket and therefore more practical.
When I'm in I have my Mac which will be a better browsing experience because it won't be crippled by the lack of flash.
In bed I can watch my laptop easier than trying to prop the iPad up.
I have my Kindle for books.

Maybe I'm missing something but I'm just not excited about it. Think I'll wait for version 2.

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:26 am

I wonder about the screen's suitability for reading novels and such for long periods of time. I was thinking of buying a Kindle, then all this iPad stuff started up and I decided to wait. I wonder how the screen compares to Kindle for reading novels. And I wonder about ANY computer-type, lit screen's suitability for reading novels.

New Member Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 81

I think it's cool, but I wish it were a little more mac and a little less ipod. I would like something kinda netbookish for my business, but I really wanted it to have a physical keyboard. Still really cool looking. I have a feeling it's going to do very well. I bet if I got one for my teenage daughter, she would go nuts. Too bad... too much loot for a birthday present Wink

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 12:41 am

Intruder wrote:

But if it will use iPhone apps. Kindle would be included.

Since I don't have an iPhone (Verizon), I'm not familiar with iPhone apps or the app store. I have since read about the Kindle app. I suspect that I'm about to get a lot more familiar with the app store. My wife was enthralled with the iPad.

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 1:04 am

We expect a review

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 1:19 am

A few month ago there was a discussion on this forum about whether or not Apple should introduce an entry level Mac. I think they just did. Sure it looks like a iPhone that got left down wind from a nuclear power plant overnight. But it does what most people buy a computer for to begin with. You got your email, you got your web, you got your word processor. Throw in some photo, movie viewing and book reading and you got more toys than most people will ever use. $499.

They were also smart by making do some things very well to create need but not do other things at all. That also creates a need to have a real full fledged computer at home to run the apps we have become used to.

Would I buy one? Dunno. It does most every thing I carry my PB for. But I need to do graphics and so will I upgrade to a new MacBook Pro and be done with it or get a iMac and carry the iPad. Dunno.

Member Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 763 Location: classified

What I'd really like is a PDF reader. I'm not interested in eBooks or proprietary formats. But I would like to be able to curl up with a good PDF (software documentation).

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:18 pm

Ok, now I really am confused. The firmware in the iPad is supposedly an iPhone OS also, right? My iPhone displays pdf files. Am I missing something?

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:51 am

No. PDF's are covered

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 6:07 pm

I really didn't know what to expect with all the rumors. As far as what I wished it would be I am disappointed. But I was fantasizing about a tablet MAC that I might be able to illustrate with in Photoshop and Illustrator. So I guess I wasn't shocked when it wasn't that.

Though I actually was shocked that is was a pepped up iPod. I guess I was just thinking it would be an actual mac processor on the lines of a MacBook Air.

I think this will do well with a certain market though. Those who have to be connected to the stream all the time. They use online services instead of full applications and live in the tamer wireless version of the Cyberpunk future Gibson promised us.

Were I strictly a web designer I might replace my MacBook pro with one of these and then have an iMac as my heavy hitter. But I still need the clout that a bigger processor and full applications bring. All in a portable format.

Okay Apple, now bring me the equivalent of a MacBook Pro that is has a touchscreen like a Wacom Cintiq that I can then plug into my desktop iMac or Mac Pro and use as a drawing pad for less than a ModBook Pro . What? Me unreasonable?

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 1:42 pm

sidewall wrote:

A few month ago there was a discussion on this forum about whether or not Apple should introduce an entry level Mac. I think they just did. Sure it looks like a iPhone that got left down wind from a nuclear power plant overnight. But it does what most people buy a computer for to begin with. You got your email, you got your web, you got your word processor. Throw in some photo, movie viewing and book reading and you got more toys than most people will ever use. $499.

They were also smart by making do some things very well to create need but not do other things at all. That also creates a need to have a real full fledged computer at home to run the apps we have become used to.

Would I buy one? Dunno. It does most every thing I carry my PB for. But I need to do graphics and so will I upgrade to a new MacBook Pro and be done with it or get a iMac and carry the iPad. Dunno.

++

There are a number of discussions over on Arstechnica that touch on the idea that basically Apple has just created the first (or second, depending on how you view the iPhone/Touch) iteration of the 'appliance computer for the masses.' The killer application, so to speak, will be the apps that are written. Even with just the iWork apps, it could easily replace our cheap MB as a couch surfer/ light duty computer. As other great apps are written specifically for the iPad size interface, it will fill the needs of more and more people.

Member Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 763 Location: classified

Kinda off topic, but kinda not - are there web-based word processors and spreadsheets yet? Maybe not something as powerful as Word or Excel (which have become de facto standards because of the things they do that are unrelated to word processing or spreadsheets), but something as powerful as Pages or Numbers. When these are available, they will be extremely useful to people who work on iPads and iPhones.

Level 3 Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Posts: 4303 Location: Home

Google Docs.

Member Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Posts: 170 Location: Denmark

In generally I'm happy with my iPod Touch, and all the things it can do in a few seconds: Checking weather, mails, apps updates etc. All done before my Mac has finished booting. But I rarely brows the internet with the iPod, and writing with the small keyboard also restrict the use.
SO I thing the iPad comes very handy. Low power consumption and a decent screen size.
I'm curious if you can do serious typing on the iPad though - with a hardware keyboard you can focus on the typed sentences without looking at the keyboard. Will a normal sized touch keyboard allow the same... Can't wait to give it a try...

Moon Cool

New Member Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 81

I think the most compelling opinion I've read about this yet has very little to do with what people like or dislike about it, or what they think it may be missing. The iPad is simply a slick, user-friendly, attractive, desirable, portable retail store for Apple. The killer app, and what's going to make it successful, is that Apple saw the success of the Kindle, and just went out and smashed it. Why buy a Kindle? Get an iPad and you have the reader functionality of the Kindle, plus the iTunes Store and the App Store, with all the new apps that will be born from the new dimensions of the iPad.

I'm a more recent "switcher." I bought my first Mac in 2005, mostly because I was so blown away by my iPod. It just sucked me in. Now, almost 5 years later, Macs are trendier than they've ever been and the iPhone is ubiquitous. I hate my AT&T coverage but it's too late - I'm a convert. Have to have my iPhone despite AT&T.

In my opinion, the iPad will ride the wave of Apple's "It" factor. And Apple will take over the electronic book market almost as a by-product.