Ok, so who pre ordered an iPad?

[chin311]

How do you stand to touch those things. Feels too much like petting a person or something, freaky.D:

lol, actually mine is a lil' different, it has a slight peach fuzz almost so hes not like bare skin.

 

[OUCaptain]

No. Too many things it doesn't have or doesn't allow that others will for less money.

 

[Greenman]

What does an ipad cost? Why did they name it after a sanitary napkin, and what will it do?

 

[Aikouka]

#2 is available as an ipod/iphone app. It's not perfect but you can control the mouse and keyboard. It's done via wi-fi and IP though.

Hmm that sounds decent, but I'd definitely prefer bluetooth... essentially having the iphone/ipad acting as a bluetooth keyboard/mouse while the software is open. I'd definitely also prefer #2 on the iPad given that the iphone would be a bit too small to really use well as a keyboard/mouse. Typing on it now is a bit annoying as it is!

 

[Fritzo]

I was going to order the IPad with built in ATT wireless connectivity, but I heard that during certain times of the month it gets spotty.

 

[Fritzo]

lol that's what I was thinking

They have those:

http://digitalchunk.com/kogan-android-tablet-pad-for-under-200.htm

 

[Colt45]

I'm waiting for the iMat

 

[fatpat268]

Hell no. I still have no idea what I'd actually use it for.

Quite frankly, I don't understand the appeal of a touchscreen tablet in the first place. I understand the appeal of the Wacom Pen based tablets that were semi-popular a few years ago (I had one myself) since you could actually do useful stuff like take notes, draw, etc. The only problem with those were the implementation of software.

A touchscreen sans stylus makes perfect sense for a phone, but for a tablet there should've been both at least. As of right now, I can't forsee myself ever buying an iPad, but I do change my mind quickly. Case in point: I despised (for lack of a better word) apple computers, but I ended up buying one anyway. :\

 

[thescreensavers]

lol I just drove past bestbuy, no one is there. According to my friend who works there they got about 60.

 

[0roo0roo]

They have those:

http://digitalchunk.com/kogan-android-tablet-pad-for-under-200.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVR0pZo0lDM

 

[rh71]

Waiting for either price drop or good competition to grow from it. I can see this being useful for around the house. I've always thought the tabletPC was a good idea. I don't care whether it's an Apple product or not as long as it works well.

 

[Crono]

Waiting for either price drop or good competition to grow from it. I can see this being useful for around the house. I've always thought the tabletPC was a good idea. I don't care whether it's an Apple product or not as long as it works well.

Agree completely.

 

[yllus]

Does it have an IR port? I'm interested about it taking over home theatre control duties from my Logitech Harmony 880 remote.

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

Doesn't look like it'll do IR natively. hat's too bad.

Further investigation indicates that Apple is planning to release Apple Remote for the iPad. Have to get an AppleTV thingy to use it, though. Boo.

 

[Number1]

Why is it that only Apple is able to innovate so much? Why can't other companies come out with products like this? Even the mighty Microsoft is left in the dust in this market.

Just wondering

 

[nageov3t]

Why is it that only Apple is able to innovate so much? Why can't other companies come out with products like this? Even the mighty Microsoft is left in the dust in this market.

Just wondering

do you think the ipad is the first tablet device? :\

 

[fatpat268]

Why is it that only Apple is able to innovate so much? Why can't other companies come out with products like this? Even the mighty Microsoft is left in the dust in this market.

Just wondering

Well, its not the hardware that's the problem with other companies... its the piss poor software.

For example, a lot of laptop mfgs put zero effort into their touchpads. They always threw a standard alps or synaptics pad in there and called it a day. The software sucked as well, because it's been only recently that there's been multitouch capability for some of the synaptics pad. So the technology was there, but the software sucked.

Also, after the large multitouch trackpad came out, a couple of companies sought to copy the idea (and for good reason, it's a good trackpad). The problem is, is that they forgot to write competent drivers for the damn thing. You see this sort of thing time and time again. Companies put out decent hardware and features, but lack the capability to back it up with software.


That said, Apple isn't perfect. The iPad is nearly useless as a computing device to me. Why? Because it's completely closed. I can't readily edit my files without going to another computer, and I'd have to do what limited file management I can do through iTunes. Also, the lack of USB and HDMI are troubling to me. A lot of people tout this as a multimedia device, but what good is it if I can't plug it into my TV or read pictures from an SD card? Yes, I know they sell adapters to do so, but that's the point. To do something so simple, it ends up costing you $30 per adapter (at least until monoprice or other companies offer a cheaper solution).

But regardless of all that: in the end, as far as tablets go, the Apple iPad will be the most solid of the bunch. Other tablets have good hardware but simply lack the software to back it up. Just look at the iPhone's competition. The iPhone has done little to its software after it launched its App store, but only now are phones actually starting to compete. There were so many touch screen phones that came and died, simply because phone companies thought that a slight modification of their old software would work just fine.

But no, I'm not buying an iPad

 

[speg]

Waiting for pic of cat on iPad...

 

[arcenite]

My fiancée has an iPad Nano

 

[Fritzo]

Why is it that only Apple is able to innovate so much? Why can't other companies come out with products like this? Even the mighty Microsoft is left in the dust in this market.

Just wondering

They're the only company that controls the hardware and OS directly, and they only make a small number of products, therefore huge amounts of resources can go into design and innovation.

HP has a touch pad in the works right now, but HP also makes a gillion other products, so I'm sure the resources that went into designing it will not be as slick as Apple's offering.

However, Apple's "if you want any outputs you have to buy adapters" approach to the iPad is going to be a deal killer for a lot of people. There's no USB or SD ports so you can't add your own memory, there's no video out port so you can use it for presentations, there's not even a dock port so you could plug it into a keyboard/mouse dock (which would be cool). Lots of functionality was sacrificed in order to keep it thin and looking good.

If Apple were a bakery, all of their products would be awesome frosting with no cake.

 

[Crono]

If Apple were a bakery, all of their products would be awesome frosting with no cake.

Lol. Perfect metaphor.

Now I want me some frosting and cake. I hate you

 

[Kaido]

They're the only company that controls the hardware and OS directly, and they only make a small number of products, therefore huge amounts of resources can go into design and innovation.

HP has a touch pad in the works right now, but HP also makes a gillion other products, so I'm sure the resources that went into designing it will not be as slick as Apple's offering.

However, Apple's "if you want any outputs you have to buy adapters" approach to the iPad is going to be a deal killer for a lot of people. There's no USB or SD ports so you can't add your own memory, there's no video out port so you can use it for presentations, there's not even a dock port so you could plug it into a keyboard/mouse dock (which would be cool). Lots of functionality was sacrificed in order to keep it thin and looking good.

If Apple were a bakery, all of their products would be awesome frosting with no cake.

I understand why they did what they did from a business perspective, it's just short-changing the end user:

1. No Flash: Free movies & apps - why buy movies & apps from the iTunes store?

2. No onboard SD reader: Why buy the 32gb or 64gb model, if you could just pop in a fat 32gb SD card?

And where's my front-facing webcam and pressure-sensitive stylus at?? Guess I'll still have to carry a paper notebook around with my e-Textbooks in class to sketch out math symbols and whatnot on...

 

[moshquerade]

I want one.

 

[intogamer]

I want one.

what she said

 

[nageov3t]

what she said

just curious, but why?

at least for myself, I'm drawing a blank as to the niche it would fill that isn't already filled by my iphone + netbook + kindle (each one filling their own roles better than I imagine the ipad to fill it)

 

[her209]