** The Official 1/27 "Come See Our Latest Creation" Apple Media Event Thread **

[BigSmooth]

People seem to love the $499 starting price, but I can't even believe they are releasing a 16GB version. 16GB of non-expandable memory is absurdly lacking for a device that is specifically designed to be media-centric. Many people would fill that up with mp3s alone. Even for a casual user, once you throw movies, pictures, e-books, and apps into the mix things start getting awfully crowded.

 

[Zebo]

Biggest problem is no multitasking. Without reasonable computer abilities and cheap eeepcs out there it has no chance.

 

[secretanchitman]

I like it, but I think I'm going to wait for the 2nd or even 3rd gen ipad. These ipad improvements need to come to the iPhone.

Also kind of disappointing that nothing else was announced. Not even a "one last thing" either.

 

[secretanchitman]

Also forgot to add (darn, no editing on atforums.mobi) that the lack of multitasking is really annoying. This is a huge flaw and it needs to be fixed, at least in iPhone os 4.0, if not 3.2.

 

[Kaido]

Cons:
- No multi-tasking
- No Flash support
- 4:3 aspect ratio (1024x768 resolution)
- Not True HD and no support for 1080p
- No camera (front or back)
- No USB ports (USB adapter is only for cameras)
- No expandable memory (even 64 gigs seems relatively small for something of this caliber)
- No removable battery
- No pico projector (hey now...)
- No HD output (1024x768 only) and no HDMI output
- Lame name (iPad? not iTablet, iSlate, iGlide, etc.?)
- No pen input (useless for signatures, taking written notes, drawing, etc.)
- No cool curved thumb-access touch keyboard
- No Pixel Qi screen or any kind of E-ink (reading a book = staring at a backlight for hours on end)

People are complaining about the bezel, but I love it - not aesthically, but for usability - finally someone was smart enough to build in a place to put your fingers

Edit: "Support for 1024 x 768 with Dock Connector to VGA adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Composite A/V Cable, 576i and 480i with Apple Composite A/V Cable"

 

[Kaido]

I'm kinda bummed there's no "iPhone for Verizon" annoucement

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

yet, i would be unable to run GV or skype, and browse the internet

That's not what you were asking about. Specifically, you said "i would love to just have it sitting out and TALKING to someone." You might be able to do that with this device. I'm making no judgment about the iPad, just answering your easily-researched question.

 

[Kaido]

It looks really really cool, but I have a hard time seeing how I'll actually use it. 10" GPS and e-book reader would be awesome, of course, and to surf the web it'd be fun, although moving my whole hand over a giant screen instead of a just my fingers on a touchpad or small iPhone sounds tiresome. And I bet that screen will get dirty.

But $499...

 

[Qbah]

http://i.gizmodo.com/5458382/8-things-that-suck-about-the-ipad?skyline=true&s=i

Pretty much a "nice recap" on this thing.

 

[aphex]

http://i.gizmodo.com/5458382/8-things-that-suck-about-the-ipad?skyline=true&s=i

Pretty much a "nice recap" on this thing.

Yep, agree across the board there. Not very impressed Apple, not at all

 

[Oil]

Meh not really impressed at all. Need to wait until Rev 2 or 3

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Cons:
[snip]
- 4:3 aspect ratio (1024x768 resolution)
- Not True HD and no support for 1080p

This is getting a little silly. I'll give you most of the others, but would you really expect a sub-10" display to be widescreen 1920x1080? You would need a magnifying glass to read body text on most websites.

- No cool curved thumb-access touch keyboard

Kind of in the same vein, except now you're expecting a device this large to be used for thumbs-only typing?

I'm not saying the iPad is something I'd buy. I'm not even saying it's a good product. But some of these expectations seem ridiculous to me.

 

[Imported]

I'd have expected atleast 720P, which it won't even do.

 

[tatteredpotato]

This is getting a little silly. I'll give you most of the others, but would you really expect a sub-10" display to be widescreen 1920x1080? You would need a magnifying glass to read body text on most websites.

I wouldn't expect the device to have a 1080p screen, but I definitely expect it to be able to handle 1080p video output, which by the lack of an output is ruled out. For all we know the hardware has the power to run HD.

I am disappointed by the lack of a wide screen aspect ratio.

 

[phexac]

I just hope that this does not give green light to all other tablet makers to make their app based on gimped app-based OS's. Tablet needs a full OS in order to be viable imo.

 

[TheRickRoller]

A non-tablet tablet, priced as a laptop, competing against a netbook, with the same non-multitasking OS as a phone. Profit!

 

[KeypoX]

so when is the next time we could hear about mac book updates?

 

[speg]

I don't get the burning desire to multitask. You can only have one app taking up the screen at any given time. Pandora is the only one I can think of. It's not like you can't listen to music while doing other things, as the iPod app does run in the background. Instant messengers have push notifications which alert you to a new message. So what more do you need?

 

[jpeyton]

Cons:
- No multi-tasking

iPad 2G, coming in 2011

- No Flash support

iPad OS update in late 2010; $9.99

- Not True HD and no support for 1080p

iPad HD, coming in 2011

- No camera (front or back)

iPad 2G, coming in 2011

- No USB ports (USB adapter is only for cameras)

Never coming; Apple wants to keep the iPad as walled-off as possible.

- No expandable memory (even 64 gigs seems relatively small for something of this caliber)

Never coming. Part of Apple's POS (Planned Obsolescence Strategy)

- No HD output (1024x768 only) and no HDMI output

iPad HD, coming in 2011.

Apple is the king of planned obsolescence. Even the cheapest $200 netbook has a webcam. But Apple doesn't want your first iPad to be the last one you buy.

 

[bearxor]

I'm expecting that 1ghz A4 in the next iPhone update. I'm not totally bummed about the lack of multi-tasking right now. I take it that, because the phone is running iOS 3.2, that multitasking might hit in 4.0 (still holding my breath).

The bottom line is that I didn't wake up this morning thinking 'Man, I sure could use a 10" version of my iPhone!'. I did fall asleep last night thinking 'Man, I sure wish there was a great little 10" tablet that would stream video off my NAS so I might could watch a movie before I fell asleep.'

Here's hoping the PC Market (HP Slate?) can pick up the slack. As it is, this thing is basically an oversized, overpriced iTouch.

And I feel like AT&T going to $15 and $30 a month for internet access on this thing is a concession for a 2-year renewal for iPhone exclusivity, which is just a perfectly long enough time for Verizon to get it's LTE network rolled out anyways.

 

[Winterpool]

The iPad is a short-term disappointment and a long-term play for changing the paradigm of mobile computing. A lot of the smarter speculation pieces before today (eg this Gizmodo article) set forth the iPad as notebook replacement rather than filling some Platonic niche between notebooks and smartphones (despite what Jobs himself said today). As many have argued (and the UMPC / MID arguably proved), there is no such niche, perhaps not even for Apple.

In terms of immediate reaction, the iPad is probably closer to the iPod rather than the iPhone. It was immediately apparent that the latter was a game-changer. Whereas the iPod just seemed like more overpriced Apple kit that didn't do anything other mp3 players already did. Thus its infamous dismissal. Of course, over time, and in conjunction with iTunes, the iPod changed the entire music industry and perhaps paved the way for the rise of Apple 2.0 (the Apple whose share price stares down at me from $207.98, ouch!). And the hardware progressively evolved until we got today's iPod touch, the first mass-market handheld computer.

The current iPad is less capable than a netbook or a Windows tablet. It's uncharacteristically awkward for an Apple product (keyboard dock? ugh), painfully rev 1.0. It doesn't offer any of the JesusTablet functions some punters fantasized about. But over time, in conjunction with iTunes / App Store / iBooks / cloud-iWork, it could change mobile computing. Though I do think if Apple had retained its close alliance with Google, this product would have a much better chance (Google obviously has a far richer 'cloud' infrastructure). In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this paradigm-shift is ultimately realised by Google / Android, not Apple.

As so often in Apple's history, the key thing is to look past the sexiness of the hardware (and perhaps its overpricing and overpromising) to the potential of the software and interface. This is where Apple has ultimately proven a game-changer in the past. The Gizmodo article and others start with the assumption that the desktop-metaphor graphical interface wasn't a good fit for mobile computing. Is this really true? And does an XL iPhone interface provide a superior alternative?

Edited: for what it's worth, for now I prefer a MacBook Pro. But I didn't even own an iPod until the nano.

 

[fatpat268]

Cons:
- No multi-tasking
- No Flash support
- 4:3 aspect ratio (1024x768 resolution)
- Not True HD and no support for 1080p
- No camera (front or back)
- No USB ports (USB adapter is only for cameras)
- No expandable memory (even 64 gigs seems relatively small for something of this caliber)
- No removable battery
- No pico projector (hey now...)
- No HD output (1024x768 only) and no HDMI output
- Lame name (iPad? not iTablet, iSlate, iGlide, etc.?)
- No pen input (useless for signatures, taking written notes, drawing, etc.)
- No cool curved thumb-access touch keyboard
- No Pixel Qi screen or any kind of E-ink (reading a book = staring at a backlight for hours on end)

People are complaining about the bezel, but I love it - not aesthically, but for usability - finally someone was smart enough to build in a place to put your fingers

Edit: "Support for 1024 x 768 with Dock Connector to VGA adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Composite A/V Cable, 576i and 480i with Apple Composite A/V Cable"

This basically sums it all up. It's cool to look at, but I have no use for it. Honestly though, I'm not sure what people are expecting, this thing will be an ergonomic nightmare to use.

 

[silverpig]

I'd have expected atleast 720P, which it won't even do.

It'll do 720p, it just won't display it

The specs says it can play 720p but yeah it's scaled down to 1024xwhatever.

 

[alfa147x]

I like it... actually might buy one to take to class...

 

[Kaido]

This is getting a little silly. I'll give you most of the others, but would you really expect a sub-10" display to be widescreen 1920x1080? You would need a magnifying glass to read body text on most websites.

Excellent point. My line of thinking was compatibility: they promote KeyNote in HD (all the snazzy templates) & ease of use on the iPad, and yet they don't offer HD output for video. I'm fine with the 1024x768 screen resolution as far as resolution goes; my other concern is more on the "why can't I play 1080p files, so I don't have to downconvert them?". Not a huge deal; it would just be nice as a mobile player to plug into TVs/projectors/behind the car seat/etc. So HD output + FullHD playback ability would be cool (although I'd even be happy with just HD output - unless you jailbreak it, Apple won't let you do MKV's or M2TS's or AVCHD's).

I do wonder why they went with a 4:3 aspect ratio - easier to hold? Better balanced? I believe the Kindle has a 4:3 screen as well (800x600 e-ink or something). Just seems like a page would look nicer in 16:9 tall and 2 pages would look nicer in 16:9 wide. Same with movies. But I'm sure I will think differently once I actually get one in my hands to play with