Apple's new tablet was announced today, with the world's worst name - iPad. Anywho, here's a summary of its features:
Basically an oversized iPod Touch.
Fits squarely within the zone of suck.
No HD video.
Closer to 4:3 than 16:9 with a screen resolution of 1024x768.
No TV-output.
No expansion slots, USB or basically any IO except a headphone jack.
No kickstand so it can't stand up.
Massive screen bezel makes it look less than slick.
Capacitative screen which means it can't use a pen/stylus.
No multitasking ability.
No camera.
No Flash support.
No GPS on non-3G models.
New apple bookstore, iBooks, available in USA only.
No phone calls.
I don't think I'm missing anything. I really can't see how this device has any practical use. An iPhone has more functionality and is more portable than this device.
edit: Oh and yeah, starts at US$500 for a non-3G 16gb model. Largest capacity is just 64gb.
Thoughts?
Heh, this picture was a slide from Apple's iPhone 3GS announcement, with the caption "No need for things that can't fit in your pocket". Lawl.
This device makes me want to dick-punch the iSheep who will undoubtedly make Mr Jobs even richer by lapping it up. Wow.
iPad?? Sounds like something you could put in your undies when you're on the rag.
I wonder if it's more absorbant than other leading brands?
What's the battery life like? If it's decent I guess you could use it as a Kindle if they have an Apple version, you can get it on iPhone so I don't see why not.
And seeing a grey scale Kindle goes for similar money it doesn't look as bad now.
Granted it's kind of shit, but future models should be quite impressive over time; look at the evolution of the iPod for instance.
imagine if they did have a camera in it and you held that up to take shots.....
As resident Apple user, I guess I should put up some kind of rebuttal. But to be honest, I don't really get the use of it just yet, then again, i don't really get the netbook phenomenon either.
Nonetheless, firstly, Chris A, I think you stumbled on a point there, 10 hours battery life playing video, will last a month on standby.
Everyone was kind of expecting some sort of eInk hybrid screen in there too, but sadly, not quite.
I see this as more of an iPhone/Kindle combo than an iPhone/laptop
I'll wait til they're released until make judgement.
iPad? Seriously, whoever chose that name needs to be fired ASAP
IMO it's not useful as an eReader, just because the battery life is too short and the screen is too hard to read in the sun. In fact, I don't see any market at all for this product, or any other tablet.
Chris - Kindle is about half the price of this, and is looking to be one of the more expensive eReaders in the next year, so it's not a good comparison on price either.
While not really that close in price, if a Kindle came out with colour I'd imagine it would be approaching this sort of price and have less features.
Yeah but the colour screen isn't an advantage in terms of e-readers. The reason the Kindle et al use e-ink is because LCD's aren't useful as readers. They're useless outside/during the day, and fatiguing at night. Not to mention the battery life. So in that respect this device isn't really comparable to the Kindle, as it's a huge compromise for reading. I get what you're saying, but I dont think it comes close to justifying the price for what is really a giant iPod Touch.
Apple claims 10 hours battery, which means 3-5 hours.
I know we have no chance of changing your mind Chris, but I'll let my good friend Stephen Fry explain http://www.stephenfry.com/2010/01/28/ipad-about/
On the contrary Brad, I'm open to having my mind changed. I doubt I was ever going to like a tablet form factor, but I was definitely expecting a lot more from this device. I'm not necessarily anti Apple (I like the iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple TV, Cinema displays), but this product was a huge let down IMO.
Hmmm,
The beautiful thing is it will sell like hotcakes.
I personally don't believe in closed devices such as this device - I learnt so much from pulling apart and fucking up our first computers - installing linux etc.
But the majority of young kids are going to get something like this at 12, 13 years of age etc.... and unless they want to create media themselves, this is how they will interact with the internet. Imagine how perfect this is for someone who wants to do nothing but consume media, consume movies, magazines, websites...books (unlikely). Another fire-hose to drink the inter-webs from - this is how you drown the populace in the sea of mediocre media, and get paid royally.... Replace the idiot box with a more intuitive, more personal and more invasive idiot box, with target advertising, one click purchasing etc., = $$$$
Education market == win - just one market which this form factor will destroy and thank god
Fuck college textbooks...you can have all your books on one device, buy it a chapter at a time, interactive learning, quizzes, videos, self-referencing etc....awesome
Obviously I haven't played with one yet, but I am going to get one for Sash, and think about getting one for myself...
You guys are comparing it to the kindle...which is an awesome one specific use device...but lets be honest the average buyer of this device ain't going to be reading books. This is purely for consumption...not for creation. And thats what the majority of consumers want.
+1
It's not a good media consumption device IMO - it will only play the same video formats as the iPod, which basically means you can only play videos you bought frmo iTunes. No flash, so that kills most online video services. It's piss poor for music because it isn't portable. Websites will suck because the resolution is much smaller than the average laptop. Magazines and books....maybe, but as I said above, it's not a good competitor to the Kindle etc.
Video format doesn't matter anymore, the majority of people who will be buying one of these will be buying/renting their movie/tv show/porn from Apple anyways, and anyone with the knowhow to want their own will also have the ability to work out how to get iTunes to convert them for them. No it's not an iPod to take running, but everyone can see that, it's place is on the coffee table in the lounge not your pocket. Lack of Flash is becoming less important by the day (seriously it was less than a fortnight ago that Youtube started giving the option of using HTML5 to serve up video and everyone else is following suit) by the end of the year Flash video will be completely optional all over the net and I am so glad for it. Flash games however, not gonna happen, but meh, no big loss.
This thing is designed for the web, it shows a whole webpage at a time, no scrolling needed, there ain't no laptop that can do that. The low resolution is one of the few major problems I see with this device, but I can see why they did it, keeping costs down, business plan plain and simple, keeping the product under $US500 (a dollar under, but under nonetheless) opens this up to the average wealthy American parent's Xmas/birthday budget. I'm sure higher resolutions are the first thing on the 2.0 list.
Every laptop can do that - in fact, can do it better due to higher resolutions.
"The iPhone is the information appliance that Raskin imagined at the end of his life:
A morphing machine that could do any task using any specialized interface. Every time you launch an app, the machine transforms into a new device, showing a graphical representation of its interface. There are specialized buttons for taking pictures, and gestures to navigate through them. Want to change a song? Just click the “next” button. There are keys to press phone numbers, and software keyboards to type short messages, chat, email or tweet. The iPhone could take all these personalities, and be successful in all of them.
When it came out, people instantly got this concept. Clicking icons transformed their new gadget into a dozen different gadgets. Then, when the app store appeared, their device was able to morph into an unlimited number of devices, each serving one task."
http://blog.xero.com/2010/01/the-ipad-morphing-machine/
You really have to have drank the Apple Kool-aide if you believe that iPhone "could do any task using any specialized interface." The iPhone is good at what it does, but it's also very limited in it's scope.
My Android will transform into an ultra-portable fleshlight, or an open ended wrench depending on which I need at a particular moment.
How hard is it to just take a typical phone, make it a smidgen thicker and have a bottle opener pop out of it?
I'm tired of hearing about apps. I was amazed by snake, then it just got ordinary. Give me something Bond like on my phone; letting me shank someone is a start.
This device seems like it could be exactly what I am after bar my following concerns;
- Screen resolution(needs to be good enough to web browse(comfortably) and view video clips online)
- Lack of Flash
- Can it run Carbon Poker?
- Interested around the ability to use it as a notepad(lack of stylus use may be an issue)
- Ability to use spreadsheet style program(stylus again)
All I need is basically a web browser and maybe some work functions (excel,word,notepad etc.)
Would use it as portable hard drive(for me 64gb would be enough), music database and general lounge web browser device thingy.
Will have a play when it comes out and check to see if it ticks enough boxes.
On the other hand it pisses me off that Apple have seemingly held back features so blatantly in order to profit from re-purchase in the NEAR-future.
Screen resolution will be perfectly fine, lack of Flash really isn't a problem despite what people might say.
Has limited uses as notepad, you wouldn't wanna write a novel on the onscreen keyboard, but they are bringing out iWork and I'm sure eventually Microsoft Office.
It will never have a stylus, but may end up with a proprietary external keyboard.
As for Carbon Poker, no, not unless they develop it specifically, and since they don't even have a Mac version I can't see them making a iPad version anytime soon.
Also, I'm not sure, but I think Apple might have a no-gambling rule on apps, I can't see any other reason pokerstar or somebody hasn't already released, imagine how scary online poker on your iPhone would be for gamblers.
That said, Absolute Poker already has an iPhone compatible web portal, so it's only a matter of time.
As for the extra features, don't listen to the naysayers entirely, they didn't leave out the HD screen and video camera to profit. They did it so they could release it at the lower, more accessible price point. Most people were expecting this thing to come out around the US$1000 mark so halving that is awesome. That said, unless I come into money, I myself will probably wait til 2.0 for those two things. (I'm sure they're still happy knowing they'll get rebuyers due to those things though)
That is the biggest nonsense in this thread. The very cheapest model is more expensive than a cheap notebook which will be more capable in every way - bigger screen res, more storage, hard keyboard, WAAAAAY more apps, more processing power and more I/O options.
The one thing that every single person who's used one of these things has said, even the most avid opposition to the idea, is how blazingly fast it is, maybe the numbers don't match those of a netbook, but numbers don't mean a thing these days. The netbook has a keyboard and I/O ports yes, but there is no argument that iPad are faster. The lack of apps, I do agree with, however there is still "an app for everything" if you believe the hype, and if something is missing it isn't missing for long, with that many developers with such a low barrier of entry. Even so, the thing about this is it's designed for cloud computing and it's only a very short matter of time before the online app scene explodes.