The iPad???

[Warped]

Apple just announced the iPad which is a new device sized between a laptop and smartphone. I think the name is too close to the iPod tbh and will cause great confusion for retailers. One little letter change and it could cause pandemonium. more updates are coming

January 27, 2010 | 10:17 am

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs didn't ascend the stage sporting a robe and full beard to announce the most anticipated tablet since Moses'. But the crowd at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco received the introduction of the iPad with a roar of thunderous applause.

Perhaps the worst kept secret since, well, the iPhone, the iPad is a 10-inch touch-screen computer. It resembles an oversized iPod Touch.

"We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary new product," Jobs said early on to ease the throngs of technology journalists and analysts who knew what was coming.

After a brief on-stage run-through of the features, Jobs plopped down on a black leather couch to demonstrate how you might use the device at home. Grab the iPad off the kitchen table and browse the Web or buy movie tickets.

"It's so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smartphone," Jobs said.

-- Mark Milian

 

[jondy]

Browse the web? BUY MOVIE TICKETS?

 

[Vegeta897]

Agreed about the name, couldn't they have come up with something better?

Not that iPod was a good name to begin with, how is it even a pod? I never understood that.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Browse the web? BUY MOVIE TICKETS?

Where is your god now?

 

[Warped]

I'd buy one @ the $300 price point but this looks to be rather expensive. good for people that travel a lot i bet

 

[Acepilotf14]

So it's something too big to carry around(without seeming like a ******), but too small to be better than a comparably priced laptop.

 

[Dog--]

That's pretty stupid imo. Just get an Ipod touch, like really you can zoom in if you REALLY can't see words..

EDIT to ace: Actually you could just buy a netbook which is smaller.. And doesn't have an awkward touch screen keyboard.

 

[15357]

This is stupid.

 

[CptStern]

does the ipad have a stylus? does it have drawing capabilities? will it be powerful enough to run say photoshop? a features list would be nice; cant watch keynote

Actually you could just buy a netbook which is smaller.. And doesn't have an awkward touch screen keyboard.

a netbook is larger than the ipad not smaller. the standard netbook size is 10.1 inches and the latest netbooks are mostly 11.6 inches. also they're nowhere near as powerful as even the most basic full sized laptop. so this would definately have some advantages over a netbook

 

[Krynn72]

does the ipad have a stylus? does it have drawing capabilities? will it be powerful enough to run say photoshop? a features list would be nice; cant watch keynote

This.

Also, I thought this was the iSlate? I dont like that name much either, but its way better than iPad

 

[barbarbarbarbar]

I want this so bad.

 

[<RJMC>]

so now they decided to swtich tactics of going smaller into going bigger?

that looks like a giant iphone to me

also I remenber this tablet stuff was made before by someone else

 

[jondy]

I want this so bad.

See, this confuses me. Who exactly is this marketed toward? If you want to be productive you really need a full size keyboard for word processing or enough cycles to run photoshop.

It's a wonderful looking product and I've no doubt it's great to use. I'm just not sure what it's supposed to be used for.

 

[xcellerate]

does the ipad have a stylus? does it have drawing capabilities? will it be powerful enough to run say photoshop? a features list would be nice; cant watch keynote

from what I've heard it runs a modified iphone OS, not OSX. So it can natively run all the iphone apps, but doesn't have support for the OSX programs.

I do kind of agree, it seems like such a middle-ground piece of hardware, but I'm still not fully aware of all its capabilities. They have ported stuff like iphoto over, so you do have an image editor and I'm sure there will be some more apple programs brought onboard, but I'll just wait to play with it before I develop a real opinion about it.

 

[Reginald]

I'm just not sure what it's supposed to be used for.

This.

Do I want one? Hell yes. Will I find a use for it? Probably not.

Going to uni in September so will be getting a laptop. What can this do that that can't? Should I want to type my lecture notes up on it?

I could see it being a nice e-book reader, but apart from that...

 

[Wizard]

Pfft, like any Apple products are useful. They're targeted towards hipster liberal arts majors who live out of their parent's pocket and have a copy of the Communist Manifesto next to their Mac Air. Assuming anyone NEEDS an iPhone is ridiculous. Assuming anyone will NEED an iPad is in the same crowd.

 

[xcellerate]

I could see it being a nice e-book reader, but apart from that...

As an ebook reader this could be great. It costs about $500 and if they could get book prices down to below $100 this could buy itself in a few semesters. And imagine being able to ctrl+f through books and copy/paste sections into your own notes.

Of course that'll never happen...sigh...

 

[jondy]

As an ebook reader this could be great. It costs about $500 and if they could get book prices down to below $100 this could buy itself in a few semesters. And imagine being able to ctrl+f through books and copy/paste sections into your own notes.

Of course that'll never happen...sigh...

Even this is a little contrived - anyone doing university level research uses online journal readers if they're using digital sources,which generally come in PDF format and are fully searchable. Looking at a TFT screen for reading, it's fatiguing as hell. This thing is a solution in search of a problem

 

[Krynn72]

ya, **** that. Also its 30 bucks a month for unlimited internet

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

My first impression is that this will be great for the service industry but terrible for home consumers.

And why do they always tout the viewing of photos? Steve Jobs must have grown up in a family that loved to subject everyone to their vacation slide shows or something.

This thing is a solution in search of a problem

Well-put.

 

[No Limit]

I think they made a huge mistake using the iPhone OS (or a version of it). As stern said this would be awesome if it could be used as a tablet. But since they didn't use OSX most such applications will never be available on this. Plus for $500 I think I'd much rather just get a good old fashioned netbook just for that fact that it runs windows (a real OS).

 

[Shakermaker]

It is a supersized iPhone. Do not want, although it does look kinda sexeh.

 

[arch5]

I probably should keep my iPhone 3GS over this, because I don't think trying to carry this around in my pocket would work too well.

 

[Dog--]

it does look kinda sexeh.

wat.:|

 

[PvtRyan]

While the technology is pretty cool, but definitely not mind blowing, I really can't think of a single non-contrived daily use case for this thing. I can understand why you use your iPhone daily, but where am I gonna pull this thing out? At home? I got a PC vastly more powerful. On the couch at home? Really, you do that, or am I supposed to start doing that? And why doesn't a laptop work for that, what does a multitouch screen add here? I heard Macbooks have really kickass multitouch trackpads.

Travel? This is where an iPhone works, because it fits in your pocket. Suddenly the threshold to take this thing out becomes pretty high when it means getting it from your bag, which you have to bring if you are gonna take along this thing. Might as well take out a laptop then and save 700 dollars (lets face it, that's the one you want) while doing so. Although the price is actually pretty decent, it's just for something I have absolutely no use case for. Also fail at them wanting you to read books on this thing. Although I might be biased, while I'm no Apple hater it's hard not to start hating this thing considering the overwhelming amount of hype and Apple douchebaggery. The smug is so thick in the air you can just take a bite and eat it.

 

[jondy]

I really can't think of a single non-contrived daily use case for this thing.

This is it man. This thing sits in the mother of all middle-grounds. Until there's an app-specific productivity boon for multitouch, there's nothing this sexy beast can do that other machines can't do better.

 

[PvtRyan]

I saw someone describe it nicely: it's a solution looking for a problem.

 

[Krynn72]

I probably should keep my iPhone 3GS over this, because I don't think trying to carry this around in my pocket would work too well.

Also, the iphone can make phone calls. iPhone wins!

Yeah, I think i'll wait for HP's windows 7 tablet. It will probably let you install real programs, and have better hardware. Hopefully it will be powerful enough to use photoshop/zbrush/maya. That would be awesome.

Basically they need to make a tablet pc that is in slate form, and that doesnt suck. Right now all there is are large laptops with swiveling monitors that turn into tablets, and they have shitty hardware. Also theyre really expensive.

Either that, or just a cheap one that I can read books on. Kindle is too expensive and limited.

 

[jondy]

I saw someone describe it nicely: it's a solution looking for a problem.

Tell me about it. Whoever wrote that is like the Steve Jobs of concise-ness.

 

[Tacoeaterguy]

Giant, expensive, ipod touch with better features. Very stupid. Doesn't make me want it at all seeing the price either. This is just bad.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Whoa whoa whoa, $800?

You can make a god damn GAMING PC WITH THAT KIND OF CASH.

 

[CptStern]

ideally an e-reader should be no more than $50-100. if they want to make e-readers ubiquitous all they have to do is subsidize some of the cost to the consumer by licensing content. for example, say a bunch of newspapers/magazines got together and offered bulk subscription for $20/month for say 3-4 titles. the licensing fee pays for the cost of the hardware and newpapers/magazine content providers get to have a much wider audience then they now enjoy with mininal cost to them; little risk in terms of marketing and development as they're part of a larger group who would share resources

so there's no reason why an e-reader has to cost > $200.

extend that to ipad; it's a "premium" e-reader with content funneled through apple. they control the distribution chain therefore they become the middleman to the content instead of just the hardware provider. in other words they become absolutely essential as a link from the consumer to the content ..so in this respect they can charge whatever the hell they want to charge for their ipad because they're the only content (music/video/tv/apps/printed media provider in town

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Essentially, it's a huge f*cking iPhone.

 

[Dog--]

Essentially, it's a huge f*cking iPhone.

It doesn't make calls, it a huge iTouch.

 

[Wizard]

It's a huge waste of money.

 

[CptStern]

you know, the people this is being targeted to wouldnt be all that concerned about getting a deal on technology. it's about convenience not abnout whether something that's twice the size is more powerful or not. power isnt the attraction here

 

[Acepilotf14]

That isn't very convenient. And it's not like I carry a backpack around with me everywhere to hold that massive thing in, and I wouldn't want to carry it around. My ipod touch, however, sits very nicely in my pocket and does everything I want it to.

 

[Kakashi]

Hmm I think it might be very useful in my situation. I'd only buy the wifi version since I'd probably be only using it in the house anyways. I'm sure I'd find or create some sort of mod to turn it into a smart-home remote control to control lights, thermostat, TV, entertainment systems & blinds. It'd be interesting to play with.

 

[Shamrock]

See, there might be more functionality to it as they update the OS, and also, the SDK is brand new and no one has had a look at it. The SDK might hold some desktop functionality. We might see an iPad version of Photoshop or something of the sort. Who knows thus far, but to be honest, like everyone else has said, it's an iPod Touch XL. There's no extreme purpose for it. The contract free internet is nice, but it's still.. completely confusing to use this over A) a netbook B) an iPhone already C) pants.

 

[Maestro]

Looks like an oversized iPod touch, totally useless. I'd rather have a TouchBook.