Apple iPad Impressions

Not quite a touchscreen iMac, is it? Still, I can see it being very useful and popular.

 

This is going to be perfect for me. I have a desktop in my basement home office but frequently I need to do some moderate computing (surfing, email, etc) elsewhere in the house. I have been using the iPhone but frequently find myself wishing for a bigger screen and more robust device and I always thought a laptop was overkill.

It will also be my ebook reader with a non-gross/e-ink screen.

Cheers.

 

Another comparison:

 

Best comment I heard about it: "The iPad is so yesterday! I already have an iPad Nano!"

 

The one in the picture isn't the DX. The DX has a 9.7" screen, the Kindle has a 6" screen. So comparing the DX against the iPad is probably more realistic, as the viewable area is roughly equivalent.

My take on this: It's not terribly useful for me. My 4 year old 13" Macbook can do everything it can do and more (and has more power, more memory, a bigger screen...) - the only thing the iPad brings to the table is the touch screen. Plus i won a Kindle DX last year, so the e-book thing on it isn't really a selling point.

I realize Apple's intention here is to release a device everyone already knows how to use - they interact with it just like they do an iPhone or iPod Touch, it uses the App store, which makes purchases effortless, etc... but that's not the device i want. Sure, they can include all that, but what would make it really useful for me is if they dropped in some real OSX functionality, like a real, accessible file system, the ability to use a CD drive remotely (like they do for the Air) to install any programs I want, even ones that don't come from the App store. i have a whole bundle of programs i use on a regular basis on my Macbook - with this, I can't use any of them.

The device is just too handicapped for my uses currently.

 

I wouldn't dismiss the e-ink screens out of hand, if i were you. Yeah, they aren't real "sexy", but they work amazingly well, and are extremely gentle on the eyes. I spend most of my day sitting in front of a computer for work, and my eyes feel the strain of reading an LCD screen for that long. Over the holidays, i spent several rather long days engrossed in a book (reading 10-12 hours a day) with no eye strain at all. the e-ink is really great for e-books.

 

It is the best thing that is, almost, on the market for me.
I have been wanting to get an ebook reader, but the ones out there just haven't had the capabilities I wanted.
With this I can comfortably sit in my recliner surging the web while I watch TV (yes, I am a media junky). The ereader aspect of it is awesome. And in a surprise to me, apple is using the open source ebook format, so availability of titles should be very good.
I LIKE not having a physical kb as it just adds to the 'clunkyness' when surfing/reading/watching somewhere other than my office desk. And the multitouch screen is an awesome user interface. The one on the iPhone is great, but the iPhone screen is to small. This, for me, is perfect, can't wait

 

My concern is user comfort. I can understand surfing would be sweet, but as soon as you have to type to participate in forums, you always have to prop it up against your thighs.

 

Isn't this just a big itouch? As a 12 year apple stock holder and owner of multiple apple products, I'm ipassing on this one.

 

+1

Or in my case it's probably iYawn.

 

I should start copying all the "underwhelming" and "not enough features" and "no market/use" comments. I didn't do that for the iPod or the iPhone, and I regret that I can't post all of the ridiculous negative opinions from those previous "iYawns".

Apple is bridging the laptop-smartphone gap from the right direction by scaling the iPod/iPhone up instead of shrinking a laptop down. The whole "scale down an 18 wheeler and call it a car" mentality of netbooks has stagnated the tablet market for a decade, and has seen Microsoft stumble repeatedly with their mobile Windows versions. The "scale the iPod/iPhone up" approach doesn't feel as revolutionary as the laptop to iPhone jump, but it does enable uses and applications that are qualitatively different from the small form factor.

 

It's a giant iTouch. For it's price, iPad is crap. Here's Gizmodo's list of why the iPad iSucks. Some I don't agree with, but you get the general idea:

Had the iPad sported the features touted by the HP Slate, it might've received a warmer welcome.

 

I could see putting one in my den, which is the AV room. I keep an old laptop in there just to look stuff up on the Internet, and to configure the media server in the other room. An iPad could do both just fine, and could server as a nice digital picture frame when not being used.

Will I spend $500 for that? Probably not, at least not yet. I'd much prefer a Linux based tablet that allowed me to run real software, but that option isn't really here at the moment. Still, I can see the niche.

Tom

 

My view of it is that it's a cute little (or maybe not-so-little) device that's good as a "casual computer." Basically, it's a nice thing to have laying on your coffee table if you want to send an email or check something on the web. Will people buy it for that? I would imagine it will become moderately popular with the techie crowd, but I just can't see it gaining the widespread acceptance of, say, the iPhone.

I think that the comparisons to the Kindle are completely crazy. The Kindle does one thing incredibly well: it displays monochrome text. It does that one thing way better than the iPad or any device with a standard screen ever will. That said, the iPad completely destroys the Kindle if you start going beyond just this one basic thing. However, I just don't buy the idea that the iPad is going to become a popular way to read books. As has been pointed out here already, normal computer screens are hard on the eyes, whereas the devices with eInk screens are just great (for that one purpose).

 

Just for clarification...
I know of no netbooks that run Windows Mobile, everyone that I've seen run either Linux, Windows XP, or Windows 7 (the later two depending on their age). Mine is also running Ubuntu with a dual boot mode with Windows. Now for a few more comparisons, since there are a number of variations in netbooks, I'll use mine (Acer Aspire One), for comparison.
Since I've already mentioned the OS, lets move on, camera, built into the netbook, not available on ipad. External ports, netbook 3 USB 2.0, 1 10/100 ethernet, 1 multi-format card reader (MMC, SD, SDHC, XD, & MS/MS pro), 1 SD slot to use as portable storage, 1 external video, ipad none. Storage, netbook 160GB hard drive, ipad 16, 32, or 64GB. Wireless, netbook 802.11b,g, ipad 802.11b,g,n and bluetooth. Multitouch, netbook, yes on the trackpad in Windows (XP or 7), ipad, yes. Plus on my netbook I can work on office docs. while traveling thanks to Open Office.org that I have loaded for both the Windows and Ubuntu OS's, thanks to the USB ports, I can connect external drives, control my camera (time lapse controller), or anything else that can be done via USB.
Now for the cost: netbook $250, ipad $499 and up!

 

Hehe..this reminds me of the negativity in the iPhone threads when it first came out.

The iPad is perfect for people like me who have been toying with the idea of a netbook and an e-reader. I haven't bought neither because devices in these categories so far seem so janky and flimsy. E-ink is a no show for me and no screen in any netbook has been convincing to me. Only the latest Ion netbooks have approached what I need.

No netbook except those with Ion graphics have been able to run video like the iPad does. Couple that with atrocious battery life and the wrong form factor for carrying around one-handed and the iPad win hands down.

The iPad definitively kills the KindleDX being a similar screen size but only $10 more expensive.

If you have a desktop and were toying with the idea of a laptop and an e-ink reader the iPad is a no-brainer.

 

Having fingertip access to all the music, books, and movies in the world is huge. Maybe the virtual libraries aren't quite that big yet, but the potential is certainly there.

 

Just wait until the Gold plated carry strap comes out...
We can all look like Flavor Flav wearing it around our necks.......