Apple iPad Curse those Icelanders and their volcanoes. I wasn’t surprised when Apple delayed the iPad's UK launch, as friends in the US had told me that the initial shipments in their local Apple Stores had sold out very quickly. Apple iPad iPad: touchy-feely like only Apple can make 'em Unfortunately, my cunning plan to get one …
I had no problems with WiFi (probably because I'd already had to adjust my router - due to an OS4 bug - to 20Mhz only, instead of 20/40Mhz...which alludes that a software fix may solve the issues on iPad too). As for reception, it's perfect, fast and has great range with my Virgin Media-supplied D-Link DIR-165.
The one thing I've noticed in all the reviews that mention the keyboard, is that nobody puts forward the sluggishness of typing in most apps. Apple's own Notes app is extremely laggy - I get the feeling this is maybe down to the graphics-rich font drawing, since typing in Mail is much more responsive.
I also ordered one from the states, and have been playing with it for a couple of days. The initial impression is, to put it succinctly, WOW!
The screen is fabulous, and the GUI is very responsive.
HOWEVER, after playing with it for some time, I put it aside, and reached for my ipod touch, and had a sudden insight:
If this device had come out first, and the ipod touch/iphone a couple of years after, I would have been much more impressed. There they manage to put the entire functionality of an iPad into a pocketable format!
I still cannot see why anyone who hasn't got money to burn would want one of these? You've already said you have a laptop and an iPod touch that you can use from you bedroom so why spend at least £400 just for a bigger screen? Having tried an iPad at the weekend it's bloody frustrating to hold and type at the same time; even short Twitter entries are a pain and it's much easier to use a phone and thumb type.
It's not exactly a pocket device so my guess is it'll be mainly used in the home ... but if you're at home andy you want to look at the net use your PC / netbook / Mac / Laptop or phone in ypur pocket. If you want to watch a movie then watch it on your TV with surround sound. We don't need (as Apple seem to infer) this "third device", the iPad serves no purpose other than to get Apple FanBoys and the Jobs loving media into a buying frenzy.
Even if people do wait for the 3g one they'll have to be tied into another mobile contract as Apple have changed the SIM card. KerrrrCHING!. And why would you take it outdoors anyway? It's not like you'll be able to type easily on the train using an iPad in the same way you can slip a phone in/out of your pocket. Besides, you might as well wear a sign that says "I am a rich mug with money to burn - please mug me".
The only saving grace of this review is that you only gave it 80%.
currently i have a laptop of which i only use 10% of it's functionality because i also have a much more powerful desktop machine with far larger screens
the laptop is the waste of space, but until the iPad, there was no other solution for casual web browser, email reading, quick look up of imdb while watching a movie
the iPad fills that niche that previously had to accomodate a laptop
now i have no need to replace my macbook with a newer model when the iPad will serve the same purpose much much better
People with no money to waste certainly shouldn't buy this. If they need a computer then they should get something cheaper, and if they want a flashy new toy they should make sure they can afford it. I suppose next you'll be reminding people that they don't have to buy a Jaguar as they can walk to work.
Your only problem with the iPad seems to be that it's expensive. That's only a problem if someone is forcing you to buy one. They're not.
There are a few music production tools appearing, Korg's iElectribe for instance implements a setup that would have cost you about £800 a few years back.
It can also be used by photographers as a highly portable photo management tool. Import your photos, review and post to the web.
Just because you lack any imagination doesn't mean others don't. Some people simply can't see the point of something unless it can be pigeon holed into existing device categories.
I haven't seen any other site list the RAM of the device, where did you get the 256MB figure from? If that's accurate then it's shockingly small for a device of this size. I would hope for 512MB at the very least, perhaps 1GB, if they plan on allowing multi-tasking. I'm sure I'll be told that OS X and such don't have the memory requirements of Windows, and I wouldn't be surprised at that but 256MB is still very small.
read the write up on the iPhone OS 4.0 presentation.
multitasking under iPhone OS doesn't mean you'll have apps running at full speed in the background where you can't see them
apps in the background are in a semi-stasis, the register themselves for the events they are interested in and are only activated once those events occur so that they may process the event and then return to stasis - very low memory footprint
I did follow the 4.0 presentation and how there were services that were labelled for the multitask events but I wasn't sure if it meant the app basically closed itself with the event registered to it for notifications. In that case 256MB should be usable enough, thanks for the heads up jai.
All right, I'll bite.
There are some very keen ebook readers out here in Reg Readerland. Most of us that own a 'real' ebook (e-ink) reader swear by it, decrying LCD as the quick road to eyestrain.
So why is it that "the iPad [is] the first digital device that strikes me as a genuinely attractive alternative to good old-fashioned books and newsprint."?
Support your arguments, man!
Having owned an ebook device (sony reader), and *tried* to use it for reading books I think you have it exactly wrong. eink is far worse for eyestrain:
1. It's not backlit, so you have to have a light behind you.. having the light anywhere else just means the display is in shadow and unreadable. Of course once you do this you find out that the screen is reflective so you now have the image of a lamp on the screen.
2. The contrast is *horrible* - dark grey on light grey, meaning even once you have the lighting sorted you have to squint to make out the words.
I found I could only read for about 15 minutes on an eink device before my eyes got tired. Not practical for reading sessions.. I gave up on it very quickly and eventually sold it. The ipad is more expensive but it at least has a proper display. I look at LCD screens all day every day and don't get eye strain.
In response to your first point, the lighting requirements you found so annoying are exactly the same as those for paper. To your second point: I think text on paper (especially in the case of old paperbacks) often has less contrast than an eInk display. Labelling eInk "dark grey on light grey" - whilst technically correct - is a bit unfair/misleading. For example they have easily more contrast than pencil on paper and not many people would have a problem with that. Maybe your discomfort had more to do with your Sony reader than the eInk display itself? For some unknown reason Sony give their displays a glossy finish which reflects direct light, losing contrast and making it the eBook equivalent of that shiny coffee table book which in certain lights you have to twist and move around to get rid of the sheen as you move your eye over the page.
With regard to TFT, their major weakness is their uselessness in strong ambient light. For that reason I'd never recommend one to anybody looking for a truly portable reader. They may not cause eye strain sitting at a desk, but try reading one on holiday in the sunshine - especially if it's shiny like the iPad.
1. No screen refresh.
2. No "LCD eyestrain" after using it to read e-books since launch day.
3. Color.
4. Full interactivity.
5. Plenty of battery life for e-books plus other stuff.
I think "genuinely attractive" is the key here. After trying them, I wouldn't get an e-book reader -- the expense related to single functionality plus the look of the screen turned me off. It may be a small thing to some, but I don't like the refresh. Not I, nor three friends who have an iPad have experienced any eyestrain. Perhaps it's due to the ability to control font size and brightness on the fly. Or perhaps it was never there at all. I think it's also about experiencing it. The iPad comes loaded with the Winnie the Pooh book you see in the ad, and everyone has been immediately impressed upon seeing the full colour illustrations. Text is crisp, black is black, white is white, and it really feels like reading a book... the book fills the screen, and you're left with the book, and the gimmicky-to-some but neat-to-me fake book edge -- no distractions from a keyboard hanging off it or whatnot. Turn the device at any time, and you're looking at one page or two instantly. One only has to get the Popular Science application to understand what it means to see a magazine on the iPad. The experience is something totally different than any other on a mobile device, something non-existant and impossible on an e-book reader. PopSci is truly exciting on the iPad. Since, rather than wandering into the woods for two weeks, I come home every evening, I'm only worried about a battery lasting a day.
It weighs more, but I have gotten over that due to the experience.
I suppose the one thing I could agree on is that it's difficult to read in direct sun. I seem to have solved that by, um, not reading in direct sun. I shall re-evaluate this point when apocalypse kills all trees, destroys all buildings, and clouds become a thing of the past.
Here's an article quoting a few 'experts' on eye strain from screen reading.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/do-e-readers-cause-eye-strain/
Personally, I don't read for hours at a time, and rarely outside (and certainly not in direct sunlight). I do use a laptop screen for large portions of the day though, and don't find that it causes eye strain.
I would say that the low contrast of eInk displays that I've seen would give me cause for concern. I have no evidence to back this up!
As with most things, I suspect there's a fair element of user preference. I'd be perfectly happy with a good quality LCD, but I can understand why other people wouldn't.
I've used an iPod Touch as an e-reader for a while. I read in bed, so a backlit LCD is ideal. I'm short-sighted, so I can focus on it close up.
Maybe e-ink display are easy on the eyes in good lighting, I haven't tried them.
But I can say that an LCD works well too - I've read several books that way, including Anathem (1000 pages).
Maybe this all depends on the situation you read in - being far sighted would make a large screen desirable, reading in a chair means you can hold a larger, heavier device comfortably. Reading in daylight makes e-ink much better, reading in bed means that you don't want to hold a large, heavy device, etc.
Nice review, and I am sure its a lovely device, i have thought a couple of times that It would be nice to have a bigger screen on my iPhone for some of the apps i use, but (at the very least), £429 is just way too much to even consider spending on a new device that wouldn't replace any of the items that I currently have.
Maybe in a couple of generations time, and if the price comes down somewhat.
You did read the whole review didn't you?
Perhaps you missed the page where the reviewer laments the lack of iPlayer on the iPad until the beeb update their servers to recognise the iPad like they do for an iPhone / iPod touch and instead of Flash serve up H264 goodness.
Cant really blame the Beeb for this though.... the iPad wont be here officially until 28 May and if you were trying to access iPlayer from the US (no matter what machine you are using) you would find you were blocked anyway.
Even though I am a huge Apple fan, I have to admit this looks like device in need of a purpose. I know it'll be the usual Apple experience of excellent design and engineering but it seems to struggle to find a purpose. It's too dear to be ubiquitous and falls between the gap of being too bulky to augment the iPhone and not powerful enough to replace a computer. It does seem like an excellent way to browse the web from your armchair but I'm not sure if I want to pay £400 to find out. Besides, if Apple TV had Safari built in I'd much rather surf via the TV. I think Apple may have extended the iPod family too far, after the iPod the iPhone was a logical place to go; the iPad however seems more destined to be a niche device or something to impress your mates with.
£400 odd for a gadget you don't need? What are you, Luddites or something? This is a gadget forum, right? :-)
I don't *need* an iPod. I don't *need* a Kindle. I don't *need* a digital picture frame. I don't *need* a DSi. I don't *need* a portable video player. I don't *need* a spare Internet browser sitting on my coffee table for when visitors come round and I don't want them to snoop into my browsing history or emails on my laptop. But £429 for all that, and a glimpse of what the future will be like, really doesn't seem like a lot.
The review missed one of the coolest features, Google maps. Panning and zooming round maps and satellite photos on it is so quick and effortless it's really quite amazing.
What it's like at the following stuff I do routinely on my laptop:
1. Printing Web pages such as Boarding Passes?
2. Watching Xvid videos such as TV Shows I download?
3. Browsing images on my Camera's flash drive?
4. Downloading torrents and stuff from Rapidshare?
5. Playing 1st person shooters?
6. Reading PDFs I've downloaded?
7. Tag and delete MP3s.
And what's it like to manage your files - outline the steps you'd take to read a PDF book for example. Please don't suggest emailing it to myself. That's just plain retarded.
"6. Reading PDFs I've downloaded?"
That's my sole use for the device. I have a PDF library of just under 1500 journal articles. Stick Papers.app on there and it's the perfect PDF reader. Definitely worth £429 to me.
As for shooters and downloading torrents; since I'm an adult I don't play games and I have no interest in pirated material.
Man that was a cheap shot on the games and torrents. Yes that's right, only children play games and all torrents are illegal. Way to get your point across by insulting folk. Dinner must be such fun at your house.
Oh, and if your sole use for your iPad is reading PDFs you could have saved yourself £230 and a lot of battery-charging by getting an ebook reader. Somehow I suspect it's more than just a PDF reader to you though.
Paris cos, well, I hear she likes trinkets too.
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Sounds like you need a laptop then. Or, perish the thought, you're deliberately trying to be provocative. Now, I'm sure 'The Internet' has invented a term for that...
Me? I have a bunch of use cases for which the iPad is perfect. That's why I've ordered a 32GB 3G version (and another 20p for a sodding Orange SIM!). Can't wait for it to arrive.
Now all I need is for the Dodocase to be available in the UK without a $25 shipping fee.
Oh yes, laptop. Not iPad.
The point is you do all of this on your laptop and then put it onto the iPad for consuming.
3 - you can browse your camera's output using the optional SD & USB connectors.
5 - There must be some games in the app store that qualify. Unless you mean steal other people's games and play them on your device.
1. Price
2. Non-standard port(s) requiring nice pricey custom cables
3. Requirement for another computer in order to use this computer - just makes so much sense Steve. Would it be better if it were a Mac?
4. Control freakery.
Outside the house a netbook would be far more practical due to ease of getting stuff on and off of the device and the fact you can do what you want with it. Inside the house what do you really need it for that a netbook can't do (and also has more outside-the-home advantages)? Watch movies or TV?
This device really does seem to be a proxy for an "Are you a wanker survey?".
Er, that's a dock connector. Not a USB socket for a printer connection, mouse, keyboard or external storage. Nor is it a connector to, say, a video display device such as a monitor or TV.
So no, they don't come FREE.
Epic fail sir.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad
Read the "what's included" part.
1. apparently printing is coming. but why waste the paper? just take the iPad with you and they could scan the barcode straight off the email on the screen, surely?
2. get yourself Handbrake (or similar) to convert those individual xvid files in a directory somewhere on your hard-drive, then use an Automator script to tag them with all the ID3 tags you need and load them in iTunes where it'll group them all nicely by show and by season with funky mini covers to speed your browsing. set up iTunes to sync only the oldest unwatched ones and then, each time you hook up the iPad, it'll remove the ones you've watched and load new ones. if you watch them on your iPhone too, it'll keep track of which ones you've watched and to where each time you sync each device.
3. get the camera connection kit and you can either browse the flash card directly, or hook the camera up via usb and do it that way. import the images and they're ready to show off in a sildeshow within the Photo app, or build into a presentation with Keynote, drop into an email or letter you're writing in Pages, etc etc
4. i'll give you this one. the iPad is not a recommended piece of kit for freetards. at least, not unless you jailbreak it and install some 3rd party homebrew s/w. if you spent two seconds googling you'd find some. Torrentula is one. surely with the iPad's file storage being easier to access by different apps than it is on the iPhone it's only a matter of time before some piece of homebrew will get the torrent address, download and unrar the files for you and pass them to a media player.
5. Eliminate Pro is a pretty good multiplayer FPS. I hear NOVA is quite awesome too. there will be more on the way soon
6. you download them on your pc/laptop, you drop them into iTunes, and then the next time you hook up the iPad, it'll sync them over for you. it's not very complicated or difficult. if for some reason they won't display in the default ebook app, get something like Stanza for the iPad and that'll read anything. and it's exactly the same process to load the files onto it.
7. you tag mp3s and then you delete them? you have nothing else better to do with your day? surely you're best bet would be to leave a script running to do all that for you on your desktop/laptop while you are outside enjoy the summer weather with a portable tablet device, listening to your much-tagged mp3s or watching your pirated pr0n
anything else i can help you with?
I've got a laptop and there are things I can't do with that either, so what's the point of creating a list of things that the iPad was purposefully designed NOT to do?
If you want to do those things then an iPad is not for you. Let's put things a different way - my dad is 71 and doesn't do any of the things you listed - an iPad would suit him fine...
> I've got a laptop and there are things I can't do with that either,
> so what's the point of creating a list of things that the iPad was
> purposefully designed NOT to do?
...because those of us that aren't content to just blindly follow like sheep have poked and prodded this thing and discovered that it is just another Unix box. It's not even as limited as a Tivo. Get to the point where you can log in and an iThing is pretty mundane really. It looks a lot like MacOS under the covers. Getting a shell prompt on the thing isn't even terribly hard.
Easy doesn't have to mean castrated.
The closed nature of the iThing is self serving. It suits Apple's long term interests much more so than the end user.
Spirt is a nice jailbreaker that will unlock iphones and the ipad. This will let you install an ssh server and do desktop style file sharing with your phone or iThing. This will let you put things on the device at will and install things like VLC.
I've got a flash video file of the 1984 commercial that I put on my iPhone after I jailbroke it.
It may look like an appliance. It might try to be an appliance. But you can still write shell scripts on it.
They do have a very limited amount of memory. I've been lucky enough to be working with the devices for a few months and time and time again memory is a blocker.
We put a check in our app that reports free memory when the app starts up and after a couple of days use the devices only have about 16 megs of free memory.
The wow factor doesn't seem to be wearing off yet. When the device is actually yours and you can start customising it it becomes lovely. My wife - who is vehemently against me spending money on anything I might possibly enjoy - has even come round to the iPad now.
It's one of those things you have to hold and feel to get an idea how good it is.
There was me getting my order in at 0100 when the Apple website finally came up again on the 10th thinking that I'll get around to telling the missus later.
It was such a delight to discover that the credit card company anti-fraud dept had phoned her this morning to ask if the transaction with Apple was fraudulent... Yes dear; I'm buying it just for you;-)
Is it true that holding an iPad close to open wounds make them heal more quickly? Even so, I could buy a sh*t ton of bandages for the price of one.
As to the people who want to claim that the device has no specific purpose not achieved by existing devices, you are correct. So go get rid of your cell phones, laptops and Real Dolls.
A few colleagues at work have the iPad and really like it for a variety of reasons. It does seem though that there are a bunch of problems with the form factor and device:
1) Wi-fi - this is well known and may well get fixed. But just like the problems with the network on the iPhone it goes to show that Apple definitely have some quality problems that we should watch out for.
2) As an eBook reader it is definitely limited. Personally, I can't stand the idea of reading eBooks since I love the smell and feel of print. But problems as an eBook reader are primarily: way too heavy; and way too short a battery life. The friends of mine who have eBook readers all push the same points. When you are reading for a length of time, you want something you can hold easily in one hand without aching. You also want a device you can take on holiday for 2 weeks without recharging. We already have too many things that need recharging all the time whilst on holiday (phones, laptops, cameras, etc.) and each new device ends up needing a new power adapter for each country we are going to be in.
3) Multi-user. It has always struck me that this form factor should be perfect as a coffee-table device. Something you leave on the coffee-table and pick up to check e-mail, look things up on imdb, and other things. Unfortunately, unless everyone has their own device (which at £400-£600 is a bit expensive) there really isn't a multi-user capability. And I don't want someone else in the family picking up the device and seeing my e-mail. If someone gets this form factor out with a decent multi-tasking and multi-user OS then I think they will clean up. At the moment though, this device is flawed.
"Of course, Apple’s anti-Flash stance doesn’t seem to have harmed sales of the iPhone, but it’s a shame the company couldn’t come to a more grown-up compromise on this issue."
Adobe still haven't got Flash running reliably on either android or iphone.
Don't believe me? Read here:
http://jeffcroft.com/blog/2010/may/08/android-flash-demo-flashcamp-seattle/
"Then, he pulled up the same thing on his Nexus One. The site’s progress bar filled in and the 3D world appeared for a few seconds before the browser crashed. Ryan said (paraphrasing), “Whoops! Well, it’s beta, and this is an intense example — let’s try it again.” He tried it again and got the same result. So he said to the audience, “Well, this one isn’t going to work, but does anyone have a Flash site they’d like to see running?” Someone shouted out “Hulu.” Ryan said, “Hulu doesn’t work,” and then wrapped up his demo."
In truth, Jobs probably could have had a permissive stance on Flash without any "strategic" loss. It's likely that Adobe would have dropped the ball in the same manner it has dropped the ball on just about every other platform (and even Windows to some degree). Jobs really didn't have to be a jerk and a tyrant about the situation. Jobs is going above and beyond what's really necessary given the situation. He's playing his hand as a jerk and a tyrant when he doesn't really need to. This is a interesting parallel to Microsoft in the 80s and 90s.
"If only the Wi-Fi only iPad (left) both had the 3G model's wireless window"
Why? If it's cosmetics, I think it looks worse.
I've ordered a 3G, and I wish it *didn't* have the window doo-hickey - I'd have preferred the solid back, but I know that would interfere with the radio reception (but why does the wifi not need it?).
Also - when will Apple get a proper itunes "server" running? Being able to stream my itunes library to this natively would be a killer app for me (instead of having to sync a limited playlist); I'm resorting to uPnP which works but just isn't "polished".
@ Tom 38: Kudos - good laugh. +1.
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I can't work out if you're being serious or facetious. Isn't the joojoo the tablet that sold a grand total of 90 copies, of which 15 were returned by dissatified customers? (That's 90 TOTAL, not 90,000, or 900,000...). Weighs nearly twice as much and has nearly half the battery life and half the speed of the iPad. And costs exactly the same as the iPad anyway?
Wait for a wetab (was wepad until I expect Apple threw a hissy at them and they realised that the English name made it sound like something for incontinents).
I was showing the demo video to colleagues and one chap went "look, he's running that app in a window".
"Wow, a window on a display, that contains a single program and you can run other programs at the same time and interact with either just by selecting different windows. That's like something straight out of the "30 years ago" sort of future. It even does multi tasking and allows you to use standard USB devices.".
The point of these things became obvious when I read that a keyboard is to be released soon. Its a huge decent apple PDA with attachable keyboard. It will be popular among mobile proffesionals. Capable of doing what they need. Lightweight, always on...
They will sell them, but this wont be the best version. Im waiting for the one with a pico projector!
Poor Cliff.
80% for a device that is kickstarting the mobile computing space. Yeah genius, well done.
You will have to live with this article mate, bad move!
Flash won't be with us for long, haven't you heard?
Narrow minded, ignorant, short sighted review.
As for you ignorami and your comments, read your comments again in a year when you are all gagging for an iPad and all your richer better looking friends already own them. Fools.
I didn't think there was a problem with sales in the mobile computer market. I can only guess you've not heard of laptops and netbooks?
They come in every shape, size, colour and configuration you can think of, loads of OS choice with them too... Oh, and you don't need to dock them into anything to connect a keyboard, they come with one built in... How cool is that!
"I didn't think there was a problem with sales in the mobile computer market. I can only guess you've not heard of laptops and netbooks?"
When cars were invented, I'll bet you wrote:
I didn't think there was a problem with sales in the transport market. I can only guess you've never heard of horses or penny-farthings?
The point you're *really* missing is that the iPad is NOT supposed to be a replacement for a laptop or netbook. It's a whole new thing. My elderly parents can barely cope with keeping their windows laptop working properly. All they use it for is checking email and browsing the net. An iPad would solve the problem perfectly.
Oddly, my Asus eeepc running eeebuntu/Firefox won't let me "F11" to full screen on a page containing flash. I have to navigate to another tab, "F11", then back to the 'flash' tab. Maybe it's firefox, maybe it's a flash bug. Just a 'buggerism' rather than a nuisance.
But, your statement "As for you ignorami and your comments, read your comments again in a year when you are all gagging for an iPad and all your richer better looking friends already own them. Fools."
Gagging on a Jobsworth, I reckon...
-You'll get a Jobsworth real cheap on e-Bay soon, 'cos I reckon folks will shortly realise their true value. I.e., √FA.
"Narrow minded, ignorant, short sighted..."
Wow. The irony is positively delicious.
"As for you ignorami and your comments, read your comments again in a year when you are all gagging for an iPad and all your richer better looking friends already own them. Fools."
Troll on....
If you are a genuine fan of Apple, then this is hardly the evangelist way to go about it, slating everyone else for having a different - and therefore inferior - opinion to yours. Comments like this are the reason Apple's "Fanbois" get such a bad name.
Brilliant - you're actually serious!
Congratulations on being the first of the "I came to this review after it got linked in my favourite mactard forum and now I've descended from on high to let you all know how stupid you are" comments.
You are of course absolutely correct - we'll all be gagging for iPads once every braindead facebook junkie and their dog has one. We will look back and rue the day we ever posted these misguided comments mocking true disciples such as yourself. In fact I can feel myself turning already! Hallelujah! I might not even make it as far as clicking Submit. Gnnnn!
Oh no look, here we go... >CLICKETY< ...easier than I thought.
When did The Register start reviewing products based on what they might become in 12 months time? This seems to be a pretty fair assessment of a product based on what it is right now, in the reviewers hands. An expression of an opinion formed at the time.
Right now the internet is full of Flash, and yes, it does leave annoying holes in websites when you're browsing and cant see it. In 12, 24, 48, even 72 months time, we might not have flash all over the internet... but until then, making the point that the iPad doesnt support it seems perfectly valid.
80% seems fair. Good first impression but it doesnt do printing, doesnt do usb expansion, is a bit expensive and doesnt do flash. Hardly worthy of a near perfect score on a review is it.
"Right now the internet is full of Flash, and yes, it does leave annoying holes in websites when you're browsing and cant see it."
Really? I've got a plug in that blocks flash and I haven't missed it at all... Its absence hasn't annoyed me in the slightest, in fact it's better this way. Less data to download, pages load faster...
"In 12, 24, 48, even 72 months time, we might not have flash all over the internet... but until then, making the point that the iPad doesnt support it seems perfectly valid."
Umm, it doesn't support ActiveX either... oooo!
Yes it is.... and thats brilliant!
Anyone having trouble with that as a concept should go check out some of the ultra cool apps that exist in both iPod and iPad incarnations. Surely you can see how much more you can achieve with the extra screen real estate, drop down menu's, file system, etc....
Then there are apps which are just mouth wateringly delicious... Check out something like Korg's iElectribe or Looptastic HD
There are real world apps out there that will use the iPads main strength... it does not have a keyboard and can be used like an instrument... try doing that with a netbook!
I won't go into the well-trodden politics of why, but even you have to admit that at end the end of the day, the legitimate users of torrent is heavy outnumbered (or "out-publicised") by the "illegitimate", whether you want to believe that or not. So his argument has some basis.
Perhaps naive, rather than a bigot or muppet per-se.
And no, I'm not the original AC poster.
While I've never used one of these (nor am I ever likely to in it's current incarnation), what I believe is the most attractive feature is it's near instant-on time.
However, I have a netbook that gets me to a desktop in about 6 seconds from POST (and I'm not talking windoze here <wink>) So that's the computer I use on the crapper or in bed. Woohooo I have a keyboard ;)
Apart from that I can't think of anything positive to say about it, hobbled the way it is software wise.
Different strokes for different folks.
Seriously - APT-X is going to mean that the iPad or similar Android devices will be huge. Simply, this is CD quality streaming over Bluetooth.
So you're on your sofa with your iPad - and sending the music (and video?) to your HiFi/AV system. Or you can send it to a bedroom set up.
Think of it as a more flexible Chronos type system without the lock-in.
What is it with all you people having the same debates you had before the product was actually available for people to play with? People have played with it. People like it. People have bought it. These people have found a use for it. if you cant find a use for something like this then dont buy one, but dont go thrusting your opinion down their throat because they did.
As for the product being flawed... of course it is. What right minded organisation would launch a perfect-in-every-conceivable-way product on day 1? You launch something you think the target market(s) will want to buy and you hike up the price to skim the cream out of the market, then before you have to start lowering the price you launch a minor upgrade and skim the market again with high prices - allowing the price of the first version to fall very slightly to skim those who couldnt afford it in the first place. You repeat again and again until you reach a saturation point.
I'm no marketing executive for a multinational technology company, but even i can see this is just common sense business.
"As for the product being flawed... of course it is. What right minded organisation would launch a perfect-in-every-conceivable-way product on day 1?"
Isn't it obvious? The answer is Microsoft. Their software never has any flaws at the inital release and we never see customers waiting until Service Pack 1 (or even 2) before buying and installing their crap, sorry, I mean "software".
I have said almost exactly the same time and again, but people still seem to think that the first generation of something is always made to the *best* possible technical specification.
Those "chaps" at infinidim were along the right lines,
(to paraphrase) 'we don't print millions of copies and sell them once, we sell one copy millions of times'
Apple actually advises users that when the iPad is connected over USB the batteries might drain rather than charge. Guess the iPad consumes more power than USB can deliver; the device probably has to be off to charge when connected thusly. Also found over USB my iPad 3G does not charge above 93%, but does reach 100% on AC. And great reception over WiFi, only once did it loose my password when switching back to my home network; pasted it in again and all has been good so far.
Bluetooth works quite well too, even 24k AAC streams sound fine over an Altec Lansing headset. And even with all radios enabled, I reckon I've been getting over twelve hours use on a full charge (while generally keeping the screen brightness on the lowest setting, which for me is still a little too bright for reading in the dark.)
Only thing that does not thrill me so far is the implementation of Safari. With so little RAM, it seems there is no caching, so pages have to reload when switching between windows. Not too bad over a decent WiFi connection, but lugubrious over 3G. Very unlike the experience in Safari proper, where switching between tabs is just about instant.
Otherwise performance on this thing is incredibly swift, I can browse through photos and enter/exit slide shows with no time lag at all. There is even a Google app that responds to spoken search queries with alarming accuracy and the Maps app has already saved my hide when biking through the boondocks. Not to mention iTeleport...
If my HTC Desire is charing over usb and has the screen brightness cranked up, 3G and GPS running and various other bits and pieces on the go it will run the battery down rather than charge it up... and thats only a 3.7" screen being powered along with a 1ghz cpu. I wouldnt expect an ipad to do its thing and still charge over usb, since the power provided by usb is only about half what you can get through the mains, if that.
Glad you are enjoying your iPad. But in terms of mobile navigation, wouldn't an iPhone be a better bet? Much smaller and easier to carry. That's what I don't get about the iPad - It's not a great netbook / laptop replacement or a great iPhone replacement. It seems to carry several of the limitations of each of those devices in one package. I know that Apple are spinning this as a third way, but at the moment, I'm afraid I just don't get it.
Though I do agree. Google maps has been very useful when I'm out and about and slightly lost. But Google maps is available on a lot of other platforms (not least the iPhone). The only thing I found more useful was ovi maps... simply because I could install the map files for France before leaving the UK and avoid the obscene international data rates... but I digress...
AT&T offers a no-contract plan for only $29.99/mo with no cap, whereas an iPhone requires a two-year contract at over $80/mo, after taxes. As I don't need the phone service, an iPhone would not really pay for me. Plus I find the screen just too annoyingly small for accomplishing anything that takes over five minutes of my time. iPad apps really take advantage of that extra screen real estate: With iTeleport I can see my Mac's desktop fullscreen and exercise all my custom-tailored keyboard controls; using Maps I can plan my entire route, not just a leg of a journey. Yes of course an iPad is not as portable as a phone (in the front basket of my touring bike that is no big deal) but it is certainly much lighter than a laptop and with the 3G included for me the purchase was a no brainer, there is absolutely no other device like it on the market right now.
Hitched a ride back down to the city with my upstate neighbors and along the way played for them a slide show of nature pics I had taken with my Motorola ZN5. They were just wowed by the quality of the display, the seamless playback, and how easy it was to hold and operate from the front seat. Now they are going to get one too.
"read your comments again in a year when you are all gagging for an iPad and all your richer better looking friends already own them"
How sad to have to be looking at "richer better looking friends" to decide whether you want to buy something.
You, sir/madam, are a marketing person's wet dream (in a commercial, not sexual manner).
'Must have shiny thing like all the cool kids' - you deserve to be yourself, sad little trend-follower.
This score seems a little high for a device that apparently has a serious problem with Wi-Fi. What sort of a score would any Netbook, or perhaps even another tablet get if the Wi-Fi kept dropping out. This is un-heard of surely? . . What is this without an reliable internet connection?
I do pick up on the comment earlier about there being no concept of "multi-user" rendering it useless for me . .
I like the look of the ipad. Not for me perhaps but being a reader of the reg and generally trusting the reviews, I feel this review is steeped in "fanboi" propaganda
Flame away!
Well I've got one comment accusing me of ignorantly slating the device and only giving it 80%, while another accuses me of 'fanboi propaganda' and scoring too leniently....
In truth, the wifi isn't a complete disaster - as I state in the review the wifi reception did pick up a bit during the initial testing period. However, the 80% score does reflect the wifi problems, as well as the high price.
Oh, and Mr Anonymous Coward - I'm happy to stand by my review and have my name on it. Unlike you.
"Like any 1.0 product, the iPad has its rough edges, the worst being the erratic Wi-Fi reception."
WTF? The iPad is an oversized iTouch. It doesn't get the right to claim v1.0 bugginess. Then again, most i*d products have had "spotty" WiFi out of the gate anyway (and some still suffer). But yes, I agree the score's a bit high considering price and limitations.
While Apple is getting some stick here in Australia about the iPad pricing, I actually don't see what the issue is. The local iPad pricing is pretty much a straight currency conversion of the US price with the local taxes applied.
The iPhone on the hand is a complete rip off, but nothing is ever said about it.
This pricing disparity has resulted in the price for a 3G iPad being about the same as the "outright" (ie w/o a cellco contract) price for an iPhone 3GS (even with a 24 month contract you pay around twice the US price) .
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