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back to article A multitasking iPad? Let's bin the netbook

It hasn't taken long for the iPad to be seen as a bit more than a pointless and expensive luxury lifestyle accessory. Just nine weeks - and in that time the hardware spec hasn't changed at all. But last week's iPhone 4.0 preview, which isn't due on the iPad until autumn, already makes it look much more attractive as a netbook …

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    1. Prag Fest
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Right on

      Another thing with your Focus, until it has the ability to do London - New york transatlantic in just over 8 hours, there is no way I would ever even consider getting one. I mean why the hell would I want one when I could just as easy jump on a BA flight that does the same thing??

      I would sooner build my own car from a Skoda chassis with rubber tubing and scrap parts, which would allow me to bolt on the wings / engine of my own choice. I could do this for much less money, without having to pay the FORD TAX just for something that looks nice.

      It's that typical holier than though Ford attitude that winds me up, telling me they think they know better. Who are THEY to tell ME how MY car CAN and CANT be used??!!

      God I'm bored.

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      1. M Gale
        Reply Icon

        Skoda stopped being shit a long time ago

        ...just so you know.

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      2. Wizard of Oz
        Reply Icon
        Thumb Down

        Pathetic comparison...Pah!

        I don't see how comparing a one off flight that is cheaper than a car is anywhere near the same as comparing 2 computing devices.

        And the previous post about the Ford comparison. I highly doubt you could spend the same amount as you did on your crappy Ford as on a car that would win the rally. But you CAN buy a computing device for the same price as an iPad that has all of the "rally" features. It then comes down to your skill.

        A better comparison is to compare two Fords, one that has a pretty look (slick paintjob) but you can't mod it without Ford approving it - versus one that comes out of the factory that doesn't look as pretty, but has stacks of features (power windows, heated seats etc), and you can continue to add a HUGE range of further features any time you like without. Is it vanity, or practicality? You obviously prefer vanity.

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  2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    The Holy Jobsian Tea Tray

    Apple could have considered the way Motion Computing solved this with their line of PC slates: http://www.motioncomputing.co.uk/choose/spec_mobilekeybd_J34.htm.

    It's a case that holds the slate and a separate keyboard. It folds in such a way as to turn your slate and keyboard into a laptop. I've never played with one, but it shouldn't be beyond the wit of man to make a perfectly acceptable working setup with this.

    However, I really don't think this is the market Apple are going for. Like the original iPhone, I don't think it's business users they're aiming at, and I don't think they're trying to replace the netbook. Whether the iPad will evolve into a netbook-beater I don't know, but then the main problem with netbooks is speed and battery life, and I'm sure the speed issue is solving itself with better Atom chips. Or NVIDIAs Tegra 2 perhaps? And at least you can carry a spare battery.

    I think Apple want their MacBook buyers to keep on buying. The iPad is an extra for the sofa and the train, not replacement. The netbook, as used by techies, may be fulfilling the same job of web/media consumption and light emailing, but I think the netbook as used by non-geeks (as a cheap laptop) does things the iPad can't, or won't.

    I don't see St Steve adding USB support, or loosening up Apple's control. While I've got gripes with the way Apple run things, I do think that what's going to make the iPad good is simplicity, speed, battery life and weight. The cost of that is limited functionality. I'm not sure if that's an acceptable excuse for dropping USB, or Flash, but there doesn't seem to be another hardware company with the desire to do nice software, so I guess my cash is heading towards Apple.

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  3. Ant Evans
    Paris Hilton

    heart breaker

    The deal breaker is I want to manage the computer, not be managed by the computer.

    The same goes for the IS department. Although the iPad should do okay in media, where the service acceptance criteria have more to do with the subtle interplay of shininess and exec ego.

    ,Can we have a 'dig' icon?

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    1. uhuznaa
      Reply Icon
      WTF?

      Managing an appliance? Why?

      You might want to manage such an appliance, others just want to use the thing and not manage it.

      Personally I very much like the iPad, but there are a few things that really suck about it. For me this is the fact that it still needs to be wired to a host computer (for syncing, updating, printing) and the totally crazy inability to get files on and off it without going through a nightmare of iTunes or individual apps with computer-side server apps and Internet based services, which still lead to every file you get being imprisoned in that very app. This isn't user-friendly, it's raving madness.

      You use dropbox to get a file from your PC/Mac and then you want to upload it into a web form with Safari and you can't get at the fscking file which is on your device *and* out in the cloud! You feel like being served a tasty soup with one hand tied behind your back and a fork in the other hand. Smells good but how do you eat it? And there is no indication that this will change with OS 4.0 which will arrive in half a year on the iPad. No, thanks. I had some hope that with that giant datacenter and the shared folder support in the 3.2 betas all this would change but it didn't. No trace of shared folder support in 3.2 and 4.0 beta. Vaporized.

      I think this is the first time I will *not* get an Apple device for the reason of it being user-unfriendly. As Einstein said: "Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler". This thing is just too simple.

      I love the idea but hate the implementation.

      And I still don't want to manage my appliances.

      2 1
      1. M Gale
        Reply Icon

        A toaster is an appliance..

        ..and yet, most toasters come with configurable options. You can decide how brown you would like your toast. More advanced toasters will take many sizes of bread, right up to self-baked, self-sliced doorsteps; the ultimate in home-brew. If the fuse goes pop, you can usually unscrew the plug (or flip the flap underneath if it's a crappy moulded thing) and fit a new fuse. You're not limited to what type of bread you put in, nor what manufacturer it comes from. You can even get third-party add-ons (ever hear of "toaster bags"?) that allow you to make things like cheese toasties, without getting an awful mess on the crumb tray.

        Another appliance is a fridge freezer. Did you know a lot of fridges allow you to configure how much power they use? Many allow you to take the shelving out and reorganise it as you, rather than the manufacturer, wishes. Hell, if you don't want that whacking great meat drawer at the bottom taking up space, there's nothing in the EULA saying you have to have it there. You don't get Hoover or Smeg saying that you can only freeze approved water in the icecube maker, and I don't think they'd be too bothered if you used it to freeze non-food items.

        If you don't care what your toast comes out looking like, and just simply plug the thing in, bung some bread in and depress the lever then good for you. Same if you're happy with the fridge shelves as they are. Some of us, however, would rather be able to manage our "appliances", especially when those appliances are computers, being sold as computers (sorry, "new computing paradigms"), with all of the configurability that this implies.

        Trying to make this as not-a-flame as I can, but.. dammit, the "appliance" argument is a really shitty excuse to let Apple get away with selling locked-down crap.

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  4. Michael C
    Paris Hilton

    YOYOYOYOYOO

    HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am very opinionated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My iPad deal breakers

    1. No Flash [video]

    Like it or not, HTML5 is far from [ever] becoming the standard for delivering video. If I can't watch movie clips on the likes of the BBC, LoveFilm, etc. then the iPad is no more useful to me than my iPhone - which is eminently more portable. This brings me on to...

    2. I already have an iPhone

    To me, this covers the "middle device" ground, as it's so much better for my uses than previous smartphones. The only thing the iPad has over the iPhone is screen size (and speed). With a double-tap, I can largely overcome this hurdle when I'm reading TheReg or BBC News. If the iPhone won't suffice, I'd go to my laptop, desktop or HTPC.

    3. No front-facing camera

    Not a full deal-breaker, but a glaring omission. Video-conferencing is such as obvious app for a device like this, it seemed like a no-brainer.

    I agree with Andrew: I've never been sold on netbooks, but the iPad seems like an answer without a question. So why do I still want one so much...?! ;-)

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  6. Eddy Ito

    Nice to see

    Apple actually responding to valid criticism. Let's face it, iPOS4 is a response to everyone basically saying, "nice toy too bad it doesn't multitask but at least we don't have to change game cartridges".

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  7. P. Lee
    Linux

    what it isn't

    Is anyone else tired of people saying they don't like these devices because they can't do xyz on them?

    *sigh* It isn't a desktop, laptop or netbook, it never was and never will be. Yes you could probably code up Enterprise java beans on a classic atom linux netbook, but would you really want to? (don't answer that - I know someone out there wants to). In fact, what would be ideal for use on a 10" screen?

    Well you could browse xkcd, do the odd email. Read stuff (if it was comfortable to hold at a reasonable distance). It would be a great universal remote control if it was instant-on. You could play the odd silly game or music, check the weather forecast, order cinema tickets, check directions to the restaurant for this evening or see if that gadget is cheaper on ebay.

    In short, its an information access device, not a high-power computational device in its own right.

    Apple aren't pushing it as a laptop replacement, so why does everyone want it to be one? I suspect because many people don't want to spend that much cash on something so limited when a little more can get you so much more cpu/memory/freedom. But Apple know that the apps are king and are selling a way to run AppStore apps on a different form-factor. If you don't want the apps, don't get the device.

    It's a classic problem - it has a screen, does email,web-browsing etc so people expect a normal computer. That isn't it. That's is why Apple have made such big inroads into mobile phones but less so on the desktop. People didn't have the "oh but I want to to do xyz that I normally do" attitude to phones because they were all awful and definitely not computers. Apple have tried to avoid this on the ipad by changing the form-factor away from a "normal computer" to a "large phone" to reset expectations.

    Me? I"m hoping for a really good android tablet. Or at least waiting for IPad v2. No skype with webcam is a deal-breaker. for me.

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    1. Adam Williamson 1
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Down

      Why?

      P. Lee - you seem to have missed what the post asked, which is 'why aren't you buying an iPad?' For a lot of people, the answer to that is 'it doesn't do what I want it to', which is a perfectly legitimate comment on this thread.

      And yes, people do things with netbooks that you couldn't comfortably do with an iPad. I did my job for a month (I'm a QA engineer for Fedora) on a Vaio P. Definitely couldn't manage that on an iPad. It wasn't a gigantic amount of fun, but it worked.

      Perhaps the underlying point here that's assumed but not spoken is that none of these people _want_ "an information access device" (or don't want _another_ one, finding their phone perfectly adequate).

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      1. whiteafrican
        Reply Icon
        Thumb Down

        @ P. Lee

        "Apple aren't pushing it as a laptop replacement, so why does everyone want it to be one?"

        That is a very good question. But here's the problem: I want one device that goes with me everywhere and keeps me connected, plays music and has some games etc. That'll be a phone. I also want one device that has a bit more power and can run more complex programs/games and that I can do work on when I'm away from the office and runs Word/Excel/Visio/Photoshop/Dreamweaver. That'll be a laptop (or, in my case, an HP tc1100 tablet). The problem is that the iPad doesn't meet either of these needs.

        Now the fanbois will leap up and shout "Not everyone has those needs!" and that's true - but most people need a proper computer some of the time. 90% of the time, the iPad can probably do what you want to do, but as you point out, it's not a complete replacement for a real computer with a full-fat OS. Consequently, for many of us, the iPad is (and has to be) a third device. It must be something we buy after we have bought a phone and a computer.

        Personally, if & when I buy new hardware, I'd rather spend my cash on two really good devices than on three mediocre ones.

        (Before the fanbois start with the flames, let me point out I'm an equal opportunities hater on this point - in my view, the Joojoo, or a tablet running Android or the apparently anticipated Chrome OS would suffer from the same problem.)

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      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        re: Why?

        But P. Lee has hit the nail on the head by pointing out that many examples of what is being cited a as dealbreaker, are features that were never going to appear on a consumer device like the IPad. It isn't being touted as a laptop replacement, but many people persist in judging it as one.

        The question' why aren't you buying an iPad?' is more likely to generate reader feedback (a safe bet if you look at the other stories), rather explain the iPad's limitations (which are pretty much a no-brainer).

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Troll

      Wait what

      If you read the last paragraph directly after the first you find an amazing contradiction.

      "Is anyone else tired of people saying they don't like these devices because they can't do xyz on them?"

      Then

      "I can't do xyz so DEALBREAKER"

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  8. Adam T

    It'll never be as good as a...

    Big Track

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  9. ThomH

    I'll probably be responsible for a few sales

    As I absolutely intend to recommend it to my mother, father, everyone else who basically doesn't understand or doesn't care what an OS is at a technical level. I may even get one for myself, being ever more a member of the "doesn't care" group.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      I can't quite get there

      My mother would love to be able to share her digital photos with her friends on something bigger than the screen on the back of the camera. But somehow, a $500 dollar device for displaying photos taken on a $100 camera doesn't quite make sense. Not to mention the fact that she'd have a bit of a job getting them onto the iPad in the first place, as it doesn't have an SD slot. Unless she drove home, copied them over to the desktop at home, imported them into iTunes (shudder) and then drove back to where her friends are.

      Nope, I don't think that'll work, somehow.

      My Dad does a bit of e-mail,. looks up the occasional website, has the occasional webchat with his grand children, and scan's boxes of photos and slides taken in the 50's and 60's so that he can make DVDs to give to his old friends. He doesn't care what an OS is at any level, but I'm pretty sure that he'd be extremely unimpressed with an iPad.

      I'm still waiting for a decent Android pad for $200.

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      1. ThomH
        Reply Icon

        There's an SD card reader coming...

        though obviously it pushes you ever further from your ideal $200. And, being Apple, I expect it won't work exactly the way you want it to.

        Probably I should have said: pretty much my mother uses her computer for email, web browsing and listening to podcasts (no, really). She does sometimes email out, but much less often than she receives email in.

        Her actual laptop suffers from the same maladies as most computers run by ordinary, normal people; it gets a tiny little bit slower every few months as the OS and most of the built-in software automatically updates itself and dramatically slower about once a year when the anti-virus software updates itself. In this context, Apple's approach is actually a benefit: it's a fixed hardware platform so new versions of all software are explicitly tailored to the device she is holding rather than an ever-shifting notional average machine and Apple's micromanagement of permitted software saves her from the anti-virus vendor school of software sales that involves trading on fear and misinformation and coming up with ever more inventive ways to shove slow, bloated junk deep into your OS, whichever one it is.

        I really think this thing's going to be a hit with the casual audience.

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      2. M Gale
        Reply Icon

        Always Innovating's Touchbook

        $400 with the keyboard, and runs Android. $300 without, though personally I'll stump up the extra $100 and get the keyboard even if it is US-layout. Nothing like a little sticky-back paper and some ingenuity to get a £ sign where there wasn't one previously and put the double-quote and @ symbols where I'm used to.

        Oh, and it has USB ports. Three internally. I know it's a bit more than the $200 you're asking for but, Android pads and netbooks do exist, and they've been around for longer than the fruit company's "new computing paradigm".

        As for why I won't buy an ipad.. well, "new computing paradigm" just about sums it up. Over-hyped, over-priced, under-powered and full of crap. It could have been so much more but it's a toy, with a touch screen. I already have a Nintendo DS, thankyouverymuch.

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  10. Peter Bond
    Thumb Down

    Wait until the end of the year

    and something like ICD's Gemini will be widely available running Android and having an SD card slot, telephony, a longer battery life due to its Tegra 2 platform, WiFi and 3G and all for around £200 or on contract from the likes of T-Mobile for £15pcm. I still won't need one because I simply don't have the need for a gadget that sits between my HTC Desire which I always carry with me and my Inspiron 11z, which I carry when I need a real computer, but at the price I'll treat myself to one as a cool toy.

    The iPhone sells because it is a very good phone and we all need phones but I doubt more than a fraction of the population of this or any other country - the self appointed urban tech elite aside - feel the need for a "pad" of any size shape or form.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Well, you can't have been carrying.....

      ....that Desire around all the time for very long, but I quite understand why you do. The missus had just got one, and it's really excellent.

      As for the iPhone, I don't think you can call it a "very good phone". The phone aspect, particularly the receiver sensitivity, is not that good but of course it does all the other things it's intended for rather well.

      The Gemini sounds interesting, will have to keep an eye on that.....

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nice for academics and researchers

    I have just shy of 1500 journal articles on my machine at work. The iPad, in combination with Papers.app, makes a fantastic pdf viewer. As someone with no interest in gaming, or movies, or 'social media' is that worth $500 to me? I'd say yes.

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    1. Marcus Aurelius
      Reply Icon
      Pirate

      Academics and Researchers.

      could do all their journal reading on something like a Kindle, with longer battery life.

      (Unless of course, you confess that academics do watch movies and play games occassionally)

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Kindle?

        Is Papers.app available for the Kindle?

        That's the USP. Literature management, PubMed integration and superb PDF display. Plus the bigger screen on the iPad, of course.

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  12. Adam Williamson 1

    Too big

    I'm surprised no-one else has said this yet, but for me it's pretty simple: the thing's too big. 9" screen with a 2" bezel? It's bigger, in two dimensions (which is what matters when stuffing it in a bag), than many netbooks. Duh-whee?

    If it were about the size of my Sony Reader, and hence baggable without a second thought and pocketable in a pinch, it'd be a lot more attractive. I still wouldn't buy one for many of the reasons listed above, but hey, it'd be closer. Right now it's a bit of a head-scratcher. For the uses they claim it's intended to cover, something too big to stuff in a pocket and hold comfortably with one hand (but which also doesn't sit very usefully on a flat surface...) seems a bit off.

    (I just bought a SmartQ V7 to tinker with, instead, which is pretty much the anti-iPad).

    1 1
    1. Wibble
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      Quarter-sized iPad

      If you want smaller, get an iPhone. Does everything an iPad does and more. Just much smaller.

      An iPad isn't the same thing as an e-book reader a-la Kindle or Sony thingie. It's got a much better screen for one thing. Proper browser; network connectivity; plays video; colour... Nope, can't see anything remotely similar between them.

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  13. StaudN
    FAIL

    deal-breaker for me?...

    it starts with "i". Hahaha

    3 3
  14. bexley
    FAIL

    use linux on your netbook

    I've been running ubuntu on my netbook for 6 months, i sold my laptop and dont use my desktop anymore.

    I have compiz and all thge swishy desktop effects on, dock, multiple desktops, edge task switcher, 3d cube, all of it.

    I can play older games (GTA 4 and quake 3 etc...) i can run any app i like on it, full office suite, programming. Netbooks are not handicapped in anyway and the media's constant insistence that you cant do some crucilal things on netbooks is just wrong.

    i have an advent 4213 with 2GB ram and a 1.6ghz atom. I am a multimedia user,i watch movies, listen to music, write letters, edit photo's, encode video, print, webcam, media card reader, 3 usb ports, 3G modem, wifi, lan.

    As an engineer and hardened pc user i simply dont need anything else now i have this netbook.

    If you want to, for £100 you can buy a touch screen monitor for your netbook and fit it yourself, it's only a 4 or 5 screws away on mine. Install the touch screen drivers for ubuntu and there you go. Why you would want to do that fails me but i guess the cravat wearing coffee shop dwellers and those twats that sit on the bus glued to their iphones might like to.

    7 1
    1. Prag Fest
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      great idea

      If you want to, for £10, you can buy the materials to make your own trainers. Bit of glue and some felt tip pens and voila! A pair of Air Jordans!

      4 8
      1. Martin Owens
        Reply Icon

        Title

        If only Air Jordens were open source hardware, then you could get your CNC machine to make you up a pair.

        since their not and you can't, your analogy is dumb.

        3 3
        1. Ivan Headache
          Reply Icon

          irony's

          not your strong point then Martin?

          1 1
      2. A J Stiles
        Reply Icon
        Stop

        Some people really do

        You may scoff, but I remember my mother making all mine and my sister's clothes on a sewing machine she bought second-hand, after my dad field-stripped the motor and gave it new brushes.

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  15. John A Blackley

    Not about deal breakers

    The question I'd want to ask is not "What are the deal breakers?" but rather, "What can it do (that I'd want to do) that a laptop/netbook/brain at a similar price can't?"

    So it's smaller? BFD.

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  16. Joe Harrison

    Try O2 "Joggler"?

    While you're waiting for iPad wars to cool down give O2's "Joggler" a try. Beautiful beautiful hardware; before making your list of its software "deal-breakers" remember we are only talking £49.99 here which is an absolute steal

    http://shop.o2.co.uk/joggler

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    1. A J Stiles
      Reply Icon

      And Joggler is eminently hackable

      And the O2 Joggler is also eminently hackable:

      http://hackthejoggler.blogspot.com/

      I think I might get one.

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  17. Si 1
    Jobs Horns

    Still not a netbook competitor

    Multitasking won't go anywhere towards making the iPad a proper netbook rival. There's far too many points against it. For starters at 10" it's roughly the same footprint as a netbook, even if it's thinner. However a netbook has a keyboard, can run a browser with Flash, has loads more storage, has the freedom to run any app you want, has a built-in webcam, and isn't restricted to the audio and video codes Apple approve.

    Then there's the non-16:9 ratio screen on the iPad which means HD content gets squashed down to sub-HD resolutions or the sides get cut off if you want to keep the vertical resolution. All new netbooks have 1366x768 screens that will run 720p content perfectly.

    Why pay more for an iPad when you can get a netbook for less and do much more with it?

    I love my iPhone, but I think the iPad is a very shiny, very pretty chocolate teapot.

    6 2
    1. Solomon Grundy
      Reply Icon
      Badgers

      Yep

      I agree completely. My netbook isn't perfect but it is a solid business tool with far more robust capabilities than the iPad.

      2 1
  18. Rogerborg

    So, now it's only hardware-crippled

    Tell you what, you buy yourself an iPad and a keyboard, then wait for Apple to make it usable. Meanwhile, I'll spend the same money on an EEE PC, slap Ubuntu on it and start enjoying it today. Plus one for the wife. And another for the kids. And when my Windows refunds come in, I'll buy one for the dog too.

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  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "What are your deal breakers?"

    Sorry to tread old ground but:

    a) Lack of Flash & Java. I can understand Apple banning these features, but users should have the option of adding them without jailbreaking.

    b) Form factor. It's all about portability of course, but this is a bit too big to carry on a casual basis. If it was pocket sized, it would make a great replacement for my Gen1 iPod Touch. 5" iPad Nano anyone?

    c) Lack of USB and built-in SD slots. There are times when I need to port data or files from my USB stick into a larger drive. I hate having a collection of adapters that I can misplace or lose.

    d) Micro SIM card. Now, really, was it necessary to go this route?

    e) iAds. It depends on how that is implemented of course.

    f) No camera. Perhaps it will appear as part of the usual annual upgrade.

    Horses for courses. The iPad, in its current implementation, doesn't work for me. Hope it works for you.

    3 1
  20. Dan 10

    Wrong Question

    I think the author has asked the wrong question. The iPad itself isn't the deal-maker/breaker - it's the apps. Look. All Apple have done is look at the app store and go 'sheesh, these iphone/ipod touch devs have written all sorts of stuff which we didn't anticipate - everything from novelty crap to remote clients, graphics apps, you name it. And hey, the users are lapping it up! Hang on, what's the key hindrance to further innovation? Oh, right, that diddly little screen. What if we made a bigger one?"

    So, the better question would be "What apps would make you buy this thing?"

    And yes, I well appreciate that the appstore approval rules are on the overzealous side, but this is actually 1 problem, with the solution having 2 different consequences - having an approval process and strict resource usage rules etc is partly the reason that the iPhone/iPad OS is yet to be exploited. Clearly, the modest-powered hardware also necessitates efficient use of resources, which would go out of the window if they simply let anyone install whatever they wanted without any vetting. The fact that useful stuff which just happens to disrupt Apple's business model is also rejected is merely a casualty. The question is whether you are willing to accept that casualty.

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  21. A B 3

    In the old days...

    10 years ago I would have loved it. But everything is gimped now. Either so they can sell you a slightly less gimped device in a year or to save on tech support calls. I'll wait till a chinese company makes a clone that you can put any software you want on it and also includes 3 USB3 plugs on it.

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  22. tgm

    deal breakers

    The form factor.

    It's good for movies yeah? So I hear - but spending 2.5 hours with my arms in front of me like a I'm driving a car doesn't sound like fun. I only have two hands and I want them BOTH available whilst I'm watching a film (to eat/drink/smoke/masturbate).

    Touch screens are great for small and large devices - small devices like a phone, large devices like a blackboard or screen for presentations.

    When I first saw the iPad, I thought it looked rubbish because the plastic surround was so big - then I realised, "how else can you hold it with one hand?!".

    The only thing I'd want this device for, is an e-reader, and my Kindle does a better job. I can turn the pages with one hand, the battery lasts for months at a time, I don't have an annual contract and can use it anywhere in the world with cell phone reception, it's easy to read, works great outside in sunlight, and I get my newpapers delivered to it every morning. It doesn't have nice page-turn animations like in the iPad advert (the guy turns 10 pages in 2 seconds...who really does that!?), but in reality I don't care about how "realistic" the page turn animations are - page turning is less than 1% of a reading experience. The rest is, well, reading!

    It may very well work for games - although I have my money on Project Natal at the moment for that....

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  23. Rob Burke

    Looks nice and a pleasure to use

    But so is my iPhone... if I'm paying that much for a device, think I'd rather wait for the HP Slate and pay a similar price for a similar device, but with flash support (I like the thought of being able to watch streaming episodes of 24 and southpark rather than buying this stuff from itunes), and also a two way cam so using skype will be fun. There's two features you know wont be available in iThings OS 5.

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  24. bexley

    why is the register the only forum that wont let you post without a title

    so the verdict is that it's crap and is likely to remain crap for the next few years until apple give in and give people what they want such as happened with the iphone.

    The author clearly has not put much time into using netbooks.

    The only people that will buy this pos are the apple fanatics that will buy anything that apple make regardless of if it's any good or not.

    I accept that most of the readership here are IT professionals of sorts and will lean towards functionality, interoperability and supportability everytime so perhaps not the best place to publish an article pitching the ipad against netbooks - which are just smaller, more efficient laptops with no limitations once you get used to typing on a smaller keyboard.

    1 2
  25. Will 12

    I have an iPad

    and in my leisure time, the laptop rarely gets a look in.

    1 0
  26. Grubby
    Thumb Down

    Multi Task... umm... yay?

    I couldn't think of a use for it, now I have to think of 2!?

    0 0

  27. This post has been deleted by its author

  28. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    New title: The iPad will become usable - in six months time.

    New title: The iPad will become usable - in six months time.

    This isn't shipping for six months, and yet it's suddenly made the iPad usable? WTF?!?

    When did vapourware ever make anything usable?!?

    1 1
  29. Daf L

    Look at it objectively

    Whether you love it or hate it try this simple exercise...

    Imagine this exact same tablet, identical in every way except one. It has been designed by a Chinese company called ShouCorp and named the HaoYun-8. The quality of the components and the machine is not in question.

    You look at the specs and it doesn't have a USB port but you can buy some ShouCorp adapters. It uses a non-standard SIM card so you can't pop your own in there. There is few networking capabilities and there is no simple way to upgrade the storage. The company also seems intent on telling you that you don't need or want a lot of the features you say you do because they decide it is best for you.

    So would you really go out and buy the HaoYun and be defending it to everyone?

    Are you really trying to convince yourself that the iPad is a great (magical?) device because Apple made it... so it must be...right?

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