How is Ipad not considered "a computer"??

No question, the IPad is a computer that has been engineered to fill a niche and it does that very well.

Sure, you can say iPad is a computer, just not a full function computer. But so is this ...

In technical terms, of course it's a computer.

So is your car (at least part of it), so's your microwave (at least part of it).

The iPad is not a computer in the traditional sense because it's designed to do specific things, just as your microwave does specific things. You aren't going to install Photoshop on your microwave. The iPad is less limited than that, but it's clearly limited in ways that are tied to the way it's conceived.

The Apple TV is similar - clinically a computer, but in practice, an appliance.

wombat888 said:

In technical terms, of course it's a computer.

So is your car (at least part of it), so's your microwave (at least part of it).

The iPad is not a computer in the traditional sense because it's designed to do specific things, just as your microwave does specific things. You aren't going to install Photoshop on your microwave. The iPad is less limited than that, but it's clearly limited in ways that are tied to the way it's conceived.

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People who say this must not have seen what can be done with jailbroken iPhones -- you can do almost anything you'd do with a desktop/laptop. Much of the limitation with the iDevices is not on the hardware level, but in the way Apple configured the OS. Plus, the microwave does one thing, iPad does a thousand things (at least). How can you talk as if they are on the same level????

Night Spring said:

People who say this must not have seen what can be done with jailbroken iPhones -- you can do almost anything you'd do with a desktop/laptop.

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If all you do is listen to music, browse the internet, and look at facebook, then yes- you can do everything you need to do on a jailbroken iPhone.

Much of the limitation with the iDevices is not on the hardware level, but in the way Apple configured the OS.

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I find a 4-inch screen pretty limiting, it's probably just me though. Nobody would ever need a screen larger than 4 inches.

Plus, the microwave does one thing, iPad does a thousand things (at least). How can you talk as if they are on the same level????

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Because anyone can make a reductio ad absurdum argument that anything with a chip in it is a computer.

Night Spring said:

People who say this must not have seen what can be done with jailbroken iPhones -- you can do almost anything you'd do with a desktop/laptop. Much of the limitation with the iDevices is not on the hardware level, but in the way Apple configured the OS. Plus, the microwave does one thing, iPad does a thousand things (at least). How can you talk as if they are on the same level????

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I realize this is off topic yet I wonder how much the hardware suffers in terms of speed/battery once you unleash "full potential" from a jailbreak.

miles01110 said:

Because anyone can make a reductio ad absurdum argument that anything with a chip in it is a computer.

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It may not be the computer that everyone wants and it may not do everything that everyone wants and it may not have the hardware that everyone wants, it is undeniably a computer.

Not sure why threads like this ever get started

Lack of an accessible file system prevents it from being a true "computer". But that's just my opinion!

It computes...thus being a computer.

A computer is a programmable machine that receives input, stores and manipulates data, and provides output in a useful format - wiki

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Dapper said:

It is undeniably a computer.

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Clearly it's not, since someone dares disagree! My definition supersedes your definition, although it depletes my mana to do so. You cannot win.

Ok, is an iPod touch a computer?

The technical answer is obviously yes, but did you or anyone else ever assert that it should be called a computer, other than by way of defending your position on the iPad?

I think people want to define it one way or the other, in most cases, to support their internal "point" about iPads. In my opinion, if you go into an iPad purchase thinking of it as a computer, you will be surprised and disappointed. I also think that most people who dislike iPads want to insist they are computers so they can then start bullet-point listing features "other" computers have that the iPad lacks.

bah! they're all just fancy electronic abacuses (abaci?) with larger than usual displays anyway

SquareTrade classifies the iPad as a computer. I got an extended warranty and it's classified as Apple - Laptop.

I'd love to do an age survey -- I wonder whether more older people tend to think of the iPad as a computer than younger people? I mean, I remember the first computers I used back in high school and college, and the iPad can run circles around them. If those dinasours from back then were computers, then I think yes, the iPad is definitely a computer.

My first computer was an original IBM PC. I think it was like $8,000 and had two 5 1/4" floppies, 640k and no hard drive. I later had a 30mb external HD that would take like 2 mins to post before you could even turn on the computer.

Dapper said:

I realize this is off topic yet I wonder how much the hardware suffers in terms of speed/battery once you unleash "full potential" from a jailbreak.

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I've "unleashed the full potential of the iPhone" for awhile now and have not suffered a bit in speed or battery. In fact, being able to run backgrounded apps has greatly increases my functional speed (even with the phone/OS/processor speed not having changed in any way from the jailbreak).

I have put on apps that have had some ill effects on the battery, but that has happened with both App Store apps and JB apps. And when that happens, I just remove the offending app.

It's definitely a computer. Heck, a cable box is a computer. A tv is a computer. The iPhone or any smartphone is a computer. A car is a computer. A stereo system is a computer. Hell yes, many things are computers that we don't call computers.

I think the real point of the iPad is a consumption device. Something we like to use for observation of information materials. A Mac or PC computer is used for some observation but is also used for work or creation. I know the iPad has some apps that allow people to work, but the whole purpose of the iPad is truly for observation of content. I think about what I do with my iPad - watch TV, watch movies, view the Internet (very lightly and rarely when I don't have a Mac available), read the paper/magazines, and read email (only responding to brief email replies).

When I use my MBA, I write/type, run applications that need OS X, and mostly do creation of materials or WORK. I would say the Mac is for work and the iPad is for play, but both are computers.

How old are you?

What people consider to be a computer almost depends on how old you are.

For many years, the fastest, most expensive computer in the world was a Cray 1. It had an 80 MHz CPU and 1 megaword (equal to 8 megabytes) of memory. No display... instead you got nice couch seats over the (0.15 megawatt) power supply.

Like an iPad, it did not fit in your pocket.

It also did not run Flash.

megatronbomb said:

Lack of an accessible file system prevents it from being a true "computer".

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It has an accessible file system. The built-in apps use it a lot. Any app can access it as long as they stay within their 2 or 3 allowed directories.

This was my family's first computer. An IBM PCjr. See those two holes below the 5.25" disk drive? Those were where you'd plug in cartridges. Yeah, honest to god cartridges, which booted the computer into BASIC. Why would you boot from the cartridge? Because it had no hard drive! The CPU ran at 4.77 MHz, it had 64 K memory on board, a 16 color display, and had a 300 bps modem on board that my mother used to do some of the first consumer online banking in the world.

My god did that thing kick ass. And if that's a computer, the iPad sure as hell is too.

mikethebigo said:

This was my family's first computer. An IBM PCjr. See those two holes below the 5.25" disk drive? Those were where you'd plug in cartridges. Yeah, honest to god cartridges, which booted the computer into BASIC. Why would you boot from the cartridge? Because it had no hard drive! The CPU ran at 4.77 MHz, it had 64 K memory on board, a 16 color display, and had a 300 bps modem on board that my mother used to do some of the first consumer online banking in the world.

My god did that thing kick ass. And if that's a computer, the iPad sure as hell is too.

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Nice analogy!

mikethebigo said:

This was my family's first computer. An IBM PCjr. See those two holes below the 5.25" disk drive? Those were where you'd plug in cartridges. Yeah, honest to god cartridges, which booted the computer into BASIC. Why would you boot from the cartridge? Because it had no hard drive! The CPU ran at 4.77 MHz, it had 64 K memory on board, a 16 color display, and had a 300 bps modem on board that my mother used to do some of the first consumer online banking in the world.

My god did that thing kick ass. And if that's a computer, the iPad sure as hell is too.

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Its hilarious how they proudly display those 16 colors.

Of course the iPad is not a computer... it doesn't come stock with a calculator. What are you, nuts?

In reality, duh, of course it technically is a computer. It computes. It may not do as much as what we would label as a computer in contemporary time but it still is.

Nevertheless, it is still a limited computer.

The first definition of computer was a person who did computations. Lots of women did ballistics tables during wartime, for example, when the men were drafted.

In 1998 the world would probably end cause this would be such a sweet computer. But today, its a computer, but i wouldnt call it a computer in the tradition sense of what a computer is. Its the worlds best media player pretty much, real newspapers suck compared to the ipad. Portable dvd players are a thing of the past, image how awesome it would be if you could get a dvd drive for the ipad. So a computer? no, but just a step under.