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I returned my iPad back to Apple... I toughed it out

X

XciteMe

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 21, 2009
450
1
Santa Monica, CA
for almost 2 weeks but man, guys... As much as I LOVE the iPhone and Apple and their products, I couldn't do it. I couldn't justify having a $900 toy, and when I say toy PLEASE do not take it as an insult, because toys are awesome and it just means a piece of technology that is meant for entertainment/media consumption/fun, and that's all the iPad is to me. A $1,000 laptop to me, is an investment. A tool. A daily facet of your day to day life. A $900 iPad (64GB 3G) was not that, and the price did not justify the value. IMHO.

Productivity apps like Pages, or note taking apps, or PDF viewers or file streaming apps, didn't seem as easy, accessible and practical as those resources found on a laptop.

This is just MY experience, and I just wanted to share, maybe see who else did the same with theirs.
 
XciteMe said:
for almost 2 weeks but man, guys... As much as I LOVE the iPhone and Apple and their products, I couldn't do it. I couldn't justify having a $900 toy, and when I say toy PLEASE do not take it as an insult, because toys are awesome and it just means a piece of technology that is meant for entertainment/media consumption/fun, and that's all the iPad is to me.
Click to expand...

You're right, it's only meant for consumption, not creation.:rolleyes:

Sorry it didn't work for you, but it's not just a couch potato device.
 
The whole entertainment/media consumption/fun statement implies that. Many people use it for serious work though. Like that artist.
 
If I were to purchase an iPad, it wouldn't definitely be the top of line 3G/64GB: That's a toy for very rich people.
If I were to buy an iPad it would be the WiFi 32 GB and I would wait for the iteration with camera. Still $600 though...
Anyway I'm more an iPod Touch kind of guy.
 
That's why I bought the lowest model iPad. $500 for a drawing pad with a decent browser is worth it to me. I'd feel sick spending $900 too.
 
I have to agree, which is why I took mine back. I think for most people the $500 model is sufficient.
 
Who cares?

I'm going to buy the 16GB version and will love it every day. Will even take notes on it. And I don't care what you think. Wait, why am I coming here to tell you guys this? Because nobody cares!:)

Just buy what you like to use and what you need, and every other argument and indecision becomes irrelevant. Want an iPad, Android tablet, Nokia phone, iPhone, notebook, tablet, just do it.

I find it curious that people spend loads of money on things that they soon regret. Just don't buy it then! Do some research first! I'm no crazy Apple monkey. I buy Apple because I'm informed. I know that it will work for me, and I won't regret my purchase. If there's something out there that's better for me, I buy that. I'm not going to purchase a shiny iPad when I need a notebook. This is how people come to describe Apple buyers as crazy worshippers of Jobs, who need to buy every shiny new top of the line Apple product.
 
I bought the 64mb WiFi model.

I use it for multiple hours everyday, both for business (Numbers, Wiki's, Pages, Evernote) and entertainment (Music, Netflix, Games, Surfing).

$ / Hour, the iPad is more cost effective than my iMac or MacBook. Mostly because I can use the iPad in so many different places.

Haven't missed the 3G yet, as I have a fairly good off-line toolset, and most of the clients I spend any significant time with have either an open, or a visitor WiFi setup.

I was going to buy a Netbook with Ubuntu 10.4 netbook remix, but when the iPad came out, I bought it instead. I'm glad I did. The netbook would have been a waste as my MacBook does everything the netbook would do (and better, other than being slightly heavier/bulkier.)

The iPad filled a niche for me, then expanded to cover a lot of areas I didn't expect at first. I end up leaving the MacBook at home now, taking the iPad instead. Not only that, I take the iPad with me out to meetings where I'd traditionally only have a legal pad and pen.

So I guess I've had pretty much the opposite experience as the opening poster. For me, the iPad has been the most cost effective computer I've bought in years.
 
You should have bought an ipod Touch for 1/3 the price and the size because that's all the ipad really is, a super-sized ipod Touch.
 
I find it more useful to know HOW people use their iPad and how it fits in their daily lives, than knowing how useless the iPad was, because someone had money to burn and regrets his purchase and wanted a notebook all along.
 
Well you can keep feeding Apple by buying ibooks and relatively superfluous apps from the App store and play a few games and browse the web and send e-mail. What more do you want from a glorified Touch?
 
The Man said:
I find it curious that people spend loads of money on things that they soon regret. Just don't buy it then! Do some research first
Click to expand...

Research does not replace first hand experience/testing/evaluating. Based upon my research and the availability of certain applications for the iPad, there was a CHANCE that it could have replaced a notebook. However, since you cannot test applications thanks to Apple's broken AppStore concept, and since you certainly cannot thoroughly test those applications without having an iPad in your hands for a couple of days, you just cannot base a purchase decision on word of mouth or some random reviews and blog posts that you find on the Internet. And there's no glorified Apple shopping mall anywhere near where I live.

The fact was that the fanciness of the iPad wore off after two days and on the third day I was already asking myself what this toy actually is good for. Even watching movies on it sucked because its CPU can barely handle the playback of high resolution movies. The iPad's web browser is only second class for a number of reasons, the non-existent Flash plugin being one of them. You folks can parrot Steve Jobs as long as you like, it doesn't change the fact that Flash is a de facto standard on the Internet and most of the websites that I visit use it in one way or another - and that simply means that the iPad only delivers a crippled web experience. You can also forget about heavy writing on the iPad unless you use an external keyboard. And since there is no good stylus available for it, you also cannot use it for handwriting.

Sure, there might be a couple of applications that work great on the iPad, and I can imagine that the iPad can make a good input device/tool for certain kinds of artists, for example. But there are many use cases where it does not work well and where even a 250 bucks netbook does a better job than the iPad.
 
I bought my iPad for $200 :D

Actually it was a used one but in very good condition. I haven't had any problems at all. Worth the money :D
 
decadentdave said:
Well you can keep feeding Apple by buying ibooks and relatively superfluous apps from the App store and play a few games and browse the web and send e-mail. What more do you want from a glorified Touch?
Click to expand...

Ahh, I see - because you perceive no need for an iPad therefore there is none for anyone, ergo anybody who begs to differ is an Apple fanboi.

Riiight.

I guess I'm deluding myself that the iPad is actually usefull for me. I'm sure I could spend 15+ hours a week (at least) reading PDFs, .PPS etc. and take notes directly on these on an iPhone. Seriously, who gives a rat's ass about having a larger screen to make documents easier to read - it's not like complex diagrams and charts as often used in scientific journals need to be displayed whole in a readable size in order to be usable. Hell, why don't I just use a f%&$@!g Nano? It's cheap as chips, and it's even comes in different colours! Or go old school and just print out the 700 pages of required readings (per subject, for just this semester alone).

Thanks for saving me from myself :rolleyes:
 
Winni said:
Research does not replace first hand experience/testing/evaluating. Based upon my research and the availability of certain applications for the iPad, there was a CHANCE that it could have replaced a notebook.

The fact was that the fanciness of the iPad wore off after two days and on the third day I was already asking myself what this toy actually is good for. Even watching movies on it sucked because its CPU can barely handle the playback of high resolution movies. The iPad's web browser is only second class for a number of reasons, the non-existent Flash plugin being one of them. You folks can parrot Steve Jobs as long as you like, it doesn't change the fact that Flash is a de facto standard on the Internet and most of the websites that I visit use it in one way or another - and that simply means that the iPad only delivers a crippled web experience. You can also forget about heavy writing on the iPad unless you use an external keyboard. And since there is no good stylus available for it, you also cannot use it for handwriting.
Click to expand...

So you did research, and still bought it? :eek: You knew about it not having Flash. If you know you're going to miss that, don't buy the iPad, wait for something Android. And yes you would know from the start if you would miss Flash. You knew that it wouldn't have handwriting, and that the onscreen keyboard is all there is. If you do a lot of typing, there's an idication that the shiny iPad wouldn't be for you. There was only a slim chance you could have replaced a notebook, because the iPad is not made to replace a notebook. Even Steve said that he saw the iPad as placed between the iPhone and the Notebook, as being better in a couple of things, mostly in experiencing media (save the Flash-thing). For some it does replace a notebook, but it's because their priorities during travel lies more at doing lighter stuff. Though, I've never heard people complain about the iPad not handling 720P video that well.
 
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