Apple Tablet Media Event Today: 'Come See Our Latest Creation'

[NightFox]

So lets all just admit we were expecting a little more thanks to the rumors, but lets be realistic Video Conferencing on 3G not realistic.

I spent most of the time the keynote was happening on video Skype with my wife and kids over 3G - barely a glitch, and that was with Gizmodo updating in the background every minute or so.

 

[Gunga Din]

Lets compare products:

Macbook-$999
-os x, with a desktop and everything.
-wifi
-250GB storage, MINIMUM
-Real keyboard
-real mouse
-cover INCLUDED.
-7 hour battery
-2 usbs, mini display port
-camera
-ability to run non-gimmick appLICATIONS

iPAD-$700
-wifi
-64 GB MAX HD
-fake keyboard
-no mouse input
-cover costs extra
-no usb, no display out
-10 hour battery
-fun new way to try to hold something while touching it as little as possible!

Yeppers. Well put. to me its just better for surfing the web than my iPod Touch when i'm on the S H I T T E R !!

 

[anthonybsd]

I can't believe some of the negative responses here. This thing at a starting price of $500 will destroy sales on most Netbooks and E-Readers.

A $500 netbook is a premium netbook category. For $500 your netbook will have bigger (12 inch) screen, ability to drag and drop files into your apps from anywhere (and not through retarded WiFi/HTTP Server sync), much better keyboard, faster CPU and ability to play a rather large chunk of modern games (my step fathers MSI Wind with Win 7 runs Crysis with no problems). How is this thing going to smoke it again?

 

[SkippyThorson]

If Verizon didn't use a frequency that no one else in the world uses, than yes.

I lol'ed That is the best, truest, and most amusing statement in this entire thread.

Anyhow, about the iPad - I want it.

It could replace my current on-the-gos of an iBook and iPhone with a cheap Virgin Mobile phone and iPad. There's nothing on-the-go that I need a full laptop for. My heavy work is done at home, and I do not need an iPhone's $75 monthly fee.

I think it seems like a competent replacement for users that don't need a laptop and don't want to shell out for an iPhone, yet want more than an iPod Touch. Excellent filler, Apple. Not the perfect product, but very good.

 

[ranguvar]

mkay, so the iPad's a useless gimmick toy for fat cats. 'Nough said.
kthxbye

 

[Baadshah]

Huge disappointment.

Didnt expect that from apple, it is just a big screen iphone/ipod touch.

 

[Black Belt]

So true about the death watch. Go to Amazon and the forum and they've been waiting for the other shoe to drop and it has. However, there will be another battle...buying from Amazon is a strong habit and I would prefer buying my ebooks from Amazon. So the future will be determined not by the "razor" but by how and how much the "razor" blades are provided. Capture what I post here and see if in 2 years I am right. You heard it here first.

Having played with a Nook, I can say it is DOA. Painfully slow. Beautiful device but practically unusable.

 

[markgodley]

One thing I haven't seen answered yet.... if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch already can you use your paid apps/games on the iPad or are they going to make you buy them all over again??

no you dont have to pay twice. you can transfer them

 

[phobic99]

People I am getting pretty pissed off!!!

IT HAS BLUETOOTH.
IT HAS GPS.
IT HAS Audio/Video out.

It has a lot! http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

Maybe it's time you logged off and went outside and got some air.

You have to be joking if you're getting pissed (for some unknown reason).

Then again, this is MacRumors so if you aren't one to run and buy this iPad on day one, expect to be flamed.

 

[JaccoH]

You have to pay up for the GPS, there's always a catch.

I don't care. People are just misinformed.

 

[lamar777]

Or

Add tax. Very close to 200.

So let's say you're going away for the week on a business trip and need 3G. You have to pay $30 for the MONTH, when only needing the service for a WEEK?

I can understand this being very useful for book readers, or people who need to cram in their work because they didn't get it done the night before (iWork). I'm not saying I won't get it eventually, but for now, there's many more things I can spend $830 (oops, $830 isn't $829.99) on.

Uh just by the $14.99 plan

 

[strike1555]

While I think think this thing is going to do decent, (basically it's going to do what the MBA/Apple TV did), it is NOT any of these things:

1. Revolutionary
2. E-book/Nook killer *

I feel I should mention, one good benefit of this is that hopefully Amazon will lower the price on their Kindle. Even the most negative of people would surely buy the iPad over the 9.7 inch Kindle DX considering their similar pricepoints.

 

[TheRat]

I don't think many of us will know what it's really like until we have it in our hands. I believe that the browsing experience will indeed be something unique, and the bookstore idea is very cool but I personally don't need it or a netbook. I'm happy with my 13' MBP. It all depends on what companies (like the new york times and the whole digital newspaper w/video thing) take advantage of the new technology.

However, No Camera or GPS does not make sense to me. Granted, the GPS niche could be filled with an app or something but I don't know why they didn't include an iSight.

 

[kernel-klink]

Wow. And to think 187 Apple employees lost their jobs leaking info about this POS. It's bad enough they got fired (in today's job market), but today they had to take the call from a "friend" with the news that the whole thing was a flop

 

[aroldan]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apples-new-thing-ipod.500/

 

[charliehustle]

so how long before we get copy and paste?

 

[jtara]

A couple of points, from the tech specs page at: http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs:

1. It DOES have a 3.5mm audio jack.

2. It has a dock connector. It will charge via USB. It will connect to cameras (with an adapter) and read (and I presume write) SD cards (with an adapter). I assume, then, it DOES have USB and could sync via USB, though this is not explicitly stated anywhere. So, you should be able to expand storage significantly with an SD card, but that big, ugly dongle... Would have been nice to have had a built-in SD slot.

No OS 4.0 announcement, I assume they are backed-up on the software development. 3.2 SDK available today with simulator to get developers going. I assume this is a stop-gap. Software just takes time, they've no magic for the software development process. Except for the lack of GPS and camera, it has the goods, the feature set will be built-out over time.

I'm sure it took an enormous effort for Apple to have the SDK available today, with all the support (samples, great documentation) that is typical of Apple. I'll be checking it out within the next few days, but of course won't be able to say anything about it here.

A bit of a disappointment that the chip is apparently not dual-core.

 

[NeoPod]

1024x768 is an odd choice in my opinion. It'll squish/ crop the hell out of an HD movie. I guess 1280x720 is for Rev. B then eh?

Pricing is as good as it gets from Apple though. They really are going after netbooks here.

Agree entirely, how can this be the 'great' device for watching HD films when it's not even Letterbox format? Why go back to the 4:3 ratio?

iPad = IveBeenHad

But still waiting for apple.com/quicktime/qtv to update for full stream before I post more...

 

[pgwalsh]

I see a lot of criticism

I see a lot of criticism, but I'm not sure why. I don't have an iPhone, iPod Touch, Kindle or any other type of netbook or table device. I one of those few people who've been waiting for something different and this "might" be it.

I'll hold off on criticism or praise until I can actually test the device out in a store.

 

[ldmbouge]

Just in case....

Someone hasn't noticed:

From the Spec page of www.apple.com

Wi-Fi + 3G model
UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
GSM/EDGE (850, 900,1800, 1900 MHz)
Data only2
Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology


=> This seems to indicate that it has the capability to work with other networks besides AT&T (UMTS/HSDPA).

 

[JaccoH]

Maybe it's time you logged off and went outside and got some air.

You have to be joking if you're getting pissed (for some unknown reason).

Then again, this is MacRumors so if you aren't one to run and buy this iPad on day one, expect to be flamed.

I think you should have said that to all the morons in here saying stuff like fail and it doesnt have GPS or bluetooth. They were just going on misinformed and headless chicken style .

 

[markgodley]

Am i the only one getting P!$$ed off with people saying giant iphone/ipod.. why cant people see beyond that...

 

[cutmaster]

PORN

thats all i gotta say

 

[phobic99]

Also, I suppose Engadget summed up the iPad pretty well right off the bat.

• * It's not light. It feels pretty weighty in your hand.
• * The screen is stunning, and it's 1024 x 768. Feels just like a huge iPhone in your hands.
• * The speed of the CPU is something to be marveled at. It is blazingly fast from what we can tell. Webpages loaded up super fast, and scrolling was without a hiccup. Moving into and out of apps was a breeze. Everything flew.
• * There's no multitasking at all. It's a real disappointment. All this power and very little you can do with it at once. No multitasking means no streaming Pandora when you're working in Pages... you can figure it out. It's a real setback for this device.
• * The ebook implementation is about as close as you can get to reading without a stack of bound paper in your hand. The visual stuff really helps flesh out the experience. It may be just for show, but it counts here.
• * No camera. None, nada. Zip. No video conferencing here folks. Hell, it doesn't have an SMS app!

 

[crm114]

No Camera

there's no camera built in. my daughters fake cel phone has a camera built in.

so thats extra? you mean i get to attach an icamera to it?

really guys... how hard is it to do that.

drill hole with robot - connect camera to board - app - smile

but seriously. there's no camera.