Excitement about iPad: A Large Screen Multi-Touch Platform

[Sol]

The things that make the iPad so revolutionary are the things that have been left out.

This is the computer our parents have been waiting for.

Well put. Of course there will always be people who think all that was taken out should be in there after all but I am sure there will be a myriad of would-be iPad killer options for them. Not that I think any one of those options will be one tenth as successful, in sales and usability, as the iPad.

Yes, parents and every non-technical person with a passing interest for the internet would be much better off with an iPad instead of a computer. Like the iPhone it requires relatively no maintenance to operate, no dedicated space, no kid to come and set it up, instal hardware, etc. All the usability of an iPhone on a big screen.

Looking towards the future, it is feasible that most homes will have some kind of media server, like a Time-Capsule, Apple TV and Mac Mini rolled into one, and iPads to access the content on it. To take that idea one step further, if there are no more CDs and DVDs to consider (for ripping music and movies), you could even get by without a home server and just store all your content on a service like Me.com (or 'the cloud' to use a popular term). Of course much faster internet connections for everyone will have to exist for this to be possible but my point is that iPads are more likely to be part of the future computing experience than desktops and laptops.

 

[Eric S.]

... no choices make for easier decisions

The Steve Jobs Doctrine.

 

[Journojulz]

The thing i loved about my palmtop, was you could just turn it on and off

Its so obvious, but so easy to overlook once you have been conditioned to put up with a certain amount of "process" before you get to do what you want.

The iPad is like going up to "a computer", prising off the screen and walking off with it, leaving the the rest of the gubbins and peripherals behind.

 

[WilliamLondon]

... no choices make for easier decisions

Choice isn't what this is all about, otherwise your toilet would serve dinner (though, it may for some!). Your argument regarding choice is taken to the ultimate end which is silly. YOU have a choice, and that is not to buy the iPad when it is first released. YOUR choice, fine.

We all know you won't choose v1 to buy but at some point you might buy an iPad, otherwise your presence here on this forum would be beyond ignorant and an utter waste of your time (beyond your repeated offending those of us who actually find it perfect). v1 isn't your choice, fine. We understand that.

Stop with the ad hominems and start discussing something of substance ffs!

 

[Friscohoya]

you betcha... 17" MB pro, and an iphone 3gs (jailbroken, of course). I'd hackintosh a dell mini10v before I bought a pad without a camera and decent web support... and they are on sale now... less than $300...

macsales.com also has the axiom modbook, which is too expensive, but that offers a stylus and handwriting support.

You can purchase a stylus and write on an iphone. One can only assume that it will be the same for the ipad.

 

[Ardchoille]

and I'm sure the pad will probably be an excellent product ONE DAY... they set the bar SOOOO LOW with the first one... there is nowhere to go but up... (although the bar was really the iphone 3gs... and they fell short of that)

But my point was that until we see apps for it and see how it is used, we won't know what its strengths are. One can only say the bar is set low based on what you want on it that isn't there.

By the way, I also own a Macbook Air, a device similarly attacked. For me it has been perfect in every way (OK I would prefer another USB port).

 

[Friscohoya]

I am happy with the iPad as is, but it feels like they are holding back quite a bit. What if Apple, knowing that every company in the world was simply introducing the bare minimum to let people know whats coming, but holding back the details so that they can be immediately compied. Many tablets will be introduced in the next few months and now they think they know what the bar is. Apple can come back with iphone OS 4.0 and add multitasking, additional gestures, more applications and content from magazine companies. There is a lot there, but they are spoon feeding it right now. I want a whole bowl! Let's see.

 

[fobfob]

We all know you won't choose v1 to buy but at some point you might buy an iPad, otherwise your presence here on this forum would be beyond ignorant and an utter waste of your time

Exactly. I confidently predict that 90% of people who have posted more than once on MR about the iPad, will in fact buy one of the first 2 generation products (ie. will buy one by the end of 2011).

Regardless of the content of their posts.

I won't go as far as to say the more posts, the more likely, but it wouldn't suprise me either

Far more worrying for Apple would be if there was only muted reaction. This fervent frothing on both sides can be taken straight to the bank.

 

[JoEw]

Unlike what many others think, I believe the iPad has some great potential, what you are forgetting are the beautiful apps that these developers are going to create for it, for example the MLB at bat is already a amazing example of its potential, I can live without Flash video, even though i would love to have it. The one thing i am praying Apple will include in iPhone OS 4.0 sometime is june? is multitasking, i cant tell you how many times i would love to be able to text back someone while keeping an app running, they should at least offer this option as something you can turn on and off like the iPhone has for 3G. If iPhone 4.0 is released with multitasking its inevitable the iPad will have it to.

The iPad is like a 10 inch canvas and its up to the developers to make beautiful applications for it. I think the iPad will be a great success eventually as more and more developers make apps for it, i mean nobody would buy an ipod touch unless there were apps for it.

Just saying don't write it off as a failure yet this thing has thousands of potential uses.

 

[thejakill]

By the way, I also own a Macbook Air, a device similarly attacked. For me it has been perfect in every way (OK I would prefer another USB port).

same here. another device savaged by internet trolls for all the "features" it was missing. haven't needed a disk drive in 2 years. love the mobility of the MBA, sitting in my big easy chair every night browsing the web and doing word processing.

will be even more enjoyable on the iPad!

 

[thejakill]

ust saying don't write it off as a failure yet this thing has thousands of potential uses.

failure? it's all anyone's been talking about for the past week. NOBODY is talking about the HP slate or whatever it's called or the dell ipod touch ripoff.

in fact, if it weren't for the iPad, NOBODY would be talking about slate computing at all.

can't wait to see the lines when it goes on sale.

 

[weslobombs]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Ahem... funny thing about this is it was mainly myself who was promoting this aspect of the iPad a month ago, specifically concerning the JazzMutant Lemur, in combatting the idiotic implications of some forum users who doubted that the iPad would have any uses at all. In the process I was banned temporarily, but no doubt this is how they noticed that I brought up the Lemur.

So thanks for the (kinda) shout out MacRumors!

I think in this particular case (at least in part) they were referring to my post (if you were to click on that referenced "music tools" link) since I had posted a video of me using TouchOSC on the iPhone.
In any case, the more of use championing this the better!

I've been waiting for years for something close to the Lemur (but not as pricey) to come out and the iPad is finally it! In fact, I was working on my first game for the iPhone and am now going to put it on hold because I've had an idea for the longest time for a touch synth app that wouldn't have been possible on the iPhone (because there just wasn't enough screen real estate.)

Right on. Yes, the best thing is it costs 1/4 the price. Is touchOSC difficult to configure? Is there any latency?

 

[Sol]

failure? it's all anyone's been talking about for the past week. NOBODY is talking about the HP slate or whatever it's called or the dell ipod touch ripoff.

in fact, if it weren't for the iPad, NOBODY would be talking about slate computing at all.

can't wait to see the lines when it goes on sale.

To the iPad's biggest critics the sales success of the device will probably be interpreted as a result of our (that is soon-to-be-iPad-users) supposed sheep-like behaviour. Believing that makes them feel superior to iPad (and other Apple products) users for not owning one.

 

[LagunaSol]

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance." - Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." - Rob Malda, founder of Slashdot, on original iPod announcement in 2001.

"I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." - Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers, on what he'd do if he were in charge of Apple (1997). (Responded Jobs: “We’re coming after you, you’re in our sights.”)

"The iPad sucks and is a big bag of Fail and it sucks." - the genius commenters of MacRumors.

Thanks for the entertainment everyone, but I'll put my money on Jobs.

 

[Lara F]

I think people supporting Apple with respect to flash are just to much of the fanboi ilk to reason with. The reality is many of us hate flash but realize it is an evil required to get work done. The click to flash approach works fine on my MBP, why not support similar behaviour on the iPad? Maybe it isn't the technical issue Apple like to make it out to be, but rather a political one.

I'll go further and say I'm pretty sure the average casual user - ie. exactly who the iPad is aimed at - could care less about Flash and has no issues with it once it's installed. I've had Macs since 2005 and lurked on MR before that, and it wasn't until at least 2008 (post-iPhone, not coincidentally IMO) that I came across all the dislike.

If it weren't for Flash most network streaming video the last 3 years would probably be Microsoft DRM'd (ala Channel 4 On Demand in the UK before the switch) and unable to be viewed on Macs. I wish Apple fans would remember that before bashing.

 

[Eidorian]

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance." - Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." - Rob Malda, founder of Slashdot, on original iPod announcement in 2001.

"I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." - Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers, on what he'd do if he were in charge of Apple (1997). (Responded Jobs: “We’re coming after you, you’re in our sights.”)

"The iPad sucks and is a big bag of Fail and it sucks." - the genius commenters of MacRumors.

Thanks for the entertainment everyone, but I'll put my money on Jobs.

You sound very defensive. Are you feeling alright?

 

[LagunaSol]

You sound very defensive. Are you feeling alright?

Feeling fine, thanks. Better than most on this forum, apparently.

 

[Eidorian]

Feeling fine, thanks. Better than most on this forum, apparently.

I'm just making sure. You're coherent most of the time but then you get into being defensive and then outright paranoia. It's not really healthy.

I understand what you're trying to say with your earlier post but anyone knowing the context of all the quotes wouldn't fall so easily for the fervent optimism.

The net effect is void but you might be able to convince some people otherwise.

 

[LagunaSol]

The net effect is void but you might be able to convince some people otherwise.

Just providing some historical context for the inevitable hilarity when we look back a couple of years from now at all the doomsayers' virtual foaming at the mouths.

 

[Eidorian]

Just providing some historical context for the inevitable hilarity when we look back a couple of years from now at all the doomsayers' virtual foaming at the mouths.

.250 isn't that good of an average.

 

[LagunaSol]

.250 isn't that good of an average.

In this industry, it's stellar.

 

[Eidorian]

In this industry, it's stellar.

If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.

 

[Sol]

I'll go further and say I'm pretty sure the average casual user - ie. exactly who the iPad is aimed at - could care less about Flash and has no issues with it once it's installed. I've had Macs since 2005 and lurked on MR before that, and it wasn't until at least 2008 (post-iPhone, not coincidentally IMO) that I came across all the dislike.

If it weren't for Flash most network streaming video the last 3 years would probably be Microsoft DRM'd (ala Channel 4 On Demand in the UK before the switch) and unable to be viewed on Macs. I wish Apple fans would remember that before bashing.

I am not a web developer or anything but my understanding of the Flash issue is that it is inefficient, proprietary and superseded by the upcoming HTML5 standard. The inefficiency part may have been foremost on the minds of Apple when they decided to not support Flash on their mobile devices, where battery life and performance are considered crucial for users.

As for streaming video and Microsoft's DRM, maybe that is how it would have played out. Then again, maybe streaming video producers would have embraced the MPEG4 standard instead.

 

[vini-vidi-vici]

Someone said earlier that it would be easy for to add a camera and multi-tasking to the iPad.

I would suggest that the camera is probably easily incorporated.

Someone else indicated that not many people spend time video conferencing - well I do almost every evening to my son for about 15 - 30 minutes, he is severely disabled and lives in a hospice many miles from my wife and myself and we feel it is absolutely essential, an iPad without Camera gets a thumbs down from me.

Multi-tasking: That is a different matter, the iPad has Flash memory, multi-tasking requires swap space which will be continuously written and read from. This would increase the power consumption and would probably reduce the lifetime of the flash memory, I don't think you will see UNIX style multi-tasking for quite some time.

As to the iPad and its reported speed, I suspect that the new chip and the fact that everything is memory resident makes it as fast as it is.

You don't need swap space in Flash... you can do that more efficiently with other volatile memory types (SRAM/DRAM, etc)

 

[vini-vidi-vici]

The iPad isn't meant to run photoshop, and the mistake people are making (at least I did) is that the iPad fills an existing traditional market (namely tablet pc's). The iPad's strengths is not it's power but is it's size/weight, and interface.

For me:
• I'd love to use it as a MIDI interface, or DJ rig
• play board games with the wife on trips
• simple sketch pad while roaming Home Depot

There are thousands of uses where the iPad could shine. And Apples decision to target developers and the app store will only reveal that much more innovation.

The future is the cloud, and increasingly better, advanced I/O's. The iPad, to me, is a step in that direction.

With 3 or 4 bluetooth or wifi microphones... it could be a mixing board.