Excitement about iPad: A Large Screen Multi-Touch Platform

[nelmat]

It's called Terminal Server, and it has been around and in use for DECADES. Without a stupid iPad. Heck, EVERY Windows Mobile phone had a client for this built-in from the start.

Just because Apple now finally also caught on to the Tablet PC concept that Bill Gates was so excited about YEARS AGO doesn't make the iPad a revolution. This concept has been around long before His Steveness - the man who always said that he even couldn't imagine a customer for a notebook computer except for maybe a journalist - pretended to re-invent the wheel. Again.

Just because people see new opportunities over and above the devices original concept, doesn't mean it's copying anything. I've seen and heard lots of vapourware from Microsoft, I've yet to see to come to market (the amazing physical games interface, the multi touch mouse?). Did you mention windows mobile and windows mobile devices? How are those doing these days?

This isn't a tablet PC, you've missed the point. Never mind. It's a media consumption device, with specialised OS to focus on just this, it's not a fully functioning portably computer.

 

[surferfromuk]

Spiers Future Shock article needs to be a sticky for a few days - too many people are just having their heads exploded apart by this concept.

http://speirs.org/blog/2010/1/29/future-shock.html

 

[wolfpackfan]

I wonder at what point the iPad bashing will start to slow down and end. It is like it has become sort of a vendetta with some of these people. You see the same names over and over posting the same drivel. Don't you folks have a life you need to get back to? I had great hopes for this thread because it started out so positive but then the same old people started posting again as if they are going to change anything except display their short sightededness. In this thread alone I keep seeing no-USB. Folks did you all miss the announcement of the USB adapter? Or were you too busy trying to thinking up your next witty iPad bash? I find it funny you have so many complaints about flash. But then you have an equal number of people that hate flash. Folks say they can't live without multi-tasking. Well you folks really need to get some perspective. Your life isn't going to end if you can't multi-task on the iPad. Doesn't run OS X. Did you really expect it to have OS X and keep the price at a level that the masses would be willing to pay? SJ doesn't care about you all that wanted a MBP in tablet form. He already has your money. He is looking at a whole new mass of people to sell Apple products to. People like me who refuse to pay $1000 for a white MB but don't want to settle for an underpowered netbook.

 

[till]

I'm sorry, but the "too big to put in your pocket; you'll need a bag to carry it" is the lamest argument out there against the iPad. You need a bag to carry a laptop, yet millions of people do it. You need a bag to carry a netbook, yet millions (I guess) of people do it.

There's a bright red line separating laptops from netbooks and the iPad. Laptops require you to haul them around in their own bag, which is a pain in the ass. The smaller devices are something you can just toss in a small-ish messenger bag (the people still scratching their heads about a "man purse" are hilarious...they haven't walked around a city and looked at younger people lately) and go anywhere and everywhere with it.

Which isn't to say that the iPad replaces the netbook completely as a mobile work device. For me as a programmer, it certainly doesn't and likely never will. Apple isn't going to allow so much as a Python interpreter on their system. But iWork is going to be enough for a lot of people. And personally, I'm excited about the iPad as something to use while relaxing, especially as an ebook reader and TV substitute. "Intimate" is exactly the right word...I can totally see using this instead of dragging the laptop around to watch something with my girlfriend.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

SCT! SCT! (starcraftTouch)

 

[Povilas]

Why? I don't wanna play VHS on my blu-ray player, thank you very much!

Good one . Keynote rapes powerpoint.

 

[skunk]

Keynote rapes powerpoint.

What a charming turn of phrase.

 

[Povilas]

SCT! SCT! (starcraftTouch)

Or Diablo Such screen size is perfect for games like SC, Diablo or Red Alert.

What a charming turn of phrase.

Indeed it is.

 

[cube]

The iPad made me excited about Kindle. I didn't give a book reader much thought before.

An actual Kindle, not a Kindle app.

 

[GL2]

I'm sorry, but the "too big to put in your pocket; you'll need a bag to carry it" is the lamest argument out there against the iPad. You need a bag to carry a laptop, yet millions of people do it. You need a bag to carry a netbook, yet millions (I guess) of people do it. You can't SERIOUSLY deride the iPad for not being a "real" computer and at the same time complain that it's too big to put in your pocket!

You missed my point. My point was that if you have to use a backpack or bag to carry the thing, you might as well be carrying a laptop or netbook, which would have more capabilities than the iPad, including a real keyboard.

 

[Povilas]

You missed my point. My point was that if you have to use a backpack or bag to carry the thing, you might as well be carrying a laptop or netbook, which would have more capabilities than the iPad, including a real keyboard.

Here we go again.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

...this is really just a big iPod Touch.

You know I keep reading this as if the iPod Touch's screen is perfect for any and every purpose. It just seems like such an empty, red herring statement.

We don't hear people complaining about the multiple sized iMacs or Apple monitors. And the Touch, from my anecdotal gatherings, and from what Apple tells us about sales, seems to be a fairly popular and loved device. So I don't get why some people are so apoplectic that Apple has reshaped the Touch to a tablet size.

The features of the Touch and iPad are similar, but a year from now I'm guessing the apps will separate it's functional use. The Touch will be a preferred device for certain thinks and the iPad others. Some will see no need for a Touch, other no need for an iPad, yet other will want both.

 

[Researcher]

Arretez!

i am sick of paid journalists that are paid from apple and other companies in order to praise their products. They are who, the moment of the iPad presentation, where speechless, did not applause and in their first comments on the mactablet (<- lol!) they were saying "it is a large iPod".

So please dont make yourselves sound funny and stupid and oh yes...Apple got the message. From now on it will spend a lot in advertising and positive articles in macworld, Times, etc.

Fail

 

[ggbrown]

i would love to get an iPad but i don't see the point yet.

As I sit here with my morning coffee and 17" MBP on my lap...I do get the point. A vast majority of my 'home computing' time is spent doing activities like this...reading this forum, Reddit, or general surfing. My MBP is easily overkill for this type of task, not to mention hot on the legs!

The only real multi-tasking I do is have a chat window open, and BeeJive on my iPhone works just fine with it's push notification.

As a sysadmin, I also can see this being great for occasional checking in on my servers via RDP or SSH. I can do this now on my iPhone, but the extra screen real estate will be most welcome.

 

[flynz4]

You missed my point. My point was that if you have to use a backpack or bag to carry the thing, you might as well be carrying a laptop or netbook, which would have more capabilities than the iPad, including a real keyboard.

I currently own:
27" i7 iMac
15" MacBook Pro
13" Macbook Air

I use the MacBook Air at least 10X as much as I use my MBP. I do this because it is more comfortable to hold... especially when I am sitting on the couch, or laying in bed.

I have not decided if I am getting an iPad yet, but I probably will. My vast majority of time is surfing the web. I spend a ton of time reading web forums... and a tiny amount of time writing posts (like this one).

It seems to me that a tablet will be 10X more comfortable than my MBA. It is not a clumsy "L shape" like a laptop. The shape of a laptop works great while sitting at a desk. It is not so good when sitting on the couch, or laying in bed.

/Jim

 

[ditzy]

You missed my point. My point was that if you have to use a backpack or bag to carry the thing, you might as well be carrying a laptop or netbook, which would have more capabilities than the iPad, including a real keyboard.

One the iPad is small enough to be carried in the bag that I already carry, so no extra bag. Two it weighs 1.5 pound verses 3 pound for the MBA and 4.5 pound for the MBP. Yes it's just as easy to carry a laptop.

 

[Eric-PTEK]

oh wait... yes!

With Apple's consumer prices, consumer volumes and economies of scale, the iPad could succeed where other thin client solutions failed to get traction. A thin client device isn't very useful for anything else after the days work shift is over. (It can't even fart!) With the iPad, your VNC/RDP viewing app is one of 140k other possibilities.

This is where the iPad will shine, at least for our company. I would not say thin clients have not gained traction. Not very many of our competitors sell them in the smaller market but we do a brisk business in thin clients/RDP/TS.

With the new Red Flags rule from the FTC becoming a requirement on June 1 the thin client/server model is very important especially in the medical field.

MS's new RDP 7.1 really makes thin client usage seemless from the desktop with HD video and audio over RDP.

I have the ITC RDP app, the only one so far that seems to work with Server 2008/R2 and I'll buy an iPad for that alone.

I am extremely excited to see this product come out because it fills in so many gaps for my customers being out on the road.

The original post is right, if you do not see the usefulness for this in the business world them you lack vision. Either that or you've never worked with business customers.

I can do everything you can with an iPad with a netbook or laptop but the difference between telling a business customer instead of opening your laptop, booting, connecting to the 3G network, signing in, running RDP, etc...or just turn it on and hit 1 button is all the difference in the world.

 

[davidramsay]

Hope they like being unemployed 5 years from now, cos no matter how many do 'shy away' the main thing is the SDK is free, so there will be a million bright open-minded super imaginative coders dreaming up incredible new ways to use this platform.

Actually the SDK is NOT free, to download it you need to be on the standard or enterprise developer program.

 

[GeekGirl*]

People said the iPhone was a fail from the start, had ATT issues, Blah Blah no one would ever have paid 599 for that phone.

 

[steve-p]

LOL - figures from where?

LOL - right here

Apple and Google with a common message is a very powerful thing to sway consumer opinion, if you think otherwise, you're an idiot.

Google is significant, and that comes under the category of other commercial reasons for not liking Flash. They are significant and influential because they actually do have major market share. That has nothing whatsoever to do with Apple. Given the actual browser share of Mobile Safari, what Apple say makes no difference either way, except to fanboys obviously, who proclaim it from the hills as some sort of Internet salvation while missing the bleeding obvious - Mobile Safari is (for at least a while yet) insignificant, and MAC OS X does have Flash - some "message" then.

What percentage of the mobile browser share is iPhone/iPod Touch? I believe you'll find that the Ipod OS running mobile safari has the largest browser share on any sub-laptop mobile device/smart phone.

That's true, but not relevant since it's a high percentage of something that itself is minute. There are more than 1.7 billion web users - and how many iPhone/iPod touches?

 

[babyj]

I'm wondering if we'll see the iPad becoming a detachable screen for a soon to be release Apple MacBook - it makes perfect sense as it gives you the best of both worlds. Would be pretty simple for them to do as well, just add an extra high speed connection of some kind along the side of the iPad.

If anything I'm surprised they haven't already announced something like this, even if it was just as a $500 docking station (that is really a laptop without a screen). Maybe they are planning it and are keeping it quiet.

 

[Shasterball]

Arn,

I think this misses the point. The iPad is interesting if you take the perspective that it's a big iPod touch. That's fine. You will be able to do everything you can do on your iPod in a bigger device -- share pics, watch movies, surf the web, play games, etc... I assume you will also be able to [clumsily] work on word processing apps -- and working on such apps will be less cumbersome with the keyboard attachment.

There are many cool features about the device, but this is, again, if you look at it from the perspective of "a big iPod touch." And that's great, but it's not innovative. Maybe people built it up too much. Maybe people expect more than technology or Apple can deliver. But people wanted, inter alia, to run native apps, to do some video conferencing, an O/S setup that doesn't look like it's a spaced out/stretched out iPhone O/S, to be able to use flash on this nice, big screen, etc... The iPad just not what people expected. And it's not what you would expect when the Apple CEO says "This is the the most important thing I have ever worked on." The device just seems lazy... I mean, people were not paying attention to Jobs' unveiling of the device -- they were texting away! Even the name is ludicrous -- iPad? Womens' first thoughts are -- "sounds like a feminine hygiene product." Terrible.

All of this point to a less than stellar device. Now, this doesn't mean that the iPad will die. First, the software will be upgraded. And, I bet that if the public sentiment keeps knocking the software, that it will be upgraded quickly. Remember the first iPhone O/S? It could do 10% of what O/S 3.0 can do. And it evolved quickly. It's the first phone I ever had that evolved with time. So, we may see the same think with the iPad. Obviously a camera will have to come in the second generation iPad...

So yes, the device is cool. Yes, it will sell. But Apple didn't wow. Maybe they don't have to "wow" all the time. But people always say "I know Apple is expensive but their devices are cutting edge and they are built well." How will they justify the iPad? That remains to be seen...

 

[ditzy]

As I sit here with my morning coffee and 17" MBP on my lap...I do get the point. A vast majority of my 'home computing' time is spent doing activities like this...reading this forum, Reddit, or general surfing. My MBP is easily overkill for this type of task, not to mention hot on the legs!

The only real multi-tasking I do is have a chat window open, and BeeJive on my iPhone works just fine with it's push notification.

As a sysadmin, I also can see this being great for occasional checking in on my servers via RDP or SSH. I can do this now on my iPhone, but the extra screen real estate will be most welcome.

I completely agree. I think that if my iMac and iPhone had feelings, they would think that I didn't loved them anymore after buying the iPad. My iPhone will only really be used for calls and texts. Why my iMac will only be used for 'serious' computing. Not that I'm even thinking about getting rid of either.

 

[davidramsay]

Lack of Camera/Multi-tasking

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.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

I'm wondering if we'll see the iPad becoming a detachable screen for a soon to be release Apple MacBook - it makes perfect sense as it gives you the best of both worlds. Would be pretty simple for them to do as well, just add an extra high speed connection of some kind along the side of the iPad.

Haha yah. A brand new 2010 macbook with a 1024-by-768 display. Riiiiigghhhttt