Hands-On Impressions of Apple's New iPad

[MacDaddy2007]

Apple "Custom Designed" A4 Processor infact OEM?

Hi guys, not sure if anyone else has spotted this yet but despite all the Apple hype about "their own" "Custom designed" Apple A4 processor, very clearly at 6:22 on the official Apple iPad Video, on the processor the model number is displayed as H8MBTOOVOMTR-OEM :-

http://www.apple.com/ipad/#video

OEM would to me tend to suggest that they did not infact "custom design" their own processor...

Any thoughts?

 

[trauma62]

More Cost????

all those extras = more cost..

1. FLASH SUPPORT MORE COST?????WHAT ARE YOU TAKING ABOUT??????
2.- NEW APPLE PROCESSOR VS WELL KNOWN PROCESSOR????ADDITIONAL COST????? ARE YOU READING MY POST OR SOMEBODY ELSES???
3.- I'LL GIVE YOU THIS ONE. YES EXTRA COST FOR THE WEBCAM $50 PERHAPS, SO WHAT ?, IF I'M GOING TO PAY 829 BELIEVE ME I CAN PAY 879.

COST IS NOT A REAL APPLE CONCERN

 

[kwarren]

1. FLASH SUPPORT MORE COST?????WHAT ARE YOU TAKING ABOUT??????
2.- NEW APPLE PROCESSOR VS WELL KNOWN PROCESSOR????ADDITIONAL COST????? ARE YOU READING MY POST OR SOMEBODY ELSES???
3.- I'LL GIVE YOU THIS ONE. YES EXTRA COST FOR THE WEBCAM $50 PERHAPS, SO WHAT ?, IF I'M GOING TO PAY 829 BELIEVE ME I CAN PAY 879.

COST IS NOT A REAL APPLE CONCERN

Dudeeeeee, take a chill pill for Christ's sake!

Cost is concern to everyone. Last time I checked, Apple was a company with stockholders and a profit margin to maintain and/or build upon. If I misunderstood and you meant that consumers don't care about cost when dealing with an Apple product, you're still wrong--most consumers have budgets, especially the ones this product seems to be aimed at: college kids (textbooks, note-taking, etc.), older folks who are perhaps intimidated by the iPhone, and those who want a 2nd Apple product/a portable web-browsing/media device for the home. If it were a primary device, I could see paying $X amount extra, but when it's absolutely not going to be your only computer-esque gadget in the house, you cannot expect people to just empty their pockets for what they consider to be something that will be their secondary tech item.

As an aside, you guys do realize that everything that's being said about the iPad today is exactly what was said about the iPod when it first launched, right? Lots of complaining about how there are better products on the market, Apple shouldn't have gotten in to the market, it's going to fail, etc. Everything is a mirror image of the iPod's launch, right down to making fun of the product's name.

Bottom-line is if you don't like it or don't have a use for it, don't freakin' buy it. Stevie J isn't going to be crying himself to sleep at night because forum members on MacRumors didn't like his product and wish it had this or that feature. This will sell millions: it's competitively priced, has a great user interface, and, most importantly, it's made by Apple. That's truly all that matters--people see an Apple product and they lust after it, no matter how horrible you fools who live in dreamworlds where every product is exactly what YOU want may think it is. It's a first generation product and we know that first gen products have to leave room for improvement or a potentially steady revenue source will flatline after a few months.

 

[little.pm]

Bottom-line is if you don't like it or don't have a use for it, don't freakin' buy it. Stevie J isn't going to be crying himself to sleep at night because forum members on MacRumors didn't like his product and wish it had this or that feature.

totally agree.

The iPad is not meant to be a computer as its not a product for nerds but for people who don't need/want a(nother) computer. The iPad seems to successfully disguise itself as not being a computer - As even the IPods do.

People will buy it for what it does and what they can do with it and not what it really is.

And thats what Apple is very good at: the ease of use. (Besides other qualities of course.)

The IPad in this way is going to create a new market which only slightly overlaps with MP3 Players or Laptops or even Desktop Computers. But they will rule this market and in that one a (sub)netbook has no chance to make a stand.

Its gonna kill those Kindles, my beloved IPod Touch, the portable DVD-Players, the hardcover calendars and planners, some print shops and maybe some more.

But in the end, the IPad has all it needs to become successfull.

 

[AppleGuy1980]

No Flash. No Go. They'll sell like 4500 of the things total before people realize that an extra-large iPod Touch just isn't worth $500.

 

[Nordichund]

According to the Guardian newspaper it is not a screen you can comfortably read books like "War and Peace". Maybe for the younger generation who have never bought a CD in their life, this could be the future for buying books. Not for me though.

Since the Murdoch press, New York Times and other publishing media are desperate to raise revenue and sell their product, teaming up with Apple in a deal like this means positive reviews for the iPad.

For myself I cannot see my buying right now. Maybe when it has a few upgrades and can do more like my MBP can on the move it might be interesting.

I can see kids loving it for gaming though.

 

[carmenodie]

Lack of multitasking is a real pain. Hopefully this will get fixed in a software update soon. Lack of a camera is worse, and will likely make me hold off. Maybe..... I really want something that I can use without wanting to pull out my laptop - if I'm on skype, I want a camera. Which will make me want to drag my laptop out, which defeats the purpose of having this product in my mind at the moment. Maybe a docking peripheral?? But not really adequate.

namestagexpress

totally agree.

The iPad is not meant to be a computer as its not a product for nerds but for people who don't need/want a(nother) computer. The iPad seems to successfully disguise itself as not being a computer - As even the IPods do.

People will buy it for what it does and what they can do with it and not what it really is.

And thats what Apple is very good at: the ease of use. (Besides other qualities of course.)

The IPad in this way is going to create a new market which only slightly overlaps with MP3 Players or Laptops or even Desktop Computers. But they will rule this market and in that one a (sub)netbook has no chance to make a stand.

Its gonna kill those Kindles, my beloved IPod Touch, the portable DVD-Players, the hardcover calendars and planners, some print shops and maybe some more.

But in the end, the IPad has all it needs to become successfull.

Preach it brother! Good lawd! take me to church. AHHHHHHHHH!
And I really feel that a lot of the comments on here are from corporate foes.
Apple has the chips, the OS and the talent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can we say iFad?

No, lets say Apple has its own microchips, OS and a deep talent pool. You haters need to be very afraid cause Apple isn't like your trolling window vendors. Apple is gonna make it rain!!!!! The devs are going to make it rain.

And this is what still puzzles me.
I personally cannot see how this is a 'Computer".
While I'm sure it will be fine for people who under use a computer to surf the web, get mail and gain access to media of most (no Flash) sorts. It just ain't a computer.
You can't do computer things with it like sort files, save and export stuff, paint, edit video, etc, etc.
When it does all of that then it's a computer, until then it's a device yet to be categorized.
As some other poster stated, this is the future. That's as maybe...but of what?

Get real! My G shock is a computer. Go to Wikipedia for clarification on computers and stop dumbfounding yourself.

too bad they will need a real computer to sync it too

If you knew tech you would have not said that. You failed so bad it is a shame you haven't hidden away for a thousand years.

 

[John Purple]

Waiting for iPad 3.0

No camera (= no iChat / Skype etc. - no VoIP??)
No MacOS (???? -> only apps filtered by iTunes!!)
eBooks & newspapers only by iTunesStore (greetings from George Orwell)
No multitasking (uuuaaah)
64GB for $ 999 (Utilization of capacity on my iPod today > 64GB - music, audiobooks and few selected movies only)
Handheld? How to type?
Kneeheld? Watch your b**ls!
Flat on the table? Funny moviewatching!

 

[kwarren]

No camera (= no iChat / Skype etc. - no VoIP??)
No MacOS (???? -> only apps filtered by iTunes!!)
eBooks & newspapers only by iTunesStore (greetings from George Orwell)
No multitasking (uuuaaah)
64GB for $ 999 (Utilization of capacity on my iPod today > 64GB - music, audiobooks and few selected movies only)
Handheld? How to type?
Kneeheld? Watch your b**ls!
Flat on the table? Funny moviewatching!

K, don't buy it.

 

[sassenach74]

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)

too bad they will need a real computer to sync it too

If you knew tech you would have not said that. You failed so bad it is a shame you haven't hidden away for a thousand years.

But you will need a computer running iTunes to sync to......,,,,,....

 

[toke lahti]

...running a truly astounding OS capable of playing HD video...

Doesn't matter if it can play HD video when it can't show it. Not with its own screen or output to another.

iPad is just as HD as iPod.

How exactly does the iPad "blow" the Kindle out of the water?

There is this thing called "color".
And many people seem to like it.
Have you seen lot of b/w magazines in last decades?

Kindle is good only for reading novels. With iPad you can enjoy almost everything that used to get printed.

 

[rhyslewis13]

Im a bit underwhelmed to be honest.

Yes it's sexy, but I think it will be awkward to use, and i'm not sure I see a real need for it in between my 3GS and MBP.

Disappointed at the lack of cameras, odd screen ratio, lack of multitasking and lack of HD res.

Interesting to see that apple are taking notice of jailbreaking functionality however, implementing the home page background for example.

I think the only way to make this product a success would be to pitch it as a netbook replacement; In its current form, it is only a big ipod touch and not a netbook replacement and still requires a home computer to sync etc - major flaw in my opinion. Once they make a device that requires no mothership I may become interested.

Although sexy to look at, i don't really see the design innovation that apple is renowned for - it basically looks like the screen of my 13' MBP with the aluminium back...

Anyway, that's my rant over. Look forward to seeing future iterations of this device.

 

[guet]

Of particular note, Apple is planning to feature iPad games in a separate section of the App Store, leading to questions about whether users with both an iPad and iPhone/iPod touch will have to purchase two separate applications or whether developers will be able to find a way to "bundle" versions together for the two device sizes.

This is a misinterpretation. The future is pretty clearly in Universal apps which work on both devices. You can build one app which works on any size screen with the SDK pretty easily.

So games etc will initially be double scaled as a stop-gap solution, but eventually are expected to run at full resolution (after they've adapted any artwork/images/resources as required etc for the new size).

All Apple mean here is that they're going to highlight those developers who take the time to convert to the iPad format on their store - eventually they're hoping everyone will offer their app for both devices.

 

[toke lahti]

Lastly, there’s the fact that the iPad is using a new CPU designed and made by Apple itself: the Apple A4. This is a huge deal.

Is iPad the only consumer ITC product that one company handles the whole ecosystem from designing the chip to OS and apps and content distribution?

I think that there's no problem iPad being just oversized iTouch. That's just what I wanted. And a bit nicer aspect ratio and more resolution...

Also pretty stupid that you have to buy a dongle to use sd-card. Nokia has microSD slot in even the smallest phones, so there's no technical reason to not have it.

But if I can't tether its internal 3G to my laptop, I won't buy it. I'm not gonna pay for multiple data plans.

 

[little.pm]

Im a bit underwhelmed to be honest.

Yes it's sexy, but I think it will be awkward to use, and i'm not sure I see a real need for it in between my 3GS and MBP.

Disappointed at the lack of cameras, odd screen ratio, lack of multitasking and lack of HD res.

Interesting to see that apple are taking notice of jailbreaking functionality however, implementing the home page background for example.

I think the only way to make this product a success would be to pitch it as a netbook replacement; In its current form, it is only a big ipod touch and not a netbook replacement and still requires a home computer to sync etc - major flaw in my opinion. Once they make a device that requires no mothership I may become interested.

Although sexy to look at, i don't really see the design innovation that apple is renowned for - it basically looks like the screen of my 13' MBP with the aluminium back...

Anyway, that's my rant over. Look forward to seeing future iterations of this device.

reading your feature wish list you seem to already have what yo want : a MacBook

 

[toke lahti]

Sorry but listening to customers is a bag of hurt.

BIT! (=best it thread)

Have you forgotten The Great Macbook FireWire Debacle of '08 already?

Have you forgotten ongoing debacle about matte screens, taking away expandability (=express card), not having blu-ray, usb3, eSata, etc...

 

[kwarren]

Have you forgotten ongoing debacle about matte screens, taking away expandability (=express card), not having blu-ray, usb3, eSata, etc...

Dude, if you don't like something, don't buy it! It's a simple concept, really. Nobody's forcing you to buy an Apple product.

 

[Philsy]

Good summary here http://www.icreatemagazine.com/appl...agine-publishing/comment-page-1/#comment-2392

 

[toke lahti]

Dude, if you don't like something, don't buy it! It's a simple concept, really. Nobody's forcing you to buy an Apple product.

If I want to use OsX and software that I've spent a lot of money and time to learn to use them and they work only in OsX, Apple is forcing me to buy their hardware.
I just wish that they would be a bit less ignorant and greedy and a bit more ecological. Taking away expandability is not good when half of computers' co2 footprint cames before it gets to be used.

 

[kwarren]

If I want to use OsX and software that I've spent a lot of money and time to learn to use them and they work only in OsX, Apple is forcing me to buy their hardware.
I just wish that they would be a bit less ignorant and greedy and a bit more ecological. Taking away expandability is not good when half of computers' co2 footprint cames before it gets to be used.

Try something called a Hackintosh, then.

As for Apple's ecological impact, um, they do a pretty damn good job with keeping their products as green as possible.

 

[little.pm]

If I want to use OsX and software that I've spent a lot of money and time to learn to use them and they work only in OsX, Apple is forcing me to buy their hardware.
I just wish that they would be a bit less ignorant and greedy and a bit more ecological. Taking away expandability is not good when half of computers' co2 footprint cames before it gets to be used.

Be happy you didn't learn Solaris only
Besides, Cisco IOS is also proprietary and will only run on their hardware.

Who forced you to learn on a Mac in the first place?

Besides, "Hackintosh" solutions might look nice, but running any Mac OS on non Apple Hardware is not allowed by the Software license. So finally You end up with an illegal installation of MacOs.

Mac's and Mac OS where always and will be for people to do some stuff with software but not with screwdrivers.

If you love freedom then go to the FSF and pick what you like, take Debian, BSD or whatever.

Um, would it be legal to run the X-Box System on any other hardware?

No.

Sorry, but "you just can't come in and ask for biscuits".

 

[ipadsad]

Besides, "Hackintosh" solutions might look nice, but running any Mac OS on non Apple Hardware is not allowed by the Software license. So finally You end up with an illegal installation of MacOs.

Mac's and Mac OS where always and will be for people to do some stuff with software but not with screwdrivers.

If you love freedom then go to the FSF and pick what you like, take Debian, BSD or whatever.

Um, would it be legal to run the X-Box System on any other hardware?

No.

An "illegal installation???" OH NO!! IT'S SO SCARY!!!! Hackintosh the world and to hell with apples legal BS!!!! It's the only thing that made the iphone a real computer and worth anything.

 

[sOwL]

As i mentioned on an earlier post, i would like this better if it actually ran OSX rather than a tweaked iphone os. A good point to counter my opinion though is that this device is the easiest way to browse any kind of stuff, even easier than using an actual mac (or pc for that matter). I would prefer buying a macbook over this, or some tablet running OSX, but i just thought how someone like my mom would appreciate such a thing, being able to do so many things without having to get too techie - everything seems to work with plain logic and ease.



PS: the comment about my mom SHOULD NOT make anyone think that my point is that the device is for guys like my mom lol, but i just figured how convenient such a device would be to that part of the group

 

[ipadsad]

As i mentioned on an earlier post, i would like this better if it actually ran OSX rather than a tweaked iphone os. A good point to counter my opinion though is that this device is the easiest way to browse any kind of stuff, even easier than using an actual mac (or pc for that matter). I would prefer buying a macbook over this, or some tablet running OSX, but i just thought how someone like my mom would appreciate such a thing, being able to do so many things without having to get too techie - everything seems to work with plain logic and ease.



PS: the comment about my mom SHOULD NOT make anyone think that my point is that the device is for guys like my mom lol, but i just figured how convenient such a device would be to that part of the group

It's for OLD PEOPLE and people with a low IQ (and PERHAPS for smart people that can hack it and fix apples big mistakes)

 

[sOwL]

It's for OLD PEOPLE and people with a low IQ (and PERHAPS for smart people that can hack it and fix apples big mistakes)

Haha well be sure that its going to be jailbroken soon. Apple is surely getting greedy and makes closed products. They made this thing using iphone OS just so more people will use the appstore, and now the brand new iBook store (bleh). I wouldn't buy my iPod touch if i wasnt able to hack it.. I see this forum flooded by requests for things like "multitasking??". JAILBREAK IT GUYS! Multitasking has been available to jailbroken devices since a long long time ago. I know, its not out of the box, its not official, blah blah... But who cares, i now have a device i love, and without stupid apple restrictions