People wan't this machine too be something it is not meant to be, it has always been a media consumption device - not creation. A lot of this arguing is pointless based on this notion. I am personally happy that I am not being forced to pay for the addition of a webcam, who really uses it enough to justify that? It's what your host computer is for. Most people use a webcam to talk to a relative or friend once a week because they live over seas. I think this goes for a lot of the additions people really want this to have.
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iPad Camera Connection Kit Notes and Demo Video
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Several good reasons were given. If you add SD, why not CF? Or any of the other 10 memory card formats out there? And if someone comes up with a new one, the iPad becomes useless?
As for USB, what happens when USB 3 comes out and the USB 3 devices don't work? People call Apple. Not to mention that only a tiny percentage of USB devices make any sense at all on an iPad - so Apple would be spending countless hours explaining why any given device won't work. Not to mention, of course, the software overhead of supporting 1 million USB devices.
Why not a trackball? Or multibutton game controller? Or HD videocam? Or 10" subwoofer and high performance speakers? How about a 200 watt audio amplifier? Apple should have been able to add all those things, right?
Why is it that you whiners don't ever get it - yet keep complaining about the same things. Apple is focusing on ease of use, simplicity, and functionality (not to be confused with featuritis). In many cases, that means distilling a product down to what is really NEEDED, not all the 10,000 features that someone might want to add. And consumers are responding.
If you want to build a slate with USB ports, SD, CF, VGA, a modem, perhaps a serial and parallel port for kicks (after all, SOMEONE might want them), go ahead and do so. But don't expect Apple to clutter up a high quality, well-liked device to suit your whims.
They are? Where has it been said that Apple is lowing money on it? Most of the gripes (equally incorrect) were that Apple was gouging people.
In reality, we don't know Apple's total costs. We do know (thanks to iFixit) the component costs - or at least an estimate thereof. The component costs are somewhere around 50% of the average selling price for the iPad -- which is about what the component costs were for most earlier products. If R&D and overhead costs are similar, it should be roughly as profitable as the iPhone.
Yes, RAW support!
YES, the demo video shows RAW support. The demo shows an SD card from an Olympus EP2 importing ORF images, which is Olympus' RAW file format. THIS IS FANTASTIC NEWS. I shoot RAW with an Olympus e500. It would be nice to have a CF adapter, but as long as the USB adapter imports RAW the same way the SD adapter does I'm happy.
I also like the import UI process. Very quick and intuitive.
LOL, it's easy to miss the important news in the midst of all the USB/card slot bickering.
YES, the demo video shows RAW support. The demo shows an SD card from an Olympus EP2 importing ORF images, which is Olympus' RAW file format. THIS IS FANTASTIC NEWS. I shoot RAW with an Olympus e500. It would be nice to have a CF adapter, but as long as the USB adapter imports RAW the same way the SD adapter does I'm happy.
I also like the import UI process. Very quick and intuitive.
Not quite sure what you mean. This is an iPad running its own Photo app that comes with it not iPhoto or Aperture.
Wow... And they ship you everything in a box for you to built with no OS???
The cost was for separate parts! And don't you forget people got paid to develop this thing. I am not saying that Apple does not make profit out of it but I am more thinking that the margin is very low, and that one reason that there is no cam/USB/SD reader. Plus they give free shipping... Do you think Fedex (or whatever company it is) deliver apple products for free?
Now people will say "They took iPhone OS, it didn't cost them anything". They also had to adapt it to the iPad, they had to have a team woking on it.
not go be that guy but there is enough room in that thing to put a camera and a sd slot and many other things. its just that apple knows people will but the connection kit and they will add these things when new models come out. we all know apple likes to MILK THE CASH COW. but these things are nice to have its not to complicated to just put the photos on ur computer first because u will end up doing that any way. as for a camera its nice to have but i wouldn't use it. that leads me into this, the update in the fall for 4.0 on ipad isnt taking long for no reson. they are probably adding features to make it more like a computer. this will then lead the ipads new models to have all the features we need.
Of course they could have done this with the current ipads but it seems people still dont understand the apple strategies behind any product....the ipad could also have already an integrated camera + card slot etc. but who should buy the next generation ipad then? apple knows there are enough stupid customers who will buy the current ipad + the next gen. Same ****, with the iphone, macbook pros etc....
I don't expect to run out of space on my 64gb iPad soon.I've still got 4gb left on my phone.
The desire of some people for a camera has been recorded.
Eight bazillion times.
Giving it a rest is recommended.
Camera?
It's not a good picture taking device and never will be. Neither is a netbook or laptop. The iPad is a second device to carry with your phone (no, it's not even a phone). If you are mobile and want pics, use a real camera or, for less quality, a phone.
I'm sure Apple tested an iPad with a camera and decided the experience was less than stellar. You'd have to hold the iPad with one hand, compose the shot, then click on the iPad screen to "snap". The iPad is a bit heavy for one hand extended out to compose a shot. Clicking with the other hand would then shake the camera.
It's not a good picture taking device and never will be. Neither is a netbook or laptop. The iPad is a second device to carry with your phone (no, it's not even a phone). If you are mobile and want pics, use a real camera or, for less quality, a phone.
I'm sure Apple tested an iPad with a camera and decided the experience was less than stellar. You'd have to hold the iPad with one hand, compose the shot, then click on the iPad screen to "snap". The iPad is a bit heavy for one hand extended out to compose a shot. Clicking with the other hand would then shake the camera.
No one has claimed it couldn't be done they chose not to.I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a slot in the future either.
Regarding a built-in USB port: USB ports are generally used for devices that live on the desktop. Printers, hard drives, keyboards, etc...all for use on the desktop (or whatever horizontal surface suits you). Based on the design of the iPad, the key feature here is portability. It's designed to be a very portable media delivery device.
iWork and the keyboard dock you say? Isn't that a desktop function? Yes it is. They are also not included as standard features. They are available to the smaller subset of the iPad target users that may need this functionality, without making the majority of the users pay for something that won't ever be used.
Apparently, Apple deemed camera connectivity to be important enough to make it available, but not important enough to dedicate a port to it. Since USB signal lines are already available on the 30-pin connector, the Camera Connection Kit made them available to the subset of iPad users who want to use this feature, without burdening the rest of the users with the engineering cost of adding another port.
If general-purpose USB connectivity is one of your requirements, then you are not the target user Apple is aiming for with the iPad. Go buy a notebook instead. It's that simple, really.
iWork and the keyboard dock you say? Isn't that a desktop function? Yes it is. They are also not included as standard features. They are available to the smaller subset of the iPad target users that may need this functionality, without making the majority of the users pay for something that won't ever be used.
Apparently, Apple deemed camera connectivity to be important enough to make it available, but not important enough to dedicate a port to it. Since USB signal lines are already available on the 30-pin connector, the Camera Connection Kit made them available to the subset of iPad users who want to use this feature, without burdening the rest of the users with the engineering cost of adding another port.
If general-purpose USB connectivity is one of your requirements, then you are not the target user Apple is aiming for with the iPad. Go buy a notebook instead. It's that simple, really.
As others have said, it looks easy. So it does what any Mac can do but requires a kludge adapter for which Apple can charge you.
No excuse for not having an SD card slot. Of course there are other memory card formats out there but that's no excuse for not having an SD card slot. SD cards are the dominant camera memory format at this time. And the life of this iPad 1.0 isn't going to be that long. Version 2 cannot be far behind. If there is a different dominant memory card format by version 2 (unlikely) then include that.
Nice interface though.
No excuse for not having an SD card slot. Of course there are other memory card formats out there but that's no excuse for not having an SD card slot. SD cards are the dominant camera memory format at this time. And the life of this iPad 1.0 isn't going to be that long. Version 2 cannot be far behind. If there is a different dominant memory card format by version 2 (unlikely) then include that.
Nice interface though.
i'm confident you can find someone else to replace your HD for much cheaper than apple's price. you should check craigslist or a local computer shop, it doesn't have to be an official apple repair shop, in fact if it is they would probably charge you the same as apple.
Um,you said your other post was sarcasm,and then proceeded to pretty much say the same thing again.Was that also sarcasm?I'm confused.
The people you need to be asking about Apples design and feature decisions are not on this board,so any answer you get would be rejected by you as speculation.
Emailing SJ is certainly an option.
They mean importing from the iPad to the Mac. I am wondering the same thing, as I use Aperture not iPhoto....
This makes perfect sense.I believe you have brilliantly nailed it!
Now despite that we will continue the whining in3..2..1
The camera kit does open some interesting api's, but its promoted for importing pictures to the ipod.
Other than if I am out of wifi or 3g range why do I need this.
Other than if I am out of wifi or 3g range why do I need this.
So far the only logical voice in this thread. Look Apple wants to make money no doubt, but they do it by making "insanely great" products with healthy fat margins, not by dongling (is a new word for the grammar police) you to death.
If you haven't figured it out yet, the iPhone/iPad and all Apple mobile OS devices have moved away from a file metaphor and will likely never embrace one.
This means bye bye to SD and USB ports. Having an SD card slot or a USB means having a to provide a file manager and having to embrace the file metaphor. Otherwise, you would stick in the SD card and say why can't I find/open this file type, or worse sticking in the SD card and nothing happening because there are no photos on it and there is no file manager. Imagine how confused a user would be. Likewise a USB port would mean you could attach a bunch of peripherals (e.g. GPS) that won't do anything.
This way the added on functionality is clearly defined by the add-on dongle.
Now make no mistake that Apple saw $$ in this approach as well, but I think its just to make money is rather narcissistic and fatalistic. Apple likely has better things to do than just whore you over for $30
So everyone repeat after me...
The file metaphor is dead on Apple's mobile devices.
The file metaphor is dead on Apple's mobile devices.
The file metaphor is dead on Apple's mobile devices.
The adapter Apple sells is a CAMERA ADAPTER,and as such is only supported when used with cameras,even though it is physically a USB port.So,no,it won't"create the same problem".In other words,if you plug a USB humping dog into the camera adapter and it doesn't work,it's not Apple's problem,because you plugged it into a camera adapter,not a USB port,and only cameras are supported by the hardware and operating system.
I have no idea what your last sentence means.
That's all fine and good. Let's just hope Apple keeps that mentality from spreading to OS X.
No it's not.It is physically a USB port,but it is in fact a camera connector.Looks like a couple of things accidentally work through it,probably because Keyboards and audio already use the dock connector.
I'd love to have USB built into the device as many do here, as well as the SD (or SOME external storage slot) as well. However, I do UNDERSTAND why it's missing.
First off, like someone else said, having USB built into the device would cause a lot of consumer confusion because an iPad is NOT a general purpose computer that has device drivers for most devices. Secondly, the iPad does not give the user access to any sort of FILE SYSTEM, so putting an SD slot into this would imply that you can access any type of file directly (like music and videos), and you cannot, which again would lead to confusion. Lastly, adding these things would probably make the device slightly heavier and bigger, and it's already too big and heavy for some to be used as an ebook reader.
Having said that, I would love for the iPad to actually HAVE some type of filing system accessible to the user - for extra external storage of media that can't fit on the device itself (I'm always running out of capacity on my devices). The external storage slot would then make sense. I would also love for a lot more support for external devices such as an audio input interface that I can plug a guitar into or something. However, most USB devices are big already, so if I have to carry around another USB device to plug into the iPad, I certainly don't mind having the USB adapter as a seperate non-built-in item. And I don't really care about the extra $30.
Tony
First off, like someone else said, having USB built into the device would cause a lot of consumer confusion because an iPad is NOT a general purpose computer that has device drivers for most devices. Secondly, the iPad does not give the user access to any sort of FILE SYSTEM, so putting an SD slot into this would imply that you can access any type of file directly (like music and videos), and you cannot, which again would lead to confusion. Lastly, adding these things would probably make the device slightly heavier and bigger, and it's already too big and heavy for some to be used as an ebook reader.
Having said that, I would love for the iPad to actually HAVE some type of filing system accessible to the user - for extra external storage of media that can't fit on the device itself (I'm always running out of capacity on my devices). The external storage slot would then make sense. I would also love for a lot more support for external devices such as an audio input interface that I can plug a guitar into or something. However, most USB devices are big already, so if I have to carry around another USB device to plug into the iPad, I certainly don't mind having the USB adapter as a seperate non-built-in item. And I don't really care about the extra $30.
Tony