Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad Camera Connection Kit Shipping in Late April
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
You're kidding me, right? Apple products are getting worse? Numbers talk and you know what walks.
But OK.....
Did you watch the keynote? They listed seven things they are primarily chasing after. It is about 7 minutes in: 7:00 - 8:00 where Jobs enumerates the list. Casting doubts as to what Apple targeted the device to is clueless.
For some watching the video would be extremely informative evidently, but here is the list:
(web) Browsing , Email , (viewing, sharing onscreen) Photos, Video , Music , Games , eBooks
The web page also hits most of them: http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/
That wasn't on the list. So surprise!! it isn't being targeted by Apple. So it doesn't handle that issue "out of the box".
There is a small disconnect between a touch sensor with resolution to track stylus point and bigger, stubbier fingers.
Can buy somewhat quirky stylus though that will work. ( the target point is larger so either have weird transparent, offset target so can see what doing or it is like writing with fat, stubby pen. ). The biggest missing feature is a more words + sketches + formulas ( for example technical, science, math like lecture material ) application.
The Notes apps isn't it. At this point OneNote is way out in front of what Apple has for iPad.
Later version may come tackle that issue later or perhaps a 3rd party will adequately fill it. We'll see.
A SD card is what? 1.5mm thick
Sorry I don't buy the there is not room theory.
They managed to fit a big connector in the base, there could have been a SL slot next to it.
And here I thought a rumors forum was primarily about discussing the validity, accuracy , and/or agenda/motivations of the rumors.
Folks have turned this into.
Fan boy war : "Mac cultist " vs. "PC culitist" who can sling the most outrageous FUD and reality distortion .
Cultist complance zone ... distribute kool-aid in hopes of brain washing readers over the long term.
Astroturf zone ( hype or bash some broad range of product "ATI is evil" "Nvidia is evil " "Intel IGP is evil" " AMD is the devil " , etc. ). The subvariant of that is the Stock trader spinner... Apple is great and/or should screw the crap out customers as much as possible (e.g., "I'm long on AAPL") or Apple is doomed or should cut more corners, but isn't (e.g., "I'm short on AAPL" )
Self centered whiner central.... "If I ran Apple, I would make
'blah blah blah blah' because the product I want is the most important possible one in the world relative to anyone else." Those other folks aren't as "creative"/"gifted"/"professional"/"entitled" as I am.
The quality (of design and manufacturing) is much worse - as compared to G5's for instance.
I would like it if it had a stylus support (and an appropriate app to take notes) and at least a card reader and a single USB port. What I am doing here is
1) trying to learn about some features of the iPad which would make it worth buying (Apple does not publish (full) specs, often people figure out things that can be done)
2) the holy Steve often reads discussions like this one, so at least he may see that not every customer is happy with where Apple is going
Is all the students / scholars in the world just me? And by the way, I do not usually do theoretical physics research in my mother's basement, kid
How about the Apple minimalist theory? Maybe they just don't want any more connectors or slots and figured a majority of people wouldn't use an SD slot anyway, and for those who do, there is a dongle available.
In our house, all of the cameras use CF cards, but personally, I don't think we'll be wanting to directly transfer from the camera to the iPad very often.
I did watch the keynote. What a disappointment. All the things you are listing can be done on a notebook (or a 5-year-old tablet).
I know about those products. Such a stylus is too thick. A thinner one is not allowed by the touch technology used in iPad. Therefore, no 3rd party miracle will happen.
Thanks for the great laugh! You said in a few words that I've been thinking for years reading this site.
Did you overlook the fact that connector is relatively shallow? It isn't just the edge it is also how deep inside of the device the slot body mechanism goes. Likewise more wider holes in close proximity on the same edge will have an impact on rigidity. Have already pokes holes on the right for the speaker output.
I'm afraid not. I have the same iPod connector and it doesn't work with the iPhone 3Gs.
Don't buy your theory either. No card reader and no usb port are design/business choices and they have nothing to do with size, weight and cost. In other words they are iPad features.
WHy not just install the damn camera internally instead of making a kit for it?
Why would I want to use a crappy camera with a tiny lens stuffed into a thin device? Almost anything with a bigger deeper lens would take better photos.
I did.
It's a car with top 5-star safety ratings, but nowhere near as safe as the limo used by the presidential motorcade or as an armoured personnel carrier. It's only a reasonable trade-off with mileage and affordability advantages, not "as safe as possible".
So? You could also do everything on a modern computer on a computer in the 90s. The user interface has started to become the determining factor in computing, instead of raw power or specs. This isn't the 90s.
[sarcasm]
I'm constantly dissapointed by operating systems to live up to new standards. [/sarcasm]
More than you think. Say it's a 10 cent connector (probably more). Production planning wants to sell maybe 10 million units from the current tooling. Surveys say that most customers won't use it, or even notice it missing when they buy one.
Some engineer was told "earn your salary by keeping the production costs down", and did, earning his/her salary a few times over.
Saved more than a million bucks.
Personally, I'd take that to the bank.
Very good categories! I gave them number so if anyone want to complain all they need to do is type #4 and we all know what they mean and we can go on our way...
I would like to suggest a fifth category, which is "I have a reading comprehension impedment and no matter that this was covered in detail in the opening article, here's my Captain Obvious question..."
Now all we need is a short numbered list of responses to the above and we all can scan the forum in seconds picking out the few helpful and truthful bits of information therein.
Not that I don't agree with you, however, it does seem as if Apple is going after the professional market in a stealth mode... by the time the competition catches on, they will realize the boat has left the dock.
I'm suggesting a sixth category: "I'm the only one who understand the matter." Of course both of you are registered by default.
I have doubts you listened to the keynote. It is not that you could do those things, but that the iPad would be better at those things than the current alternatives. Jobs said "better at" upteen times. Since you missed the whole list (your earlier claim that iPad was untargeted), missing that point also isn't all that surprising. Perhaps you could have used your tablet to take notes of the keynote's content then you might be able to recall more of it. As opposed to the whatever you wanted Apple to announce but didn't. Very little in that keynote was surprising. The folks who built up a bunch of delusions about what Apple was doing it was.
You could minimally do all of those things computers 10-12 years ago. For example the IPS panel is likely better at displaying photos than vast majority of those old mobiles and current lowest cost mobile alternatives.
Too thick? People adapt to lots of stuff if want to. The palm stylus were thinner than normal pens. That didn't stop being widely adopted. Slightly thicker wouldn't either. Besides it isn't the grip that is thicker it is really the contact point that is the primary issue.
Can't find it now but someone already has a stylus that puts a clear capacitance disk on the end so that can see the center point of the crosshair on the screen which would allow you to do very fine grain drawing. Otherwise in many cases can adapt to point being slightly occluded.
Apple even thought about this a bit.
http://www.appleinsider.com/article..._stylus_input_contextual_user_interfaces.html
The critical piece is decent note taking software. Folks have built apps which change resolution ( you write in a bigger letters in a box and then when done it is scaled back to normal letter size in the more viewing mode). That is a pain and limits the length of a line to something smaller than the screen width ( 2x expand/reduce cuts the line in half. 4x is worse, 6x worse still. )
It is a catch-22. Not going to get the fine drawing stylus until folks stop settling for zoom draw/write , refocus read , zoom draw/write cycle. The iPad should help with that bit more than the iPhone did. If don't mind lots of pinch/zoom iPhone/Touch is just fine for precision work.
Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.80 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/5.0.17405/1092; U; en) Presto/2.4.15)
I second that. Third party manufacturers listen! Ipad CF adapter!
azcoyote said:
I second that. Third party manufacturers listen! Ipad CF adapter!
It's the classic "Innovator's Dilemma" story. The just-good-enough consumer item, given major volume/cost advantages, will (maybe not so) gradually eat into the bulk of the former professional item market, eventually leaving, if anything, just a tiny and gold-plated specialty niche.
Any chance the iPad will interface with Eye-Fi SD cards one day? That would get round the crappy, small camera problem.
I like the idea of a note taking app that allows you to import pictures & pdfs and write over them. Some sort of wireless print-to-iPad function like the iPhone already has (with a third party app) + camera import would be neat.
I like the idea of a note taking app that allows you to import pictures & pdfs and write over them. Some sort of wireless print-to-iPad function like the iPhone already has (with a third party app) + camera import would be neat.
The subset of professionals that spend most of their time consuming content and/or presenting. That, in part, is a subset of browsing if willing to expand the category past "browsing HTML content". Email where you are doing onliner replies like Jobs ( "Yep" , " No that won't work" , etc. ) two finger 'typing' versus classic typing probably doesn't make that much of a difference.
iWork as mostly a reader of content or last minute, small edits of content. Sure it will work. However, if want to be cloud connected MS Office is going onto the web in a lightweight edition. It would work on anything with a modern browser. If have hard drive can put real version (or competing OpenOffice on). I don't see how iWork-for-iPad sneaks up on Office. It is already there and deployed on competing devices.
Same is true for almost all other professional application that currently exist and are deployed on Windows/MacOS X. It is only when folks are really only using a subset of the power typically there that the iPhoneOS alternative really has a clear advantage. In those content can shed physical baggage (device weight) and app baggage ( features not using anyway)
I think that is exactly why they didn't put iWork in the top 7. It is more a deficiency filling in ( awkward readers of canonical formats ) than a primary strength.
However, there is real issue if going to spend tons of time typing where the iPad will not differentiate itself not as well. It is not clearly better to have to deal with a keyboard dock if spend lots of time typing on the road.
Likewise if need to tote around large GB of storage it really isn't the best device.