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iPad SDK 3.2 Details: External Display, File Sharing System, No Multitasking

Don't hate me...

Peeps on this board...

I've been working on Macs for almost 25 years. Recently (especially), I've been impressed in the true "innovation" that has been an integral thread of their products.

I gotta say, today's announcement, and the subsequent unveiling of the new iPad is (well, honestly) underwhelming at best. I wanted it to be truly "revolutionary." I may not be their target audience, but that's the way I saw it. All the hype, all the technological effluvia that comes along with a new product... now, after I've seen it, it's kinda (well, honestly) boring. I'm certainly not going to buy it. I'm sure that there are many who will, but it's not what I would consider "stunning or necessary."

All in all, very disappointed. Not critical for me (mainly because it does not affect me too much), but truly, unimpressed overall (and that is remarkable, because I am an Apple afficianado).

This time, I'm not aligned with the hype from Apple at all, IMO.

Thoughts?
 
This thing is full of fail w/o any sort of multitasking. :(

Also, a miniUSB port and front facing camera would have been nice.
 
At the moment it is a luxury item. What I'm really interested in is what it is like in a year and a half after the first revision and after developers have a really good chance to explore this new medium. Then we will really know the potential of such a device.
 
Apple will sell every single iPad they build. Will the world change? Probably not but I know a whole bunch of printers and publishers that are scrambling right now to figure out how to get on the bus or be left at the station for good.
 
spiglet said:
Peeps on this board...

I've been working on Macs for almost 25 years. Recently (especially), I've been impressed in the true "innovation" that has been an integral thread of their products.

I gotta say, today's announcement, and the subsequent unveiling of the new iPad is (well, honestly) underwhelming at best. I wanted it to be truly "revolutionary." I may not be their target audience, but that's the way I saw it. All the hype, all the technological effluvia that comes along with a new product... now, after I've seen it, it's kinda (well, honestly) boring. I'm certainly not going to buy it. I'm sure that there are many who will, but it's not what I would consider "stunning or necessary."

All in all, very disappointed. Not critical for me (mainly because it does not affect me too much), but truly, unimpressed overall (and that is remarkable, because I am an Apple afficianado).

This time, I'm not aligned with the hype from Apple at all, IMO.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I felt exactly the same way. I reacted to the keynote with a "meh" and even found myself chuckling when Steve and friends were throwing around terms like "magical" and "revolutionary". What this announcement did do was to make me feel that much better about my iPhone 3GS (ultra portable form factor, camera, SMS, etc.)
 
Good enough to get two

I'll likely pick up the wifi one asap, then get the 3g one a month later and hand down the wifi one to the wife.

For what it is for, surfing the web, reading email, playing games, watching video, I'm perfectly happy. Those are some of the primary applications I use my 17" mbp. This will be way better than using my iPhone on the 30 minute bus to work.

This will be the premier hardware to have for long flights. The 10 hour battery life is fantastic. The size is just right for using in an airplane seat. Using a 17" laptop on a plane is pretty hard.

As for multitasking, I am not worried. Safari does not need to run in the background when I am reading mail. Both of them keep state when they are not running.. in that when I reopen safari, it remembers all my tabs and depending on memory, still has content in cache.

When I am playing a game, I might be listening to music, but personally, I never listen to streaming music. I have enough of my own that I don't run out.

As for flash, screw flash. Standards based web technology is the way to go. Flash is written and owned by one company. HTML5 and H.264 are open standards. The iPad will hopefully push more content sources into offering open standard versions of their site.

A benefit is that when I am not using it, like when I get to work, I can dock it and have a beautiful digital photo display. The price is amazingly comparable to a plain photo frame.. Being "only" 5x the price, but 100x the features (wifi, 3g, apps) makes it a good deal.
 
ok i think i may wait until a 2nd gen comes out with lesser bezel because that is rediculous.

all in all, i still want one but geez come on Apple, you can do a bit better
 
The 3G version of the iPad is 90 days away so it won't be released before May.

But when it gets released in May wouldn't most people just wait one more month for the release of the iPhone 4G instead? :confused:
 
zacman said:
The 3G version of the iPad is 90 days away so it won't be released before May.

But when it gets released in May wouldn't most people just wait one more month for the release of the iPhone 4G instead? :confused:
Click to expand...

You realize they aren't the same device, right?
 
peterjhill said:
I'll likely pick up the wifi one asap, then get the 3g one a month later and hand down the wifi one to the wife.

For what it is for, surfing the web, reading email, playing games, watching video, I'm perfectly happy. Those are some of the primary applications I use my 17" mbp. This will be way better than using my iPhone on the 30 minute bus to work.

This will be the premier hardware to have for long flights. The 10 hour battery life is fantastic. The size is just right for using in an airplane seat. Using a 17" laptop on a plane is pretty hard.

As for multitasking, I am not worried. Safari does not need to run in the background when I am reading mail. Both of them keep state when they are not running.. in that when I reopen safari, it remembers all my tabs and depending on memory, still has content in cache.

When I am playing a game, I might be listening to music, but personally, I never listen to streaming music. I have enough of my own that I don't run out.

As for flash, screw flash. Standards based web technology is the way to go. Flash is written and owned by one company. HTML5 and H.264 are open standards. The iPad will hopefully push more content sources into offering open standard versions of their site.

A benefit is that when I am not using it, like when I get to work, I can dock it and have a beautiful digital photo display. The price is amazingly comparable to a plain photo frame.. Being "only" 5x the price, but 100x the features (wifi, 3g, apps) makes it a good deal.
Click to expand...

so .. don't forget about the IM , Push Notification is good but not enought
in so such big screen device !! you don't wanna send a message while you are browsing ? you want to swap the application and see the IM loading screen again ?
 
iPad Pros & Cons (What am I missing?)

PROS:

-WiFi
-3G
-Bluetooth
-No Contract
-Gorgeous Display
-Unlocked
-Multi-Touch
-iPad Keyboard Dock
-Beginning to a great path of Apple products


CONS:

-No camera on front or back (how could they leave this out when iPhones & Macbooks both have cameras? biggest disappointment. if it had front & back cameras, I'd grab it.)
-Only 64GB (for a device of it's size, 64 GB seems way too 2009. 128GB would have been more like it)
-No Flash support in Safari (come on now. we've waited long enough, haven't we? how can it be the best web experience without flash support?)
-No phone/sms/mms support (as far as we know, we can't use iPad as a phone yet. why not? it's fully capable. could use speakerphone, headphones, or bluetooth headset.)
-No additional landscape dock connector (there should definitely be an additional dock connector, especially for when using your iPad Keyboard Dock. Now we are forced to use the keyboard dock without iPad ever being in landscape mode, which is what we are used to with our MacBooks)
-No multitasking (it's about time this changes, don't you think? especially on a "revolutionary" product)
-No wireless syncing with iTunes (not a deal breaker, but it would be nice)
-AT&T only (it is unlocked, so hopefully this will change by the time it ships?)
 
Crippled....

I just will never, ever understand why Apple shoots themselves in the foot....but they seem to do it with nearly every product. Something is always missing....like a Firewire 800 port on a high end PB or a drive or something....

The lack of a camera on the iPad, (and yes, the name is stupid and not up to their usual standards...) seems insane to me...and it seems like the simplest thing to implement. I mean, he's a thing that supposed to represent the absolute bleeding edge of multimedia devices, yet no camera? Explain that to me?

I'll let others debate the lack of Flash support, but the camera thing just mystifies me.....

It may be the "next big thing," but my sense it might just be the "world's biggest iPhone."
 
at work we were laughing at how only idiots would try to take pictures with this thing. i have my iphone to take pictures outside. i would look stupid running after my son with a 10" iPad to take a picture

but a webcam would have been nice for skype calls. it's like apple wants you to buy multiple apple devices for functionality you can get in one Windows Netbook
 
about the lack of camera

It seems it would be easy to make a case for this that had a built in dock connector and a camera.

I'd imagine that just like the iphone 3gs, where apple opened up the dock connector to hardware developers, the same would be true with the ipad.

If you really want a camera, it would be easy to add one to a case. They could even make it swivel from front to back, like some laptops. The thing is, that many people buying this will already have an iphone with a camera. I'd rather take a picture with my iphone than try to hold up this 1.5 pound thing to take a picture.

As for video, you'd almost want it to do live video stabilization. Otherwise you'd make anyone watching the video sick if you were trying to hold the ipad.

I wonder if part of the reason for lack of camera is that Steve did not want to pick which side to put the camera. Front or back and then short side or long side.

I'd like to see an nice DSLR tethering app with this. Can you imagine a live view of your dslr sensor with the ability to touch to set focus or white balance? that would be awesome. Plus the ability to feed GPS data back to the camera. Sure, you'd need to have your camera on a tripod, but for macro work, it would be freaking awesome.

I also don't mind the 4x3 aspect ratio. I just picked up a Panasonic GH1 micro 4/3rds camera, so all my pictures are going to be in that aspect ratio.
 
lifeinhd said:
No. A college student with a fully functional brain would not want one of these.
Click to expand...

You're probably right, since my guess is that most high school & college students will need a full-fledged file system, multiple apps like Word, PowerPoint, Excel and/or the iWork equivalents, access to multiple uploaded and downloaded files, access to printers, ability to read/burn CDRs, etc.. The iPad clearly doesn't replace a laptop when used as a primary computer; even the MacBook Air would be better in almost all these respects than the iPad.

It will, however, allow me (long since out of college) to get some work done in a more usable form factor than either my iPhone or my BlackBerry and with less bulk than my 13" MacBook. For example, I need to manage a significant amount of email, read PDF files, work on Keynote presentations and Word files (which, hopefully, the iPad version of Pages will handle). Presumably there will eventually be an iPad full-featured version of Documents To Go or (if the planets align just right) a version of Microsoft Office or OpenOffice. Plus, web surfing on the sofa or at a cafe... Taping out 15-20 emails at a time on the BlackBerry or iPhone ain't fun.

Now, obviously you can't slip it into your pocket like an iPhone. But for many people it can replace a laptop as a second computer. Much like people said the MacBook Air is a good secondary machine.

If I can do the tasks I need on the iPad - and it looks like I should from what I've seen so far) - I can see having this with me more frequently than I have my MacBook (which, including bag, charger and other misc. items, weighs in at 7+ lbs.). Aside from the lack of Adobe Flash, which I can kinda live without, I'm thinking the iPad can replace my laptop more than 50% of the time. And that may be just enough to make it worthwhile (as in cost-effective) for me.

And, I don't know if anyone noticed, but there will be an photo SD card reader for the iPad. There's a picture of it on the Apple iPad site. So I wont even necessarily need to pre-load the iPad with images I'd need for my Keynote work - just keep the iPad SD card reader in my car and copy the necessary images from my desktop to an SD card.

While I am a little disappointed about the apparent lack of true multitasking, the fact that there will be a shared directory into which one can copy files to be used by any app makes things so, so much nicer. Fill it up with PDF versions of scientific/medical articles I need and I'm good to go for weeks.

I think I'll be picking up a 64GB 3G version :) (though the lack of Verizon is kind of a downer).

As for the lack of front-facing camera, I betcha some company will make one that plugs into the dock connector and sells a Skype-compatible app for it.
 
Idiots? Maybe, until everyone's doing it.

alent1234 said:
at work we were laughing at how only idiots would try to take pictures with this thing
Click to expand...

If it had a 5MP camera with flash, you'd definitely be one of those "idiots".
And, why not have a front-facing camera to do video chat? This product deserves that. I'm disappointed at Apple.
 
RE: I reacted the same way...

Garissimo said:
I felt exactly the same way. I reacted to the keynote with a "meh" and even found myself chuckling when Steve and friends were throwing around terms like "magical" and "revolutionary". What this announcement did do was to make me feel that much better about my iPhone 3GS (ultra portable form factor, camera, SMS, etc.)
Click to expand...


So, before I flamed... I am writing this message from my (absolutely trusted and wonderful Powerbook Core 2 Duo (which I adore). I love my Macs, but this was an unimpressive day. Again, it may not matter because I may be looking at it from an angle that may not affect me, but I generally think "more" from the great minds of Apple.

Will it work? Of course. Is it a little different? Yes, but now "wow." Does it do something that is considered greater than the existing iPhone or other similar product? Not really, just bigger.

Will they sell them? Yes, unbelievably. But, that's fine. If there are those with the cash to buy this, fine. It's just not what I'd consider "necessary" with all the other similar products out there.

Just sayin.
 
alent1234 said:
at work we were laughing at how only idiots would try to take pictures with this thing. i have my iphone to take pictures outside. i would look stupid running after my son with a 10" iPad to take a picture
Click to expand...

It's not "taking pictures" that would be important (yes, it might be the worst form factor for that in history -- after a 8 x 10 view camera :)) but shooting video / conferencing with it would be great....
 
spillproof said:
As a college student I would want the ability to run the textbook app (iBook?), Pages, and Safari. The "no multitasking" is the biggest letdown for me.

So much for me getting one. :(
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm sure that transition in and out of those applications and tapping one of those four items which you've set to your dock would be a huge pain. I'm positive it would take at least... 3 seconds to move from one app to another.
 
satty said:
I know people here will have a good laugh now, but in my opinion this is the start of the end of the PC - as we know it - at home. This is probably the next evolutionary step in computing....
Click to expand...

spiglet said:
Peeps on this board...

This time, I'm not aligned with the hype from Apple at all, IMO.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I come back to my previous post and an article I just saw on the net (unfortunately for most of you in German): The age of the PC is over

This could be one of the biggest things ever in home computing and I'm looking forward to Microsoft's answer to this - Windows Mobile 7?
Maybe there will be similar devices on Linux basis.
Of course, it could turn out that the home user doesn't want this product. It could be ahead of its time.
 
thehellobob said:
Yeah, I'm sure that transition in and out of those applications and tapping one of those four items which you've set to your dock would be a huge pain. I'm positive it would take at least... 3 seconds to move from one app to another.
Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty funny he didn't mention any apps that actually need to "do" anything in the background :) (and of course since safari does run in the background, switching back to that would be even faster).
 
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