iPad thoughts

[deputc26]

Personally once the OLED version comes out I may actually buy an apple product, I gotta admit I'm surprised they're not running a dual core ARM offering like tegra 2 or qualcomm's dual 1.5ghz, cortex a8, 1080p capable, 45nm product. Would like to know how "Apple A4" compares to Cortex A8 and A9. I'm also happy that they put a decent 25Whr battery in it, with 20.83x the capacity of the iPhone's battery I'm surprised the battery life isn't better (I.e. 10 hrs absolutely worst case scenario) I bet the OLED follow up has 30% better bat life as that screen has got to be the primary e- eater.

:$:$:$:$Edit: I didn't even mean to post this as a thread, I typed it out and then went to the apple website to check one last time and found all the info I was looking for (and Lonyo put it below) I came back today and was horrified to see that my ill-informed thread had posted and there were numerous replies lol ah well, it got discussion going I guess. :$:$:$:$

 

[Lonyo]

The details aren't entirely lacking.
It has a 1024x768 resolution 9.7" LED backlit glossy IPS LCD widescreen screen.

That's what Apple say. Don't ask how it's 1024x768 and widescreen, I don't know, that's just what Apple say.
And it supports 720p content. Again, don't ask how that works.


* 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
* 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)

# H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

And no HD output even with dock connector.


And based on checking out one of the pictures on the website, it's 4:3, so it's not a widescreen display at all...

 

[Wag]

No Flash support and no multitasking. Why bother?

 

[hanoverphist]

i cant wait to see people toting these things around malls with neck tethers. what a silly product "innovation"

 

[Bateluer]

Its too large, heavy, and expensive to be an effective e-book reader, I'll say that much. Innovation my ass, they've just increased the size of the iphone/ipod touch. The Kindle is a far better product and I'm hesitant to purchase even that.

 

[robertk2012]

Its too large, heavy, and expensive to be an effective e-book reader, I'll say that much. Innovation my ass, they've just increased the size of the iphone/ipod touch. The Kindle is a far better product and I'm hesitant to purchase even that.

I dont know of too many regular books that weight less. Would sure like to see that kindle handle web browsing and email. I guess the kindle could do let me edit an document or view photos. Oh wait. No it cant.

 

[sygyzy]

robert - why are you comparing it to regular books when it's clearly not. It's an e-book reader so it a comparison to the Kindle (as Bateluer has done) is more fair, no?

 

[rubix]

does the ipad have a sdhc slot?

does it support pdf and txt files?

does it support mp3 and flac files?

does the wifi allow wpa2+aes?

can i plug in the ipad via usb and have it show up as a drive letter in windows to copy files onto it rather than be forced to use some shitty software to "load" files onto it.

 

[disappoint]

When they claim 720p, isn't that 1280x720 res? But the display can't really do that. It's limited to 1024x768.

 

[zerocool84]

No multi-tasking = fail
10hr battery life = fail
No flash support = fail
Price point = fail
That type of screen for ebook reading = fail

 

[rchiu]

Its too large, heavy, and expensive to be an effective e-book reader, I'll say that much. Innovation my ass, they've just increased the size of the iphone/ipod touch. The Kindle is a far better product and I'm hesitant to purchase even that.

Yeah, with iPad's design and form factor, the best use for me if I were to purchase one is to use it as e-book reader. Unfortunately, the battery life is just not comparable to ebook readers on the market.

One can argue that iPad is not designed to be an ebook reader, I would agree and that's unfortunate. There is already lots of alternatives for me to browse web, read emails...etc so iPad doesn't bring too much new to the table, unless you are Apple fanboy who will buy whatever Lord Steve say you need to buy.

 

[pm]

I like my iPhone and I generally keep an open mind about Apple products, but I'm generally underwhelmed. My list of wants that are missing pretty much matches everyone elses'. My primary criticism is that the screen resolution isn't as high as I would prefer. And the lack of Flash support is truly irritating on a device like this where watching something like Hulu would actually make sense.

Like the OP, I'd prefer it in OLED if it really is supposed to act like an e-reader.

 

[mafia]

does the ipad have a sdhc slot?

does it support pdf and txt files?

does it support mp3 and flac files?

does the wifi allow wpa2+aes?

There's an APP for that.

 

[Demo24]

No multi-tasking = fail
10hr battery life = fail
No flash support = fail
Price point = fail
That type of screen for ebook reading = fail

Battery fail? What other devices with a 9" screen can last for 10hrs constantly doing things? For what this is going to be used for that's pretty good actually. Could probably get 2 days worth of use out of it, unless you just used it for an entire day.

I'm not sure why everyone here is comparing it to the kindle when it's not even designed to be an e-book. It just happens to have e-book capabilities. That's like comparing the ipod touch and the iphone, while striking cons on the touch because it can't make a phone call.

All it is, is a portable media utility that lets you surf the net and watch videos. I think it's incredibly pointless and the only thing I can see it being advantageous in is when business people need to show people pictures of their work. After watching the video I can see how it would be very good in that application.

 

[sygyzy]

Demo - It's 10 hours life MAX. I am not sure you understand how battery life works. You will not be able to play 10 hours of video non-stop or running some CPU intensive app/game. It probably can leave Notes open, with wifi and 3G off for 10 hours.

 

[Qbah]

It's 2010 and yet:

- no multi-tasking, so no talking to people and browsing, no radio and talking to people or browsing, no reading and taking notes if you take it to lectures, no doing nothing - what use does it have? I am perfectly capable of doing several things at once and find it very wasteful not working like that. A single gesture to show apps from the background and select to which you want to switch - yes, it's that easy...
- no Flash - so no streaming movies, unless they explicitly support h264 after detecting you're on a mobile Safari (I saw some embedded stuff on the presentation) - or redirection to a built-in h264 app-player for YouTube - jesus... no viewing Web sites that are built fully in Flash either. In general a giant pain in the ass - definitely NOT what I would call a fantastic browsing experience (what a joke statement when describing this thing)
- 1024x768 screen (it can't even show 720p...) and 4:3... wait.. what?
- they say it's fully HD capable, but it can't display HD... not even through some converter or a dock to an external screen - so why even mention HD? Who cares what the hardware can do if there's no way to utilize it! Are they for real? Who believes in shit like that? Not to mention the only thing you can stream is YouTube HD, as the thing doesn't support any other video streaming sites - they're all in Flash. Then again... who streams videos on the Internet (yes, that was sarcasm)
- 16GB on the lowest model and no way to expand it... well, it *is* Apple, what else to expect. And since you can't use it as storage anyway and can't save files from the Web anyway, it's not that big of a problem... I guess. Then again, my music library is ~50GB.
- a minor-ish gripe as I'm not using it that often (4-5 times a month?) but no video camera facing forward? it can bloody do HD stuff (at least in theory... LOL) but doesn't have a camera for video chats? For real?

Now, before I am called some hater, I have a 3GS and absolutely love it. It's just missing Flash and multi-tasking (especially the latter!). I don't care about the rest that much. If Palm Pre, HTC HD2, Nexus One and Moto Driod can do those things with the SAME HARDWARE, Apple has to get their act together and follow them. Here's to hoping the next iPhone OS will give me at least one of those two (multitasking please). I'm not full of hope though, based on the failure of a product I saw today from Apple.

 

[zerocool84]

Battery fail? What other devices with a 9" screen can last for 10hrs constantly doing things? For what this is going to be used for that's pretty good actually. Could probably get 2 days worth of use out of it, unless you just used it for an entire day.

I'm not sure why everyone here is comparing it to the kindle when it's not even designed to be an e-book. It just happens to have e-book capabilities. That's like comparing the ipod touch and the iphone, while striking cons on the touch because it can't make a phone call.

All it is, is a portable media utility that lets you surf the net and watch videos. I think it's incredibly pointless and the only thing I can see it being advantageous in is when business people need to show people pictures of their work. After watching the video I can see how it would be very good in that application.

Yea videos.............the extremely small range of videos that it supports since it's an Apple product and have to convert it to the small list if formats it reads. Can't watch Hulu on it. Reading books on it is going to suck cus you're going to need to sit next to an outlet to let it charge all the time.

 

[Demo24]

Demo - It's 10 hours life MAX. I am not sure you understand how battery life works. You will not be able to play 10 hours of video non-stop or running some CPU intensive app/game. It probably can leave Notes open, with wifi and 3G off for 10 hours.

I just read Anand's little article on it. It was 10hrs of use, as in web browsing and other stuff. Ok, yeah games will likely lessen that.

"Then there’s battery life. Apple is claiming 10 hours of web browsing battery life, which is reasonable given the 25WHr battery, but over a month of standby power." - Anand

I'm not trying to defend this device, but I don't think battery life is too bad all things considered.

 

[robertk2012]

robert - why are you comparing it to regular books when it's clearly not. It's an e-book reader so it a comparison to the Kindle (as Bateluer has done) is more fair, no?

Pretty sure I compared it to both.

 

[robertk2012]

Yea videos.............the extremely small range of videos that it supports since it's an Apple product and have to convert it to the small list if formats it reads. Can't watch Hulu on it. Reading books on it is going to suck cus you're going to need to sit next to an outlet to let it charge all the time.

LMAO. Cause I read a book for 10 hours straight. Get a life.

h264 is the way to go with videos anyway. Want me to feel sorry because you cant play your pirated movies? I use handbrake and dont expect I will have any issues. One DVD rip and encode plays beautifully on my computers, iphone, apple tv, and soon to be ipad. Oh and it will play and pretty much anything else you want to play it on.

 

[robertk2012]

Oh boy and do I remember the haters the day the ipod was released. Glad I bought that apple stock way back when. That crappy ipod has sure made me alot of money. ;-)

 

[YoungGun21]

1024x768 is actually pretty good for a 10" screen. Most netbooks use that resolution. It is pretty much a physical limitation that they can't get much better than that right now in that size.

But anyways I think this is just a device with no market. Might have decent sales, but at this point I can't see it being huge. Especially not for that price.

If I could use it to take handwritten notes that could then be transcribed into MS Word and printed, maybe. The lack of expandable memory really kills productivity on this though.

 

[ronnn]

Its too large, heavy, and expensive to be an effective e-book reader, I'll say that much. Innovation my ass, they've just increased the size of the iphone/ipod touch. The Kindle is a far better product and I'm hesitant to purchase even that.

I have a sony and it wasn't cheap. But absolutely no eye strain and that really is my question of the ipad. If eyestrain is not an issue (hard to believe with a back light) - than I will be very interested.

 

[EarthwormJim]

LMAO. Cause I read a book for 10 hours straight. Get a life.

h264 is the way to go with videos anyway. Want me to feel sorry because you cant play your pirated movies? I use handbrake and dont expect I will have any issues. One DVD rip and encode plays beautifully on my computers, iphone, apple tv, and soon to be ipad. Oh and it will play and pretty much anything else you want to play it on.

Some of us do rip our dvds and like to preserve the multiple audio tracks, so we use .mkv. Why can't Apple support play back of this container? It's open source so it won't cost them anything.

What's with the resolution too. Are they using rectangular pixels? Or is it not really widescreen as in 16:9 or 16:10 but "widescreen" (4:3) simply cause one dimension is longer than the other?

I don't see how this product fits into a person's life or anywhere really. It's too big for a pocket, so to carry it around it would need to go into a case/backpack. Fine, but since I need to carry it around in a case now, why wouldn't I just bring my ultraportable laptop or tablet PC? How does it offer a better internet experience than a netbook when it doesn't support flash?

Apple keeps bringing up the educational values of this, am I expected to be finger painting for taking notes? Yes I know you can buy capacitive pens, but if Apple was serious about it's educational values they'd include one. Since it can't multi task I couldn't possibly have say an e-textbook open and a note taking program. I'd only be able to maybe take my notes in the e-textbook, not separate.

I'd sure love reading e-books on this thing too. Eye-strain much? What about reading outside? LCDs are pretty crappy outdoors.

What exactly does this thing do better than an Iphone that justifies it's extra bulk? I sure can't think of anything really.

A device like this needs to displace a laptop, not coexist with it. People are only going to carry two things, a phone and a 2nd device (laptop). Since this has no benefits over a laptop why would they carry this? It's too expensive for just dicking around, it needs to have productivity value.

What the hell is the point in this thing?!

I do hope that this influences other manufactures to make tablet PCs in this form-factor though. I would love to have a fully functioning PC that was that size (and that price).

 

[EarthwormJim]

Oh boy and do I remember the haters the day the ipod was released. Glad I bought that apple stock way back when. That crappy ipod has sure made me alot of money. ;-)

The iPod was not amazingly successful when it first came out. It was too expensive and had no Windows support. It wasn't till the 2nd gen iPod that it really exploded.

Maybe it'll be the same with this thing, Apple will come out with a new revision or add features to it through updates (hopefully fast, this NEEDS multitasking badly).