1. NO FLASH - annoying, I agree. No arguements from me. But not a deal-breaker for me either. My primary internet browser doesn't have Flash either - I don't like the ads.
2. No camera - I can't think of a lot of shipping tablet PC's that have a camera either. If they do have a camera, it's not a very good one.
3. no usb - for $29, you can get a USB port that let's you plug in an external HD, Flash stick, USB keyboard and USB headset. For the USB memory stick and HD, it's only read-only and only reads photos and movies (and those only in MP4)
4. no built-in video out - yeah, but a cable is $20 on Ebay... for what you pay for a VGA cable at Best Buy, this isn't insanely overpriced.
5. no keyboard - you can add a bluetooth keyboard or a USB keyboard (using the $29 adapter). While this could be considered a huge negative (you need to fork out more money for a keyboard), it's also a positive in that you can choose if you want to lug around a keyboard or not.
6. no sd slot - same $29 gets you an SD reader. Again, read-only and only pictures and movies, unless you jailbreak and then you can read/write whatever you want.
7. not full os, so its less flexible and cannot act as a 2nd computer - depends on what you want to do on your second computer... but agreed.
8. compatibility problem reading some excel docs (understandable since its a microsoft product) - they may well fix this in time. But agreed.
9. no touch pad - the whole thing is a touch pad...?
10.no pen input - you can use a pen with it... any metal objective will work for input.
on the flip side,
1. turns on instantly - there is no booting from sleep mode, no waiting at all. Wireless (if you were associated to the same WiFi point the last time you used it) is virtually instantenous as well.
2. battery life is pretty impressive - I have no idea what the standby time for an iPad is, but it's got to be a really long time. I've never noticed the battery is lower after leaving it in standby. And battery life while using it is well above 10 hours continuous use in my experience. Using it as an e-reader, the battery seems to last over 15 hours of use. I've owned an iPad for about three weeks to a month and I've only charged it 3 times, and I use it a fair bit.
3. it's very lightweight - it's heavier than it looks like it will be when you see it, and I wouldn't want to straightarm hold it for a while, but it's very comfortable on a lap, or sitting on a couch. It's very light in a carry-on bag on a plane.
4. the OS feels really fast and responsive - it might have a tiny Arm chip in it, but however they did it, it feels really fast.
5. no virus scanning, no defragging, no mandatory OS updates, no malware, no concerns at all when some window opens on your browser that looks like a virus scanner and says "you have been infected with Tojan A.B.12.3x, click here to remove".
6. easy enough to use that I can hand it to my 5 year old daughter on a car trip and she knows how to start games and play a movie all by herself. She's decently smart for a 5 year old but it took some explanation to get her to launch a movie on a netbook, or to launch a game, and even so there would be questions "dad, why is it doing this?" I actually tried this with a netbook and WinXP and it didn't work as well as it does with an iPad.
My negatives as an iPad owner are:
1. it's expensive. It's not cheap as-is, and a $140 3G chip is crazy, but beyond the somewhat high base price it's missing lots accessories and the accessories for it are generally more expensive than I'd think they should be. A dock, a keyboard, headphones? A cheap plastic case for $40? A limited USB and SD slot for $30? Sure, it's the "Apple Tax" but it doesn't mean that I have to like it.
2. there are not a lot of iPad apps that are really good. It's not all crapware... but there's a sizeable percentage that is. iPhone apps work, but they don't look great and there's not good use of screen space.
3. no multitasking. While I don't usually miss multitasking on my iPhone, it's much more annoying with a pseudo-computer like the iPad. And yeah, it's coming, but once it's here in the API's, it will still take a while to arrive in apps and they might charge extra for the multitasking version.
4. missing lots of basic iPhone apps. where "stocks", "weather" and more importantly "calculator" and "clock"? True, I could download arguebly better apps off the app store, but why didn't they include them? Why do I need to pay more money for them?
5. no way to print. I hear this is coming, but if I want to print something I have to go find a real computer. This has happened a couple of times printing things like boarding passes and letters.
The key with an iPad - like lots of things Apple - is that it's limited by the choices Apple makes and it costs a lot. But everything that it does do, it does pretty well. I've used mine as an e-book reader and to entertain the kids and to quickly look stuff up on the internet and so far I'm happy enough. The screen is beautiful, the battery life is very good, it's lightweight and instant-on internet access.
2. No camera - I can't think of a lot of shipping tablet PC's that have a camera either. If they do have a camera, it's not a very good one.
3. no usb - for $29, you can get a USB port that let's you plug in an external HD, Flash stick, USB keyboard and USB headset. For the USB memory stick and HD, it's only read-only and only reads photos and movies (and those only in MP4)
4. no built-in video out - yeah, but a cable is $20 on Ebay... for what you pay for a VGA cable at Best Buy, this isn't insanely overpriced.
5. no keyboard - you can add a bluetooth keyboard or a USB keyboard (using the $29 adapter). While this could be considered a huge negative (you need to fork out more money for a keyboard), it's also a positive in that you can choose if you want to lug around a keyboard or not.
6. no sd slot - same $29 gets you an SD reader. Again, read-only and only pictures and movies, unless you jailbreak and then you can read/write whatever you want.
7. not full os, so its less flexible and cannot act as a 2nd computer - depends on what you want to do on your second computer... but agreed.
8. compatibility problem reading some excel docs (understandable since its a microsoft product) - they may well fix this in time. But agreed.
9. no touch pad - the whole thing is a touch pad...?
10.no pen input - you can use a pen with it... any metal objective will work for input.
on the flip side,
1. turns on instantly - there is no booting from sleep mode, no waiting at all. Wireless (if you were associated to the same WiFi point the last time you used it) is virtually instantenous as well.
2. battery life is pretty impressive - I have no idea what the standby time for an iPad is, but it's got to be a really long time. I've never noticed the battery is lower after leaving it in standby. And battery life while using it is well above 10 hours continuous use in my experience. Using it as an e-reader, the battery seems to last over 15 hours of use. I've owned an iPad for about three weeks to a month and I've only charged it 3 times, and I use it a fair bit.
3. it's very lightweight - it's heavier than it looks like it will be when you see it, and I wouldn't want to straightarm hold it for a while, but it's very comfortable on a lap, or sitting on a couch. It's very light in a carry-on bag on a plane.
4. the OS feels really fast and responsive - it might have a tiny Arm chip in it, but however they did it, it feels really fast.
5. no virus scanning, no defragging, no mandatory OS updates, no malware, no concerns at all when some window opens on your browser that looks like a virus scanner and says "you have been infected with Tojan A.B.12.3x, click here to remove".
6. easy enough to use that I can hand it to my 5 year old daughter on a car trip and she knows how to start games and play a movie all by herself. She's decently smart for a 5 year old but it took some explanation to get her to launch a movie on a netbook, or to launch a game, and even so there would be questions "dad, why is it doing this?" I actually tried this with a netbook and WinXP and it didn't work as well as it does with an iPad.
My negatives as an iPad owner are:
1. it's expensive. It's not cheap as-is, and a $140 3G chip is crazy, but beyond the somewhat high base price it's missing lots accessories and the accessories for it are generally more expensive than I'd think they should be. A dock, a keyboard, headphones? A cheap plastic case for $40? A limited USB and SD slot for $30? Sure, it's the "Apple Tax" but it doesn't mean that I have to like it.
2. there are not a lot of iPad apps that are really good. It's not all crapware... but there's a sizeable percentage that is. iPhone apps work, but they don't look great and there's not good use of screen space.
3. no multitasking. While I don't usually miss multitasking on my iPhone, it's much more annoying with a pseudo-computer like the iPad. And yeah, it's coming, but once it's here in the API's, it will still take a while to arrive in apps and they might charge extra for the multitasking version.
4. missing lots of basic iPhone apps. where "stocks", "weather" and more importantly "calculator" and "clock"? True, I could download arguebly better apps off the app store, but why didn't they include them? Why do I need to pay more money for them?
5. no way to print. I hear this is coming, but if I want to print something I have to go find a real computer. This has happened a couple of times printing things like boarding passes and letters.
The key with an iPad - like lots of things Apple - is that it's limited by the choices Apple makes and it costs a lot. But everything that it does do, it does pretty well. I've used mine as an e-book reader and to entertain the kids and to quickly look stuff up on the internet and so far I'm happy enough. The screen is beautiful, the battery life is very good, it's lightweight and instant-on internet access.