It leaves a bad taste in your mouth?

When the Canadian one is available, so will the 3G version. Depending on the level of wi fi access and where you use it, you might want the 3G version.

And a note on the e readers, the kindle app for example allows you to flip to light text on dark background which helps with glare and eye strain issues.

As a separate thought...

Warning: Wall O’ Text behind the fold...

[ Spoiler ]

I hear people go on and on about what the iPad isn’t. I want to touch on that, but first a disclaimer:

I am the furthest thing in the world from a Mac FanGeek. I generally think that Apple’s computer products are overpriced, underfeatured, and aimed at an entirely too narrow slice of the computer using population. They are always behind the curve in actual components. Bah.

Now, to give the devil her due, they do have a great deal of style. Compared to my Lenovo T400s (Typing this at an Unos restaurant as we speak), the equivalent Macbook Pro is a joke, technically. Aesthetically? My ThinkPad is a black brick. But it’s an insanely cutting-edge black brick. Carbon fiber frame, right at the 4-pound mark INCLUDING the multitouch screen. I have a modular bay that can take a battery, an optical, or a hard drive (500 GB at the moment). It’s got a full-up processor onboard (though no discreet graphics – I’m not gaming with it). It’s got an SSD. And it has a FULL suite of ports, including powered USB, standard USB, USB/eSATA port, VGA, DisplayPort, a docking connector (the real deal, that), ExpressCard34, headphones, and Ethernet. I have a 14” screen. I’m just about an inch thick (flat, not a wedge). I have pretty good stereo speakers, a high-res webcam and dual mics.

OK, so, why the dissertation on my hardware? To illustrate a point: The right equipment for the right job. Let’s compare my featherlight device to the two nearest MacBook Pro products. The MacBook Air is lighter (3-Pound) and thinner (.75” at thickest), but sacrifices both screen real estate and resolution and most importantly: connectivity. One USB port, one mini display-port and headphones. No optical, no wired networking. If Jobs wanted a slate he should have- oh, wait. He did... a couple years later. OK, now look at the 15” MacBook Pro. Heavier (5.5-Pound), same thickness. 15”, so more screen, but that’s getting big to fit into small bags. Comparable processor and with the upgrades, similar other abilities. But still way short on ports: Ethernet, Firewire, that mini display port, 2x USB ports, an SD slot, Mic jack and headphones. But none of them offer a touchscreen. (Looking back, I could/should have saved the cost/weight/thickness penalty, but I didn’t expect the iPad so soon; manipulating PDFs is a lot easier with a touch screen.)

Price? Directly comparable on the full MacBook Pro. With upgrades, the MacBook Air is getting close. So what is the difference? The Pro is designed for graphics designers and similar applications. The Air is a Super-Netbook. It’s got enough chops to actually be a main machine, if your needs are limited. Neither docks. (It’s kind of neat having my 52” LCD TV as a monitor.) Neither has the Lenovo keyboard (if you think people are full of drek when they gush about it, I used to before I bought one. It’s not hype, chummer). What’s the point? You can compare them to each other, but you really ARE comparing Apples and Oranges (It’s my post, I’m allowed to pun badly. Hush).

So what about the iPad? Well, “it’s a big iPod Touch!” Like heck. It’s got a lot more muscle under the hood, and playing music is only a tertiary function of the design. Movies? Now we’re talking. The iPad has (reportedly) 10 hours life playing movies. The iPod Touch? 6 hours. Different devices, different fundtions. Or “It’s a weak netbook!” Wrong again. Contrary to Father Steve’s prattle, it’s not really designed to write a book with. But neither is a netbook. Nominally, the netbook is supposed to give you light entertainment and access to the web. OK the iPad has that covered. Seems like it’s got at least as much chops under the hood as a high-end netbook too. But it’s primarily a READ device, where the netbook is supposed to be more balance read/write. Fundamentally, I think we’ll find that the netbook is an evolutionary dead-end; A slate computer can do the same things more simply. You still want a full computer for heavy-duty “write” tasks taking extensive data input.

Like I said: right tool for the job. Jobs (yeah, hush) is pretty savvy about getting right down to the core functionality needs of a device. iPod Nano - enough space for plenty of music, a little light video, and an FM tuner, so it’s all you need for audio entertainment. The thing can even take light video (probably better than your cell phone). iPhone - people say it redefined the SmartPhone. I disagree. I think it redefined the general-use cellphone. It can’t compete with my BlackBerry at information and contact management. I have seen people try to make it, and it’s not in the design. And I’m a lot faster (and more accurate) with my thumbs on my QWERTY keyboard (Tour) than anybody I’ve seen (under 17) with their iPhone. Put simply, the iPhone was for the average consumer whose cell phone is more about personal entertainment than life-management. In that role, it excels, allowing a single device to handle music, light-to-medium video, voice communications, light photo/video, and general recreation (read: apps). The BlackBerry can’t compete on most of the apps, but is unparalleled in life-management. Two totally different tools, two distinct niches. My BlackBerry can play music, but why waste my (finite) battery on that when I can have a device really designed for the job do it better?

So what’s the iPad, really? It’s the portable adjunct and mobile proxy for your full home computer device. It lets you take your entertainment with you, your books and REAL movie watching stylishly (I did concede Apple makes a pretty product, right?) in a low footprint, light weight and VERY intuitive device. For Grandma, it might be all she really needs (That netbook computer thingie is collecting dust in the corner because it’s a “computer” and is therefore “hard”. The iPad, on the other hand, is just point and… well, point). Enough screen real estate to read full-size print comfortably, but not so much it’s actually requiring specialized carrying containers (read: laptop bag). Even added to a full laptop, the extra .5 pound is trivial next to the 7+ pounds of the average laptop (with power brick), and it’s thin enough to slide in next to the main machine. No, you can’t stick it in your trouser pocket… but that makes it hard to watch a movie or read a book comfortably.

No, I think that this time, Father Steve has really gotten it right. If the price drops like it did on the iPhone, even before Gen 2 appeared, then I think it will really be the ubiquitous device we’ve come to accept the iPod as being, with everybody else being imitations of the original.

Anyhow, that’s my two centinuyen.

Based on Pepsi Jedi's report, the single most important function I was waiting for is as functional as I could have hoped. With the cell phone option, I can chuck my Air Card - I only need it for light browsing 99% of the time anyhow. And it shouldn't be long before somebody concocts an AP to turn the thing into a mobile hotspot, anyhow. Finally, the critics jumping up and down about lack of multi-tasking... I see something about OS 4.0 supporting multitasking, available summer 2010. No, this device is an absolute must-have for me... as soon as I can figure out how the hell to afford it.

Pallete? I'm pretty sure it's not Pallet (how many of those did you want me to ship?).

*Kerenshara smacks Peter with a large mouth bass*

It comes preloaded with Safari, and can surf the web. Also it has optional 3g data service.

rpol.net allows 20 dice in their games if you're playing by post. If you're playing real life and just using it to roll dice, then use random.

Kerenshara, can I quote your wall of text on the iPad on another forum at rpol.net?

I don't see why not, so long as you credit the author. *wink*

I've had that particular conversation quite a few times IRL... I'm glad somebody found it useful.

although I am partly tempted to go the route of the asus eeekeyboard and a set of those wearable screen glasses for a cyberdeck look

Yeah NOBODY on THIS board thought of that, or even considered buying the damned thing.

Thank gods for some of us, technology's real-life march made that thing as obsolescent as the 6^th World comlink made the old Cyberdeck. *grin* Can't be a real gadget-freak using old tech, now can we?

I would write a book on it using the bluetooth keyboard. I just happened to have one of the nifty aluminum Mac ones laying around or I would not have even thought of getting one. Still, screen size alone would keep most away from extensive word processing work on it. What I want is PDF annotation, but that is an app feature that someone needs to allow, not hardware.

This is a field that depends on the person. I can decimate my brother in data management and overall general operation on my iPhone versus him with his Blackberry, and he is pretty savvy in the world of Blackberries. Typing is the same deal. I went to the iPhone from an HTC Tilt and it took some time to get used to the iPhone's onscreen keyboard but now I fly with it. I am going to say that the differences between these devices chalks up to the amount of experience a person has with it. I can make my way around a Blackberry, but not as well as I can my iPhone or any of the phones I have had before. Not without using one for a while. Blackberries are excellent phones, well suited for their purpose, I just think that what you are rating against each phone has more to do with the level of expertise of the person using it.

Did it redefine the smartphone? Sure as hell did. It did not invent the concept, it merely improved on it. Just look at the market. After the iPhone was released, everyone scrambled to make touchscreen smartphones. That, to me, is redefining. Seriously, before the iPhone, smartphones were limited to geeks and business goons. Now, a large chunk of regular Joe Q. Publics either have an iPhone or some sort of smartphone that was inspired by or brought to market to compete with the iPhone like the Android, HTCs, Blackberries (though this was around before iPhone). And they currently own the largest chunk of the smartphone market.

The iPad is going to be the same way. There already are people that have actually used one that love them, a couple that have used one and decided it was not for them, and a oddly huge chunk of people that have never touched one that think they know everything about them and are usually bashing them. I own one. It is an amazing device, and I really do have a need for one in my line of work, being a Crestron automation programmer these make awesome touchpanels for media systems. Is it for everyone? No, and that is okay. For those that want/need one, they will likely be happy with it.

It has also spurred a renaissance in tablet/slate devices. Redefined the market, if you will. Just like when the iPhone was released, the iPad was announced and suddenly everyone and their uncles is developing a tablet device. The JooJoo has already been released, tagged as an iPad "killer" and already they have a 33% return rate because the thing is awful slow and not very functional. HP's Slate looks VERY promising, and I will likely end up with one of those as well, but it is reporting a 5 hour battery life. That is going to be the big hurdle that any competitor is going to have to beat to be competitive. The battery life.

I will fully admit to not having yet used an iPad. I also, as a hardcore geek and technophile, can find no way to justify spending that much money on the device. Book PDFs? I know it sounds antiquated, but I prefer my physical copies, I'll lug a backpack around if I have to take more than 2 or 3 (which is too large for my every day bag). As a long time PC and console gamer ( >20 years) I find it's functionality relating to any shared purposes I already have covered sorely lacking.

It's a neat device, sure. I wouldn't call it revolutionary, and as I've said, had they gone the route of actually putting out a tablet, I'd have been on board with it. As it stands, I'll wait till the 2nd or 3rd generation (which I should have gone with my iPhone. Launch ones were...well... let's say I'm much happier with my 3GS than my first phone). And while I could easily afford the sticker price on one... I find it a tad exorbitant, like most Apple products.

Actually, I could think of one great use for it. I'm an LVN/LPN, and they could potentially be revolutionary for Electronic Medical Records.

I hate to back-to-back post, but... You'll find that to be a major point of contention amongst tech enthusiasts. For example, I still use spring loaded keyboards for the feel they provide, despite being totally antiquated.

Since you seem to use in a business context, you can probably answer a question: Can the iPad finally fully interact with an exchange server or does it fail as spectactulary as the 3GS?

You and me both.

What's so bad about spring loaded keyboards?
hell, if it would not be so annoying to have it all the time, i would use the icq soundfiles that make typing in ICQ sound like an old school type-writer to try and set up my complete windows like this . .

Then I am pretty sure you will like this!

I would use that forever.

Me too!
Steampunk Computronics for the Win!

I don't know if people are calling laptops the new desktop or not (perhaps I move in the wrong circles), but it occurs to me that the capabilities of both are increasing. I propose that there is a cut-off point at which the power of a device is sufficient for people's needs and after that point, further increase of power has a low value. Assuming that both laptops and desktops can reach that level, then laptops would indeed be the new desktop because greater power of the desktop would be irrelevant. The issues then become cost, convenience of the form factor, etc. A desktop may compete on any of these in the right circumstances, but the point is that arguing desktops will always be ahead because of greater power is, assuming the cut off point of meeting needs exists, is false. There is also the possibility that tablets can complement a desktop. I expect to have some sort of tablet and it will be linked over my home network to my desktop which (if I were a bit more tech-savvy) I could probably set up to do heavy lifting for me. I'm sure it must be possible somehow to have all my horribly, horribly large spreadsheets from work running on my desktop and have just the interface showing on the tablet. Or at least it should be and if it isn't it will become possible.

On the subject of getting an iPad, it looks great and being able to walk around with a digital clipboard would be really convenient for me. But I owe this thread for the links to the Norton Ink thing as this looks like it might be better as does the HP slate, so I'm going to wait a bit on this and see what the competition looks like.

K.

That is fantastic.

K.

Yeah, he's built some crazy stuff!