all things Apple iPad

The stylus problem has been solved apparently

The nerd in me wants an iPad more and more. But, $500…ugh.

Oh yeah, there was a big stink about this at the time - was Apple to blame (the answer is no):

http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=6437


Their making a killing off it. Good for them I guess, right?

I should hope so. That’s a41% margin, I’m actually surprised it’s that little.

Think ill save my hard earned cash until there is some fierce competition on the market, before i get a itablet of any sort.

Would love to try the sketchbook app though.

How much do you want to bet that it is $400 or less by Christmas?

SketchBook Pro App for iPad:::

Release price in the UK for the 16GB version is £420 (approx). Ouch! Where did that come from? How come it is so much cheaper in the US?

One appeared in the office today and yes, it is beautiful, and yes, the software works like a dream, but… I don’t know, something bothers me about it. It’s like the screen is not quite big enough and typing on it isn’t quite pleasurable when compared to a physical keyboard (yes, I know you can link one up, but seriously, who is going to do that?). And I really really wanted to love it…

BTW: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad.html

This is a usability report for the iPad. Some interesting results about scaling of the iPhone OS and integration of the touchscreen UI to the 'net experience.

You guys get free health care, that’s why. Take off the 20% VAT and it’s $500, just like it is in the US.

Anyone like the case they got? I wanna pick one up this week. I see the apple store has a small selection and there’s tons online. I hate buying something like this from a picture online without holding it.

I just don’t get it.

My bro’ in law brought one in last week and I just couldn’t figure out what for he bought it,
as he already has the I-phone for mobile use, several Ipods for music, a blackberry and more
than one mobile computer.

As he works for a large provider most of these toys are freebies to him, but I just can’t imagine
the standart user to buy one more item, that has only capabilities, that cater to needs that are
already cared for.

There is no hardware keyboard on the Ipad, which nearly makes it “read only”. The screen is not
particularly large, so it isn’t a DVD player or TV- set. Yet it is already too big to be really mobile.

Conclusion: “What the F* is this for??”

Is it just one more item to add to the Jobs/Ives cult altar?
Or is it a conspiracy to bring the end user back into the passivity of TV fed couch lethargy ???

yours mo-i

i think one of the biggest issues with understanding the potential for tablets is assuming that they fit in their own market, user niche. I tend to see them as cannibalising an odd. overlapping combination of smartphone and laptop market.

I was due for a new phone as my experiment with android via a HTC G1 was coming to a rapid end via battery issues. When looking at my choices, one very real possibility i considered was going back to a dumbphone for calls and texts only and picking up an iPad 3g for all the data stuff.

I find it amazing to have everything a smart phone can offer on the go, but insane that we do all that reading and visual interaction via a 3-4" screen. I can feel my humpback growing everyday! Also, I can’t count the number of times I’ve missed a call due to a dead battery because I was reading a blog or playing a game or listening to music. So, why not unload the audio communication to a specific specialized device (where you don’t have to worry about the antenna so much!) and give my eyes a break an upgrade to a 10" for all the visual and tactile interaction.

It actually makes a lot of sense to me, but ultimately i didn’t go that route. Partly because it would have been nearly $1k to do it and because the new android devices (i picked samsung’s new galaxy s) are damn amazing. Apple needs to be careful, they’ve done an amazing job defining the market but the competition is right there with them, even surpassing them in some aspects.

My reasoning:
I have a desktop machine for work in my office and that is my only functioning computer. I also have an 8 yr old laptop that overheats with a 17" monitor that I just sweat trying to use.
At night if I want to poke around on the web for personal use or whatever I have to leave my wife in the living room while I waist away in the office. She has a laptop to do her work at night on the couch. It’s just nice to sit near each other now when we bit happen to be busy.

All I need is the Internet and the digital sketching. I have everything else I need in the office machine.
I was also seariously thinking of getting a portable DVD player for travel. Obviously the iPad is a bit more work to get your DVD on there but the experience of watching is nice.

After having one I can see how ppl may enjoy the ability to have the Internet in their hands like this. Obviosly anyone who bought one is not trying to replace a computer…you need a computer to have one.

I was looking at vacation options with my wife last night on the Internet. I can’t tell you how nice it was to look on the iPad. The ease of lounging on the couch and passing the pad back and forth to show info. It was much much more natural that passing the laptop back and forth.

thanks for the review Bbarn, your experience of two people looking at the iPad sounds a lot like two people flipping through a magazine together, and the web has replaced a lot of traditional print, so that makes a lot of sense. I can certainly think of times my wife and I flipped through a travel magazine, or dwell at the same time.

This is one of the reasons I got a mac mini for my TV, which has been awesome for watching videos, but some how not the same when just reading or browsing, sounds like the iPad is a better device for that.

I bought an iPad for my girlfriend for her birthday this year, and to use as a test method to see if I need one myself. I employed the same strategy successfully with the ipod Touch a few years ago. She uses it constantly now as a web device at home, the macbook only gets used when a lot of typing into a blog or similar.

For a meeting last week I installed iRhino and loaded a few models that were going to be discussed, as well as jpegs of sketches and renderings. As a presentation device for a meeting with five or six poeple around a table, it is very impressive. People interact with it, flipping through the jpegs themselves. Everyone can see it, flip the picture over, etc. A laptop in the same situation, has a single direction display shutting out half the viewers at a time, and it is personal typically, no one is going to reach onto your laptop and flip through images.

The iRhino 3d application was very cool in the meeting as well, rotate the models and zoom into details, less people interacted with this one, but still was surprised to see one or two going the model on the screen a spin with the fingers.

A friend brought over his family for dinner the other day, midway through he brought out his iPad and gave it to his 4 year old to play games on. Digital sedation, but was interesting to see the kid playing the iron man game with the touchscreen.

At the end of the day though, one iPad is enough for our household. ( Until I want to embed one into the refrigerator door and hook it up to the wifi for keeping track of what I need from the store.)

Awesome. I gotta look into that irhino app!

I have used one for about a week, WWIW, here are my thoughts.

This was purchased for work. We are working on a new product that generates data on the product’s use that gets sent to the user and the user’s supervisor (definately a business product). In addition to a PC, those reports can go to an iphone or and ipad or a Blackberry or just about any other mobile device. We created a quick interface and stuck it in front of the customer on the ipad purely for the size of the screen, the data is easier to read over a smaller device.

My biggest gripe is syncing. I hate it. I just want to drag and drop and you can’t do that with the ipad. (I am told this is true with all Apple products. The last one I used was a laptop in the mid 90s.) You want to delete a picture? Do it in itunes first, then sync. You want to change order of your pictures? Again, do it in itunes first, then sync.

Want to use it as an external hard drive? You have to buy an app for that. (Its called Dropbox, and you have to sync that too.)

I do like Keynote. Not a bad presentation software at all. Certainly not as crappy as PowerPoint.

The biggest plus is cruising the web with a good size screen without the mass of a laptop. Definately more mobile without the tiny tiny screen of a phone. I was at a trade show and noticed a competitor bragging about a patent in their booth. Whipped out the ipad, searched Google patents, and in 0.07 seconds I was reading the claims on their patent. (If you are interested, there was only 1 independent claim which was extremely narrow, pretty much worthless, not much to brag about.)

I would never buy one for personal use. There are not enough of the right apps for that and I hate syncing. But, since they are selling like hotcakes, competitors are certainly going to jump in and create something that fit my personal needs better.

This is pretty great actually.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/fly-swatting-the-ipad-versus-the-newspaper/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Laughed out loud. I sure hope my iPad is tougher than that though.