iPad
 

Has anyone bought one of these yet? Ive been looking at them and honestly i cant find enough advantages to want one over an iphone.

Well, I don't know about the Iphone, but after much begging my wife let me replace my dead Ipod Touch with an Ipad. I will try to give an honest representation after using it a few days.

First, let me say I lived on my Ipod Touch. Aside from email, web surfing, stock market access no matter where I was, My Ipod was also jailbroken. As for Jailbreaking, I do not support this as a form of piracy. I used it in the spirit it was intended, to increase Ipod functionality and to give apps a quick trial before deciding to buy them. The IPad isn't jailbroken yet, but will be soon. With that said, its scary to see the prices on some of the apps for the IPad (the average price is $14.99 per app) without being able to try them first.

Its expensive. When before I would write a list on my ipod and take it to the store, I would probably never take out the Ipad for something so casual. I consider this a major downfall.

Its heavy. 1.5 lbs doesn't sound like much, but it can get heavy after an hour or two of gaming or reading.

Apps. As I said, most IPad exclusive apps are pricey. Thankfully all my old apps from my Ipod transferred over, and the Ipad has an option to let you play in the native Ipod screen size, or enlarge to fit the Ipad screen. Honestly, enlarging most games to fit the Ipad really doesn't look too bad. Yeah, its not IPad 'HD' quality, but they still look decent. Again, without the chance to try a game before you buy it like you can on Android phones( I use a G1) its risky. You may found you spend $19.99 on a game that was nothing more than a graphical update to its $1.99 Iphone counterpart. Here are two photo comparisons.

IPhone version, stretched to fit the Ipad screen. $4.99.
http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/a...nlight/rr2.jpg

IPad HD version $9.99 If you own the original and want the HD version, you have to purchase it separately.
http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/a...ight/rrhd2.jpg


One very nice thing is the IPad makes a very nice Ereader. Calibre has free software for your PC to convert any PDF/text files to EPub files, which is all the IPad recognizes. It makes an excellent EReader, with very crisp fonts, and displays in color. Also, if you are a geek like I am, Marvel comics has a nice IPad app, letting you purchase comics and read them on your IPad. I myself use the app ComicZeal to transfer all my comic files ( .cbr, .cbz) to the IPad. So far in the past few days I have found free versions of all the Venom comics, and the entire Spawn series from Image comics, along with some older series I was into back in the day. Comics look amazing on the IPad, I don't honestly see a difference between the IPad version and the paper version.

Multitasking. People are conplaining incessantly about the inability to multitask. I myself could care less, and you can use the built in music software while doing other stuff, like reading or surfing the web. If multitasking is a big deal, once the IPad is jailbroken you will have this ability.

So far, aside from the worry that I will drop or lose it while out, or have it stolen, the purchase was well worth it. I do miss how carefree I could be with my Ipod. Would I purchase it if I had a working Ipod/Iphone? Probably not until the price dropped a bit, which as we have seen with other Apple products, will probably be in the next couple months. It is an amazing device, and I can honestly say I believe tablet PCs like the IPad are going to quickly become part of mainstream media.

If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

I've been looking at one of these. I have an iTouch and love it, but this is so cool. I plan on waiting a couple months so they can work all the bugs out and for the price to drop a bit.

Just an oversized ipod touch to me. Horrible portability, no camera, and bulky/heavy. Also no street cred: walking around with a metal slab with an apple logo is well embarrasing. The hype is overrated. Just get an iphone/itouch. I have an iphone and after jailbreaking it is... how should i put this... awesome! If u want I can guide u through a jailbreak tutorial if u do get an iphone/ipod touch.

So in conclusion, do not get the ipad.
Also-iPad?

I agree with pretty much everything you said, and if you have an Ipod Touch, its not worth it right now. If you don't have an Ipod Touch though, its at least worth looking into. I read a lot, purchasing 2-3 paperbacks a month at least, and have always wanted an ebook reader. So replacing my Ipod touch would have been $200+, then $200-$300 for an ebook reader, the IPad became a no brainer ;) And yeah, Jailbreaking is awesome, I check several times a day to see if Geohot or the Dev Team have finished their first IPad jailbreak.

Aside from the hype, I don't foresee the iPad fairing to well.

HP has already leaked the HP Slate, which will run on Intel's 1.6GHz Atom compared to Apple's 1GHz A4. The HP Slate will also run on computer software (Win7) while the iPad is running iPhone software (while nice, isn't beastly!). The ability to run Flash (games, videos and many websites) is a huge advantage that the iPad will never be able to touch without running OSX or a heavily updated iPhone software.

Another major downfall to the iPad is the lack of camera(s), USB port, upgradable memory and the aforementioned Adobe Flash capability. The leaked information on the HP Slate shows the ability to update the memory via SD card readers all the way up to ~120GB with the integrated USB 2.0 slot; along with the 3.5mm headphone jack, HDMI out and SIM card for optional WWAN).

The HP Slate should also have the capability to use a stylus/pen-digitalizer while the iPad cannot. For any artists out there, the ability to sketch on these things is a major plus.


Aside from my gripes with the thing, I think it is a great idea and a great way to step into a market. I really think better things are going to follow and I really hope they do; I just wish for $500 (for a measly 16GB...!), Apple would have offered something a little better for the launch. :nod:

Cheers,
Kyle.

IPad- an iPod so revolutionary pant co. Will have to make pockets 75% bigger.

I've seen these and I don't really see an advantage. I have a touch and all I have is lite apps. Paying $15 for a app that sounds cool but sucks is a rip. You'd need a man purse to pack it anywhere.

And why the size? I understand that it may be hard to read small print on a touch or annoying to scroll all the time but that's part of the technological part. Everything has gotten smaller. Until now.
PS3- the slims are like half the size of the phats
cell phones- the brick phone started it and now phones are nothing.
I won't be picking up one of these anytime soon. Unless they come out with some amazing features like x-Ray viewer or something.

Everyone I know is shocked that i havnt bought it yet, but to be honest, like mentioned above, i see no real advantage over my iphone.

guys i got it
iPad - and lower grade Ipod Touch with people with fat hands(no offence fat handed people)
The reason i say "lower grade" is because YOU CANT MULTI-TASK.
If its almost 5x the size of an ipod touch, why couldn't add in a multi task feature, even the ipod touch has a multi-task feature. I for one, want to be able to listen to music while browsing the internet.
Also, they couldn't have added a USB port or AT LEAST Flash? Half of everything on the web is practically flash.

IMO:
Worst thing they did.

The Slate sounds cool, but honestly for a device like this I prefer an OS like Apples, just because everything on the IPad is lightning fast. No lag loading apps, websites, etc. As for Flash, I have to agree with Steve Jobs on this one; Flash is buggy, and is one of the biggest security flaws on the internet. By refusing to use Flash, hes pushing more websites to switch to HTML5 which accomplishes the same thing as Flash, but is more secure. On my laptop running Win7 I have all Flash blocked.
I agree, I shouldn't have to buy a peripheral device to have a USB port, attach a camera or connect via HDMI (All available in the apple store) after spending hundreds of dollars on the device. I do believe the 3g version launching at the end of April has an expandable memory port, but I could be wrong.

I think you are looking at it backwards. The Tablet PC is more a replacement for Netbooks and Laptops than a large PDA. Whether its the Slate, IPad, or one of the dozens of other Tablet PCs I have seen discussed that will launch in the next year, I think this will replace Netbooks, and become much more common. As for a man purse, I just use a zip up Netbook case I bought at Walmart; A near perfect fit.


EDIT: Mycrors responded while I was typing :P

I already addressed the Flash issue, but as for Multitasking, everyone that gives me that complaint can only think of one thing they want to multitask, which is music while doing other stuff. It is a rumor that you cannot do this. Its because people want to use a separate downloaded app to play music while doing something else. If you use the built in music player, just like on the Ipod touch, you can do everything you could do on the Ipod. Other than that, you can't multitask on the Ipod either, IE play a game then tab out to write something while the game is still running.