Apple Tablet

[MtnGoat]

Originally Posted by Costa

http://gizmodo.com/5434566/the-exhau...-tablet-rumors

I expect it to be a bigger Iphone as well. Let's not forget that the Iphone itself is supposed to be made available to Verizon.

Verizon mid Febuary

[NoRoadtrippin]

So, I'll say I am torn. It has some pluses and some minuses for sure.

I think that the second generation will be the way to go. Hopefully by then they will add some of the things that seem to be so glaringly missing.

[Trip_Wire (RIP)]

Frankly, as a long time Mac user I was disappointed after looking at all the specs and things built for it at thee Apple store. My iPod does all of the things it does and I can place it in a pocket. I was hoping for a more 'netbook' type of device.

Truthfully, I agree with you NoRoadtrippin, hopefully they will add the ability to run Mac OS, Verizon, a a built in video camera and a USB connection, etc.

I will not be buying one anytime soon until they offer more things.

I also hope that someone that made the comment that iPhone would be available on Verizon in Feb. (I have many doubts about this and the fact that Apple didn't offer Verizon on the iPad doesn't help it.)

http://www.apple.com/ipad/

[JJ_BPK]

Originally Posted by Sigaba

Men and women in the tech industry have amassed huge fortunes because of their brilliance and entrepreneurial spirit. At the same time, their insistence that they do things their way has wrecked misfortune on wide swaths of American society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQnT0zp8Ya4

[NoRoadtrippin]

I am starting to see more uses for it the more I think about it, but I still think it needs some added features. It would definitely be useful in meetings in which I might need to update my calendar or want a larger view. Maybe to show someone a file or image. Things that having a small iPhone screen might not be great for, but a full-on folded open laptop might be obtrusive.

I've also really taken a liking to the idea of using it for bathroom reading. Holding a laptop is just too hard.

[LongWire]

Originally Posted by JJ_BPK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQnT0zp8Ya4

Spot On......That video is funny as hell, and damn correct. I'm an Mac user too.............

"Ebooks? I would have bought a Kindle!!!"...........LOL

[spherojon]

Its a giant iPhone. Although you cant run any Adobe based scripts on it (yet), it will be useful. There is a lot of technology that they are going to release for the iPad. Look for Google to re-amp the free online eBooks that pissed off France. You cant really multitask with the iPad, but once you integrate your iBook, iMac, iTv, iPhone, and iPad together, you will have maximized your business. Otherwise, its just smoke and mirrors. Personally, I use apple products because it makes life easier with iChat, and iCal. Not to mention that I use CS4, Final Cut, and AAE.

[greenberetTFS]

To JJ,Zonie and Dozer,

My wife told me to tell you guys,"Whatever"!!!!!

Big Teddy

[jatx]

Originally Posted by spherojon

You cant really multitask with the iPad, but once you integrate your iBook, iMac, iTv, iPhone, and iPad together, you will have maximized your business.

Thanks for posting the most absurd statement made here in a long time.

[spherojon]

Originally Posted by jatx

Thanks for posting the most absurd statement made here in a long time.

Sir,

Let me better explain. Multitasking, like listening to music while surfing the web, iPad cannot do. But controlling a power point, using your iPad, as a controller for you iBook (remote access app) that is inter-graded with iTv into your 52' plasma for an office presentation it can do. With your mobile me account you can also make sure everything is synced. There are big and small business applications for the iPad. For instance, you can use the iPad with its wi-fi technology to have a business lunch meeting, that both you and the other party can comfortably see. See what happens when you throw I-Tech in the mix.

http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/

[Dozer523]

Originally Posted by greenberetTFS

To JJ,Zonie and Dozer,

My wife told me to tell you guys,"Whatever"!!!!!

Big Teddy

Tell her we said, "Hi"

[wallowinginfun]

I'm a pretty happy Mac user, mostly because I don't have to pay for antivirus and go to lengths to keep my computer from getting clogged with all manner of malicious junk. I LIKE Apple products.

That said, I'd be a lot more enthused if it had a USB jack and could multitask, not to mention if it supported flash and silverlight. I started getting pretty flustered with that intro video when Steve Jobs wouldn't shut up about how amazing it is to hold the internet in your hands, knowing he was well aware I couldn't watch Hulu or Netflix on his Ten Commandments tablet. The iPhone has been out for years, and still no flash support? I'm less than happy about that, but even less so with a device that's supposed to browse better than a regular laptop or desktop.

Also there's no network file sharing, no functionality with wireless network printing or iTunes remote speakers, and you have to use iTunes to move files between the iPad and any other device.

I'll be waiting for a laptop with a capacitive touch display, or until I can at least watch "The Office" on the iPad, or give someone a file without already having it on a flash drive. It's just missing too many features to justify carrying it around, let alone shelling out the cash for one.

I DO like the prepaid information plan though, as well as how much easier it seems to get things done on it. I guess what I'm saying is I feel the interface is well thought out, as I usually do with Apple products. The functionality of this kind of thing with a full keyboard on screen, along with multitasking, would be pretty impressive.

[NoRoadtrippin]

For the lack of Flash support, do a bit of googling. I have read five or six articles over the past couple of weeks that explain the reasoning behind this. None of which were published by Apple (just so the kool-aid isn't too overpowering).

Basically, Flash is an old architecture. It is written in 32-bit while OS X and Safari (along with Win 7 and others now) are moving to 64-bit, and apparently, Adobe has not planned on changing it to 64-bit any time soon. So this already requires Apple to alter the back end on Safari and such to make Flash run on the computers. According to Apple's error tracking, the vast majority of crashes in Safari are Flash related and since Adobe owns the code there is nothing Apple can do about it.

That appears to be the main argument Apple is putting forth. The lack of control or ability to fix an error or memory leak when discovered.

I read at least one article that is arguing that the universality of Flash on the net is dwindling. So, as products like this come out and website X sees that Apple device users can't consume their media they will be likely to change the delivery method if these products continue to gain market share.

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by spherojon

There are big and small business applications for the iPad. For instance, you can use the iPad with its wi-fi technology to have a business lunch meeting, that both you and the other party can comfortably see. See what happens when you throw I-Tech in the mix.

FWIW, I took this point to be what you meant in your previous post.

IMO, regardless of the gee whiz hardware and the bells and whistles of software, what makes a presentation succeed are the presenter and the content.

The Economist discussed Mr. Jobs and the iPad in its leader last week. Source is here. The article mentioned in the piece is available here.

Tablet computing

The book of Jobs
Jan 28th 2010
From The Economist print edition


It has revolutionised one industry after another. Now Apple hopes to transform three at once

APPLE is regularly voted the most innovative company in the world, but its inventiveness takes a particular form. Rather than developing entirely new product categories, it excels at taking existing, half-baked ideas and showing the rest of the world how to do them properly. Under its mercurial and visionary boss, Steve Jobs, it has already done this three times. In 1984 Apple launched the Macintosh. It was not the first graphical, mouse-driven computer, but it employed these concepts in a useful product. Then, in 2001, came the iPod. It was not the first digital-music player, but it was simple and elegant, and carried digital music into the mainstream. In 2007 Apple went on to launch the iPhone. It was not the first smart-phone, but Apple succeeded where other handset-makers had failed, making mobile internet access and software downloads a mass-market phenomenon.

As rivals rushed to copy Apple’s approach, the computer, music and telecoms industries were transformed. Now Mr Jobs hopes to pull off the same trick for a fourth time. On January 27th he unveiled his company’s latest product, the iPad—a thin, tablet-shaped device with a ten-inch touch-screen which will go on sale in late March for $499-829 (see article). Years in the making, it has been the subject of hysterical online speculation in recent months, verging at times on religious hysteria: sceptics in the blogosphere jokingly call it the Jesus Tablet.

The enthusiasm of the Apple faithful may be overdone, but Mr Jobs’s record suggests that when he blesses a market, it takes off. And tablet computing promises to transform not just one industry, but three—computing, telecoms and media.

Companies in the first two businesses view the iPad’s arrival with trepidation, for Apple’s history makes it a fearsome competitor. The media industry, by contrast, welcomes it wholeheartedly. Piracy, free content and the dispersal of advertising around the web have made the internet a difficult environment for media companies. They are not much keener on the Kindle, an e-reader made by Amazon, which has driven down book prices and cannot carry advertising. They hope this new device will give them a new lease of life, by encouraging people to read digital versions of books, newspapers and magazines while on the move. True, there are worries that Apple could end up wielding a lot of power in these new markets, as it already does in digital music. But a new market opened up and dominated by Apple is better than a shrinking market, or no market at all.

Keep taking the tablets

Tablet computers aimed at business people have not worked. Microsoft has been pushing them for years, with little success. Apple itself launched a pen-based tablet computer, the Newton, in 1993, but it was a flop. The Kindle has done reasonably well, and has spawned a host of similar devices with equally silly names, including the Nook, the Skiff and the Que. Meanwhile, Apple’s pocket-sized touch-screen devices, the iPhone and iPod Touch, have taken off as music and video players and hand-held games consoles.

The iPad is, in essence, a giant iPhone on steroids. Its large screen will make it an attractive e-reader and video player, but it will also inherit a vast array of games and other software from the iPhone. Apple hopes that many people will also use it instead of a laptop. If the company is right, it could open up a new market for devices that are larger than phones, smaller than laptops, and also double as e-readers, music and video players and games consoles. Different industries are already converging on this market: mobile-phone makers are launching small laptops, known as netbooks, and computer-makers are moving into smart-phones. Newcomers such as Google, which is moving into mobile phones and laptops, and Amazon, with the Kindle, are also entering the fray: Amazon has just announced plans for an iPhone-style “app store” for the Kindle, which will enable it to be more than just an e-reader.

If the past is any guide, Apple’s entry into the field will not just unleash fierce competition among device-makers, but also prompt consumers and publishers who had previously been wary of e-books to take the plunge, accelerating the adoption of this nascent technology. Sales of e-readers are expected to reach 12m this year, up from 5m in 2009 and 1m in 2008, according to iSuppli, a market-research firm.

Hold the front pixels

Will the spread of tablets save struggling media companies? Sadly not. Some outfits—metropolitan newspapers, for instance—are probably doomed by their reliance on classified advertising, which is migrating to dedicated websites. Others are too far gone already. Tablets are expensive, and it will be some years before they are widespread enough to fulfil their promise. In theory a newspaper could ask its readers to sign up for a two-year electronic subscription, say, and subsidise the cost of a tablet. But such a subsidy would be hugely pricey, and expensive printing presses will have to be kept running for readers who want to stick with paper.

Still, even though tablets will not save weak media companies, they are likely to give strong ones a boost. Charging for content, which has proved difficult on the web, may get easier. Already, people are prepared to pay to receive newspapers and magazines (including The Economist) on the Kindle. The iPad, with its colour screen and integration with Apple’s online stores, could make downloading books, newspapers and magazines as easy and popular as downloading music. Most important, it will allow for advertising, on which American magazines, in particular, depend. Tablets could eventually lead to a wholesale switch to digital delivery, which would allow newspapers and book publishers to cut costs by closing down printing presses.

If Mr Jobs manages to pull off another amazing trick with another brilliant device, then the benefits of the digital revolution to media companies with genuinely popular products may soon start to outweigh the costs. But some media companies are dying, and a new gadget will not resurrect them. Even the Jesus Tablet cannot perform miracles.

[wallowinginfun]

Originally Posted by NoRoadtrippin

For the lack of Flash support, do a bit of googling. I have read five or six articles over the past couple of weeks that explain the reasoning behind this. None of which were published by Apple (just so the kool-aid isn't too overpowering).

Basically, Flash is an old architecture. It is written in 32-bit while OS X and Safari (along with Win 7 and others now) are moving to 64-bit, and apparently, Adobe has not planned on changing it to 64-bit any time soon. So this already requires Apple to alter the back end on Safari and such to make Flash run on the computers. According to Apple's error tracking, the vast majority of crashes in Safari are Flash related and since Adobe owns the code there is nothing Apple can do about it.

That appears to be the main argument Apple is putting forth. The lack of control or ability to fix an error or memory leak when discovered.

I read at least one article that is arguing that the universality of Flash on the net is dwindling. So, as products like this come out and website X sees that Apple device users can't consume their media they will be likely to change the delivery method if these products continue to gain market share.

Hmm. That certainly holds a bit of water now that you mention it. I used to not be able to use Firefox, or even have it on my Mac, because it would crash the flash based math homework site my school uses. One of the new versions fixed it, but now I'm pretty much set in my ways on Camino. Other Flash sites like Farmville (so I hear) take up a lot of memory too.

There's still the problem of supporting things like Hulu and Netflix, not to mention websites like Adult Swim, and more importantly to me, every online homework site my school uses. I spend a lot of time on that in particular.

I suppose I've got a bit of a chip on my shoulder, because it looks like such a handy thing to have, yet it has some pretty serious flaws in regards to how I would have to use the device.