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Apple's "iPad" Out In the Open
Reader oxide7 is one of the many to note that the heaviest speculation is mostly over (still waiting on the price, though) about Apple's anticipated new device (though there are surely plenty of questions about the device's hardware capabilities and the scope of its software and content marketplace): "At an event in San Francisco Apple released its anticipated iPad.'[It's] Way better than a laptop, way better then a phone. You can turn it any way you want. To see the whole page is phenomenal,' said Jobs." The (0.5") skinny: 1.5 lbs, multitouch, up to 64GB of flash, 9.7" screen, and a 1Ghz "Apple A4" chip (more about the A4 in Engadget's developing story). The iPad is closer in concept to an expanded iPhone (OS and all) than a miniaturized laptop, though it doesn't have quite as much connectivity as you might expect, with no 3G connection built in. (You'll have to make do with 802.11n, Bluetooth, and tethering.) Live coverage is ongoing at gdgt live, Engadget, and Gizmodo, as well as various others. Update by timothy, 19:58 GMT: Got the 3G part wrong; 3G is indeed an option. Prices run from $499 (16GB flash, WiFi but no 3G) to $829 (WiFi and 3G, 64GB flash). Should start shipping in 60 days (WiFi only), in 90 days for 3G. Surprsingly, no built-in camera.
Which means no hulu.com, espn360.com or fancast.com. Somehow Mr. Jobs is touting this as a feature.
Isn't this just a big expensive iPod touch now?
This entire presentation seems a little disappointing. Really, it looks, acts, and feels like a giant iPod Touch. Whereas the iPhone and iPod really created a need , I don't see that this substantially innovate to make it a must-have. It doesn't seem to improve on anything so substantially that it is an obvious choice. Maybe I need to see a few more videos, but I don't see this pulling serious market share away from Kindle's targeted market segment.
A nice solid entry and a step ahead in the evolution of portable computing. Although, the usage of the keyboard perplexes me. Using a keyboard while the screen lays flat just seems awkward to me..
http://jimasks.me/if-you-could-choose-how-you-would-die-what-would-you-choose-and-why
So help me god this thing better have multitasking
You can tether it if you want. Or just download stuff to it that you want before you go. It's not really a problem.
Putting cell connectivity in this thing would be the kiss of death. Who wants to pay for ANOTHER cell contract?
If you need another device to make it mobile it is not really a mobile device is it? Anyhow, how do I tether it? Do I need to buy this AND a iPhone?
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Universities and colleges all have strong wifi coverage
wait for Rev. B!
Apple will sell millions.
Steve Jobs is still on stage in the middle of announcing this thing. Couldn't the Slashdot article have waited until they've finished announcing all of the features?
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
Do I need to buy this AND a iPhone?
No, you need to buy this and a phone not locked to a network that hates tethering.
What was wrong with the oft-rumored "iSlate" moniker?
"Ip ad" doesn't mean anything in English. "Is late" meant Duke Nukem Forever for several years.
I know you're joking, but it makes more sense in context. He's saying that there's no point in creating a new class of devices unless it actually does something better than the existing classes of devices. So if the iPad doesn't do *something* better than both the iPhone and MacBook, then they wouldn't be releasing it as a product. That doesn't mean that Macbooks and iPhones won't continue to do other things better.
So their hope is that the iPad will be better for reading ebooks (for example) than either the iPhone of MacBook, but the MacBook may still be better for general computing and the iPhone will be better at being a cell phone.
Its a convergence device. As such, its designed to be a better netbook than the Kindle DX, a better eReader than an EeePC, and a better portable media player than either.
Its not a better netbook than a dedicated netbook, or a better eReader than a dedicated reader (though, of course, Apple will try to sell it as being better in both these roles than the existing competition.) And maybe not a better portable media player for most uses than an iPod Touch. But Apple's bet is that the perceived price/utility it will provide is better than any of dedicated readers/netbooks because it does a good enough job in all three roles to be a one-stop multirole device.
Almost $850 for what amounts to a Hi-res iPhone without voice service? Pass.
Let's see: so in essence what we have here is an iPod Touch with a 10" screen, and still pretty skimpy storage space.
Plus, it's only useful if you jailbreak it, once people figure out how to do so.
Yeah. I get the feeling this is gonna fly like the Macbook Air did. Give 'em 48 hours and people will wonder what the hell Apple was thinking.
- Takes advantage of the huge amount of available iPhone apps, at least the ones that have sense to be run without phone.
- ePub format for ebooks. Still can be DRMd (and probably with a format that makes it incompatible with other viewers?) but at least is an open format.
- Capacitive touchscreen, what about accuracy? will matter in such device?
- The presentation seems to be more about apps than about device
For a mobile device, still takes the desktop approach of storage (of movies, apps, books,etc), instead of the cloud one. Google could get the edge over them if moves to their cloud the most used parts of that functionality with Chrome and CHromeOS in ANY computer, not just tablets (if manage to calm down people worried about privacy and ownership of that content).
The 3G version has both.
If you already have 3g, why would you want another wireless contract? Just tether it to the one you already have.
Unlocked, MicroSIM compatible. SOLD
This is exactly what happened when the iPod was announced: slashdot dismissed it as derivative while Apple quietly reinvented the freakin' walkman. One thing Apple generally gets right is marketing. There may be nothing technologically revolutionary to most slashdotters in the iPad but the fact is it's already shaken up the consumer world even before it was officially acknowledged as an existing product. At the Consumer electronics show in Las Vegas this year the upcoming Apple tablet was a bigger topic of excitement than any device that actually existed at the time -- Apple didn't even go to the convention and yet they managed to have a significant presence there. They have been very successful in the hype department without even spending a dime on advertising. Technological merits aside they will sell a boatload of these.
The deal with AT&T is the biggest news. Holy hell that's fucking awesome.
$15 for 250MB
$30 for UNLIMITED DATA.
No contract.
I bet you just have to activate it on a iPad, then put it in any phone that will handle GSM and use VOIP for unlimited data and minutes for $30 a month.
AT&T will try and lock it but I imagine that we can get around that rather quickly. I'd consider going back to AT&T for that price.
Most people here don't see past their own noses... Myself, I like the iPad except for the fact that Apple decides what I can install... but that's the whole point.
The iPad is a platform, not a device.
Most people just want stuff to work, and don't want to care how. Most of the time, so do I. I don't want my stove in the kitchen to require a friggin manual to do basic cooking even if I could patch it to boil eggs 15% faster I never would be bothered. It's the same for regular people with all tech, computers included. People don't want to know the details, they just want to tap on a movie/book/app/whatever, confirm their transaction, and have it all just work.
The iPad can run iPhone apps, and the SDK is available now. App developers will be falling over each other to be first with new apps taking advantage of the larger screen.
I'm very tempted, but still skeptical I'll buy this myself. The closed platform is an issue for me. But most people couldn't care less about what they can't do on a device like this, if they just can do all they want. Freedom is great, but how many of us have truly bothered to go under the hood in our games consoles for instance? I can do all I truly need with our Wii even if I can't run SCUMMVM. Hell, I don't even have time to play all the games I've bought.
The iPad will be a great example of good enough technology. "The internet", in your lap, on this amazing looking little device. With movies, books, music and apps to boot. Joe and Jane Average are gonna think it's great.
.: Max Romantschuk
Unfortunately the telcos have some kind of oligopoly here and they aren't looking at giving us better service OR better prices any time soon. $29.99 is pretty good for unlimited. The real catch is that in 6 months AT&T will say that there Unlimited users are using too much bandwidth and its unfair to poor AT&T and will try to charge them more.
Because the article was written when neither the price nor the 3G feature were announced yet. Apparently slashdot wanted to be quick to report the iPad, so they did not care to wait for further details.
According to Apple's tech specs this thing requires OS X 10.5.8 to sync to a Mac, but WinXP is okay for a PC.
What the hey? I've got an older Mac that syncs fine with my iPod nano; can anyone explain why Apple would alienate all their own OS X 10.4 users?
Slashdot's color commentary on important Apple announcements over the years:
iPod - "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame."
iPod mini - "Nobody is going to buy a 4GB external drive for $250."
iPad - "It's just a useless iPod touch with a bigger screen. What were they thinking?"
Let's see. Web browsing, sure though lacking Flash is an issue. Lot of Flash sites these days. Not saying it is a good thing, but it is what it is. Book reading, not so much. For one, the battery life is fairly short compared to most readers. With a Kindle or a Nook, you are talking weeks of battery life, not hours. LCDs also aren't as nice as eink (or real paper) for long periods of reading. Plus you aren't going to get good outdoor performance. You need a reflective screen for that, there's no way you can crank the brightness enough on an emissive screen and keep the battery life useful.
Watching movies? Maybe, but of course Flash is how one watches movies online that is right out. There's also the question of how you get non-online movies to it, doesn't appear to have USB or SD card the like so you have to transfer everything wirelessly from your desktop and then save them on the small internal memory.
Exactly my thoughts, they've done the Tablet PC without including the pen, the reason that Tablet PCs are so useful.
Our Uni publishes all the notes online as PDFs, i load up aforementioned app and annotate right on the notes. But i can also insert extra pages, copy-paste and insert diagrams. My logic coursework and having the ability to copy/paste/edit previous lines, as well as doodle without wrecking it is so much more useful than a pad of paper. The brilliance of a Tablet PC is the pen, not the fact you can poke it.
My 3.5 year old Tablet PC has a 1.7Ghz Pentium M with 1GB RAM and is now running Windows 7. It blows the functionality of this thing out the water.
...was a bigger iPod Touch.
I stick by my earlier statement that the name makes it sound like digital Kotex. However, it mus be noted that Steve Jobs may have his first Edsel on his hands.
Seriously, the ASUS Eee PC T91MT gives you more of a computer for a bit less than the cost of this iPad (I chuckle every time I read or type that). REAL applications, REAL OS (not a "gadget" os), REAL everything! It's a tablet and a netbook at once. Approx $450 gets you 32GB SSD, 1GB RAM, and Win 7 all in a small package with a proven processor underneath it all.
$50 more get's you less drive space, an unknown amount of RAM, and a gadget OS running on what appears to be a 2010 version of the Cyrix MediaGX processor.
Steve needs to take some time off and rethink this one.
Fifty watts per channel, baby cakes.
What gets me is the price step up for the memory ...
To get +16 GB the price increase is $100
To get +32 GB the price increase is another $200
So basically, we are talking $100 per 16GB of flash memory, when I could buy a 16GB USB dongle for any other device for $10 ???
And the $130 extra for 3G ? A lot of mobiles don't cost that, and have a hell of a lot more than 3G built in.
As usual, another iRipoff, and the fanbois will lap it up ... fucking mugs.
I have karma to burn, so do your worst, it won't change reality, only the visibility of this comment ...
Wow, Apple managed to invent the netbook only a couple years late for several hundred bucks more! Jobs' comments said that he wanted to establish a new class of device between smartphones and laptops. It's as though he was unaware that there's been such a category for years, and that it costs a lot less than $500, and that it doesn't lock you into one manufacturer's control so hard you can't even change the battery yourself.
The parent comment is right in that a lot of people will probably buy the thing, 'cause it's new and shiny and Apple made it. But it's an obviously inferior device as I see it.
(Now if only Asus will replace my $320 lemon eeePC now that I've mailed it in for repair for the fourth time...)
Revive the Constitution.
This thing would have been far more appealing to me if it ran a customized version of OSX...
He wasn't building it for you.
OK, snottiness aside, it probably would be much better for the geeks out here (and maybe a few professional Mac users out there) if it did have a full OS X running on it. On the other hand, most people don't give a rat's ass about what OS is on their computer. What they care about is (a) can it do what I want; (b) if it can't do what I want right now, can I easily get software that lets me do what I want; (c) is it easy to use; and (d) is it not a PITA to maintain/keep stable. The iPad, as a closed environment with a ton of apps and good enough connectivity (OK, good enough connectivity if you get AT&T to get it's act together) provides that. Most people won't care what OS it runs. And, in fact, as a device that converges music playing, e-book reading and movie watching I think he's hit the entertainment-oriented market he wanted to hit.
And for those who want a full-featured OS, there's still the Mac.
That is all.
And it is over hyped. First by every blogger out there, then by Apple.
There is NOTHING new here, and much that has been left out.
Apple has run out of ideas, and have taken to eating their young. This thing will kill off the iPod Touch sales in a heart beat, especially the low end wifi version.
It might server for Grandma who can't quite figure out that laptop thingie you gave her last year with all those buttons and stuff. The only time she uses that is when you call her up and ask her if she got your email last week.
Its a huge disappointment if you ask me, but this time next year they can add a front facing cam, a mic and maybe Grandma can talk to the grand kids over it.
Wait till next year.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Overpriced for you. Products are not over-priced if they sell well, which apple products appear to do.
Really? I didn't know it was still 1968. All this perfectly fluid multitasking I do every day on other kinds of computers must be some sort of dream.
I own a lot of Apple products and I must say I was very disappointed in this presentation. Two major problems with the iPad will probably keep me from buying one.
1. LED backlit screen. This seems strange given the existence of PixelQi and mirasol type LCD displays. Not being able to read this outside really makes it useless as an ebook reader. Oh, and also the 10 hours of reading time is simply pathetic for an eReader.
2. No camera? What happened? This is very disappointing.
I must admit I have, in the past, thought it would be cool to have a large version of my iPhone to view movies in bed or browse the web before going to sleep, but honestly it is not worth the $500 price tag without the 2 features above.
I think I'll just stick with my iPhone, thanks. "Nice-to-haves" do not make product demand.
I am curious to see how multi-touch gaming evolves. On the iPhone game controls are confined to a small area due to the size. I imagine there will be some pretty clever gaming innovation once developers apply their imagination to the multi-touch real estate.
I completely agree with you. This whole thing just asks for "fail". The whole thing is completely unintuitive, has the same closed approach as iPhone and doesn't have any technical or usability options one would think would be good. Missing a pen too.
And no, I do not want to buy every single software from an App Store that I would like to use. I want there to be freeware and shareware programmers, and I WANT TO DEVELOP SOFTWARE MYSELF. Even Microsoft's tablets are more open than this. Give me choice.
I won't be buying this. Ridiculous prices to pay even more for the software. It's funny to see what will come out of this. This will most likely be a slap on Apple's face and they will fall back to earth from their cloud castles.
Kind of amusing that you're bashing a $500 device when your $320 netbook has been in for repair FOUR TIMES. People always rail on the interchangable battery thing, but I've never carried spare batteries for ANYTHING I've owned. If you're on the move, do you really want to lug around a couple extra pounds? They list 10 hours of battery life including video playback, which, judging by my experiences with a 1st gen iPod touch, is believable.
This thing is more a web-surfing super eBook reader than a true netbook, but in my opinion, it looks awesome. No, it's not a hacker's dream come true mega-portable computer, it's a "normal" person's digital media device. It's for eBooks, music, photos, the web and email and it's designed to do those tasks in a sleek, sexy, simple manner.
This happens with every Apple product announcement. People speculate and expect it to have every feature under the sun, cost next to nothing and be 100% open source, cure cancer, make coffee and have its only environmental by-product be rainbows. Sorry, people, this is the real world. This product looks awesome for what it's designed to be. It's not going to replace your netbook for hacking perl on your favorite geek project and it's not supposed to.
--Stupid Sig Here--
After reading the comments here and on Engadget, it just confirms that your average techie doesn't know a great new product when he sees it. So many people seem to be complaining that it doesn't have some certain deal-breaking hardware feature, yet they haven't even noticed the most important innovation: The software. The greatest part of this device simply flies over the head of so many people here because they have no understanding about what makes a computer great to use.
You know, a lot of the UI features of the iPad don't look that revolutionary. Looks almost like a variant of Moblin to me. How hard would it be to create a Linux desktop manager that duplicates the functionality of the iPad? Shoot, it wouldn't even be that hard to go several features better (multi-tasking, daylight-readable screen, video camera, etc.)
It's great that Apple has put their vision out there, but it looks like when all is said and done, they're betting on their media tie-ins to keep their dominant hipster status. The special sauce doesn't seem to be in the software or the hardware of the iPad.
So, while Apple is busy trying to wrangle exclusive deals with Big Content, other smartbook vendors and the FOSS community can be busy analyzing the design choices of the iPad, and dreaming up an even better vision.
"We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
What an unfortunate name.
Nintendo got away with using Wii (urinate, pee, tinkle, piss, whiz).
I hate to agree with a PC user, but that is what I see as lacking in the iPad; no useful text editor. Also no useful spreadsheets or web page editors, its only good for fun, can't do any real work on it, except answer e-mails. Maybe Apple didn't want to compete with its MacBooks, and so they didn't give this an OS X operating system, but if they had, then it would be the revolutionary device that all the hype was about.
1GHz on an ARM is going to be necessarily limited in horsepower, and dividing that between several apps is going to lead to poor input response.
Motorola 68000, 8MHz seemed to handle pre-emptive multitasking just fine. Ah, progress!
The market for the Air is executives and frequent travelers who need something small to take notes on, edit spreadsheets, power projectors, and kill plane time, all while looking cool.
i'd disagree, for the reason that you simply cannot do anything more than the simplest data entry with a touch screen.
1. it's a very small keyboard
2. you don't have physical button edges which means you *must* look at every key you press
3. the on-screen keyboard severely hides the display when it's up
4. you are either standing with the device typing with one hand and holding it with the other, or sitting down with it on your lap with the entire device flat, keyboard and display which puts the display at an awkward angle making it hard to see (along with the keyboard, which is on the display as well).
It's an excellent device for me.
It will do 80% of what I usually carry my 4(?) yo MacBook-Pro and my eBook-Reader for.
I will be able to leave both at the hotel or at home and do most of the stuff on the iPad / the customers machines and if I really need the power I can still Remote Desktop to one of my company's machines.
My thoughts exactly. The advantage of the Ipod is that it's small - making portable devices bigger? That's what people call a "brick". Yet it lacks the advantages of similar sized devices, most notably netbooks (proper keyboard, open and full computer OS).
This may sell okay to some Apple fans, but the hype over this is absurdly ridiculous and disproprtionate. I only hope it will return to normal coverage (as happened with the Air - funny how we never heard about that again, after netbooks appeared on the scene). Or I fear it may turn out like the Iphone - free advertising in the media, including daily Ipad stories (or more), even if it turns out to be one of the lesser seller tablets, compared to tablets that never get any coverage at all.
So, it's got wireless and I don't even know if they make Nomads anymore. But: no handwriting input, no web cam. Lame.
These are my sentiments exactly, but remember that you and I are not the target audience here. Apple sells fashion accessories, not electronics. People will buy one of these (the most expensive one no doubt), just to impress their friends. Yes, there may be some people who genuinely need the features offered by this (although I cannot think what features these are off the top of my head), but the majority will be buying just for the sake of owning the latest and greatest.
P.S. If you ever build a time machine and happen to run into me circa 2001 deciding not to buy Apple stock because the iPod is an overpriced, locked down piece of crap that no one will ever buy, slap me. Hard.
Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
Sarah? Sarah Palin, is that you? :-)
Seriously though, EVERY profession thinks outsiders are fools. Cops call civilians "sheeple," plumbers and mechanics think people who don't turn a wrench all day are suckers, doctors routinely think of themselves as God Almightier.
If you're not a computer geek and don't like Unix, then why are you hanging out on a forum called "/."?
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
Dateline: Wed Jan 27th 2010, San Francisco: 10:00am
Not since their release of the iWaterboard "enhanced interrogation"
playset (tm) has so much excitement been generated over a new Apple
product. The new iShackle (tm), demonstrated by Steve Jobs on an
anti-DRM protester on stage at a packed San Francisco event this
morning, takes customer lock-in to a new level. "With the new iShackle
(tm), content companies will literally OWN their customers", said Jobs
in front of an ecstatic audience. "No more pesky choice, no more
confusing options, just pure, simple, buy this or ELSE corporate power". As
expected, fans were completely delighted with the new Apple product.
"I can't wait to buy the new iShackle (tm) and take it home and put it
on !" said one excited member of the crowd. "Steve says I never have
to take it off or think about other products EVER AGAIN !"
Not everyone was pleased with the announcement however. A Microsoft
spokesperson said, "We've had the Microsoft zOBEY software for 2 years
now, this isn't a new concept. Apple once again copies the market
leader." Sales of the Microsoft alternative have been poor however,
except for Microsoft employees, who have had use of the software
mandated in their employment contracts since Steve Ballmer announced
the product at a marketing event in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2007.
I'm not sure if the potential of this device is immediately apparent. Wait for a couple of years for the apps to be developed. I don't see any real reason why this device cannot outperform current tablet PC's. Firstly, what is to stop you from using a stylus? What is stopping application developers from creating apps that allow annotation of PDF files or that duplicate the functionality of "One Note". If the market demands such functionality, will the market not deliver it?
Furthermore, what makes you think that software such as "One Note" is anything but a niche market for certain professionals? And do you really need to be able to scribble ugly handwriting on the screen? Aren't there better ways of inputting text? I suppose the market will decide.
Anyways, my opinion is that this is an embryonic platform. Once HTML5 starts to take over, the Flash issue will be less of a concern. And with HTML5, you will be able to do things with a browser that you probably couldn't imagine.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
Wow, I'm a bit disappointed :) Yes, with the iPad a bit, but more so with the idea that this is Slashdot and barely anyone has thrown a spotlight on the Apple A4. This is an ARM, high performance, low power CPU with integrated graphics, and more importantly the first piece of processing silicon coming out of Cupertino. Regardless of how much i like the Intel Atom, i think this will be a viable competitor on the ARM front. Too bad it is under lock and key with the iPhone OS :p
Cue 2010. Remember how everyone said it was much easier to develop applications for the iPhone OS rather than Android because all iPhones had the same 320x480 screen resolution? Now Apple launches iPad, with more screen resolution, and they have two backwards compatibility modes. One where apps run as a tiny rectangle in the middle of the device, another where everything is upscaled, maintaining the same application resolution.
Uniform hardware specs are so much better. Right?
Wow, Apple managed to invent the netbook only a couple years late for several hundred bucks more! Jobs' comments said that he wanted to establish a new class of device between smartphones and laptops. It's as though he was unaware that there's been such a category for years, and that it costs a lot less than $500, and that it doesn't lock you into one manufacturer's control so hard you can't even change the battery yourself.
Um, no. Apple's very aware of netbooks. They're also very aware that people don't want them. What they want is low cost and portable. Until now, netbooks were pretty much the only product to fit that bill.
Contrary to popular belief, people don't simply choose the cheapest item. If they did, there would only be one model of iPod, one model of HP notebook, etc. The iPad costs more than the base model of most netbooks, but it's also going to be exceptionally more useful for most people.
I'm highly confident that, placed side-by-side, people will prefer the iPad over any netbook. Specifications geeks, floss geeks, and people who need some particular program may choose the netbook, but the average person? Forget about it. The netbook is a dead end.
How about 4) The Internet, where an appropriate medium is chosen for each web page.
So for your game aggregation sites, you have embedded flash. For educational or lightweight application use you have HTML/DOM/JavaScript with maybe embedded Java or Silverlight, and for the rest of the web you have HTML/CSS. I like this option.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Who cares about a Nomad or an Archos? I've NEVER seen or even heard of someone with them. Maybe there's a reason neither of those has any buyers?
You ridiculous posts making no sense. Lame.