Slashdot Mirror
The iPad Questions Apple Won't Answer
snydeq writes "Apple's reticence to reveal details prior to a product's launch is legendary. But when Apple extends this silence beyond a product's unveiling, historically this has meant that the product cannot deliver the functionality that analysts and journalists are asking about. InfoWorld's Galen Gruman lists eight key questions for the iPad, about all of which Apple has kept silent. Can you save and transfer documents to the iPad? Does the iPad support Microsoft Exchange email? Does the iPad support VPN? Configuration management? 'I have no doubt the iPad will be compelling to some users. But I now have major concerns that it will fulfill the potential beyond being an iTunes delivery screen that I and other industry observers saw,' Gruman writes."
Seriously, this is the only answer I would like to hear. For the rest, iPad is just a newer, bigger iPhone.
My other signature is a car
so it's not like the iPad is going to be a step back when it comes to capacity
So it offers the same storage, for more money, and takes up more space. The improvement is?
Um, bigger screen? Better performance? Seriously, did you see what kind of apps you can have on that device, as opposed to apps on the iPhone?
And anyone wanting something larger than a portable media player or their phone can get a netbook/tablet/etc at a fraction of the price, with vastly more storage.
Netbook is just a slow, cheap laptop running generic software.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
Am I the only person that sees this thing as nothing more than a faster bigger Ipod Touch? All the same limitations, and missing features.
Sure, a netbook is just:
1) more expensive (all the ones that ho 720p or better video cost more than the iPad).
2) weighs much more
3) lasts far less on a battery (3-4 hours playing video, tops)
4) is not instant on
5) does not get e-mail when hibernating (the iPad has a 30 day standby time on Wifi, and is constantly collecting notifications and push e-mail!)
6) is less convenient
7) doesn't do portrait mode for reading sites and working on docs
8) has to be maintained, patched, secured like a PC
9) can;t share app licenses with more than 1 device
10) doesn't run all the iPhone apps I already own
11) wont; hang from the back of my car seat so the kids can watch movies
12) has no native streaming services (sorry, Windows Pro not licensed on netbooks).
13) doesn't require expensive PC software licenses.
14) netbooks don't do games.
This is a PC COMPANION device, something to sync from your PC, work with your phone, and be always handy, always ready to use, and always on. A netbook is another PC to babysit. If I wanted that, I'd get another REAL PC, one i can use, play videos and games on, for a few hundred more (I can get a Macbook 13" for example for only $850, more powerful than any Dell or HP in it;s class for a lower price, and only a few hundred more than a shitty ass netbook.
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.