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iPad Progress Report
Now that the 300,000 early adopters have had a few days to play and work with their iPads, we're moving beyond the "first impressions" articles (but here's a video of a 2-1/2-year-old's first encounter with the device). The detailed reviews aren't out yet. The largest source of early complaints is a complex of problems with Wi-Fi reception. Apple has posted a technical support note implicitly acknowledging the problems and suggesting some work-arounds — specifically, changing SSIDs or encryption methods on base stations that offer both 2.4-GHz and 5.8-GHz signals. Finally, here's a detailed look at the gratuitous pain Apple imposes on those desiring to get iWork files transferred from and to the iPad.
She really smashes that poor iPad :(
WTF is that?
other solutions to the wi-fi problems.
Our neighbor picked up an iPad on launch day, and he has definitely experienced the Wi-Fi problem. His Acer Aspire One in his basement can connect to his wireless G Linksys router on his top floor with a good, strong signal. His iPad can BARELY connect while he is on his ground floor, and in his basement you can forget about it. His Aspire One can also see our wireless network as well as the network belonging to folks on the other side of him, but even if he shoves his iPad against the wall dividing our town homes, he still can't even see our router, much less connect to it.
Living With a Nerd
with a Jailbreak.
Yours In Kuybyshev,
Kilgore Trout
The file synch is nothing compared to the way iWork mangles files http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=7935&tag=content;col1
No one's hacked it yet?
Come on people, get on the ball...
Doing anything with documents on an iPad sounds awful. You apparently have to "sync" with a Mac using iTunes. In any business environment, you'd want to talk to some server.
Apparently the iPad is incompatible with Google Docs, although this may just be a bug.
How exactly is this a problem? Just buy an apple airport wireless extender and problem solved.
I see. So Apple's wimpy receiver needs a boost and the solution is to buy more hardware from Apple - sound like IBM's business model - it's a good one, btw.
It's too bad that Apple didn't use the same superior Wi-Fi receivers like those low-end laptops and netbooks.
It sure seems strange to me that Apple, who sell themselves as the "complete" and "it just works" experience would release the iPad before the next version of iPhoneOS comes out. This sounds like the kind of giant pay-to-beta-test sort of thing that Apple is known for NOT doing.
As someone who uses an iPhone and would like an iPad, Thursday will be very interesting.
Is anyone else reminded of the 10.0 release of OSX?
Doesn't it "just work"
What I'm really interested to know is will the iPad allow me to write a book, save in unencrypted ePub format, and upload it to my own device, to be read by iBooks? I happen to be in the market for an e-reader, but not one that won't allow me to read self-authored content.
Nerd Rock In Progress
The little girl had obviously spent a lot of time playing with an iPhone or iPod Touch. While cute, I don't think it really qualifies as much of a First-Encounter-type UI experiment.
According to PCWorld, the Apple press release citing 300k units is including those sold to Bestbuy, which is of course entirely different from the number of units sold by Bestbuy.
that figure includes those that WorstBuy bought and has sitting on their shelves. Are they sold to end losers yet?
look on Craigslist or eBay to see all the "end losers" that bought them thinking they could flip them.
I wonder what percentage of sales were made up by those?
I like microcars
Is after 1 month after purchase. When the Gee Wiz is out... The back has a few scratches... Do they put it on a shelf and forget about it or will they use it in their daily lives. I remember back in the 90's when I got myself a Palm III I when I first go it I was playing with it and it was all cool and I downloaded apps for it and everything else... But after a month I kept on forgetting to use it, leaving it at home and not really using it for anything useful. I didn't get myself an iPad not because I didn't think it was cool but because as far as I could tell it would just be fun for a month then I would have it on a shelf not used.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Well, considering Apple stopped taking advanced orders, those who wanted one but didn't pre-order would have to get one at an Apple store. If the Apple store was out, they'd have to hope BestBuy had one. BestBuy however carried far fewer per store than an Apple store would have.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Before I become modded down to an oblivion, I would like to point out that on an Asus AEEE or even on a XO I can run abiword or openoffice and have a FULL OS with REAL software that is used by the rest of the world on desktops. Not a DRMed cell phone os with large amounts of resources being used to lock me into a jail with specifically designed office apps that have been made crippled.
I was hoping to run MacOSX when I heard Apple was going to make a sub netbook. Instead it reminds me of WinCE where Microsoft got together to purposedly cripple as much possible.
The tabled is not a computer but a device ... a big IPhone with the phone part disabled.
I am waiting for HPs tablet. I hope it runs Windows and I can put any app I want on it.
http://saveie6.com/
Apparently, the iPads have a tendency to easily overheat in the sun.
we're dropping 'features' at an alarming rate. we've never been very user friendly. we are definitely now peddling ourselves under the hypenosys lowgo. isn't 'progress' grand?
never a better time to consult with/trust in your creators.
Adopters. Early Adapters? WTF??
That would be Kombucha.
This is looking like a "wait for Service Pack 1" or "wait for version 2" situation.
This could be a nice little device in a year, when the software is debugged, the cellular interface is in and works, the cellular networks have provisioned enough capacity to serve video to the thing, there's decent support for business documents, and the price has dropped by 50% or so.
Apple make a great product. But never first time round. If I did want one of these, I would wait for the next revision at least.
I did buy an iPad. I had a gift certificate so the cost was significantly reduced, and I thought it would be fun. haven't had much time to play with it since work has been crazy since I bought it.
BUT it is a really nice media consumption device. I haven't bought the iWork suite yet (and i'm not sure I will).
It seems to me that using this device for creating word documents is not really that a good idea; it reminds me of the monty python skit where they ask someone to cut down a tree with a herring.
Personally I word process on my desktop when I have REAL work to do. If I want to write leisurely I could see that working on the iPad, but it's definitely not what I envision myself doing.
I'm going to be reading, watching movies, listening to music and playing games. It does those all pretty well IMO, and the OLED screen is gorgeous indoors (kind of reflective outside). Still wish it had a pixelqi screen but, ah well. Such is the fate of an early adopter.
Are developers out of their freaking minds? Do they seriously thing that Things is worth paying $19.99? I mean, I can see the utility, but given all the alternatives, do they seriously believe that people are going to pay that much?
To do list for Windows
Next year Apple will announce iPhone OS 5.0 with an innovative new idea that they're calling "iFile". With this new service all of your applications can share documents by storing them in a common location. iFile will include an innovative system of organization called "Folders". Folders will allow you to group related documents together in a single location. You will even be able to create Folders within Folders.
And coming in iPhone OS 6.0, "iFile Share". Share your iFiles over any network connection.
especially sunlight. Sorry but with this type of device I was really hoping I could use it outdoors without fearing the light. No go. Sorry its abysmal. It also has the problem of not being viewable in page format with polarized lenses, landscape was fine. When I borrowed my friends Kindle I found I could read outside just fine. Let alone the weight, sorry but it really amazes me how much it gets to you over time.
I don't need another device that is trapped indoors. Summer is almost upon us and I don't want something I fear leaving in the sun, let alone using with the sun out. I guess I can sit under the umbrella but really, my marine GPS is beautiful in sunlight, why can't we have an iPad for the outdoors instead of basement dwellers?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Sometimes Apple has a period of greatness and then they have a period of... well, not so greatness. Maybe it is time again?
Personally, I don't know. The Wifi problems sound odd, but then again, who exactly thought putting an metal shield on an antenna was a good idea? But surely Apple would have tested that.
I think what we are finding is that a lot of people are putting this device under an intense microscope, determined to find any and all flaws and blow them up out of proportion. High trees catch a lot of wind, especially if they fail to fall in previous gusts of hot air. Anyone remember people scoffing the iPod and iPhone? They must be getting desperate for Apple to have one of its famous screw-ups again.
I think Apple had a simple reason to launch the iPad now. One of its uses is to go outside and use it. Who is going to go outside in the winter? And soonish they will have to announce a new macbook pro anyway (core 2 duo is getting very long in the tooth) and that makes more sense later in the year, and two must have's should be seperated so the victim eh customer has time to recover from the bloodletting that is called buying an Apple product.
Frankly, I have seen all this negativity before. I don't put much stock in it. If someone were to introduce fire in this day and age, people would find plenty of stuff wrong with it and claim that nobody really needs it.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Requires sticks. Dimmer than the sun. Lame.
It's a sad day when getting root on my own device is considered 'hacking'
Reply to That ||
Will one out of every three stories from every newspaper, magazine, website, radio and TV station for the next 18 months really be about the iPad?
I need to know right now so I can prepare myself by drinking a large glass of neurotoxin, with a bullet to the brain chaser.
You are welcome on my lawn.
but just in my regular reading of various blogs, I've read more problematic reviews than I've read positive ones.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/05/editorial-ipad-prices-are-out-of-control-and-will-kill-us-all/
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-have-laptop-macbook-pro-and-iphone-so.html
http://www.livescience.com/technology/13-glaring-ipad-shortcomings-100404.html
Of course it is a 1G product, and Apple has plenty of time and customer capital to spend tweaking things that people care about to get it right. Likely they will. However the shortcomings right now would be dealkillers for many vendors without the hype and reputation of Apple. Being that it is, they may well overcome these issues, and some of them might not bug average consumers enough to matter, but if competitors get to market quick enough without these sorts of limitations, being first may not be the end of the story.
As it is, I'm glad they are because they draw a very clear bar others will have to pass to succeed and we know by the time 3G iPads roll around whether they own the space or not we will be dealing with some pretty nice new technology.
Here is hoping the competition is thick.
You just missed the memo:
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/04/04/2223237/iPad-Jailbroken
BTW, let me be the first to say:
"Two year olds, is there nothing they can't do?"
iDontCareAnymore
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
Apple To Introduce iPDA
I don't need to stream scaled-down "used-to-be-hi-definition" video in 1024x576, so I'll get the iPDA instead of the iPad.
some guy has ths great checklist of reasons your antispam idea won't work we need something like that for first looks at apple hardware Here are reasons why your brand new, expensive apple hardware sucks One or more may apply 1) Its exspensive 2) the warranty sucks 3) the battery, powercable, screen, keyboard or other hardware is cleary defective, as evidenced by a large number of failures,and apple won't honor warrantys, and replacing it is a major pain in the ass, and costly if done thru apple 4) Getting your new toy to work with prev generations of apple software is hard 5) I/O has major glitches, including exspensive and spotty wireless web connection, touch screens that don't work Don't complain; just like those fools who buy a new MS OS before SP2, ou are an early adopter guinea pig for the rest of us. I thank you for your service PS: as a mac hater, I think you are all whackjobs; you buy this overpriced crap that doesn't do anything so you think you are cool. My laptop cost 425 bucks; I could buy two or three for the cost of a mac (and specs don't matter - I only do simple stuff, so it doesn't matter how much ram or hd space or whatever i have) but thats just me Instead of showing off with your mac crap, why don't you buy something cheap, and send the money to haiti or save the children. yo can put a little sticker on your cheap cell phone, I got this cheap cell phone instead of an iphone so 50 kids could have dinner... .....
So, in true Slashdot spirit:
It's a sad day when getting root on my own device requires 'hacking'
FTFY.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
Where have I heard about that before?
The future is now :)
Not to discount the iPad, but the constant barrage of news on this thing undoubtedly makes a dramatic impact on sales. People inevitably want to get on the bandwagon and find a reason to justify getting an iPad.
If someone else had introduced a similar tablet computer, with a well-designed interface and not chained to any one service I guarantee little attention would be given to the device. Of course, the key point here is that nobody else even tried. There were those tablet PCs several years ago, but since then nobody even tried to improve on those designs. Apple did it and now the inevitable imitators are going to flock to introduce their own versions.
So I find myself torn between thinking Apple's products are overrated and being impressed by the fact that they can bring a bit of technology to maturity and really make it work. And they understand integration better than most.
I dunno, his username starts with "pope", so there is a good chance that he is infact gay.
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
The machine of a dream
Such a clean machine
With the fingers a squeezin'
And the bezel caps all gleam
When I'm holdin' your wheel
All I hear is your gear
When my hand's on your screen
Oh it's like a disease son
I'm in love with my iPad
Gotta feel for my ipadmobile
Get a grip on my boy racer software
Such a thrill when your voices squeal
Told my girl I'll have to forget her
Rather buy me a new iPadburetor
So she made tracks sayin'
This is the end now
iPads don't talk back
They're just two-finger friends now
When I'm holdin your wheel
All I hear is your gear
When I'm cruisin' in overdrive
Don't have to listen to no run of the mill talk jive
I'm in love with my iPad
Gotta feel for my ipadmobile
I'm in love with my iPad
String back gloves in my ipadolove
I think it's fantastic that people think the iPad represents progress.
wow!
Sometimes Apple has a period of greatness and then they have a period of... well, not so greatness. Maybe it is time again?
Apple sold 300,000 iPads on the first day. Their market cap just passed Wal-Mart making them the 3rd most valuable company traded in US markets, behind only Microsoft and Exxon-Mobil. Regardless of particular views on the merits of the iPhone or the iPad, they are re-defining their markets and forcing competitive innovation just by their very existence. This is almost by definition a "great" period for a company.
In terms of the intense inspection, that is absolutely true, but such inspection is valid. Apple sets themselves up as the gold standard in consumer electronics. Not only do competitors analyze every device to see what they can reverse engineer and implement, they also must find flaws to that they can continue to sell their own kit, which is often inferior. For instance, everyone says how closed the Apple laptop is, but no one mentions that even with all the expandability of a PC laptop, one cannot get a trackpad as efficient as the standard apple trackpad. OTOH, when Apple shipped with the dreaded puck mouse, it was easily replaced.
In fact Apple is in a precarious position, reminiscent of the newton. Most of the sync for the electronics line is through iTunes. iTunes is a program primarily concerned with DRM, and therefore design decision tend to be focused on limited transfer information rather than letting the user get to information. This means that I cannot back up my iPhone on two machines. I am arbitrarily limited because people are afraid I am going to steal music. This was an issue, in a different fashion, on the Newton. The Newton was a very well connected machine, it had full network capability. But there was a sense that it should not be too integrated. The same fear of too integrated seems to be evident on both machines.
Apple has solved this in terms of PDA. All PDA data is not synched over Mobileme, or other services, and is outside of iTunes. User generated content can be moved through other venues as well. What we see here though is that users are going to create various other content, such as office documents, and we are being thwarted by the iTunes DRM watch. If they do not fix this quickly, then the potential of using the iPad as a content generation platform will be destroyed. At the very least Apple must implement a native bridge between the WebDAV extension that iPhone OS. The MobileMe app is not sufficient. Apps must have the ability to access the filesystem. If the file format for iPhone iWork apps is different from iWork applications, then they have made a grave error indeed, just like they did with Newton.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
See, actually, I do want a device and not yet another computer. Why?
It doesn't matter why you think you want what Apple's selling -- we know what the real reason is (fanboism/you're a sheeple/you like shiny things/Apple's marketing).
It's certainly not because you've done any kind of actual analysis of your wants/needs and how the iPad might actually meet them. I know, because I've done a careful detailed analysis based on my totally objective criteria for a tablet-like product, and the iPad comes up short every time. Just like all Apple products do if you're smart enough to see things like I do.
Sriously, what is the iPad, anyway? Sure, it might be a better e-reader than a laptop or a small mobile device, but it doesn't have e-Ink, so it can't be used as an e-reader. Sure, it might be able to watch video, but it doesn't have a fullsize screen and if your going to have a screen smaller than a laptop you might as well watch it on your open Android phone. Sure, it might have apps for working with documents, but it doesn't have a keyboard or you have to use a bluetooth keyboard or something so it looses to any netbook or laptop for cryin out loud. And of course your limited to just whatever you can find on the App store, and who knows what that is this week what with Apple changing what apps are allowed.
The only people this would appeal to are those who want something like an e-reader but don't care about e-ink and want it to do media and light computing stuff too. I don't know about you but I already have a laptop, a Nook, and a smartphone for that, I don't want to carry around another device that just does all of that.
The iPad is clearly for stupid people, and the only way we're going to save them from themselves, is if we stand up to the hordes of fanbois that threaten to drown out us clear-headed thinkers here on slashdot and speak the truth t o power clearly.
Tweet, tweet.
This is certainly not off topic. Crude, perhaps but AC gets the point across.
~ Ron Fitzgerald
He = Mr iPad
If we defeat him on this WiFi issue then we Republicans will sweep the next election.
Long live CHAOS.
Help end the use of Sigs. Tomorrow
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do."
- Benjamin Franklin
If you can make a better product, or have a company make one for you, then make one. Alpha models always have some problems and Apple is probably trying to resolve the issues quickly but, stooping to using 2 year olds in your argument is rather poor form. Your animosity for Apple and the iPad is palpable. I would have more respect for you if you would just admit you HATE it rather than using all of these fixable problems to spread your passive-aggressive diatribe.
More than likely the antenna. My laptop sees networks that my iPod Touch refuses to even see. Or it could be the Broadcom chip, or even the iPhone OS. Who knows.
I wanted a tablet, but wasn't looking to get anything by Apple or something Windows based. Linux's touch support seems pretty dodgy, so I ended up settling on an Entourage Edge. It looks pretty horrible asthetically, but has been incredibly useful/fun. It's an android-based ereader/tablet with two screens, a WACOM-stylus eink on one side, and a typical touch screen LCD on the other. After using it for a about a week now, I definitely recommend it to others. www.entourageedge.com
If you want to be seen, stand up. If you want to be heard, speak up. If you want to be respected, sit down and shut up.
I've surfed the web on it, I've read my email. I started reading a book. I've watched a few Netflix TV shows and part of a movie on it. Seems to do what it was intended to and by comparison to my iPhone, was a much easier experience on me because of the larger screen. Seems to me like it's a device that does what it's touted to. And I think it can only get better as we have more developers that are actually able to get their hands on it and see their app running on it first hand.
My Apple product is brand new.
My router is old and dusty.
Maybe I should get a new shiny router.
Maybe Apple could sell me a shiny new router?
News at 11.
Really, why are people surprised? Just because it's Apple doesn't mean first release is going to be flawless. Shiny maybe, but certainly not flawless.
Offtopic? Yes. Troll? Yes. Absolutely Hilarious? Yes. Posting anonymously since I spent a mod point fending off the off-topic modders.
The iPad is good for reading and some type of games. But Apple didn't figure out how to make a simple user interface, they just limited the device to only being able to do simple things well. Being simplistic is not the same as being simple.
Yes, Apple, there is a reason other systems have buttons and UI standards for things like Menu and Cancel; on the iPad, every app does this differently. And although file systems and explorers suck, what sucks even worse is if every application on the machine has to implement it's own file browser and network file system interface because the OS doesn't. And although one can live without multitasking, it really is a pain.
It's not just iWork that suffers: PDF viewers and annotators, offline web pages, split browser windows, blogging tools, sticky notes, etc. -- all of them have confusing and messy workarounds for the limitations of the iPhone OS and still don't work quite right.
The iPad is actually a great device for a limited set of functions. But Apple needlessly screwed up usability and the OS. Maybe iPhone OS4 will fix sone of these problems.
Ipads are intended for mobile computing. Are you going to carry an Airport extender... to the airport?
iPad wifi reception is objectively considerably worse than other systems side by side. Let's hope the can fix that in firmware.
Is this sarcasm/satire or just a self-fulfilling opinion?
Satire.
However, either I was a little too subtle, or this is genuinely what your run-of-the-mill knee-jerk Apple Hater sounds like, because at least one moderator who marked me a "troll" couldn't tell the difference either.
Tweet, tweet.
as a means of ranking one company against another. Or did we learn nothing from Enron and Worldcom? Look instead at sales, at product diversification, licensing and pipelines, and at past performance relative to market performance in terms of alpha/beta. Back in the early 1980s, when Apple launched the Lisa/Mac and Microsoft was launching Windows 1.0, Apple's employee number, market cap *and* sales were literally hundreds of times larger than Microsoft's at that time. Look where they went, and where they are now.
Da Blog
It's all about momentum. Apple uses a lot of the tactics described by 37signals in their new book "ReWork". You just want to ship a high quality product (and it is high quality, despite what seem like teething problems) and get it out the door. Worry about the more complicated stuff (like 3rd party multi-tasking) later. If you keep delaying the release to perfect your product, you'll end up with a Duke Nukem Forever.
early adaptor? WTF is that?
Are you in early Europe? Do you need an early adaptor?
Yes, Apple is 'worth' over $210 billion dollars. Reminds me of two years ago when my neighbor said his small bungalow house was 'worth' half a million dollars.
I'm not going to venture a guess as to what Apple is REALLY worth as a company, but when something is so extremely hyped in the media, it's stock is almost guaranteed to be overvalued.
The Wi-Fi issues aren't new, they've been around since the iPhone, it has trouble with throughput dying on 802.11g networks. The fix? Setting the router to 802.11b only mode. Nice job Apple, if only everyone could be as half-arsed as you and still turn a prof- oh wait.
Hype is not always a useful indicator of "overvalued". Google was roundly panned as 'not worth the hype,' when it's initial offering @ $85/share happened. And it's now worth nearly $570 a share.
Considering Apple has few (if any) debts, billions of dollars in cash (as I read it on Yahoo Finance, about 28 billion), a multitude of physical assets (land, office buildings, etc), is one of the (perhaps THE now) largest music retailers in the US, and a physical product line that is the envy of the tech world... I'd say that $210 billion isn't that hard to swallow as a "corporate net worth."
There are already better tablet devices in existence that are more functional and support more types of activity, but why so much attention has been centered on the ipad, i can only assume it is apple hype, generated by its market - casual electronics users. I mean, if I really wanted to, I could pick up a tablet pc, throw linux on it, and sit in an airport terminal streaming shoutcast stations and write a paper about the benefits of having a portable computer, while browsing /. on a cellular or wifi network.
I guess the real value in the ipad is that all the hardware and peripherals required that would allow me to do such tasks in the last paragraph are consolidated and compacted into a single device, so the value is not just for the consumer but for the future of portable computing, as this will set a standard for other tablet companies to make such commodities as easy and refined to use (with the proprietariness that Apple forces upon us of course).
I'm not implying that arbitrary hype and buying a product purely because of its brand is a good thing, but this situation to me is at least shaping up to be beneficial for the entire concept of a computer.
Predicted sales 299,999, actual sales 300,000 - result: awesomenitude.
Predicted sales 300,001, actual sales 300,000 - result: suckage.
-- Wilkins Micawber
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
No they shipped 300,000 on the first day.
They sold those 300,000 over the course of months. This is clearly stated in the first line of the article.
I find being offended by me offensive.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1591778&cid=31744018
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1591778&cid=31744018
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1591778&cid=31744018
Hi APK! Adding more fuel to the fire, I see. You must think that this is a bluff?
Seriously there is no reason for us to complain about Apple products, they are the only company apart from Google left on this planet which actually tries to Innovate.... Within the past 10 years no other BIG software company has done anything close to revolutionary as to what Apple has done. If we take a look at Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, SUN.. which were all renowned to their innovative products in the 90's are not operating like Blue Chip companies.. mostly surviving on their landmark products or else buying small companies.....
whatever item,if it is from apple, then it is hot and fashion. http://www.electronicswholesaledistributor.com/