iPads On American Campuses? Maybe Next Year

Velcroman1 writes "Slashdotters have read extensively about the iPad pilot programs at colleges and universities: Australian schools are iPad crazy, we read yesterday, and thanks to the iPad's success, 2011 will be the year of the tablet. But on US college campuses almost half a year after the iPad's launch, it's a whole different story — at least so far this year. FoxNews.com reports that high-profile schools like Duke and Stanford are far more cautious about the device than has previously been reported. 'It definitely facilitates studying and recall because you don't get bogged down by all the paper,' noted first-year Stanford med student Ryan Flynn. But it's still a work in progress. 'The iPad isn't the best input device. Some people have gone back to paper and pencil.'"

Comments

Re:I don't think so

[jedidiah]

> iPad can already watch videos downloaded from TPB

No, not really. In terms of video, the iPad is like some ancient laptop at the used computer store from 1999.

It has a weak CPU and limited speciality hardware and is constructed to make it impossible for you to manage your own data or applications.

So it's unecessarily hard to get things on and off. You can't really connect to local networks. You can't even print easily.

3G sucks for networking, especially anything serious.

Something with a good keyboard and a wired ethernet port will run circles around it for real work. ...not even getting into that whole "compatability" thing.

Re:The lockdown begins...

[gstoddart]

Not really owning or controlling your own hardware has some serious practical implications that are more than just "politics".

In what way don't I own my iPad? In what way can't I control it -- oh, you mean that since I can't run Apache on it or Linux I don't control it?? Are we still ranting over that old saw? Really? Just because you want to put Linux on your toaster and watch doesn't mean that all of us do.

The iTunes approach to interacting with the device is main reason why.

What, with buttons? Now you're bordering on incoherent ... do you mean the iTunes store? The iTunes app? In what way am I restricted by iTunes that offends your sensibilities? Could it be the DRM that I don't use on the MP3s that I'm not supposed to be able to use?

Or do you mean the nice convenient app store instead of downloading a tar-ball, running autoconf and going through the tedious process of compiling and installing my own software, including resolving my own dependencies? The closest I get to that these days is the Ubuntu package manager. I have no interest in wading into that level of stuff -- I've done it for far too long.

Of course those of us with a clue are going to sound the warning bells. People like you want to swindle them.

Well, those of you who think you have a clue to the exclusion of the rest of us will continue to be rabid tools who think that the rest of us are wrong beyond redemption. Basically, you sound like a shrieking monkey. Do you know what "swindle" even means? I'm not "stealing" your alarm bells, I'm telling you that you might want to tone down the rhetoric a little. Or is disagreeing that we're all going to die because of Apple an act of dishonesty and sedition? In which case, you are officially batshit crazy.

Do you really think the "walled garden" of Apple is the death knell for individual rights and we're all being groomed for something nefarious? I just don't see it that way. In fact, I see it as a damned sight more convenient than the old days.

Mostly I hear people shrieking about how my choice to buy an iPad is a great sign of the apocalypse and soon we're going to have cats living with dogs and no remaining personal freedoms.

Why don't you just leave us to decide if it's a useful tool for us, and get over it? You're ranting on about some bogeyman and throwing around some innuendo, but you're not saying anything. You're just shouting your own inflexible position over and over.

ZOMG teh iPads are taking our freedoms away! Hide the women folk.

Re:I don't think so

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck, are you ever a whiny bitch with a completely irrational hate-on for these things.

You're basically an elitist ass who is incapable of seeing how other people use these things instead from the full on tech-nerd.

You sound like RMS, only even more of an asshole. STFU already.

Re:Budget

[rsborg]

Crippled ability to print anything -- you can buy the $30 Apple Camera Adapter to get some USB support, and/or simply email whatever you need to print to a computer, but what a pain.

You're not even trying... iOS 4.2 will introduce printing support. Also this app works wonders for me right now: PrintBureau.

Look, the iPad isn't perfect, and it is not a replacement for a netbook/laptop in a lot of cases (but does work better in some use cases). There are legitimate issues, so why do you pollute your argument with stuff that is no longer an issue?