With new software updates, it will ask you if you want to download and install, just download, or ignore (and you can tell it not to ask you again), so you don't have to update. It's separate from the syncing process itself - I have kept my 3G on the old software, since I really don't need the features offered by the iOS4 update and the performance is reportedly not great on the 3G. iTunes doesn't mind at all that I'm not up to date with the very latest stuff when syncing all my music, calendars etc.
Perhaps not $500, but you are at the very least getting a known-quantity for the quality of an iPad - you said it yourself, the $99 tablets look cheap and nasty, even if they are functional. Quality Android devices are going to be more than $99.
I'm sure the price will fall somewhere in between as the products mature, and we see the second gen iPad.
iPads have free shipping, and a case is not part of the iPad, so adding its cost to it is disingenuous, unless you add a similar case to the product you're comparing it to.
Put the Finder in Cover Flow view, then use the arrow keys. This allows you to leaf through, but by default it doesn't use the actual content of the image for display, just the thumbnail - it's mainly for speed.
or, select the images (or documents - you can do it with anything preview can open, including Office documents) and press the space bar to go into Quicklook Mode (that you can further inflate by going full screen if you like, entirely optional). This does look at the actual data in the file rather than just the thumbnail/summary.
Or a third way, if you are so inclined - highlight a bunch of files and open in Preview. You'll get a thumbnail filmstrip on one side that you can roll through with arrow keys/mouse/etc
Goodness me, your view of your fellow man is bizarre.
It's not enough to just not like a different platform, you really have some hate going on there. It's amusing more than anything. I don't begrudge anyone their choice of OS or hardware (I run a combination of OS X and Linux), but you haters are really becoming the sort of zealots that you froth and wail about Mac users being all the time.
Who says that the new generation will be "handed a PC and expected to use it". The business of the future might well have moved away from Windows - with Linux user friendliness getting ever better, and Open Office getting ever better, and the move on the web towards more open standards, why so fixated on Windows? Especially when the story is about Mac and Windows going 50/50 on marketshare among the very demographic who will make up those bosses, employees and businesses of the future.
They may well be "handed a PC and expected to use it", but the logo on the box might look like an Apple - those are PCs too y'know. It might even be a Dell. Who knows.
From the people I have talked to with Macbook Pros (and there are a lot), they didn't pick them solely because of marketing, as you assert (well, unless the fact that they realised there were MacBook Pros for sale because Apple advertises them for sale). They picked them because they fulfil the criteria they set out before making a purchase. Of the thousands of MBP's out there I'm sure a few were bought by the sort of people who are the target of those wishy washy random adverts for Calvin Klein perfumes that don;t actually feature the product, just show a horse on a beach or some crap. The bulk of them will have been a considered purchase - you don;t just chuck down $2000 without asking "is this the right thing for my needs".
I know at least 3 people off the top of my head that run Windows on their MBP's exclusively. They bought the machine purely for the form factor. Not interested in OS X at all, but wanted the MBP for its physical features. I know two more who dual boot - home stuff in OS X, work stuff with incompatible IE6 crap on the Win side. I know another who runs Windows via a VM.
They're far from people using "toys" that will soon see the light and buy an Inspiron or a Lenovo T-something - those are the machines they came from in the first place, and are happy to have switched, because the MBP does everything those older machines did, and has some extra benefits too. One of my buddies loves the drop in weight, since he carries all sorts of other stuff with him and works out of his car most of the time - he's a service engineer. Loves the fact that his laptop bag doesn't weigh as much as his toolkit any more (ok, ok, I kid - but the MBP and its accessories like charger etc cut the weight a lot from his last machine). The cost difference? Soon made up, and well worth it.
It's telling that you think anyone who uses a Mac is somehow "less" of a computer user than someone who starts with Windows, and that "natural selection" will show them up. There are going to be weak IT users in all segments. Your assertion that Windows users are somehow superior is quickly disproved by the plethora of humorous IT helpdesk story websites out there. Were all of those "lusers" using Macs?
Also, who is using an iPad for 8 hours a day of work? That's really not what is was designed for. Just like I don't use a Smart ForTwo to make trips to the hardware store for large, heavy garden stuff - I take the large car. The iPad is a supplementary device to a main computer, much like a cellphone was a supplementary device to a regular phone. "Why do I want a cellphone" some guy in the 90s said, "I have a perfectly fine phone right here that makes cheap calls, and if I'm outside, I can use a payphone". Why indeed. No one has ever suggested (least of all Apple) that the iPad is designed to replace your computer. For one thing, you need a home computer to dock it with, since it is not self sufficient for updates/etc.
I see you put everything on full - so you included both iWork and Office, as well as the AppleCare warranty (how much is the 3 year warranty equivalent to AppleCare on the $450 notebook - does the $450 base price include one?)
You're also inflating the cost with all the software and the warranty.
I assume the $450 windows laptop comes with a full copy of Student+Home Office, right? And I assume a full suite of apps equivalent to iWork too.
I can start, control and do other such things with the iPad and a movie - when I need a keyboard, one appears on the screen. When I need to activate an icon, I just touch it on the screen.
A laptop doesn't "fail" - it's just superfluous for me in that situation.
So, from your comment, it seems obvious that you not only haven't read the patent in question, you haven't read the article either. It looks strongly like you read the headline and then went right to the "post reply" button from there.
Perhaps I should patent that. "Method for looking foolish on an internet forum".
Translation: "I hate it when people have measured, rational arguments and don't resort to ad hominem attacks, it makes my retorts look silly."
If it's "annoying" to debate an issue with actual arguments and no name calling, then perhaps you are not suited to debate? If the peak of your arguments are "fanbois suck, apple sucks!" then I can see why it might be annoying if an Apple user actually comes back at you with more than "nuh uh!".
So, those patents on more effective condensers on steam engines weren't "new or innovative" because the patent diagrams showed them in the context of a steam engine (that had already been in use for many years).
How about those patents for variable pitch props - surely drawing in the rest of the prop blade takes away from the "new and innovative!" part.
What about the patent for winglets to reduce wingtip vortices and improve the effective lifting area of the wing.... oh sorry, I drew an aircraft wing in my patent to show how it worked. I guess it's not new and innovative any more.
Yes, like the road system, and the fire service, and the military.
You can choose never to drive on the roads if you walk everywhere, but your taxes still pay for them since the society you live in requires certain things (like the ability for trucks to deliver things to the town you live in).
You may not directly consume the services you pay for with your "monopoly" taxes, but you surely are not foolish enough to think that no government is a better option, or a government that cannot levy taxes. Part of being in a society is that you can do a lot that helps everyone for a little input from the individual.
You can try to be isolationist if you like and live off the grid because you don't want a "monopoly" taking your money, but then don't complain to me when you can't get mail delivered to you, can't get food delivered to where you live, or electricity, or water, or education for your children. If your house catches fire, don't complain when the fire department doesn't show up to put it out, on the road that the state built, using water piped there via state-owned water pipes. Don't complain when then police don't attempt to recover your stolen car and instead tell the local private security firm you hired to look after your local community to do it.
A nation of 260 million individuals who solely looked out for number 1 would very quickly descend into chaos.
Also, your attempt to draw literal parallels between a monopoly position of a company and that of a tax is just amusing. The concepts are different, and you are being deliberately disingenuous. If you are genuinely serious, then I just feel sorry for you.
My tax burden is not that high, and the UK's GDP per-capita spending on healthcare is half of what it is in the US, so my taxes are spent more efficiently (you pay twice the rate for your healthcare in money spent by government, and *then* you pay your insurance premiums).
While our taxes are comparitively higher in some areas (gasoline, diesel for one), we do not have to spend income on private healthcare (unless we really want to - there are plenty of healthcare providers here if you don't want to use the NHS, ie, choice is very high).
The real benefit to the NHS is that if you are poor, your tax burden does actually fall, unlike the US where the cost of healthcare remains pretty much fixed (give or take some of the government assistance). Even with government assistance in the US, if you are poor and you get sick or require frequent prescriptions, you are paying a large portion of your income relative to a rich person.
So, the UK transplant may like the fact that it seems she is paying less, but I will wager that it comes out even when she factors in the required healthcare costs, especially if either her or her husband require any regular medication.
The UK is no magical paradise, but it is one of the many countries in the world that has adopted universal healthcare and it works. The US is the outlier, as the only developed nation without it, and even with the insurance premiums paid by its citizens, it still spends twice the GDP per capita than any other nation on healthcare.
Or it could be that you're actually trolling. A low UID doesn't give you a blanket pass to troll and not get called on it, or blame it on "Ubuntu sympathizers".
I don't need a keyboard when watching a movie, or a CD drive if I ripped the movie (or got it online from a store), nor do I need a trackpad.
If what you want to do can be compressed down to a screen, with the odd times you need a keyboard and mouse solved by the (inferior to a real kb, but actually ok) onscreen keyboard, then it works well.
It's much lighter than a laptop too. I used one for two weeks and loved using it to watch BBC iPlayer and handle quick email and web browsing when I didn't fancy going to my main machine, or "setting up" my Ubuntu laptop (where setting up means sitting down with it on your lap, rather than just reaching for the iPad at arm's length from the bedside table).
I love laptops, and they can do the same things an iPad can do - there's no reason that they have to be exclusive.
My caveats with the iPad - it really needs an SD card slot at the very least, and the back is very smooth which makes propping it up at some angles tricky as it slides over your clothes.
MS already makes apps for the iOS, and they have been approved by Apple even (shock horror, I know). Windows Messenger is even a direct competitor to Apple's IM partner (AIM) and MobileMe!
So, the VOIP (over 3G specifically) apps are something of a special case (carrier issues etc) but app rejection scare stories are o overhyped.
I don't want a physical keyboard - why waste that space with a keyboard when it could be used by a screen. A netbook and an iPad are just as different as a compact car and an MPV (note, I aid MPV, not SUV, although the point remains similar) - both are cars, both have benefits and downsides that make them suited to their roles. You pick the one that does the job you want, jut like choosing a computing device. As with two things that are broadly similar (computers, cars), there is overlap.
And now a daily recharge (when not applied to an Apple product) i "not that hard" yet when the subject of the iPhone's battery life comes up, apparently daily recharging is a major design flaw when you can't replace the battery yourself?
And to answer your PS, they aren't necessarily disqualifies - I visit her place a lot and can park, drive down the streets, and move my larger car around just fine - it would just be easier with a smaller car. She could have used mine in a direct swap for her car, but chose the one that fit the task more than the other - the larger, cheaper car was overkill.
My large MPV was cheaper than my sister's compact car, but she is a single woman living in a small town with restricted roads. My cheaper car is overkill for her, since she doesn't need a giant boot or room for 5 adults in armchair seats. Her compact car is less functional than my MPV, but it cost more. Does that make her a dick?
By definition, you are trying to reframe your argument, and throwing in an ad hominem to boot.
Yes, the tethering in the prime market is annoying but *it is not Apple's choice*. The feature is in the phone (and has been for a long time) but AT&T controls that gateway on their network: they provide the service.
It's not a fault of the phone.
And indeed, Flash would be good on the iPhone/iPad - someone get Adobe to write a version that would actually work and then get Apple to change stance. Right now, 10.1 and the mobile flash build are hopeless on it - just look at them on OS X, which shares near identical core pieces. Flash as it is now it hopeless on anything but Windows.
Yes, but it wouldn't be the sole use for it - just one of the uses, just as you wouldn't make a netbook a full time XBMC box.
Besides, I already have the XBMC setup, and use my iPhone to control it, so I wouldn't need a $600 touch screen pad to do it, it would just be nice.
No one is claiming this is the first time something like this has been done either - it's very convenient to use a device you own already as a remote, especially a universal one.
That doesn't make sense - if you can't do something with it that it can't do by default, then how is it underpowered for that task? It was never designed to do it in the first place.
We're not talking about the walled garden here though, not directly. We're talking about choosing a device based on fitness for purpose - for some people the iPad fits that description, despite the lack of horsepower and ports and keyboard compared to a netbook, and despite the walled garden. If any of these things are a problem, then the iPad is the wrong choice and the hypothetical consumer should buy something else, which is all part of consumer choice.
It is a deliberately limited device by design - it's not designed to be a netbook, just to do some of the tasks a netbook can do. Whether it is good in that role entirely depends on the people who buy it. If it is too limited, just don't buy it.
For the things it does, it is well specced, although it could *seriously* use an SD card slot for expandable storage. That really is one of the things that really need to be added in the second generation models.
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With new software updates, it will ask you if you want to download and install, just download, or ignore (and you can tell it not to ask you again), so you don't have to update. It's separate from the syncing process itself - I have kept my 3G on the old software, since I really don't need the features offered by the iOS4 update and the performance is reportedly not great on the 3G. iTunes doesn't mind at all that I'm not up to date with the very latest stuff when syncing all my music, calendars etc.
I know someone who did just that.
They are enjoying their base model iPad as we speak.
Perhaps not $500, but you are at the very least getting a known-quantity for the quality of an iPad - you said it yourself, the $99 tablets look cheap and nasty, even if they are functional. Quality Android devices are going to be more than $99.
I'm sure the price will fall somewhere in between as the products mature, and we see the second gen iPad.
iPads have free shipping, and a case is not part of the iPad, so adding its cost to it is disingenuous, unless you add a similar case to the product you're comparing it to.
The base iPad costs $499, not "$500+".
Press the space bar.
Two ways:
Put the Finder in Cover Flow view, then use the arrow keys. This allows you to leaf through, but by default it doesn't use the actual content of the image for display, just the thumbnail - it's mainly for speed.
or, select the images (or documents - you can do it with anything preview can open, including Office documents) and press the space bar to go into Quicklook Mode (that you can further inflate by going full screen if you like, entirely optional). This does look at the actual data in the file rather than just the thumbnail/summary.
Or a third way, if you are so inclined - highlight a bunch of files and open in Preview. You'll get a thumbnail filmstrip on one side that you can roll through with arrow keys/mouse/etc
Well, a Mac running OS X is a full Unix OS, and you can dual boot Windows on it if you choose, and even triple boot with Linux.
You can even run them all from VMs from within OS X if you like, or from within Linux.
It's great for exposure to other OSes, and will quite happily run them. One might say it was magical, or the fact that it has an x86 architecture.
Goodness me, your view of your fellow man is bizarre.
It's not enough to just not like a different platform, you really have some hate going on there. It's amusing more than anything. I don't begrudge anyone their choice of OS or hardware (I run a combination of OS X and Linux), but you haters are really becoming the sort of zealots that you froth and wail about Mac users being all the time.
Who says that the new generation will be "handed a PC and expected to use it". The business of the future might well have moved away from Windows - with Linux user friendliness getting ever better, and Open Office getting ever better, and the move on the web towards more open standards, why so fixated on Windows? Especially when the story is about Mac and Windows going 50/50 on marketshare among the very demographic who will make up those bosses, employees and businesses of the future.
They may well be "handed a PC and expected to use it", but the logo on the box might look like an Apple - those are PCs too y'know. It might even be a Dell. Who knows.
From the people I have talked to with Macbook Pros (and there are a lot), they didn't pick them solely because of marketing, as you assert (well, unless the fact that they realised there were MacBook Pros for sale because Apple advertises them for sale). They picked them because they fulfil the criteria they set out before making a purchase. Of the thousands of MBP's out there I'm sure a few were bought by the sort of people who are the target of those wishy washy random adverts for Calvin Klein perfumes that don;t actually feature the product, just show a horse on a beach or some crap. The bulk of them will have been a considered purchase - you don;t just chuck down $2000 without asking "is this the right thing for my needs".
I know at least 3 people off the top of my head that run Windows on their MBP's exclusively. They bought the machine purely for the form factor. Not interested in OS X at all, but wanted the MBP for its physical features. I know two more who dual boot - home stuff in OS X, work stuff with incompatible IE6 crap on the Win side. I know another who runs Windows via a VM.
They're far from people using "toys" that will soon see the light and buy an Inspiron or a Lenovo T-something - those are the machines they came from in the first place, and are happy to have switched, because the MBP does everything those older machines did, and has some extra benefits too. One of my buddies loves the drop in weight, since he carries all sorts of other stuff with him and works out of his car most of the time - he's a service engineer. Loves the fact that his laptop bag doesn't weigh as much as his toolkit any more (ok, ok, I kid - but the MBP and its accessories like charger etc cut the weight a lot from his last machine). The cost difference? Soon made up, and well worth it.
It's telling that you think anyone who uses a Mac is somehow "less" of a computer user than someone who starts with Windows, and that "natural selection" will show them up. There are going to be weak IT users in all segments. Your assertion that Windows users are somehow superior is quickly disproved by the plethora of humorous IT helpdesk story websites out there. Were all of those "lusers" using Macs?
Also, who is using an iPad for 8 hours a day of work? That's really not what is was designed for. Just like I don't use a Smart ForTwo to make trips to the hardware store for large, heavy garden stuff - I take the large car. The iPad is a supplementary device to a main computer, much like a cellphone was a supplementary device to a regular phone. "Why do I want a cellphone" some guy in the 90s said, "I have a perfectly fine phone right here that makes cheap calls, and if I'm outside, I can use a payphone". Why indeed. No one has ever suggested (least of all Apple) that the iPad is designed to replace your computer. For one thing, you need a home computer to dock it with, since it is not self sufficient for updates/etc.
I see you put everything on full - so you included both iWork and Office, as well as the AppleCare warranty (how much is the 3 year warranty equivalent to AppleCare on the $450 notebook - does the $450 base price include one?)
You're also inflating the cost with all the software and the warranty.
I assume the $450 windows laptop comes with a full copy of Student+Home Office, right? And I assume a full suite of apps equivalent to iWork too.
I can start, control and do other such things with the iPad and a movie - when I need a keyboard, one appears on the screen. When I need to activate an icon, I just touch it on the screen.
A laptop doesn't "fail" - it's just superfluous for me in that situation.
So, from your comment, it seems obvious that you not only haven't read the patent in question, you haven't read the article either. It looks strongly like you read the headline and then went right to the "post reply" button from there.
Perhaps I should patent that. "Method for looking foolish on an internet forum".
Translation: "I hate it when people have measured, rational arguments and don't resort to ad hominem attacks, it makes my retorts look silly."
If it's "annoying" to debate an issue with actual arguments and no name calling, then perhaps you are not suited to debate? If the peak of your arguments are "fanbois suck, apple sucks!" then I can see why it might be annoying if an Apple user actually comes back at you with more than "nuh uh!".
So, those patents on more effective condensers on steam engines weren't "new or innovative" because the patent diagrams showed them in the context of a steam engine (that had already been in use for many years).
How about those patents for variable pitch props - surely drawing in the rest of the prop blade takes away from the "new and innovative!" part.
What about the patent for winglets to reduce wingtip vortices and improve the effective lifting area of the wing.... oh sorry, I drew an aircraft wing in my patent to show how it worked. I guess it's not new and innovative any more.
[citation needed]
(and no, the headline is not a cite - for one, it doesn't actually describe the article accurately at all, or the patent in question).
Yes, like the road system, and the fire service, and the military.
You can choose never to drive on the roads if you walk everywhere, but your taxes still pay for them since the society you live in requires certain things (like the ability for trucks to deliver things to the town you live in).
You may not directly consume the services you pay for with your "monopoly" taxes, but you surely are not foolish enough to think that no government is a better option, or a government that cannot levy taxes. Part of being in a society is that you can do a lot that helps everyone for a little input from the individual.
You can try to be isolationist if you like and live off the grid because you don't want a "monopoly" taking your money, but then don't complain to me when you can't get mail delivered to you, can't get food delivered to where you live, or electricity, or water, or education for your children. If your house catches fire, don't complain when the fire department doesn't show up to put it out, on the road that the state built, using water piped there via state-owned water pipes. Don't complain when then police don't attempt to recover your stolen car and instead tell the local private security firm you hired to look after your local community to do it.
A nation of 260 million individuals who solely looked out for number 1 would very quickly descend into chaos.
Also, your attempt to draw literal parallels between a monopoly position of a company and that of a tax is just amusing. The concepts are different, and you are being deliberately disingenuous. If you are genuinely serious, then I just feel sorry for you.
My tax burden is not that high, and the UK's GDP per-capita spending on healthcare is half of what it is in the US, so my taxes are spent more efficiently (you pay twice the rate for your healthcare in money spent by government, and *then* you pay your insurance premiums).
While our taxes are comparitively higher in some areas (gasoline, diesel for one), we do not have to spend income on private healthcare (unless we really want to - there are plenty of healthcare providers here if you don't want to use the NHS, ie, choice is very high).
The real benefit to the NHS is that if you are poor, your tax burden does actually fall, unlike the US where the cost of healthcare remains pretty much fixed (give or take some of the government assistance). Even with government assistance in the US, if you are poor and you get sick or require frequent prescriptions, you are paying a large portion of your income relative to a rich person.
So, the UK transplant may like the fact that it seems she is paying less, but I will wager that it comes out even when she factors in the required healthcare costs, especially if either her or her husband require any regular medication.
The UK is no magical paradise, but it is one of the many countries in the world that has adopted universal healthcare and it works. The US is the outlier, as the only developed nation without it, and even with the insurance premiums paid by its citizens, it still spends twice the GDP per capita than any other nation on healthcare.
You're getting screwed.
Or it could be that you're actually trolling. A low UID doesn't give you a blanket pass to troll and not get called on it, or blame it on "Ubuntu sympathizers".
Sync new phone with iTunes. All your old apps are copied to the phone. No need to buy them again.
I don't need a keyboard when watching a movie, or a CD drive if I ripped the movie (or got it online from a store), nor do I need a trackpad.
If what you want to do can be compressed down to a screen, with the odd times you need a keyboard and mouse solved by the (inferior to a real kb, but actually ok) onscreen keyboard, then it works well.
It's much lighter than a laptop too. I used one for two weeks and loved using it to watch BBC iPlayer and handle quick email and web browsing when I didn't fancy going to my main machine, or "setting up" my Ubuntu laptop (where setting up means sitting down with it on your lap, rather than just reaching for the iPad at arm's length from the bedside table).
I love laptops, and they can do the same things an iPad can do - there's no reason that they have to be exclusive.
My caveats with the iPad - it really needs an SD card slot at the very least, and the back is very smooth which makes propping it up at some angles tricky as it slides over your clothes.
MS already makes apps for the iOS, and they have been approved by Apple even (shock horror, I know). Windows Messenger is even a direct competitor to Apple's IM partner (AIM) and MobileMe!
So, the VOIP (over 3G specifically) apps are something of a special case (carrier issues etc) but app rejection scare stories are o overhyped.
Form factor is not a qualifying point?
I don't want a physical keyboard - why waste that space with a keyboard when it could be used by a screen. A netbook and an iPad are just as different as a compact car and an MPV (note, I aid MPV, not SUV, although the point remains similar) - both are cars, both have benefits and downsides that make them suited to their roles. You pick the one that does the job you want, jut like choosing a computing device. As with two things that are broadly similar (computers, cars), there is overlap.
And now a daily recharge (when not applied to an Apple product) i "not that hard" yet when the subject of the iPhone's battery life comes up, apparently daily recharging is a major design flaw when you can't replace the battery yourself?
And to answer your PS, they aren't necessarily disqualifies - I visit her place a lot and can park, drive down the streets, and move my larger car around just fine - it would just be easier with a smaller car. She could have used mine in a direct swap for her car, but chose the one that fit the task more than the other - the larger, cheaper car was overkill.
Yes, yes it can.
My large MPV was cheaper than my sister's compact car, but she is a single woman living in a small town with restricted roads. My cheaper car is overkill for her, since she doesn't need a giant boot or room for 5 adults in armchair seats. Her compact car is less functional than my MPV, but it cost more. Does that make her a dick?
By definition, you are trying to reframe your argument, and throwing in an ad hominem to boot.
Yes, the tethering in the prime market is annoying but *it is not Apple's choice*. The feature is in the phone (and has been for a long time) but AT&T controls that gateway on their network: they provide the service.
It's not a fault of the phone.
And indeed, Flash would be good on the iPhone/iPad - someone get Adobe to write a version that would actually work and then get Apple to change stance. Right now, 10.1 and the mobile flash build are hopeless on it - just look at them on OS X, which shares near identical core pieces. Flash as it is now it hopeless on anything but Windows.
Yes, but it wouldn't be the sole use for it - just one of the uses, just as you wouldn't make a netbook a full time XBMC box.
Besides, I already have the XBMC setup, and use my iPhone to control it, so I wouldn't need a $600 touch screen pad to do it, it would just be nice.
No one is claiming this is the first time something like this has been done either - it's very convenient to use a device you own already as a remote, especially a universal one.
That doesn't make sense - if you can't do something with it that it can't do by default, then how is it underpowered for that task? It was never designed to do it in the first place.
We're not talking about the walled garden here though, not directly. We're talking about choosing a device based on fitness for purpose - for some people the iPad fits that description, despite the lack of horsepower and ports and keyboard compared to a netbook, and despite the walled garden. If any of these things are a problem, then the iPad is the wrong choice and the hypothetical consumer should buy something else, which is all part of consumer choice.
It is a deliberately limited device by design - it's not designed to be a netbook, just to do some of the tasks a netbook can do. Whether it is good in that role entirely depends on the people who buy it. If it is too limited, just don't buy it.
For the things it does, it is well specced, although it could *seriously* use an SD card slot for expandable storage. That really is one of the things that really need to be added in the second generation models.