Apple releases world’s most expensive Etch A Sketch
No camera, no video chat/conferencing, AT&T service, $30 a month data plan…
I think I am going to hold off for a bit in delivering my official opinion of the iPad, but what did YOU guys think?
No camera, no video chat/conferencing, AT&T service, $30 a month data plan…
i love it. as a student, i love the iBooks and iWork, both will be incredibly useful. also, gaming’s going to be a blast. and it’s very cheap for what it is.
Yawn. A big iPhone.
Just what I want to do, add to my $247 per month ATT iPhone bill. Original iPhone owner – three of them. Updated each to each new iPhone. Now 3Gs.
Only a Mac user here. I won so many Mac’s it’s embarrassing. But I have the same feeling I had with the Air intro. If I don’t want one?
75 million iPhone users already know how to use it Jobs says. If 500 thousand buy an iPad, Apple will be lucky.
It doesn’t fit my digital life. Just a more powerful iPod Touch.
I wasn’t really wowed, don’t get me wrong it’s a really cool device, but they didn’t mention if we would be able to read pdf books/magazine not found in the bookstore, and as a designer I was hoping that the Apple ipad would replace my Wacom tablet, maybe some future app and accessories will allow us to do that. Just my two cents
I don’t find it impressive or even innovative. It is just a large iPod touch. I am a big Apple supporter, I own so many of their products and was intending to purchase this as well but I already have an iPhone and don’t see a need for it. I will not be wasting my money on it.
as a presenter this may change the way that presentations are delivered……. I am for sure interested in playing around with keynote on it.
Underwhelming. I was wasn’t interested in a pad anyway so maybe that’s why. Give me some updated macbook pros already.
What a snoozer. A giant iPhone which only runs one application at a time. Boring and useless. Will give this thing a wide birth until they get MacOS running on it.
I’ll be picking one up. Looks like I can finally go paperless. No more adding to the piles of books and magazines I have around the house!
For a later review… you should revive ‘the good’, ‘the bad’ and ‘the meh’.
I feel pretty much I did with the first iPhone… great piece of technology… but lacking some features I’d really like to see…
So here is my take… (w/o having actually touched one)
The Good:
Price:
499$ is reasonable imo… having used some netbooks… these suckers… well… SUCK… and I really believe the iPad could be WAY better in that regard… better handling… lighter… better keyboard (yes I think the Software-Keyboard won’t be a letdown
and as an ebook device… most good readers start at like 250$ or so…
doesn’t sound too bad imho
Native Apps:
Seem really solid. Benefit largely from the screen real estate… but me thinks… the iPhone Apps should have been like that from the very beginning. Overlays and stuff like that.
iWork ! Impressive!
The Meh:
4:3 ratio display… I had preferred a widescreen… but on the other hand… fitting a landscape keyboard on a 16:9 display… kinda like leaves NO room whatsoever for content… so I think it could be a good compromise… Movies won’t benefit from it though. Resolution is decent… could be better though (1280×1024 or so)
The Black Bezel… big bezel… but you can hold it without coverin content… need to take it hand on to evaluate it…
iPhone OS:
We really need to see how this develops… and what Apple can do w/ the iPhone OS…
I had much rather had it running a full OS X… but… well… they’ll know… and time will tell how powerful this really is… iWork does certainly look nice though
Camera and SD Adapter + Video out… good things in general, but implementation ?!… weak
Apple A4 CPU… + GPU combo… wanna know what it REALLY is… need to see what it is capable of
Need to see how this display performs… IPS is great and all… but… Pixel Qi… THAT would have been quite the (r)evolution
The Bad:
dude where is my friggin camera ? I don’t even ask for one to TAKE pictures… but an iSight… c’mon… those cams are DIRT-cheap… and dont consume that much space…
iChat or Skype anyone ?.. Major letdown!!!
Okay let’s talk DOCK.
This is a media device right ?… you can watch movies… and run Office Apps on it…
it even got a keyboard-dock-thingy. WHY Apple, WHY do I have to use it in Portrait orientation ONLY when docked? Add a 2nd Dock Connector on the side so I can use it in Landscape while docked. Your Case is capable of that… you even DEMO IT… but it doesn’t work with the dock… stinks
Connectors:
While it’s good to have a Camera and SD Adapter + Video out… the implementation is appalling. Give us mini-DP (it’s MINI… so it’ll fit in !) and say ONE USB… to connect some other peripherals… give it the ability to use the BT Keyboard an MagicMouse and let me hook it up to a real display/TV via mini-DP.
The KB + Mouse thing might come true (thx to Apple or some hack anyway) but aside from that…
With the iPhone OS I don’t really have a Finder or anything the like. Which again locks it up pretty much. Application-wise the closed eco-system is okay imho. Safe and secure and everything, but managing files and data won’t be cool… and probably only work Application-wise…
More Video Formats… PLEASE. .avi mpeg2, .mkv, divX you name it.
Plus it can’t handle 1080p while some netbooks already can ? Lame…
Didn’t hear the speakers yet… but… Apple’s got some patents with surround sound integration… this thing kinda is mono… the speaker might still be decent… but if I put it in landscape aka movie mode… with only one speaker on the right-hand side… I dunno…
(as an aside… want FW back… to bad they took it out of the iPod as well… but… okay… not really a deal-breaker… just something that ran thru my mind just now)
I think that was it for now…
feel free to copy/paste from my ‘review’ Doc… if you share my opinion on some of these things… I mean, we all KNOW you are lazy… so if you don’t have to type everything yourself… 😀
Greetings
Chris
Did I miss anything ?…
Over rated and way too expensive…the only good thing…it should (hopefully) bring the Kindle down to a more affordable price or kill it.
Pass… Very disappointed in this device that is nothing more than a larger iPod Touch. My iPhone and MBP work good enough for me. I’d rather Hackintosh a netbook.
Could be a great opportunity for us developers! Shame on you naysayers for not glorifying this thing. Go buy your netbook and go away.
aww btw…
I REALLY dig the name… iPad is all Star Treky and everything…
and was my favorite name of the bunch
(iSlate etc… would’ve sucked imo)
It simplifies what could be done on an iTouch but complicates what you would do on computer.
No Flash. No Netflix Watch Instantly. No iChat. No Skype. No SD card slot. No thanks.
i’m very dissappointed about this iPad, because i was hoping a fully slim computer, not a big iPhone.. but the way it was presented and what can do can be better in the future and, please, put a camera por videochat.. it won’t be great??
Eric, above, beat me to the punch. Those are my pet peeves, too: No flash for the browser, No Netflix (this would be ideal for watching movies on Netflix), no video iChats or Skype (another missed opportunity). Ten hours of battery life isn’t overwhelming, either. I think it’s kind of expensive for a stripped down MacBook without a hard drive. My iPhone has 32GB. I’m not going to get along with less on an iPad.
If my local newspaper offers a subsidized price with a subscription and they can download the daily paper to an iPad, I might be interested.
This is the problem with building up expectations with lots of hype. When you can’t deliver, everyone is disappointed. The iPad isn’t as useless as the Apple TV, but it’s not all that compelling either.
What Apple needs is a MacBook with a detachable screen that acts like an iPad. Now that would be a compelling product.
Despite all that being said, I think it’s a good product. I mean, What did you expect? Remember how uncomfortable it is to use your macbook while watching television or how
difficult it is to read a 9to5mac in an ipod touch while taking your breakfast? Don’t forget that the main function of this product is using the internet and reading books. I read a lot and I think this product is wonderful, a thousand times better than the Kindle (I have one). Plus, it have all the apps fro the appstore. I can’t wait to use it in college instead of my textbooks and get my hundreds of free pdf books in it.
I said i didn’t need an iPhone when it was announced since i had my Mac. Now i really don’t need an iPad sine everything I do, i do it on my Mac and iPhone.
But then again, this is what I said when the iPhone was announced and a ccouple of days later I was at the Store holding out my credit card to any seller who’d give me an iPhone 🙂
Chris (8) I think you hit the nail right n the head. Thanks for the in-depth comments.
What I don’t get is why only a few languages.
OSX has tons of languages (including Hebrew, which I need). The Iphone has tons of Languages, why go AGAIN with just a few supported languages for this device?
Big question (therefore in capitals): CAN I PUT MY OWN FILES ON IT??? As we all know this isn’t possible on the iPhone. You have to be able to put PDF’s (be it books, manuals, whatever) on it yourself to be usable. Without emailing them to yourself. If that is not possible (for me) it’s not useful at all. The stuff i need for anything are all in PDF, that’s what I need.
Pro’s: looks nice, is coooool, may become more useful in future (hack?)
SUX HARD….epic fail by apple
i think this thing has great potential. all of us here are seasoned computer users, but you’ll be surprised how many people out aren’t.
this product may make complete sense to a market that needs web access but not final cut pro.
http://blog.tice.de/a_pics/iPad%20von%20Apple%202.jpg
1. Viewpoint? The camera was rectangle but your not a giraffe, are you?
2. 1/2 screen keyboard – no numbers, no special characters …
3. One hand – the other will hurt after a while I guess.
4. “Take your feet from the table!”
I didn’t know that it will come with a contract like the iPhone. That`s so bad I won’t even think about it to buy one.
I understand it is supposed to be situated between the iphone/iPod Touch and a Macbook but I was underwhelmed. With no front facing camera (deal breaker right there), the large bezels and the lack of a USB/SD Card reader it seems unfinished and overpriced at $499 (without 3G). I will wait and see how the next iteration looks before making any decisions. However, that said I understand the speed of the OS to be the big selling point here so perhaps I need to go the Apple Store and get one in my hot little hands before making up my mind. And the name, iPad? iPad? What were they smoking (I suppose that is due to some trademark/copyright issue). Close Apple but no cigar.
My parents don’t have a computer, but I might be able to talk them into getting one of these if it had a camera for iChat/Skype.
but… eh netbooks do have flash support. that’s a deal breaker!
Pricey but I like it!
iWorks is very useful and I’m on the road a lot for the job or just for
my family, now I can take “my entertainment” with me. Music, movies, a good
book! Flat, light wight and much easier to read on then an iPhone screen (for someone my age).
Y’all dont get it. Its not aimed at the tech crowd, its really not. Its aimed at students and the general public who hate tooling around with a clumsy netbook and would like to have much of the media and connectivity functions available to them.
In my office the buzz went around like a firestorm as soon as people saw the device, I heard about 75% of my office loved it and either want it or really wish they could afford it.
Im hearing all the same complaints about this that we heard about the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Hmmm, 75 million units sold … I think Apple won that round and Im betting they will with this one. Once people see this thing on the train and in the office it will start to move with near netbook sales and to people who would have never considered a netbook.
My sister is a total technophobe, but once she got her iTouch she fell in love with it, and as soon as she saw this she told her boyfriend he had to buy it for her!
Its not for you, its for them. And me 🙂
I love it!! I’m looking at it from a music development side. I have many apps on my iPhone that “if only they were larger”. would be awesome.
As a student, I would absolutely LOVE an iPad. Especially if textbooks are sold on it. Why carry around 20-30 lbs of books on my back when I can carry only 3 lbs? I would totally consider ditching owning a laptop altogether for this thing. Mac Mini plus the ipad. There’s not much more I would need.
at&t charges for service so its a hybrid of a kindle and iPhone
PASS
This is not more then a Kindle with a lot of make up on it.
From a source of inspiration Apple became copycat of others. They left the iPhone functions but clearly this device is to enter the market that create the Amazon Kindle.
Am I right or am I right?
I think Apple improved on the markets they’re trying to penetrate. iBook presents an improved, more realistic, and hopefully, uncluttered in the legal ramifications e-reader, unlike with the Kindle and the draconian licensing stipulations. Clearly, the iPad is revolutionary. However, it is still a highly expensive piece of aluminum and glass, albeit a shiny and beautiful. It lacks the polished quality that comes with the typical Apple refresh, and by then, the price should go down and the storage should increase accordingly, as did the iPhone.
I might consider one, i like it. If battery life is what they promise it will be mine!!!
I have to say…what an awful name for a product. You really think people are not going to reference female products. Like, the most expensive one is the iPad Maxi…or….does it come with wings.
The only salvation might be 4 or 5 months from now they come with another version of the same product with hopefully some good extras.
Will pass –
Still only one app at a time – so why sell separate iWorks apps for iPad if transferring content between them is going to be cumbersome, possibly even downright awkward?
No iSight camera or SD slot (to load pictures from your camera).
Just a giant iPod Touch in which everyone on the subway car will also enjoy watching your videos. Somewhat portable – ladies can carry it in a big purse, but for most guys, it will probably be left at home. Nevertheless, I see it as just being OK as a couch or bed potato device.
Unfortunately, if it does sell well, it will probably cannibalize the iPod product line.
i thought it was kinda cool, but disappointing, i was hoping it would have an os closer to that of my macbook pro as opposed to a ramped up iphone….