iPad

[marinyork]

It sure looks nice. Apple do what they do well, since the imac (purple monitor anyone?) - they repackage and simplify things for the masses, making a nice consumer product. Tablets have been around for ages, pda style phones were around for ages before the iphone - they just made them trendy (admittedly helped along by MS's diabolical windows mobile - great for pda but shite as a phone).

Tablets and slates became cool about a week and a half ago, just Apple didn't bother turning up.

 

[iLB]

anyone else think it looks like a jumped up digital photo frame?

 

[just jim]

I still use Win XP cos it works, I have a wee Asus 701 which is ok for chucking in a bag - but I do like the look of this object and would have one if I had excess spondulocs.

 

[2Loose]

An iPhone with a big screen whatever next.

Oh I get it, it looks ideal for Youtube surfers...

 

[wafflycat]

Bad choice of name - too much like a sanitary pad... probably not too many women in the marketing department of Apple, or they'd have come up with a different name.

It's already been the subject of a lot of jokes!
http://failblog.org/2010/01/27/name-fail-photoshop-win/

 

[John the Monkey]

Daily Mash

Excellent for pretending that you are a tiny person using a giant iPhone, I daresay. Still doesn't multi task. Probably the next thing that my wife's estate agent cousin is going to bore me to tears with at the next family do I can't find an excuse for.

 

[wafflycat]

I do love the Mash's take on things!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Probably the next thing that my wife's estate agent cousin is going to bore me to tears with at the next family do I can't find an excuse for.

I hate him already...

I kind of like the idea of the ipad - I generally only use our Mac, at home, for web and email so it would do me fine. I'm not a major geek or gadget freak but I do like Apple stuff. Having said that I'm probably not going to buy one as I don't think I can justify it....yet...

 

[arallsopp]

I don't know to be honest...

There's a few developments of late that have gained mainstream consideration, but are only the domain of serial early adopters. eReaders, netbooks, fifth gen iPods, for example.

No flash support and locked down apps means its not as extensible as an EeePCs / Netbook, but it probably is a better eReader than both.

No eInk screen means its not as good for books as the Sony or Kindle, but its probably a better media player than both.

No camera and increased form factor means its not as good with media as the newest iPods (or indeed iPhone), but its probably a better web browser than either.

Plenty of people out there that want something to read / listen / surf / do lightweight computing on, but don't want or need dedicated kit for each task. Apple know their marketing, and I could see this taking off...

Of course, its still likely to be the same price as buying one of each from other manufacturers, but hey, can't win em all.

Wonder if it does the iPhone GPS app full screen at full res... That could be something.

 

[andyfromotley]

Heres some thoughts,

1) it'll be very expensive in the uk, be charged at straight exchange rate so will be overpriced.
2)Users generally wont be able to take it everywhere with them, so wont be as popular as the i phone with its perceived posing power.
3) People will surely catch on to apples trick of under speccing its launch items, no camera!!! No calls!! ...... so that they can release an update and render yours obsolete and keep thier prices high.
4) Anyone else think that steve jobs is beginning to represent your embarrassing middle aged uncle?
5) for ll its faults it will do ok because no other device is an intuitive to use as an i phone, its captured the zietgiest with the apps market.

a small success, its no ipod or i phone though.

 

[Fnaar]

How are you meant to get it in your pocket?

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

It should have been designed to be mounted on the wall/tv/mantlepiece and use as a digital photo frame when not being used for other things, then you'd get the "ultimate" pose value when people came round as you could touch the picture and start doing other things (or take it down and start using it).

Not looked into it at all, but would it be able to do stuff like controlling stereo/tv/lighting (i.e. any infrared / bluetooth etc.) as that would be quite useful if you could replace all your remotes with something nice and stylish.

 

[arallsopp]

I'd buy one if it had a proper version of OSX on it so I could install stuff I wanted to on it. And if they made the screen a bit bigger and incorporated a kind of clamshell feature, so you could close it when you're not using it. And a proper keyboard would be good

LOL. I'd buy one if it let me run Unix, and if the screen was independently upgradeable from the main device. Put a bit of cable between them, and store all the heat / noise / processing bit under the desk, say, leaving the screen with pride of place on top, and maybe a mouse.

I'd also buy one if they reduced the price point considerably, spiral bound the top edge, and supplied an iPencil as a built in print on demand stylus, but then that's surely sci-fi.

 

[red_tom]

I really think they've dropped the ball with this one. I'm an unashamed fan of Apple products and am happy to buy into their ethos of paying a little more for really good design. The problem is, this isn't good design. The huge bezel round the screen is appalling, the lack of a font mounted camera for chat is just random (the freaking ipod nano has a camera ffs) and the largest model being 64Gb in a unit of this size is just ridiculous. It seems like they've totally forgotten what they do well.

 

[Coco]

There's an interesting article in the Register about the iPad.

Analysis If you don't understand what Apple's iPad is all about, think of it this way: it's a portable TV.