My Thoughts on the iPad
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/editorial-engadget-on-the-ipad/
This was an interesting read but I got several bones to pick here.
1. I don’t understand the hubbub about netbooks. Why would you by a netbook if you have a notebook/laptop? That just doesn’t make sense to me. And if you really are the person who uses a desktop for most of your work but occasionally need a laptop to do stuff on the road, why settle for a netbook. To be honest, most people that are faced with this situation are in a financial situation good enough to afford a laptop. Netbooks to me are a poor man’s laptop.
2. The iPad was not built to be a content creation device. I may have hoped for that, but what we got was a device built for consuming digital media.
3. What’s with all the bitching and moaning about lack of flash. I’m trying to think of a site I go to on a regular basis that uses flash and I’m drawing a blank. Most of the time I see flash on a website, it’s an ad of some sort. I also hate a flash designed website. They are slow! and not only because flash is slow, but because the designer felt a need to include fancy animations and shit.
4. I do think that Safari on the iPad will be a better browsing experience. People complain about a lack of a physical keyboard. The only website I visit on a regular basis that I type a lot is CGR. Most of the others is just reading and maybe doing a quick search.
5. I like magazines because they are easy to hold in one hand and read an article and drink my jack and coke. The same with books. I can recline back in my reading chair (yes I have a chair specifically for reading) and surf the web like I read a book or magazine. Brilliant!
6. The lack of camera… honestly, I don’t plan on taking pictures with it nor do I think I would want to. I don’t do video chat. There is one person I know and talk to through phone/IM/Texts that does. I have a feeling that this is true for most people (though I could be wrong).
7. This device will be perfect for watching a movie on long flights. I’ve got 2 trips this summer that involve 8 hour (or more) flights. The battery life on this will be perfect for watching the movies I want to watch (and not the movies the airline tells me to watch).
8. iWork looks like it will be cool and very useful. Though until I try it out for myself, I won’t be able to say for sure.
So there are some of my thoughts. I’ll be one of the early adopters on this device. Comments?
January 28, 2010 at 1:57 pm
I own a netbook. It was $150 and runs Linux, which makes it a really cheap, stable machine for people who can’t afford a laptop. It’s also useful for students because you can do all the typing you want without adding any significant amount of weight to your bookbag. And I like it personally because it’s so barebones that everything is really fast and isn’t muddled up with the complexity of a laptop.
Basically, I view it as a laptop replacement. You could probably get a desktop and a netbook combined for the same price as a laptop, so then you get the easier use of the full desktop and the mobility of the laptop. Personally, my laptop is a monster built for trading so it’s heavy and bulky; my netbook is convenient because it is so much more mobile. But I don’t think it’s as useful for a general market as a laptop; its niche may be with the low-income and student crowd.
Your comments about the iPad are spot-on to me. #2 is the big thing, for sure; when I think of a tablet I think of the tablet PCs, and I expect Apple to best those because they’re old and, well, not Apple. But I guess if you add content creation to it you would really up the price.
January 29, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Steve Job’s stellar computer will soon blow up after this initial over-hype launch during it’s launch. The lack of keyboard and Job’s potential to fix defections will start to make the product a monster in the time ahead.
January 29, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Mac’s revolutionary iPad will soon evolve after this initial over-hype time during it’s unveiling. The A4 chip and Mac’s potential to fix issues will begin to make the iPad a success story in the time ahead.