Would you buy/use and Ipad?

[Bella Fortuna]

I rather liked it. The man sitting next to me on my flight yesterday had one and he watched films on it the entire way over, for 9 hours.

[Ayaan]

I looked at one at Best Buy. It looks good and looks like it would be easy to use. However, the lack of flash and USB ports renders it useless to me. My netbook does more for less and is also highly portable.

Am I remembering correctly that the only place you can download applications is the Apple app store? Why would I want Apple deciding what programs I want or need?

That last reason is the main one why I've dumped the iphone. Still got me touch though, as my car's music memory!

Never thought I'd hear you say you'd dumped the iphone. I now have an Android and love it - I have yet to pay for an app and there's no one trying to dictate what is and isn't an acceptable app.

[Thinking Aloud]

Edit.

[Trolldor]

How do you hold it?

How do you hold a book? How do you hold a newspaper? You can put it on a table, put it on your knee, hold it in your hand... It's not hard.

iFortuna.jpg

I think I need to play with one to get the feel of it.

I would wait, Pappa.

Edit: Oh dear, they've changed it.

[Trolldor]

Well.. that's even more interesting.

It can't properly run flash, it can't run more than one program at a time (Multi-tasking) - though conflicting reports say that either no multi-tasking is allowed or multi-tasking is only enabled for apple apps, it doesn't support any stylus, it doesn't support a keyboard and you can't remove the battery if it dies.

[ChildInAZoo]

How do you hold it? I know that when I use my iPhone, I hold it in the palm of my left hand and use my right hand with the touchscreen. My left hand angles it towards my face. When I use a laptop, I sit it on my lap and angle the screen towards my face. The iPad seems too big to easily balance on the palm of your hand, and on your lap it would be facing the wrong direction. I've not had change to play with one yet, but I'm struggling to visualise exactly how I'd hold/use the thing.

This is an interesting question and it's one that the Apple people have obviously thought about. If you look at almost all the television ads, the people using it have their knees up and they are resting the ipad on their knees. I have seen a couple of reviews that suggest that the ipad is a little too heavily to comfortably use it like a book (at least 1-handed) for a long period of time.

[Thinking Aloud]

Well.. that's even more interesting.

It can't properly run flash

Correct.

it can't run more than one program at a time (Multi-tasking)

It's not a PC.

it doesn't support any stylus, it doesn't support a keyboard

It's not a PC.

and you can't remove the battery if it dies.

Correct.

[Link]

Well.. that's even more interesting.

It can't properly run flash

Correct.

it can't run more than one program at a time (Multi-tasking)

It's not a PC.

it doesn't support any stylus, it doesn't support a keyboard

It's not a PC.

and you can't remove the battery if it dies.

Correct.

Playing the devils advocate here but it does support a keyboard, but by the looks of things only the apple keyboard/dock which retails at about £55, also at the moment it only supports iPod and one other app whilst multitasking but with the OS 4.0 update due in a few months it should support proper multi-tasking.

[ChildInAZoo]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/n ... iller.html

Not much information, but it may be (according to dubious sources) that Asus also has a cheaper note-taker device, one with a camera.

[Pappa]

How do you hold it?

How do you hold a book? How do you hold a newspaper? You can put it on a table, put it on your knee, hold it in your hand... It's not hard.

iFortuna.jpg

I think I need to play with one to get the feel of it.

I would wait, Pappa.

Edit: Oh dear, they've changed it.

I wouldn't buy one anyway, it doesn't fit the needs I have in a piece of kit. If I buy a laptop I want something pretty high-end because I use software like photoshop and illustrator often, portability isn't much of a high priority. For a portable device, I'd prefer it to fit in a pocket and have the added benefit of also being a phone/camera/etc.

The iPad sits awkwardly between those two ends. I'd still like to play with one though to see what the fuss is about. I can see it would be a nice bit of kit for playing with on transport or watching films or whatever, but I don't have enough spare cash to blow on hardware for that sort of thing.

[Trolldor]

What the hell does the ipad actually provide? That's the one thing I don't see. What does the iPad do to make it worth buying? It can't run advanced programs or multi-task, so it doesn't replace a laptop. It can't call people so it fails to improve on an iPhone (Which I have yet to have explained why it was any better than a standard phone), it's too impractical to be used as a music player so it doesn't even supercede an MP3 player, and the display is rendered useless by bright sunlight so it doesn't even outdo a kindle.

[Thinking Aloud]

What the hell does the ipad actually provide?

Something for people who don't have one to harp on and on about.

[Trolldor]

So nothing, then.

[Thinking Aloud]

So nothing, then.

You don't have to buy one.

[Pappa]

What the hell does the ipad actually provide? That's the one thing I don't see. What does the iPad do to make it worth buying? It can't run advanced programs or multi-task, so it doesn't replace a laptop. It can't call people so it fails to improve on an iPhone (Which I have yet to have explained why it was any better than a standard phone), it's too impractical to be used as a music player so it doesn't even supercede an MP3 player, and the display is rendered useless by bright sunlight so it doesn't even outdo a kindle.

It does do a lot more than that BAA. Think of it as a bigger, better iPod Touch.