I got to play around with an iPad last night for a few minutes. Not much to report except that it feels exactly like I thought it would. Which is to say perfect. But you knew they'd get the size and shape and weight right. That's what they do best. Beyond that it's hard to say too much from such a brief encounter. The screen is gorgeous (although being night time I didn't use it in direct sunlight.) It is 100% responsive opening and switching between apps. And everyone at the table, including several people who hadn't heard of it and really don't care about such things, were crowded around looking at it completely enthralled.
Fake Steve Jobs has an open letter to the world that's pretty funny in an accurate way. Or is that accurate in a funny way? Dear human race, First of all, you’re welcome.
is it also a phone??:>)
Nope. But the higher model, which will be available in a month or two, does have a cell modem in it. So you can get data over the cell network (through AT&T) but not voice. All models have wifi for data when you are in range of a wifi network.
so its a hand held computer email etc on higher model
Both models are essentially identical except one can connect to the internet over wifi or the cell network, and the other one can only connect over wifi. The interface is very similar to the iPhone (much more similar to the iPhone than to Mac OS X), except the screen is much larger of course. Web browsing, email, calendar, ebook reader (like a Kindle), video player, photo viewer. Super simple media consumption machine that anyone (little kid, elderly person who has never used a computer, etc...) can pick up and grok right away. Battery lasts 10+ hours with constant use. Does not crash. Super sexy in my opinion.
But you're not going to do Excel spreadsheets on it, or write a novel, or edit a film. And any media that's not delivered over the web has to come through Apple approved channels (but they do approve things outside their control, like the apparently super slick NetFlix client software that was released yesterday.) To some people this is a real downside.
ipad teardown
All I want to know is, Will it blend?
Earlier this week Nicholas Carr singled out Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow, Google’s Tim Bray as “Luddites”, labeling their mourning for the loss of creative ends on the iPad as a dislike of progress. Carr puts it a little more eloquently, but the point as I understand it is that technological development doesn’t always bring change we like. -bill
19th Century robber baron: "We need this train monopoly. Technological development doesn't always bring change we like."
no ones got a gun to your head tom. vote with your pocket book and dont buy it. that post links to an example of dialog.
I'm at NAB in Vegas, which is a massive gathering of video geeks. In one conversation another video geek and I concurred that it's good for the industry if Jobs is a tool about interoperability -- because there are viable alternatives.
Yes I agree Apple is taking a huge risk. I'm curious who is going to make the competing device though. Google? Hard for me to think of anyone else. But I hope it happens as competition is good for the consumer. Or maybe you don't mean a competing tablet device?
I like Arstechnica's John Siracusa's take on Apple's wager: Apple's decisions regarding its mobile platform in particular have been extremely protective from the very start. Cumulatively, these actions represent a huge bet placed by Apple. The proposition is this: Apple is betting it can grow its platform fast enough, using any means necessary, that developers will stick around despite all the hardships and shoddy treatment. Each time it chooses to do what it thinks is best for the future of the iPhone OS platform instead of what will please developers, Apple is pushing more chips into the pot.
At this point I still think the bet will pay off for Apple. But they definitely could lose it all. Sort of like they did with the original Mac OS.
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Fake Steve Jobs has an open letter to the world that's pretty funny in an accurate way. Or is that accurate in a funny way? Dear human race, First of all, you’re welcome.
- jim 4-04-2010 3:40 pm
is it also a phone??:>)
- Skinny 4-04-2010 3:49 pm
Nope. But the higher model, which will be available in a month or two, does have a cell modem in it. So you can get data over the cell network (through AT&T) but not voice. All models have wifi for data when you are in range of a wifi network.
- jim 4-04-2010 3:51 pm
so its a hand held computer email etc on higher model
- Skinny 4-04-2010 3:53 pm
Both models are essentially identical except one can connect to the internet over wifi or the cell network, and the other one can only connect over wifi. The interface is very similar to the iPhone (much more similar to the iPhone than to Mac OS X), except the screen is much larger of course. Web browsing, email, calendar, ebook reader (like a Kindle), video player, photo viewer. Super simple media consumption machine that anyone (little kid, elderly person who has never used a computer, etc...) can pick up and grok right away. Battery lasts 10+ hours with constant use. Does not crash. Super sexy in my opinion.
But you're not going to do Excel spreadsheets on it, or write a novel, or edit a film. And any media that's not delivered over the web has to come through Apple approved channels (but they do approve things outside their control, like the apparently super slick NetFlix client software that was released yesterday.) To some people this is a real downside.
- jim 4-04-2010 4:16 pm
ipad teardown
- bill 4-05-2010 8:33 pm
All I want to know is, Will it blend?
- tom moody 4-06-2010 5:06 am
-bill- ree 4-12-2010 1:19 pm
19th Century robber baron: "We need this train monopoly. Technological development doesn't always bring change we like."
- tom moody 4-12-2010 2:01 pm
no ones got a gun to your head tom. vote with your pocket book and dont buy it. that post links to an example of dialog.
- ree 4-12-2010 2:10 pm
I'm at NAB in Vegas, which is a massive gathering of video geeks. In one conversation another video geek and I concurred that it's good for the industry if Jobs is a tool about interoperability -- because there are viable alternatives.
- mark 4-13-2010 8:20 am
Yes I agree Apple is taking a huge risk. I'm curious who is going to make the competing device though. Google? Hard for me to think of anyone else. But I hope it happens as competition is good for the consumer. Or maybe you don't mean a competing tablet device?
I like Arstechnica's John Siracusa's take on Apple's wager:
At this point I still think the bet will pay off for Apple. But they definitely could lose it all. Sort of like they did with the original Mac OS.
- jim 4-13-2010 3:36 pm