So, Apple’s long-ballyhooed tablet is finally announced.
I would’ve gone with a different name (I heard a rumor
that it would be the iSlate, which was I think would’ve
been better).
All the news outlets would say so far is “It looks like a
giant iPhone” which started to annoy me until I saw a
picture, and it really does look like someone stretched
an iPhone out. Part of me really wants one, which may
be 100% hype-based. But it looks like it might be a
pretty sweet way to read books and periodicals. I’ve
never used any book reader, though, so who knows?
I tried a Windows tablet many years ago, which relied
heavily on a stylus, and it was interesting but did not
inspire me to apply any money to it. If Apple succeeds
here, it would be just another case of Jobs somehow
revolutionizing a mediocre product market.
If Steve Jobs didn’t hate bluetooth, this might do well
with a wireless keyboard/mouse option, and an HDMI
connection would be nice: then you could keep your
movies on the same device and watch them either on
a plane or on your couch.
Anybody have any insight/flammage/fanfiction to share?
Since I’m in the industry, I think the Apple announcement
has occupied a more important place in my psyche this
week than even the State of the Union. That would’ve
seemed absurd a year ago (yet strangely familiar if
you’re a fan of Lost).
No, that was one thing I said above that it needed
(so I had to go check to see if I was accurate this
time). It looks like they’ll have a connector you can
buy that plugs into the recharge/data port and then
you will be able to use that to hook it up to a TV
input. It looks like it will start with a Composite A/V
connector and/or VGA connector. They should be
able to do the same with HDMI, though…
I am interested in whether it will turn out to be a good, functional easy-to-carry word-processing device.
I have eyed net-books, but am so accustomed to Mac platforms that I’ve been hoping Apple would do
something similar. (I realize the iPad is more like an iPhone in platform, but I’m familiar with that system too.)
I want something that I can easily pull out and write on, whenever/wherever. (Don’t tell me to get a legal pad,
I have those too. )
$499 - $829 depending on hard drive
size and 3G connectivity option.
Emm, I’d certainly want try it before
passing judgment, but so far I have
had a hard time using touchscreen
keyboards. I just need the tactical
feedback of physically separated keys,
I guess. Or just more practice… If
voice recognition ever got better, this
would be a good place to use it.
Sadly, that’s the first thing that came
to my mind when I heard the name,
and I hadn’t seen that Mad TV sketch.
I’m waiting for the larger version, the iMaxiPad to come out.
On a serious note, I’ve got gadget fatigue. I’m tired of trying to keep up with the gadgets. I’ve fallen far behind. Not just in owning them, but in understanding them or even caring when another one comes out. This is a sad thing for someone who is taking computer programming classes. Perhaps I should change majors.
I have “learning to use electronics” fatigue, period. I dread any new device coming into my life. I hate upgrades, etc. I spent an hour or two yesterday trying to fix a workmate’s computer because a glitch in either Adobe or Mac software has this thing of rejecting serial numbers of the InDesign program only, even though it’s installed as part of a suite. And it’s been going on for several years, through several CS upgrades. It’s like herpes or something. Couldn’t get it to work after following online “solutions”, so we are hiring somebody just to fix that.
As for specifics, I have the generalized feeling that the iPad is a luxury item, rather than a necessity, which seems weird for the times we are living in. To launch a product that like seems odd now.
You can tease me for this for years, but I have a looming feeling that the iPad will bomb and that it will be a huge surprise to many who think that Apple is invincible. The only caveat is that for those who wanted a Kindle or something but are Mac-heads, it could represent at least a percentage of the total sales and that may or may not be substantive. I love that you can read out-of-print books and old documents from the Internet, but I don’t want an additional device to do it.
I still think its weird that people put iPhones, with their flattened wide shape, up to their ears as a phone. I also think it’s a paradox that laptops get thinner and smaller, while cellphones are getting bigger (as exemplified by iPhones and texty-keyboard phones).
I guess it’s all an intuitive search for what people will eventually settle on, if there is some kind of endpoint…I always thought it would be smaller and smaller, and the iPad’s size confounds me a bit on that account, except that browsing the Web on dinky devices seemed weird, too and this larger format should help.
There is no endpoint in the Business model world view. Things are built to be replaced sooner rather than later. Aimed for Upgrades every two years, and that interval keeps shrinking. All rather detestable for someone who likes his tools to last for decades.
I guess that’s why they’re calling this thing a “third category”–for that very reason. Many people want to be able to port something that does most of the tricks their computer does. It’s why I finally got an iPhone…for portable information. Where am I? Is there a Holiday Inn Express between here and there? Did I get that email?
It does not satisfy my need, though, to pop into writing mode whenever a likely moment appears–at the airport, while waiting for kid’s school to end, while husband is jumping through assorted tests for his clinical trial. I’d love to be able to pull out something lightweight and ready at these moments. Even a laptop is cumbersome to carry everywhere. So, I’m waiting to see.
I would not buy one just because it’s cool. Rather, I spend a lot of time considering what would work well for me…then, if they invent one, and it seems reliable, I might buy it.
I rarely look at Apple products because they are often priced double or triple over other products, and I am price conscious.
Hopefully, by the time the Apple products start to ship, there will be similar offerings at 1/2 the price from other vendors with similar functionality. $15 a month for roaming 3G Internet (250 GB a month) sounds tempting. Especially because there is no contract, it is pay as you go.
Amen. We are chided for not being evolutionary enough, I guess. I love owning tools that were so well built that they will outlast me. I like that permanence.
I keep looking for how the ease and command of electronic resources has made our society better. I know that a person feels much more empowered, so to speak, that the Net provides so many answers to problems and somehow, that can equalize people, the access to information. But I don’t see that we aren’t still descending into a Roman-like decadence on the large scale; a voracious hunger for increasing sex and gore as well as electronic entertainments of every variety keeping us from looking each other in the eye and smellin’ the roses, so to speak. On the micro scale, I can’t help but feel that this is yet another way to isolate us from the human community by having us staring at little screens instead of the polluted, unlivable world we are crafting/neglecting/enabling.
One exception has been texting Haiti relief. Wow, it’s easy to instantly register and contribute from your reaction of sorrow. It’s hard not to admire how our better angels can come forth so easily exactly because of technology (which in my case, I loathe, not being a text-er).
Hate to say it but it has been a few years since I have stropped my razor and have been using a Gillette double edge razor. Finding blades has become difficult, I might have to go back to the strop. The old cut throat is a great tool.
I do like one thing, recordings are now mine forever. I copy them from a disk and I don’t have to transition from record to 8-track to tape to compact disk to etc.
)