The iPad

[Jack]

I think the Apple iPad's pretty cool.
It'll be good for me since I do most of my work on a desktop and I just need something to bring on trips, in the car, etc.
Plus you'll be able to do a lot more once people start making apps for it...

What do you guys think?

[you]

I think it looks terrible, to be honest. a very stupid move on apple's part. here's a brief list of why:
-IT DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A REAL OS
-it can't multi-task
-you can get it on a phone service for internet, but can't place calls
-it is roughly 2 times the price of a netbook
-THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE FLASH SUPPORT FOR IT
to list a few.
in my opinion you would be wasting your time to get an ipad instead of a netbook. unless you want a big itouch it just seems like it would be stupid to buy one.

[Jack]

Lack of multi-tasking is a bit annoying. However, Apple's expected to introduce more of that with the next iPhone OS, and hopefully that'll translate over to the iPad. Also, the iPad is apparently incredibly fast, and no applications running in the background may be one of the reasons.

When you pay for phone service, it's only a data plan, not for calling. There will be third party applications however (and already are) that will allow calling over the internet (VOIP). I also think it doesn't make much sense to use the iPad like a telephone. I expect Apple's leaving that out at the moment for the introduction of a camera and video chat at some point in the future. That seems a lot more practical. Although I do wish they already had that in the iPad.

Flash is proprietary and buggy; apparently it's one of top reasons Mac OSX ever crashes. HTML5 is not proprietary, and it doesn't require any plugins or anything to run. The more we move away from proprietary plugins like Flash and Silverlight to a standardized web where everything is HTML-based, the simpler the internet will become. You can already use Youtube in HTML5 - just go to youtube.com/testtube. If Apple is encouraging us to make that shift by not supporting these plugins on their devices, that could be seen as a good thing.

I don't think this is really the same as a netbook. It's more like a Kindle - except it's about the same price as the Kindle DX and can do WAY more. Who's going to lie in bed and read a novel on their netbook?

The iPad is a lot less clunky than a netbook - you could easily pull one out on the bus or someplace like that. Games with the accelerometer and touch screen could be a lot cooler. And the whole thing is designed about 50x better - the interface is cleaner, more artistic and way more fun to use. That alone is a huge bonus. It should be fun to use the computer.

People who've actually used it seem to really like it... we'll see.

[you]

I don't really feel like arguing, so whatever. I personally would most likely never buy a mac, but that's just me.

[Asher]

Hey, Jack!

I'm fine with the iPad. I don't think it's going to be revolutionary, but I can see why people might use it.

Seth Meyers called the iPad "a thing that does stuff that [Apple's] other stuff already does."

[you]

I think that other guy is a diffferent jack. he should post in the intro forum

[Asher]

Yeah, I think he's Dylan's brother.

[you]

well, back on topic, I personally don't really get ebooks, I've tried reading books on both my computer and DS, but both bother my eyes after staring for a while. generally, if I want to read a book, I get it in paper.

[Hyperzirk]

Meh. Looks quite lame, if you ask me.

[you]

I agree.

[Christian A.]

I went to jb hi fi a few days ago and tried the ipad, I actually quite like it.
Its nothing exceptional, but still good.