Comments on: Thoughts on the iPad: From around the world and back home

By: Optimus

Optimus — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:08:46 +0000

Personally, I hate the wood finish of the iBook Store and elements of the iWork suite. I hope there is an option to revert to a more ‘OSX’ style UI…

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 07:03:53 +0000

I think this thing would be the ultimate diary and can’t wait to see where app designers take this, I am already conjuring up all sorts of ideas for apps myself.

I had thought this device was aimed at people that weren’t going to need a full sized computer but it seems it will still need a mac or PC to keep synced or to accomplish printing etc. I hope V2 of the iPad takes a bigger step toward becoming a mac independent device.

Camera, mic, multi-taksing (music whilst browsing), usb, ability to print and backup to portable hard drive and I think a lot of people will choose this as their only computer one day. Until then it seems to be an additional device choice for those that can find a use.

By: dennis parrott

dennis parrott — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:40:26 +0000

i have wanted a small, light device to carry on trips (NYC for the weekend, vacation, etc.) that would surf the web, do email and provide just enough USB power to shuffle data from CF/SD cards to an external hard drive. playing a few games, reading ebooks (PDF files?) would be nice as well. long battery life would be a real plus.

if the iPhone had provisions for an external keyboard (bluetooth) and some kind of dongle that would allow me to control USB mass storage devices, well, i would never carry a laptop with me again!

so here comes the iPad… it has the keyboard and that is really cool. but surfing the web these days takes having a Flash player and neither the iPhone or iPad has one.

the x-factor is their dock connector — if you can control mass storage devices using some attachment to the dock, well, it is _almost_ the perfect take along computer replacement. (but really, give me Flash, willya Apple??)

but, i won’t be buying version 1, thankuverydamnmuch. i learned my lesson with iPhone v1 with its less than stellar Edge network and no GPS… cost me another $200 once the 3G rolled out. and look at how the pictures and video improved from 1 to 3g to 3gs… night and day. nope, i will wait to see how things go and keep my little HP netbook until then….

lets see where the product goes and what gets added in v2…

By: satyakam

satyakam — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:26:33 +0000

For me the tablet is the personal organizer in a decent size. In fact I am thinking of giving up my iPhone for a smaller simpler (non-smart) phone when I have my iPad. I believe iPhone becomes redundant when you have an iPad, especially when you are paying $30 on data plans for both these devices (here in US).
I was fascinated by electronic diaries (in the 90s) and the PDAs and tried many of them. However, I always used to think why they don’t make the PDAs bigger, about the size of paper notebook or journal. Although the smaller PDA had their merits about being able to carry in pocket, they didn’t do some of the basic tasks well. These tasks included note-taking, journal entries, reviewing your daily meetings on large month views, emails etc.
When the PDAs got fused with phones to form smart-phones, my hopes of a large scaled PDA were completely gone. iPad brings all these things together. I will be happy to carry my iPad around in a backpack while I use a smaller ‘non-smart’ phone for making calls.

By: Chris Brown

Chris Brown — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:17:12 +0000

How about iTab?

But name jokes aside, I doubt I’ll buy one, but only because I just shelled out for a 13″ MBP in the past 6 months. Had that not happened, this machine would have done 85% of what I use the laptop for for less than half the price. So yeah, I can see myself owning one someday. I imagine the 2nd and 3 iterations will add most of the features that are lacking now.

Anyone thought about how this thing might play with the Apple TV?

By: qka

qka — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:02:36 +0000

I am in total agreement with Milind’s take: It’s all about the software!

The iPad is a tabula rasa for software developers. Who ever thought there would be 140_000 iPhone apps by this time? Apps have been written for all sorts of uses that were totally unforeseen when the SDK was released. The same will happen for the iPad; apps that were not possible on the limited screen space of the iPhone will happen for the iPad. Just give it time.

The important piece that I think even tech reporters are missing is how the iPad is totally integrated into the Apple ecosystem. The iTunes Store so simple to use, it is overlooked as the enormous accomplishment that it is. It wasn’t easy – look at all the other struggling app stores being launched for the other mobile platforms. (BTW, when will Apple drop the “iTunes” like the dropped “Music” years ago, and just call it the “iStore”?)

I also agree with Milind’s assertion that the 2nd gen device will be even better.