iPad is here!

Have to say I'm pretty stoked about this!

right now, for $800, i'd spend the $ on a new laptop,
but I'll definitely be interested in one of these after the 3rd or 4th
update when it has more memory and can actually replace my other
computers.

I played around with it today. This thing is a lap top killer. Unless you are dealing with HUGE documents or gigantic spreadsheets, this thing can do everything a laptop can.

Loving mine!

Usability is great. native Apps (tuned for iPad) run great and take advantage of the added screen real-estate.

The fact that all iPhone apps run on it as well is huge.

Now, the challenge is tearing it away from my wife

David Matz said:

I played around with it today. This thing is a lap top killer. Unless you are dealing with HUGE documents or gigantic spreadsheets, this thing can do everything a laptop can.

Click to expand...

As much as I like toys, I have to respectfully disagree. The iPad has:

* No multitasking.

* No forward facing camera and mike for Skype etc.

* No camera at all IIRC!

* No Java, no Flash (and Apple's current SDK licence actually prohibits developers from distributing them).

* 4:3 aspect ratio is so yesteryear!

* No USB connection.

* No removable memory.

I usually lust after the latest high tech toys, but I'm not the least bit interested an iPad. For me, it's a case of so close, yet so far. Apple will no doubt sell a whole bunch of them!

RichTeer said:

As much as I like toys, I have to respectfully disagree. The iPad has:

* No multitasking.

* No forward facing camera and mike for Skype etc.

* No camera at all IIRC!

* No Java, no Flash (and Apple's current SDK licence actually prohibits developers from distributing them).

* 4:3 aspect ratio is so yesteryear!

* No USB connection.

* No removable memory.

I usually lust after the latest high tech toys, but I'm not the least bit interested an iPad. For me, it's a case of so close, yet so far. Apple will no doubt sell a whole bunch of them!

Click to expand...

You're not seeing the big picture at all...

Don't need multitasking, camera and mic are just something to break, Java and flash or substitute will get sorted.

4:3 aspect works with almost all magazines. This thing is positioned as a media reader.

It does connect to USB via cord

iPhone and iPad don't have removeable memory either and they've sold 300 million of those.

It's not a toy, its the ultimate Kindle, remote control and web surfing appliance ever made.

Personally, I'd rather have a stripped one without all that other crap that doesn't break. I almost never take pics with a phone anyway. I've got a 20 megapixel DSLR. What do I want a crappy ipod camera for anyway?

I agree... ipad = fail. It is a big itouch. Apple dropped the ball hard on that one.

Yeah that's why people were lined up for four days in NYC (and one to three days in other major markets) to get one.

Apple hasn't "dropped the ball" on anything in about 15 years. Come to think of it the only two dog products they've made in their history were the Lisa and the Newton.

120,000 new preorders on Friday and selling at a rate of 25,000 per hour.

tonepub said:

It's not a toy, its the ultimate Kindle, remote control and web surfing appliance ever made.

Click to expand...

With one or two reservations, I agree: it's a great supersized iPod Touch (more or less). But a "laptop killer" it ain't.

It's not supposed to be a laptop or a laptop killer....

watch steve jobs intro video.

That is called fanboyism.

I love my itouch which I am using at this moment. I think apple is reinventing the way people are going to connect. The majority of people use their computers for mail and web surfing. The beauty of this is ease of use. One thing I did not like is the fact that you can not use any existing 3g plan with it. You have to purchase another one for 15 to 30 per month. But given my addiction to my touch I think the ipad will be a hit

RichTeer said:

As much as I like toys, I have to respectfully disagree. The iPad has:

* No multitasking.

* No forward facing camera and mike for Skype etc.

* No camera at all IIRC!

* No Java, no Flash (and Apple's current SDK licence actually prohibits developers from distributing them).

* 4:3 aspect ratio is so yesteryear!

* No USB connection.

* No removable memory.

Click to expand...

I guess we can agree to disagree.

I am not a techno-geek and neither are most of apple's customers. I have no idea what any of that mumbo jumbo you wrote up there is, but the customer is not interested in features, but in benefits. The customer is not looking to buy a "drill"; the customer needs a "hole". The ipad can provide basic apps, games, document creation, books, email, social networking, video viewing, photo viewing, etc., and of course connectivity. This is what everyday people care about and why they use a computer.

Obviously this product is not for you. And, of course, nothing is perfect or doesn't have limitations, but for 90% of the people it is a laptop killer. Why carry a heavy, bulky computer when one can have a slim, light, sexy device? The big desktop at home can do all of the hefty lifting, and I'm sure it can do the stuff you list.

David Matz said:

I played around with it today. This thing is a lap top killer. Unless you are dealing with HUGE documents or gigantic spreadsheets, this thing can do everything a laptop can.

Click to expand...

It's not a true laptop killer, the ipad is merely a large ipod that makes it easier to surf the web. That's all.

If all you do on the laptop are simple tasks and surf the web, then maybe it's your version of a "laptop killer".

But to brand it broadly as a "laptop killer" is going a wee bit too far.

I disagree.

the fact that it can't multi-task kills it for me.. sorry.. I love my MacBook.

re: multi-tasking, technically, it can, it's just not available to third-party apps.

It is not a laptop replacement, nor is it intended to be, it's something different. As someone else alluded to, and several reviewers have also mentioned, it's not targeted to the tech crowd per se, it's for people who want to not play with or upgrade their computers, they want to read mail, browse the web, play some games, look at some videos, and listen to music.

Another thing it does is open up other possibilities because of its form factor. This will become the device of choice in hospitals and other data-consuming activities. My manager, who is not an Apple person, wants one now to keep his flight charts in, rather than lugging around a big book or some of the specialized devices for this.

It is not revolutionary in a technical sense - what it does, and what Apple excels at, is combining the features that the majority of people want, and making them behave in an intuitive, cohesive fashion.

I haven't bought one, and am unlikely to do so. My laptop serves as my computer, and my iPhone serves as my general on-the-fly browsing, mail, and phone device. When they get another generation or two forward, and my laptop gets long in the tooth, I'll look really hard at one. If she didn't already have a late-generation iMac, one of these would be perfect for my mom (the one caveat being that at present, there doesn't appear to be a way to print from the thing).

David Matz said:

The customer is not looking to buy a "drill"; the customer needs a "hole".

Click to expand...

A novel way of expressing it! Love it

David Matz said:

I guess we can agree to disagree.
[...]
Obviously this product is not for you. And, of course, nothing is perfect or doesn't have limitations, but for 90% of the people it is a laptop killer. Why carry a heavy, bulky computer when one can have a slim, light, sexy device? The big desktop at home can do all of the hefty lifting, and I'm sure it can do the stuff you list.

Click to expand...

Yep, we agree to disagree! But if a small, lightweight laptop replacement is what you want, check out any number of the so-called notepad computers.

BTW, I'm not dissing Apple per se, we have a MacBook Pro, and (one or two usability issues notwithstanding) I love it!

Been running the iPad through it's paces pretty hard core for the last 36 hours now. For anyone that might be interested, here's a full review:

http://www.tonepublications.com/spotlight/

A very interesting little device. Not a laptop killer, but much more useful than I expected.