Other The iFail- wait sorry, iPad, is officially out

There are no cavity walls in a red-brick Victorian... they are built like bunkers. Still, eventually we'll get to the floor boards (the joists on the ground floor need replacing)and I'm planning to embed some speaker cable. Perhaps I should drop in some CAT6 cable while I'm at it.

I don't mind being limited in areas where freedom is irrelevant. Although it would be nice to be able to drop some extra memory in an iPad, is that really necessary in such a mobile device? OS can be changed (the iPhone has been converted to Linux, so the iPad can be). Battery --not really necessary, given its charge-life. It is not meant to be a full-on rig. It is meant to be specific to its purpose.

The Six degrees of separation principle would suggest I am bound to know a few.

 

Bah to six degrees... I could probably do it in five! (Through the Queen/Prince Charles... (Mum's Consultant is Charles' Apothecary))

 

Here we go, the spanners are starting to be introduced into the proverbial works:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/iTablet-Debuts-Not-an-Apple-Device-134298.shtml - 250Gb storage, optional HDMI, 3G built in, webcam, win7, multi-tasking, flash.

No price and launch date is penned for April.

 

No battery life? With those specs, I think 10hrs of active use would be next to impossible.

 

Pretty much almost the same spec, size and weight as my Tablet PC --except that mine runs on a Pentium Mobile with Centrino chipset. The battery on my 25W TDP Tablet drains in about 2-3 hours. An 1.6Ghz Atom on a 945GSE Express chipset will use around 12W, so I'd think the battery will last about 4-6 hours --tops. Especially if it is multitasking.

The 1.6Ghz Atom has the grunt of a Pentium Mobile running at 800Mhz, and it will be running Windows 7... Now my 1.1Ghz Pentium Mobile-based tablet is hardly zippy so I dread to think what Windows 7 on an Atom 1.6Ghz will be like.

I think that the iTablet will do a good job of highlighting why Apple made all the decisions it did when designing the iPad.

 

I hope you are right on the one hand and on the other I curse Apple for not including HDMI. I've sent off a feedback feature request to them comparing the iPad to iTablet and explaining that the lack of HDMI could be the clincher here ...

 

Read this:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/02/08/inside_apples_ipad_vga_video_output.html

There's some very well reasoned arguments as to why it's only VGA out.

 

What they said there - for giving presentations - is the first thing I've thought of that the iPad would be genuinely better for than anything else. There, multitouch to highlight things on the projected image, the full-screen so you can read off it as well as direct the presentation etc, and crucially, a situation where you will be walking around, interacting with people at the same time as controlling the iPad - it makes a lot more sense. It's a shame you can't do that wirelessly, though.

 

Ah I see, it all becomes more clear. Now I'm off on a mission to find VGA to HDMI converter ...

Actually I'm kinda sure I have a DVI to HDMI converter around the house somewhere, so maybe I can get VGA to DVI converter? Wow, that's not getting complicated at all!

 

Basically. With great resolution comes great processing power. With great processing power comes great power consumption. With great power consumption comes tiny battery life.

 

I run Windows 7 on my netbook and it works flawlessly. There is absolutely no reason to think that a tablet based on this platform won't be just as able to browse the internet and display ebooks as well as the iPad... with the added ability to play flash

 

And how long does your battery last? That's the main issue here.

 

http://infoworld.com/d/mobilize/ipad-questions-apple-wont-answer-972

Interesting read, if purely speculation.

 

About the same as it does with XP, so although my netbook only has a life of 4 hours or so, others can easily pull off 9-10 hours+.

I don't think battery life is the main issue anyway, if it was then all those people getting it for the e-books would just buy an e-reader.

 

This is certainly true.

 

Total BS, more like. It worries that the iPad will not be able to do things that the iPhone and iPod Touch already blatantly can do. Why should Apple deliberately remove those features already present in the OS and thus inevitably disappoint expectations amongst existing Apple product users and hamstring their new money-spinner to near un-usability? It's like worrying that the next BMW will come without ABS breaking or a steering wheel.

It then goes on to worry about issues it already should know the answer to and which arguably are not that relevant in the first place. I think the author just worries because he wants to worry.

So, discounting tall tales and rumours from a friend-of-a-friend, what you are saying is that in practice you have 4 hours battery life?

And just how good is your little Atom at all that highly rated multitasking?

Kind of is, actually. For a portable device battery life is everything.

 

I dunno about you, but I'd be worrying about the status of a steering wheel if I bought a BMW.

I jest.

Although, the exchange support, it's possible that there are nuances in the agreement that we're not privy to that requires a re-negotiation.

Another key question, really, is the state of document storage. What're the options there?

With a productivity suite I'd expect document storage, and for it to appear on the network as any other computer would, but I sincerely doubt that's going to happen.

Granted, most of those questions stink of "I need '10' questions rather than two", but still, the fact that Apple haven't responded regarding Exchange support and document storage? Would that really be hard to "yes/no" on?

 

Perhaps the author is not that important to be top of the in-box in Apple's PR department. Seriously, why should the iPad not have Exchange support? The iPhone and iPod Touch do.

Document storage would seem kind of logical, but would the iPad not be working in the context of a network with NAS?

People keep not grokking the iPad. This guy does. Although I disagree with him that Flash is "outdated", he makes some good points here:

We are looking at it too much from the perspective of a jaded, hard-core geek. We want raw power over transparency. We want flexibility over accessibility. That's because we don't care about transparency and accessibility --in fact we like it when such things are lacking because puzzling is fun. We like the challenge. We like that we can make devices do cool stuff that other people can't. And with more power and flexibility you can make it do cooler stuff.

Other more ordinary mortals however just want their devices to do the job they were designed (and bought!) to do, without getting all complicated about it. They don't see a lack of power and flexibility as limiting because they don't want to go outside the box. What they experience as limiting is when they can't work out how to use the bloody things and when it runs out of battery power.

What Apple is doing, and has been doing all the time, is make computers and and electronic gadgets for people who are not really that interested in computers and gadgets --in fact, may even dislike them, because they experience them as ugly, inscrutably complex and cumbersome things that demand occult rituals to keep them placated such as recharging, defragging and scanning for viruses and worms. It's like owning some high-maintenance pedigree pet, and they don't want that grief. They want a nice, easy tool to do specific stuff, like a stereo, or a toaster (We want the high-maintenance pedigree pet). Apple makes stuff that looks aesthetically friendly, comes as an integrated package and is accessible and easy to use. That's been its pitch right from the days of the first Apple Mac:



Apple does not create hardware for geeks who like to tinker, modify and overclock; who think that a stack of bare mobos each with three graphic cards slotted in and cables all over the place running Folding@Home (GPU2) on the latest version of Linux is a thing of pure beauty (even though it is):



The iPad is not aimed at us. Don't make the narcissistic mistake thinking that it is, and therefore that our opinions actually matter. We're not the target audience for this device.

 

Like I said, perhaps there are nuances to the agreement they have with MS that haven't been worked out yet. Perhaps not, and Apple are just keeping schtum to keep people talking about the thing, since there's so little else to talk about.

You mention "ordinary" users, I don't know many "ordinary" users with a NAS, nor any idea what one is. I do see your point, though. However, what use is a NAS if you're on the move? I doubt the "ordinary" user would know enough to set up a VPN connection on their network router and their iPad. Perhaps easier on the iPad, but router web interfaces are hardly super friendly to the un-initiated.

I, personally, hope it does no such thing.

I'm not so interested in power, nor flexibility. For example, I recently switched back to a V3 from an iPhone. The huge majority of the reason was because I've decided touch screens are not for me, but the chance for customisation was damned minimal. Even with jailbreaking and unlocking (Not that I much cared for switching provider), the options are limited. There is only so much you can do to the device.

What's the point in accepting something as it is, just because everyone of a non-tech persuasion would be happy with it?

Apples problem, in my opinion, is that they're so shut in. They refuse to let anyone have the chance to change their script - You have to use their products their way, not yours. To me, that sounds rather daft. Which pretty much just proves that aspect of your point.

I've never assumed it was aimed at me, I just like questioning things that so many people are happy to accept as is. I wouldn't buy one even if it did all the things that it doesn't do (Or, doesn't as far as we can tell) because I have no use for one. $499 to read bash.org, which is all I'd use it for (Since I couldn't fit it in a pocket without getting the baggy jeans out again..), is just crazy in my book. I know it's going to sell like hotcakes (Cheesecake, if you prefer), though, because Apple do their job incredibly well. It's not for me, but it is at least done well.