iPad IPad Design - if Apple was custom designing one for me

[Yoshi 1080]

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

What iPad is missing

USB ports and Memory card slots

There will be an external SD card reader as well as a USB host port for cameras. At least something, I guess.

e-book format support. Seems to have PDF and eReader and ePub. But is ADEPT ePub going to be available? Is PDF support very good?

I haven't read of eReader yet, but you can definitely read those with an additional app like Stanza. Same goes for Kindle and B&N. ADEPT can be read by txtr. I don't know about the built-in PDF viewer (the one on OSX is good, though), but the app Good Reader for the iPhone is pretty good at displaying unencrypted PDF files.

Remote PC control - I expect that LogMeIn Ignition or other apps will support this

Will definitely be possible via app.

GPS and mapping SW. Wish it could run Google Maps with GPS. Maybe it will?

All iPads will have Google Maps included, the 3G version will also feature A-GPS.

If you buy an app on an iPad/iPhone/iTouch, do you have to buy it again to use it on another iPad/iPhone/iTouch? If not, and I get an iPad, they may have shifted my future phone desires from Android to iPhone as well.

AFAIK you can synchronize apps to up to 5 iPhones/iPods/iPads. In any case you won't be needing to rebuy them (that isn't even possible currently anyway).

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by tyche

I think the specs are fine. Apple simply has planned obsolescence built into their product line so you can expect "obvious" things like an isight camera (it was built already with one but removed) and some other things in a refresh within 12 months. If you want something a little better you can wait. I remember when the iPod Touch came out, I bought one and really like it but it didn't have an external speaker or hard volume buttons so I returned it. Presto, the 2G comes out and I've been happy ever since. Now they have a faster one, next one might have a video camera, you never know.

I don't see why people see so offended the iPad is the way it is. A full blown OS on a netbook/tablet is overkill, cumbersome to use. I have a Dell mini 9 and hardly use it because it's cludgy. A dedicated instant-on device with tens of thousands of apps already built and thousands more coming is a real benefit for people who either don't want to mess around with a full os (virus, patching, software installs, battery life etc).

When this takes off, just like the iPod there's a simple reason: the vast majority of consumers don't want to know how to run scripts or edit a registry they want an appliance that just works.

I use about 5 apps now that are must haves for me on a daily basis and having them reissued in iPad format would pay for itself for me. Add to that all sorts of possibilities such as a decent pdf reader, and browser and I've more than likely getting one.

I tend to agree regarding iPad. I don't really need the 3G aspects, so I cam save a little cash there and go for the max memory on the wifi-only version. That's the only thing I would want more of, memory - you can never have enough Gigs!

It would be nice if it had an SD or microSD card reader so you could just dump some files and stuff on the device without hooking up to your computer/Mac, but I guess wifi may be another option for small transfers, and maybe bluetooth will mean you can transfer stuff from your PC wirelessly?

I appreciated the "ooh! aah!" value of the iPod Touch and later iPhone, but never really got enthused about getting one of those devices. I still don't have either, and persistent friends keep telling me I need an iPhone to make my life complete, but I still don't have any desire for one.

Although having no interest in iPod Touch or iPhone (and I always considered them a bit of a joke, just an Apple money-printing scheme) I am really taken with the iPad and think I will benefit from the last couple of years of iPhone app development.

And I agree the 2G iPad will come out with a bunch of extras to get a lot re-purchasing going from 1G users - all part of the Apple game.

[Godzil]

Originally Posted by Yoshi 1080

AFAIK you can synchronize apps to up to 5 iPhones/iPods/iPads.

The Fairplay DRM had never put a limit on the number of iPod you can put the songs, and the applications are not DRMed, so there is no such a limitation

[recycledelectron]

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

The iPad has my interest, even though I'm not a fan of closed systems, and I never thought I'd consider a device without at least one USB port and a memory card slot. What follows is my reasons for interest, and the things I wish it had. I.e., if I could have provided input, this is what Apple might have included on an iPad developed just for me.

Why I Am Interested

• Good battery life. Hopefully, real world usage matches 10-12hrs.
• Great form factor - light, slim and nicely sized screen
• Zippy performance - should be much faster than e-ink devices
• Capacitive touch screen
• Lots of developer support, and huge iPhone consumer base
• External keyboard via BT or dock. Eventually wired keyboards will probably be available via the connector.
• Should be a good e-book reader, even for PDFs in landscape. (I don't mind reading on an LCD screen.)
• Price is not much more than an e-ink device, so I can potentially make this as an e-book reader purchase that gets me some additional functionality and a more responsive device as well.

If you go to a full O/S like Win7, then you lose battery life and the lightweight advantage. I.e. In that case, I may as well use my convertible tablet, or get a netbook (still a possibility). The extra weight and shorter battery life is a critical factor for me.

It will be interesting to see what Android tablets come out with 7-10" screens, 8+hr battery life, <2lbs weight and sold for <$500. If there is a good device, and it meets my needs, it might beat out the iPad for me.

I don't think we'll see a Win7 device this year that meets those criteria.

What iPad is missing

• USB ports and Memory card slots
• Flash browser
• e-book format support. Seems to have PDF and eReader and ePub. But is ADEPT ePub going to be available? Is PDF support very good?
• DivX video support (and other formats as well)
• Remote PC control - I expect that LogMeIn Ignition or other apps will support this
• BT tethering to use my Treo as modem data plan. I'm not even sure how I'll figure this out before making a purchase decision, but it would be a big plus if it works.
• GPS and mapping SW. Wish it could run Google Maps with GPS. Maybe it will?
• Flash browsing - especially to allow things like Hulu, Fancast, ESPN360, etc.
• Synching without a computer or iTunes. That goes back to the memory card and USB port, but also I don't really want to even use iTunes unless I have to.
• If you buy an app on an iPad/iPhone/iTouch, do you have to buy it again to use it on another iPad/iPhone/iTouch? If not, and I get an iPad, they may have shifted my future phone desires from Android to iPhone as well.

Are these deficiencies show stoppers? I don't know yet. I'm really looking at this as a stopgap device until I can get what I really want with Win7 inside, so it doesn't have to be perfect. Just better than other e-book readers for my own purposes and tastes. I already expect it to be outdated by the time the second generation iPad comes out - but in the e-book reader game, that's par for the course right now.

Caveat - I'm going by memory in terms of what is available on iPad or not. This info may not be completely accurate. And, obviously, in many cases I already indicate above that I don't know. Please let me know if you have answers!

Anyway, I'd sure be interested to see if others have similar desires for the iPad and what you might also want that I left out.

Bingo!

Basically, I wanted an Smart Devices V7 made by Apple, so it would be less buggy.

The bigger (10" vs. 7") screen is good for the nearly blind. I would rather have a 7" model. Ideally, Apple could produce a selection of screen sizes - 4" iphone, 7" slate, 10" ipad, 12" xxlpad.

Andy

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by kacir

For the gadget to use a full-blown Operating system, you do not have to bog it down with a Windows 7 or the latest MacOSX.

There are many alternatives.
There is, for example, QNX operating system. I had a demo FLOPPY with QNX 3.0 operating system on it. You could boot 486 computer with a few megabytes of RAM from a FLOPPY and have a complete Unix-like operating system with windowing graphical user interface and even web brower. And it was screaming fast. It was used for realtime applications for years. It is still being used in critical systems.

Today, even a 'lousy' Arm 9 processor is magnitude faster than 486. The A4 processor from Apple even has powerful graphical chip on board.
Most of the modern mainstream operating systems are huge and hopelessly bloated, because they have to run on very, very wide range of hardware. Linux runs on everything from Arm based handhelds, gigital watches and toasters to supercomputers with great variety of hardware in between.
If you tailor-fit an operating system to a tailor-made hardware, if you tweak a few critical parts of the system in assembly language, you can get screaming fast system. It does not have to be a CLOSED system. Just release an SDK and make sure that installing a new software requires user approval and that the installed software is run in its own sandbox.

Just remember Amiga, remember Atari ST. Even the lousiest appliance today has magnitude faster processor.

OMG...someone who KNOWS QNX (pronounced q-nix for the unwashed). I cut my teeth on that OS when it was new...it is nothing short of an AMAZING OS...cripes it had, as I recall, 7 or 8 virtual screens back around '89-'90 and that was on a crappy '286 with like around 1MB of RAM and as a diskless workstation no less, booting into the network via the NIC's EPROM. Plus as a network OS it was superb...thought because of the lack of developer's tools, we switched to Netware in late '90 or early '91 and I got my ECNE/CNI a couple years later and poor trusty QNX got pushed to the side as an afterthought...but thanks for reminding me.

Heh...I remember I finally solved an issue with the workstations multiple screens and it's native dBase clone app (I forget the name) but if you opened the app, entered your data for however long it took to enter on any other than "screen 0", then switched to another screen w/o exiting the app...the screen never flush it's buffer and your data was never actually written to the DB...yet from "screen 0" the issue was not present...of course that was one of the reasons we switch to Netware, the weirdness in the database app. Of course I solved the thing the FINAL day before we were to make the switch over. I'll never forget my boss' face much less the Lab Director's look...hehehehe...I laughed my ass off because, well, it was living proof that Murphy was an optimist!

Still, I have long wondered about setting up an old system to just run QNX...what was the editor called? I forget that as well, but it did something pretty much NO editors do today, it supported block cut-n-paste...meaning one could cut our a user defined block of text inside your code or text, rather than the way today's word-processor's cannot do this due to the way format text in the document...we really missed that editor, then though we grew to LOVE the original Foxpro editor, IDE...ahh...I am wandering even farther OT, but thanks for those mammaries!!

But your point is excellent...their is only one reason these features do not exisit...and it sure is not due to the lack of OS options...by not including ANY way other than wireless it's an effort to control all flow into and out of the device...we have yet to see it actually work...time will tell, but my money is on the 3rd gen will have worked through all those who will just plunk down cash for the logo...and competing devices will also have grown...heck, they are going to be devices equal and superior this year and running full versions of Win7 as well as Linux of some sort, more than Android...

[holterzoff]

For the gadget to use a full-blown Operating system, you do not have to bog it down with a Windows 7 or the latest MacOSX.

absolutely right, but as a serious apple fan and addict i'm very disappointed. i just expected it to be much more than a pad with the limitations of a phone.
the missing flash support is the absolute dealbreaker, and i can't help myself but the closed system with app store is only for money making and not reliability.

i really consider to pass on this one....

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

There's just no way that you could save what you were reading and marking up, close the program and open another app to look up something online etc. as quick as switching between simultaneously running programs. I'm 100% about convenience when it comes to work related stuff. If I'm going to buy a tablet for work--it has to fit what I want it to do 100% or I'm not shelling out the cash

Closing the program does all the saving &c. Opening the other app takes a second. So it's not as slow as you might believe - but not as fast as switching on a computer, granted.

There is apparently some reason to believe that Apple might be planning on something like Expose for the Pad. (How's that for equivocation?) If that is implimented, it would allow you to what you want. The idea would be for there to be "hot spots" at each corner of the Pad, and by touching the hot spot, you would switch to a different space, where conceivably, an open app could be running.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

Me too!!!

Rats. Looks like they sent the money to you instead of me.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I'm certainly no techie, but from what I've been reading, flash is going to die out. Apparently, lots of people already disable flash in their browsers.

While it may die out in time, that is not the case now as much as apple might like people to think it is.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by deltop

Millions of people all over the world use lcd screens for hours on end for work and leisure with no ill effect. Are they ideal for reading? Probably not but to state that reading on one will case eyestrain and migrianes is just ridiculous. I'm sure anyone who is going to buy an iPad knows full well how they cope with lcd technology.

The big thing for me is that I already have to spend a large part of my day staring at an lcd screen for work, then there's television too so not adding to that usage is why things like e-ink are so useful to me.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

I don't think I've ever read for 10 hours in one day in my entire life. Be it paper, e-ink, LCD etc.

I would say it's a very rare thing for me too, but just this weekend with the travelling I did I will have used it that much fri/sat and my battery life was still more than 3/4 full so there was no need to scrabble about for a cable to charge it either.

[dragonbone]

If Father Christmas really did receive your letters and ponder your Christmas wish list and if he wasn't a fat jolly man in a red suit at all, but rather a skinny man in ugly jeans and uglier sneakers... If all that was true... (and between you and me, I have it on good authority that it IS) I for one, know that I was a very good girl last year!

[Smalis]

My perfect mobile device - (will the ASUS DR-570 do all this?)

• 7" Capacitive touchscreen, with minimal bezel for portability
  
• less than 1.5 pounds
  
• less than $500
  
• support for EPUB, PDF, ereader, good ereader program, and support for Sony library program (for my DRM lrf's)
  
• color screen with full video capability
  
• Divx
  
• long battery life
  
• web browsing, with flash
  
• email
  
• WiFi, 3G, bluetooth (or bluetooth tethering so I can use Centro as modem)
  
• USB
  
• memory card slot
  
• GPS capability (ok if I have to buy external app)

When this exists, I will be first in line.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by Mr.Hughes

Ive just finished playing with the ipad SDK,

Dunno if you can tell -- but are there ways in the SDK to access the SD card reader that is part of the camera pack? You can see the card reader with the "accessories available" on Apple's page about the iPad. Would be nice to know if only the iPhoto app can read it, or if other apps could be written to use an SD card too.

[Red Alert]

If I look at the scale of a book on the left and a full functioning laptop on the right, the iPAD is way to the right of center.

I'm that small group who looks for an ereader to be just that, a reader of ebooks. Now I understand that there is a group out there that requires constant communication with the world, full media, full computer functions.

Me, when I run out of the house on a daily basis, I grab my keys, my phone and my book whether it is paper or my Sony PRS-505 depends on the story. Some in paper some in electrons.

I write this because I still don't understand the person who picks up an ereader and laments that it doesn't have enough features. Used to be, you picked up a book, hoped it was nicely printed, legible and had a great story.

Times are sure changing, but I suspect not entirely for the better...at least for old guys like me.

Ralph