Quote:
Originally Posted by CyGuy
My take on the iPad from the information I have heard so far:
Win:
10 hour battery life
9.7” screen
Half inch thick
ePub support
Video support
Multi-touch
Bluetooth
Wi-Fi
Accelerometer
“Unlocked” for 3G
Fail:
$130 for 3G ability
Border around screen too large
4:3 aspect ratio
Epic Fail:
No SDHC card reader built-in
Tied to iTunes
Proprietary sync cable instead of mini USB
No USB ports on device
Apps from their app store only
No copy/paste of files between device and computer
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unlocked for 3g but sports a new "micro sim" that no one in the world uses other than this new device. you won't be taking this over to t-mobile any time soon. i wonder what apple will do globally to push carriers to the new sim.
the border around the screen has been debated elsewhere but the two big points are (1) it's to help hide the electronics.. either make the device thicker (boo hiss) or spread it out larger and (2) how are you going to hold the device and not obstruct the screen if there is no border around it? how would you not register accidental touches if there was no border? it has to have one if you think about it.
$130 for 3g is a bit expensive but there are all those licensing fees to pay, plus the additional radio hardware, and apple is going to charge you something for the capability. so skip the 3g if you don't want to pay the premium for it. you'll still have wifi.
4:3 doesn't mean you can't watch hd letterboxed. ok. not the best solution. but they went with a standard resolution (1024x768) i suspect for the best browsing experience. not everyone is going to watch movies full-time on this. they have to cater to all of the capabilities of this device. the iphone/touch isn't hd either.
i too would have liked to have seen a sd card reader built in, but it gives up control of loading applications, and provides another means for hackers to break into the pad. we don't see (micro)sd card slots on the iphone either. not holding my breath for this one.
it uses the standard ipod sync cable. which you can find anywhere. i'd hardly call it "proprietary" any more. i am surprised they didn't go with mini-usb as it's the new standard for cell phones, but this isn't a phone. it also means that many existing docks/fm tuners/chargers stand a chance of working with the ipad without modification. again, other than the firewire ipods (still have my 5g and still working fine) and shuffles all ipod/phone/touches have used this connector. hell they sell charger cables in my supermarket with this connector!
apps from apple's store. did you expect any less? come on.
no copy/paste between the ipad and computer? says who? how do you think people are going to get all those iwork documents in and out of the device? they're going to have some sort of sync ability. there are also
plenty of applications for my iphone that let me sync documents to and from it. from plain old "jumpdrive" ability to docstogo for handling ms office documents.