iPad This sums up the iPad for me

[DawnFalcon]

Never mind

[tech_au]

Don't forget the massive 10 hours of battery life
Great ebook reader.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Estuche

You read my mind!! I am impressed with how people just bash the iPad when 2 weeks ago they were all hyped about devices such as the Que and Skiff that do less and cost more

BTW, there is this awesome iphone app to read books called Stanza that, if imported straight to the iPad is going to rock!

Those devices can do a lot more than the iPad as far as reading is concerned because they have a different screen. My phone and a netbook can do a lot more than the iPad, so by your standards, why consider the iPad? I thought our focus is on reading? The iPad brings nothing that my phone, laptop, and reader can't do much better. It is far less powerful than a netbook and costs twice as much.

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by lene1949

I think it looks great!

But... it'll not replace ebook readers... I first thought it may replace netbooks, but with the lack of ports and card readers, that is also very unlikely...

It has certainly caused a stir - just look at the threads about this unit on here alone, and all the posts - one could be forgiven to think something spectacular had occurred.

"Where there's smoke, there's fire."

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

"Where there's smoke, there's fire."

That smoke you see is being produced by old Steve, who set up a giant smoke screen to separate people from that hard earned cash in their wallets.

[sdbryan]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

Let's send them a message and not buy *any* Apple products whatsoever. Including the iTampon.

Right, you stick with that plan and then let us know how it is working. Some of us might enjoy a product with the best SDK for a mobile device ever (the OS isn't too shabby either).

[HarryT]

It's exactly what I was hoping for - a big iPod Touch. I'll be buying one when it's launched here in the UK.

For those who don't like it, don't buy it. The fact that it doesn't appeal to you personally doesn't make it a "bad" device.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's exactly what I was hoping for - a big iPod Touch. I'll be buying one when it's launched here in the UK.

For those who don't like it, don't buy it. The fact that it doesn't appeal to you personally doesn't make it a "bad" device.

Quite true.

Well, i mean to buy a tablet, but it would need some program that are, halas, windows only. Else, I would have a go at Linux.

I'm surprised at the choice of iPhoneOs, i would expect a tablet to run a full OS with with all the bells and whistle. (ie MacOS in that case)

Only videos contained in the user's iTunes library or converted to Apple's video formats will play, and files cannot be dragged and dropped on to the device, as is the case with most other computers.

You really have to re-encode video ??

[LDBoblo]

I'll probably take a hard look at it in a few months to half a year if nothing else appears. It may well be crippled in quite a few ways, but it might still be one of my best options.

What I'm really interested in is what things may be announced in the near future by competitors. Some may have been holding off on announcements to let the Apple frenzy calm down a bit, and some may be working up product responses to the iPad more directly. I just hope they don't go down the road of blindly cloning it without improving on any of its weaknesses.

I'm glad there's a decent, popular, "fast" device out there today. If some major content gets ported to the iPad and similar devices with more polished presentation, even ebook quality standards may improve, if ever so slightly.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

I'll probably take a hard look at it in a few months to half a year if nothing else appears.
...

That's what I'm doing...well, actually, being down in Oz, I don't really have that choice so that's the way I'm rationalising it to myself.

Cheers,
Marc

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

You really have to re-encode video ??

Not if it's already in a suitable format for the iPod Touch, which means MPEG4 with a couple of different choices of CODEC (H264 and something else which escapes me). I rip all my video in that format to start with, because that way it's playing on the iPod and on my PC.

[DawnFalcon]

Yes, but still - you'll end up having to do a lot of reencoding of video if you want to watch a lot of things on it. This also doesn't bode well for broad format support of any kind from it. (I'd expect MP3 for music, but not say Ogg...)

[dragonbone]

I LOVE it!

[Krystian Galaj]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The fact that it doesn't appeal to you personally doesn't make it a "bad" device.

The fact that it appeals to you personally doesn't make it a "good" one.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Not if it's already in a suitable format for the iPod Touch, which means MPEG4 with a couple of different choices of CODEC (H264 and something else which escapes me). I rip all my video in that format to start with, because that way it's playing on the iPod and on my PC.

What makes you think it will let you import any video? The presentation only shows running videos bought from iTunes store.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Yes, but still - you'll end up having to do a lot of reencoding of video if you want to watch a lot of things on it. This also doesn't bode well for broad format support of any kind from it. (I'd expect MP3 for music, but not say Ogg...)

Perian handles all these codec issues on the Mac OS proper, but I highly doubt we'll see that appear on the iPad quick enough to make it worthwhile.

This thing is gimped from top to bottom. I went off to price some other alternatives, and I can get a netbook with 14 hours of battery time for less than the iPad. $500 for a Mac storefront. People will buy anything.