iPad Hands on with the iPad

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

Oh, OK. Cheers Marc, however, I still don't see what the news is. Like... what happened....?

Absolutely nothing, so you should move on.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

I think some computer-type company brought out some kind of miniature TV or something. I think the company's name was "Rambutan", though some detractors suggested it was "Durian".

Oh, okay, sorry, I'll stop being silly.

Daffy knows someone who actually had hands-on experience with the iPad, and, by the sounds of it, ongoing hands-on experience. So, Daffy'd been getting them to check things out if possible...questions people might have. So, it wasn't just "I know a friend who's touched it", but "I know a friend who's touching it...any questions?". Ongoing hands-on is a nice added touch to a reviewsphere that contains a lot of necessary spec-and-video-watching.

Is that what you meant?

Cheers,
Marc (who likes rambutans but hasn't tried durian)

Thank you!

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

I love rambutan, mangoes and mangosteen!
As for durian... a friend of a friend knew someone who... who... TOUCHED a durian.
If you have any questions, I'll try to ask my friend (if I have time).
By the way Marc, have you read a book called The Windup Girl? Kind of cyberpunk/noir...Totally fantastic. Anyway rambutan features in the book and that's what made me think of it .

I don't know what a durian is, so may you could start another thread and explain it.

[dragonbone]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Absolutely nothing, so you should move on.

So... there was no hands-on experience then after all?

[kjk]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

So... there was no hands-on experience then after all?

daffy's friend was able to get hands-on experience with it-before it was even shown in public! which is pretty cool.


However, a couple of my acquaintances AT the show got a few minutes afterwards for a "hands-on", and two things they both said:
1) It is pretty amazing in real life, in terms of how fast and responsive it felt.
2) NO one at the show got to play with it for long, and NO one had anywhere near enough "face-time" with it to get enough information to write anything close to a review-so a lot of the online stuff about it should be taken with that in mind.

Still looking forward to playing with one at the Apple Store in March!

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

So... there was no hands-on experience then after all?

The first sentence of the first post explains it all.

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

So... there was no hands-on experience then after all?

Chill ...

This is a forum, not CNN. It's fun to hear that Daffy was able to talk to someone who had early hands on, and among a group of friends that's reason enough to post. However, Daffy was able to post even more -- some first hand observations on using the device. For those of us who are still trying to peer past the controlled demo's any input is interesting.

Yeah, I'd like a full scale tech lab review based on two months of hands-on usage, and measurements using some spectromomathingmajig to measure its dynamic-contrast-frequency-discharge parameters. But meanwhile, I'll enjoy the comments from anyone who wants to share.

MLH

[radius]

Originally Posted by johndoesecond

Even if Kindle for Iphone worked on Ipad, both of the two modes wouldn't do it - in my opinion - for a long confortable eyes-friendly reading:

- ad 1) the text would be too mall
- ad 2) the text would be blurred/pixelated and very little can be done with magical extrapolation/antialiasing solutions Ipad may have, whatsoever.

Do these speculations make sense?

This isn't necessarily true for a reading app.

For games, where each pixel on the screen is specified (either as part of a bitmap or a 3D texture or whatever), what you are saying makes a lot of sense.

However, for apps that display text, the apps probably just call operating system routines to display a certain amount of text at a certain position. For pixel doubled apps, Apple could draw text at the expected metrics, but at the native resolution. Palm did this when they switched screen sizes from 160x160 to 320x320.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Yeah, after I read the iPad stats last night I realized how off he was. I told him his hand weighing so I skills were lacking. I had him hold my Kindle without the cover so it's strange that he couldn't tell how much lighter it was. To be fair it wasn't like had just held the iPad within the last few days, so his memory wasn't clear.

The iPad is a bit heavier than the KDX, & about twice as heavy as the K2, I think. But "weight" is a little deceptive - it's impacted by design. There's also a psychological dimension.

The K2 can be held & read in one hand. It appears to me that the iPad is a two-hander. But if you are holding both naturally, I would expect them to both feel relatively light. And the iPad would seem to be about the same weight as the K2 because you would be using both hands to hold it.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by radius

This isn't necessarily true for a reading app.

Bear in mind that if you double the size of the text, you can improve the readability if you know it's been doubled, and there are issues of fuzziness as well...

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by kjk

Consider your deal broken.

The Apple Way is to sell you the 2 year Apple Plan, which includes a "free" replacement battery. Since the Plan costs less than the battery, you buy the Plan while you can (during the first year) on the basis that sometime in the second year, you'll send the iThing in to have the battery replaced.

[exreader]

Originally Posted by Harmon

The Apple Way is to sell you the 2 year Apple Plan, which includes a "free" replacement battery. Since the Plan costs less than the battery, you buy the Plan while you can (during the first year) on the basis that sometime in the second year, you'll send the iThing in to have the battery replaced.

ah, the Big Print iTouch... so, if you know your way around an iTouch, this thing appears to be nearly identical.

it would be madness on Apple's part to magically exclude apps that you already own or would want to own for iTouch/iPhone from the iPad. not to mention lawsuits from the larger companies.

"the Steve" was quoted about "standing on the shoulders of the other companies" that came before in the book industry. it's quite amusing that he stated emphatically that nobody reads [books] anymore and that an eReader is stupid. well, reading between the lines, sure, his new proud papa toy ISN'T an eReader, strictly speaking, now is it? the fact they'll be SELLING books though, is a bit of hypocracy. snerk.

the kindle app (and of course Stanza), and even the BN app, SHOULD be nearly killer apps for such a [big print] device. Amazon WILL pursue legal action if they are blocked, just you watch. i suspect they won't be.

as for conversion, apparently it's the work of 5 minutes according to some, to gain most of the screen conversion issues, unless the app was written to assuming many dimensional issues (and dumb to boot). i'll expect the Kindle for iThing to be ported already and have done a good job. same for Stanza, and all the other eBook apps.

i expect the iPad to be very popular with folx wanting to read PDFs (which need something like Stanza anyway), as the zooming and speed will blow most eInk devices away. it's not a true mobile device imho, it's a portable, suitable for a briefcase or bookbag.

the 10 hour (at best) battery life) compared to 2 weeks for certain favored eInk devices will doesn't look too read as a dedicated eBook reader. it does open the possibility of some nice multi-media applications though, and hey, book that are interactive with movies and games and other stuff built in? neat.

yeah, the battery is sealed in there, just like all their new laptops, and devices. it's the Apple way. doesn't stop other companies from offering the batteries and instructions for replacement. they DO last a long time, so, after 3-4 years, we'll see about that too.

it's still appears to be a pretty closed system like the iPhone/iTouch, and one simply won't be able to drag and drop files to it natively; one will require an app for storage purposes (like Stanza), or pay extra for mobile me.com or something. detraction to be sure.

it technically will have a SD card reader and a female USB dongle, so it MIGHT be possible to read stuff other than pictures/video (primary stated reason); and maybe thus: using an SD card for storage would work.

i probably won't buy one of the first gen devices. there are enough flaws/shortcomings for me, that i can wait, and instead, probably get an iPhone 4.0 and just continue to enjoy the heck out of my Kindles...

my issue list:
o no camera - (forward OR backward) == no video chats/conferencing == teh dumb - they push the device as a multimedia picture warehouse but ... even some iPods have cameras now; heard they had problems figuring out how to do this, and probably delayed it. the hooks are there in the SDK, and it WILL support something; they might add the hardware via a dongle as a pay extra feature (smart thinking if so)...

o no HD tuner of FM tuner? come on, even the Dell Minis have that for $400 price points (the HD esp) as well as higher rez screens. maybe 2nd gen?

o 3G option? that's $130 more for that, typically cheap to built in for the netbooks out there now. plus $30/month+taxes for activation. no stated tethering options for smart phones (esp iPhone!) what? that's going to be like $400 year for something the Kindle has for free.

o doesn't actually run a real os, and one can't install arbitrary apps... now, if they'd made a tablet OSX system, with the ability to run app store apps (and backported that feature to OSX laptops/desktops)... what a win. i have a lot of paid software i'd like to run on a tablet, but ... no...

o no pen or artist programs == not a true tablet. photoshop type stuff would be wonderful on the iPad. no handwriting recognition either.

o 16GB? seriously? okay, i suppose since it's not a true computer, that's okay... but a lot of people have way more than that in music and video files. 64GB? better... solid state ram is teh sexy, but why not have a 300 GB HD option? yar! it would be cheaper too. yah, i know, HDs might not be as rugged, and they are not as sexy.

so, yawn, giant, big print iTouch... next!


ex

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Chill ...

This is a forum, not CNN. It's fun to hear that Daffy was able to talk to someone who had early hands on, and among a group of friends that's reason enough to post. However, Daffy was able to post even more -- some first hand observations on using the device. For those of us who are still trying to peer past the controlled demo's any input is interesting.

Yeah, I'd like a full scale tech lab review based on two months of hands-on usage, and measurements using some spectromomathingmajig to measure its dynamic-contrast-frequency-discharge parameters. But meanwhile, I'll enjoy the comments from anyone who wants to share.

MLH

she was totally chill. point was taken. wordplay was engaged in. chillax

[exreader]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/29/s...s-youre-not-g/

'''Steve Jobs compares iPad battery life to Kindle's: 'You're not going to read for 10 hours' (video)'''

'''Hey, remember back when Steve Jobs said "people don't read anymore" when discussing why the Kindle would be a failure? Heh, funny story: turns out Apple just released a device called the iPad and, at its unveiling, spent an awful lot of time showing off what a great reader it is. However, when comparing it to Kindle (as we did here) you have to think about that battery life figure: 10 hours vs. seven days. When Walt Mossberg caught Jobs after the unveiling for a little gonzo-style interview he asked about this, and Jobs said "you're not going to read for 10 hours...you just end up pluggin' it in." So, Steve now concedes that people do read, but apparently they don't do it for long without coming close to a power receptacle. When asked about price differentials between books on the devices, rumored to be as much as $5 more than on Kindle, Jobs somewhat reluctantly states that "publishers are actually withholding books from Amazon because they're not happy," and that "the prices will be the same" -- but doesn't indicate whether Amazon's prices will be going up or that rumored $14.99 price point is going down. It's all in the video after the break, including plenty of face time with Walt.'''

so, assuming the iPad even gets 8 hours in the real world... nobody READS that long, right?


ex

[gravescp]

Originally Posted by Krystian Galaj

I think that since iBooks is official Apple application, Stanza competes with it on the iPad, and so it won't be available for the iPad. That's why I was curious if the e-book reading on iPad is only possible through buying books in iBooks store, or if it's also possible to read books from other sources.

Steve said during the Keynote that ever application that runs on the iphone will run on the iPad. That includes the Kindle app, Barnes and Nobel, and Stanza. I know I don't have an iPad in my hand, but Apple does not fear the competition. They make the majority of their $ on the hardware, and if you want to run the Stanza app on the iPad. Enjoy :-)