iPad iPad Enthusiasts - Why is the iPad a no-brainer for you?

[Johannes]

Originally Posted by SCION

There are several tablets coming to market this year. One in particular is the Notion Ink Adam.

Thanks. Googled it. Looks promising.

(But I'm not gonna delay acquiring a mobile browsing/PDF-reading device beyond end March...

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Johannes

Thanks. Googled it. Looks promising.

(But I'm not gonna delay acquiring a mobile browsing/PDF-reading device beyond end March...

I know what you mean. It is a painful wait!

[Gurvan]

"... Notion Ink Adam ..."

I also googled it and, yes, it could be a contender. But it won't make it for me as the Apple software base is already far bigger and that will also count in making the iPad a success...

[dmikov]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

I also feel as though the iPad was designed for ME . I honestly don't understand the iPad haters....

Because it was not designed for THEM? It was certainly not designed for ME. Too big for toy os included. If it was 7-8 inches and no bezel and $200 less, story would be quite different. Then I would love to have a pretty toy.

[dmaul1114]

Yeah it all comes down to what one needs.

If anything the 9.7" screen is a tad tiny for me as I'd probably have issue with a few journal articles that are A4 with multiple columns per page etc. as the text will probably be a bit small when shrunk to fit the screen.

Though again moot as I need a tablet where I can highlight and jot notes with stylus just as quickly and easily as I do on printouts of PDFs, word documents, etc. current.

[dragonbone]

Originally Posted by dmikov

Because it was not designed for THEM? It was certainly not designed for ME. Too big for toy os included. If it was 7-8 inches and no bezel and $200 less, story would be quite different. Then I would love to have a pretty toy.

I see what you mean. It just happens to be the device I was hoping Apple was going to announce. It's like my own personal dream gadget - come true . But for the many people who were hoping and dreaming about something else entirely, the iPad must be a huge disappointment.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Gurvan

"... Notion Ink Adam ..."

I also googled it and, yes, it could be a contender. But it won't make it for me as the Apple software base is already far bigger and that will also count in making the iPad a success...

I don't doubt the iPad will be a success, unlike the MacBook Air. I'm just looking for 20 or so essential apps that I'll use on a regular basis. I don't need things like a calorie counter or tip calculator. Having access to over 100,000 apps and actually utilizing them are two different things.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by SCION

I don't doubt the iPad will be a success, unlike the MacBook Air. ...

We'll find out soon. Without Flash (and the resulting limited/closed media content availability, as well as limited web-browsing capabilities), and some of its other shortcomings, such as a screen too small for a standard-size PDF, I am guessing its success may be more akin to that of the Apple TV.

I would have loved it to have been better, but I had high hopes for Apple TV as well. I'll reevaluate when I see it, but right now my hope is shifting to Android.

[Gurvan]

Originally Posted by SCION

... I'm just looking for 20 or so essential apps that I'll use on a regular basis. I don't need things like a calorie counter or tip calculator. ...

I fully agree with you on those points but the trick is that those essentials apps , for me, are more or less, already there on the iPhone where unfortunately, the screen is a wee bit too small for me to use them fully.

I already have :

- eBook readers like Bookshelf, eReader, Kindle or Stanza,
- book collection software like Pocketpedia2,
- Facebook and Twitter,
- some newspaper (Like, being French, Le Figaro, Liberation, Rue89 or Le Monde),
- Wikipedia,
- a radio alarm-clock,
- utilities for my car,
- language learning software,
- astronomy and GPS software...

In fact, for all those "needs" I can already use the iPhone but the iPad, with its bigger screen while still maintening ease of transport and use (Hidding the computer that lurks behind...) is clearly a winner.
Now, that Adam might be able to do the same things, I don't have a doubt about that, but not now out of the box...

Add to the iPad, the iWork suite and I would say that 99% of my needs from a computer can be covered. I will still need a full fledged computer for some tasks (And the iPad imposes the fact that I mus still have one for some tasks...) but for my normal everyday use, the iPad should be a no-brainer...

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by Sonist

...such as a screen too small for a standard-size PDF.

Yeah, that's a concern of mine as well with a lot of these devices. 9.7" is just too small for a lot of my research PDFs.

Complicated by margin cropping not being a good option for someone like me who primarily wants a tablet device to highlight and jot notes in the margins of research articles.

So I'm just going to have to wait indefinitely until someone puts out a tablet that's designed as a document reader/markup tool with an A4 sized screen etc.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

...
So I'm just going to have to wait indefinitely until someone puts out a tablet that's designed as a document reader/markup tool with an A4 sized screen etc.

[Johannes]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

Yeah, that's a concern of mine as well with a lot of these devices. 9.7" is just too small for a lot of my research PDFs.

I'm a bit puzzled. What makes you feel 9.7" is too small for technical PDFs? I'm actually planning to use the iPad for A4/letter-sized (arXiv) PDFs. I was under the impression this would work well (in particular with the iPad display in landscape mode).

Do I overlook something?

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by Johannes

I'm a bit puzzled. What makes you feel 9.7" is too small for technical PDFs? I'm actually planning to use the iPad for A4/letter-sized (arXiv) PDFs. I was under the impression this would work well (in particular with the iPad display in landscape mode).

Do I overlook something?

Landscape mode probably would be ok, I just don't like the scrolling--especially for articles with multiple columns of text rather than one column. But it certainly could work if you're just reading and not need to highlight and scribble notes etc. as the scrolling is less annoying in that case.

I'd rather have something with an A4 screen that can simply display the document exactly as it looks when I print it out to read and mark up currently.

Convenience is my main concern. Printouts work fine for me, so I'm in no rush to make the switch to a tablet type device until I find one that does exactly what I want it to do.

[leebase]

First of all -- I love my iPhone and my daughters and wife love their ipod touches. Apple said it well with "there's an app for that".

Last spring I was discussing netbooks -- which I've never wanted. I get why other people want them, but what I use my laptop for, I need a laptop for, not some 1ghz underpowered version of a laptop.

I said then -- when people were expecting Apple to come out with an answer to the netbook -- that I didn't want a Mac netbook (I'm a windows/linux guy anyway). What I wanted was a large iPod Touch.

That Apple is coming out with one -- and pricing it right at my "combine Christmas, birthday and father's day present" price? Yeah, it's a no brainer. I'll pre order whenever they start accepting them (called our local Apple store the day of the announcement).

It's a toy. It's for fun. It's for couch/bed web surfing, games playing, eBook reading (though I'm not sure it'll replace my iphone for reading books consisting only of text).

It's a no brainer for me -- based on the apps I already know and love on my iphone, ipod touch. And I'm really confident that there will be plenty of iPad specific apps coming soon after that will make it an even MORE nobrainer.

Lee

[dragonbone]

Originally Posted by Johannes

I'm a bit puzzled. What makes you feel 9.7" is too small for technical PDFs? I'm actually planning to use the iPad for A4/letter-sized (arXiv) PDFs. I was under the impression this would work well (in particular with the iPad display in landscape mode).

Do I overlook something?

No, you aren't overlooking anything! The iPad is the perfect size .