Apple Event - Live Blogging/Streaming Coverage

[bookwerm]

Originally Posted by joblack

Actually you can compare the 'worth' of a product by comparing technical specifications. And somebody who is paying more for less isn't so smart at all.

I don't think you understand the difference between 'worth' and 'value.' 'Worth' is a subjective term; what something is worth to me may be different than what it's worth to you, depending on our individual needs, desires, etc., and what we're willing to pay to have those needs and desires met (and to what extent they are being met at that price - fully, partially, a little here, not there, etc.).

If you want to argue value, fine, try that. You can easily calculate the value of individual technical specs as a function of the total price of the device. However, to say someone is less smart because they're willing to pay a higher price for the same specs available in another product at a lower price is a bit obtuse. Because how do you know you're valuing the products in the same manner? There's more to technology than just technical specs.

It's all complicated, so I'd say leave the name calling to another argument you can actually win.

[kilron]

this is going to be a FANTASTIC little device and an amazing eBook reader. you'll have both Stanza, Kindle and Nook (barnes & noble) applications on their to read most of your books and if there are any left out, i'd bet very good money that they'll be added and supported by yet-to-be-released apps. there's NO WAY that apple would not approve iPad apps that view other eBook formats not natively supported by the iBooks app itself on the iPad.

so you've got a gorgeous LCD screen, a top notch interface, variable backlight for reading in low light (reading in bed anyone?). how is this not a killer eBook reader?? and its only $499? any eBook readers priced $250+ are going to seriously need to slash their prices because the iPad is going to be a fantastic eBook reader and then it'll do SO SO much more that it just blows the other eBook readers out of the water.

personally, i've been eyeing several eBook readers over the past few months, but something told me i should wait until apple announced their tablet (the iPad). now i'm really glad i did. if i didn't have much money to spend, i'd probably look at a refurbished or used PRS-300. otherwise its the iPad hands down.

Originally Posted by deltop

No flash is dissapointing but as long as I can get my collection of de-drm'ed epubs onto it and read my comics I'll be buying one. And it'll be great for browsing the web in bed.

flash is terrible. personally i find lack of flash to be a major plus. flash sucks. if you want the iPad to crash a lot and slow way the heck down, put in flash. flash on some android phones is laughable. the iPhone and iPod Touch have been void of Flash support for 2.5+ years and they dominate the market anyway. HTML5 is also helping to bring an end to flash ubiquity on the web.

[iunknown]

EPUB standard, the most popular open book

Does that mean their ebooks will be drm free?

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscente...eader_app.html

[acastillo]

As much as I dislike Plastic Logic's price on the Que, it still appears to fit my needs the best.

So please forgive my ignorance in my question. I am planning to do most of my word processing on my desktop PC using Microsoft Office (*.doc or *.docx format). The reason I wanted the Que was to be able to view and annotate documents (proofread) without having to print. What is the possibility of being able to view Word documents on the iPad?

If the iPad can read *.docx, PDFs, emails and my ePubs (purchased other than through the iBook store or converted through Calibre), then the iPad just jumped to the top of the list and will be joining me in the law office instead of the QUE.

SIDE NOTE:And no, I will not be giving up my Sony PRS-505. I have desktops, laptops, and netbooks and I still doing my reading on my Sony ereader. My ereader is easy to read on, portable, instant-on, and I don't have to remember to plug it in everyday.

[dmaul1114]

My take on it from the announced details:

As I've said repeatedly, I'm very interested in a multimedia tablet personally. I already have a laptop provided by work to go along with my office PC, so I really have no need for a netbook.

But I'd like something smaller and lighter than my 15" Thinkpad for travel etc. where I just need internet, e-mail, video, e-books, games etc. for a short trip, afternoon at the coffee shop etc.

Even more, I want something that I can read scholarly journal articles, magazine articles etc. on a large screen and mark them up with a stylus (the articles, not the mags) like I do print outs of PDFs now. It sucks reading them on a laptop/netbook. But it also sucks lugging marked-up printouts around when I'm working on an article, class lecture etc.

I love my Kindle for reading novels, but I need something with a bigger screen and stylus mark up to make the switch to e-versions for my academic work. And large screen e-ink devices with markup like the iRex and Que are just too pricey for buying do just one function--when I can print out and mark up PDFs at work for no cost to me.

Getting to the impressions....

For the iPad the pros I see are:

-Great Screen. HD Video looked great. Would be fine for me to read on since LCDs (and especially the LED monitors on my office PC and my laptop screen now) don't bother my eyes).
-Nice form factor--very thin, 1.5 pounds so it will be easy and comfotable to hold and read etc. Much more so than trying to read on a laptop or netbook
-Good price. I expected much more than $499 for the low end model (and 16GB and no 3G would be fine for me in a tablet)
-Very good battery life for this kind of device if their 10 hours of video watching claim is true
-Keyboard dock for when you need to do more text entry than can easily be done with the onscreen keyboard


But the Cons for me are:

-No stylus support built in, so likely it won't fit my need for marking up academic PDFs
-No Multitasking. Lame, would want to listen to music while reading, have a web window open while marking up an article to allow searching for other articles etc.
-Lack of flash--means no hulu and some other video sites.

But in all, it's better than I expected price, battery life, and size/screen wise for a first gen tablet device. The price and battery life should really put pressure on other tablet/slate manufactures to put out product that match it and improve upon it by adding stylus support, multitasking etc.

So I'll be very interested to see what else rolls out on the tablet front from other companies in the next year or so to compete with this. Particuarly stuff aimed more at the academic/business user. Again, here are things like the Plastic Logic Que--but it's overpriced, and being e-ink would be limited to only suiting my reading needs and not able to do other stuff--and thus not nearly worth the money to me.

And seeing what this tablet can do kind of killed my interest in a large screen e-ink device. Might as well wait for a tablet like this that does all I need to come out, rather than spend even more on a large screen e-ink device that I'd only use for my academic reading.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by iunknown

Does that mean their ebooks will be drm free?

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscente...eader_app.html

No. ePub is SO open, they even allow DRM if you want it. Seriously.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Are we sure about the "no multitasking" part?

That's what I'm hearing, but no official confirmation yet.

[dmikov]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Totally agree. At that price point they basically just killed all e-ink devices, unless they start pumping them out at $50 each, which is highly unlikely. Amazon will probably survive as some kind of app, maybe, but who knows. Sony's dead in this game now. $499 is a price point that kills everything else dead, no matter what my initial reactions were.

I don't think so, this might kill big screeners, but I will not be buying iPad, for a simple reason that it needs laptop bag (or man purse) to carry around. It's not mobile enough for mobile reading. I am seriously considering sony 900 or just anounced today (what a coincidence!) archos 7. Seven inch is the biggest I can consider for carrying with me.
For big documents when and if I need them, my laptop will do just fine. Fact is I read 9 fiction for 1 technical. So compactness will win with me anytime. Hate the bezel for same reason. Learn2hold the edge.

[freecia]

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

On the whole, I feel I'll probably hold out for a second gen Device, unless there is something specific that I want to do that I can only do on it.

I kind of feel the same way and agree with your summary. It'll do everything my iPod Touch does, probably better except as an mp3 player that fits in my pocket. Still, the touch only serves a subset of what I want to do on my laptop and I prefer the longer battery life on my ebook reader.

If the connectors will work with touches/iphones, I'd probably get the keyboard and SD card reader. That would make me pretty happy.

[philippd]

I am really disappointed that the ipad hasnt got a pixel qi display. Apart from that it might become a nice-to-have device. But it's not a must-have like an iphone

[scottjl]

no multitasking for now.. but how long before this device is "jailbroken" same as the iphones are and you'll be able to switch back and forth as you like. besides. if there is enough demand from consumers multitasking is only a software-update away.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by dmikov

I don't think so, this might kill big screeners, but I will not be buying iPad, for a simple reason that it needs laptop bag (or man purse) to carry around. It's not mobile enough for mobile reading. I am seriously considering sony 900 or just anounced today (what a coincidence!) archos 7. Seven inch is the biggest I can consider for carrying with me.
For big documents when and if I need them, my laptop will do just fine. Fact is I read 9 fiction for 1 technical. So compactness will win with me anytime. Hate the bezel for same reason. Learn2hold the edge.

I won't be buying one either, not as I learn more about the device, but I'm not the target audience...the iPhone audience is who they're after. The general reader, not the bibliophile. I think this is going to sell like hot cakes, just not to me.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Looks interesting, wonder what the battery life is.

Only about 4 hours, unfortunately.

[dmikov]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

I just need internet, e-mail, video, e-books, games etc. for a short trip, afternoon at the coffee shop etc.

Wow, are you taking red eye flights for your afternoon at coffee shop?
I am happy to check and reply to 2 emails when I am at coffee shop.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by dmikov

Wow, are you taking red eye flights for your afternoon at coffee shop?
I am happy to check and reply to 2 emails when I am at coffee shop.

Sometimes I go to the coffee shop to read some scholarly articles, grade student papers etc. without the distractions of being at home or in the office.