![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitewithfishFirst of all, let's get one thing straight. The name kind of sucks. iPad sounds like a really high tech menstrual product, and if they had had a single woman on the project, they would have caught that pretty early on.
But, let's get to the bottom line: I don't think I want this. Which really is kind of a first for me- most of my life has been defined by a running theme of "Oooh, shiney" and base lust for Apple's newest products. It started with iPod and only grew stronger as the iPod grew smaller and more powerful. The iPod Touch nearly killed me. The iPhone is still a source of drool, even if I would have to work around the rather stupid calling plan. The drive to purchase the shiney new toy has been strong, if curbed strongly by my need to buy food, pay rent, and clothe myself.
I have just watched the Apple video introduction to the iPad (snort) and the wonders of its touch screen, the way you can move it, the LED lighting (okay, that I want, but who doesn't?), and honestly? I don't think I want this.
Issues:
1. Cumbersome: I like my laptop because I can sit with it on a table or my lap without any special tools and use the computer. I can type, operate the mouse, and still shift my position around- the keyboard provides a stable base for the screen, which can then be tilted for ease of sight. The iPad has no base, and the position that the model in the video assumed to keep the display tilted right looked incredibly uncomfortable. You can't lay it flat on a table easily and still use it without leaning over it. At 1.5 pounds, it's too heavy to hold one-handed for long.
2. Dependent: This thing has no optical, DVD, or BlueRay drive. You need an entire nother computer to use this thing. I ranted about this with the MacBook Air. Lack of a self-sufficient system makes it a big shiney toy, and quite frankly, I would rather a toy that did the same thing and was more portable, like the iPhone. There's a reason the things are designed to fit in a pocket.
Now, on the plus side, this thing is not priced like a laptop, so that means that fairly rich people will be able to play with this sucker without too much ado. It may turn out to be a better creature than I expected, but I am skeptical.
What I really want? Is for the touchscreen technology to work its way into the next generation of the MacBook family. I like touchscreens, but I want a computer that works like a real computer, not just a toy and I'm not willing to pay for both. I'm willing to wait a while.
But, let's get to the bottom line: I don't think I want this. Which really is kind of a first for me- most of my life has been defined by a running theme of "Oooh, shiney" and base lust for Apple's newest products. It started with iPod and only grew stronger as the iPod grew smaller and more powerful. The iPod Touch nearly killed me. The iPhone is still a source of drool, even if I would have to work around the rather stupid calling plan. The drive to purchase the shiney new toy has been strong, if curbed strongly by my need to buy food, pay rent, and clothe myself.
I have just watched the Apple video introduction to the iPad (snort) and the wonders of its touch screen, the way you can move it, the LED lighting (okay, that I want, but who doesn't?), and honestly? I don't think I want this.
Issues:
1. Cumbersome: I like my laptop because I can sit with it on a table or my lap without any special tools and use the computer. I can type, operate the mouse, and still shift my position around- the keyboard provides a stable base for the screen, which can then be tilted for ease of sight. The iPad has no base, and the position that the model in the video assumed to keep the display tilted right looked incredibly uncomfortable. You can't lay it flat on a table easily and still use it without leaning over it. At 1.5 pounds, it's too heavy to hold one-handed for long.
2. Dependent: This thing has no optical, DVD, or BlueRay drive. You need an entire nother computer to use this thing. I ranted about this with the MacBook Air. Lack of a self-sufficient system makes it a big shiney toy, and quite frankly, I would rather a toy that did the same thing and was more portable, like the iPhone. There's a reason the things are designed to fit in a pocket.
Now, on the plus side, this thing is not priced like a laptop, so that means that fairly rich people will be able to play with this sucker without too much ado. It may turn out to be a better creature than I expected, but I am skeptical.
What I really want? Is for the touchscreen technology to work its way into the next generation of the MacBook family. I like touchscreens, but I want a computer that works like a real computer, not just a toy and I'm not willing to pay for both. I'm willing to wait a while.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Still making up my mind.
Date: 2010-01-28 06:59 pm (UTC)AFAICT the only advantages it has over a less-expensive netbook is that it has a little more screen real estate and it has a better form factor for interstitial use. If it were priced competitively with the Kindle it might catch on, but I don't see that happening.
See, I'm almost with you there. I can't decide if this meant to compete as a really badly formated netbook substitute, or as a suped-up kindle substitute.
Most people I know who have netbooks basically use them for browsing and word processing, but I'm a student. If ebooks were to start to become more useful for students (higher number of academic volumes released as ebooks, at the same time as the dead-tree version), then I can sort of see the iPad becoming more popular as a sort of glorified plug-in for someone using a cheaper desktop at home. THAT configuration would probably actually be priced competitively, when compared to a laptop.
But in terms of price- the Kindle is $250, with free 3G network. The larger version is almost $500. A netbook runs from $300-500 dollars. With the keyboard that you can buy for the iPad, this might be all the laptop some people need.
My experience with my netbook have made me question this. The only times I've used the optical drive on my MacBook has been to upgrade the OS (once), rip a mix CD a friend sent me (once, and she could have just sent me mp3's), and to watch a single movie on a plane (once, which I could have downloaded beforehand or gone without). Optical drives just aren't that useful to a lot of people anymore.
Well, I guess I tend to think of my laptop as a substitute for a lot of things: TV, DVD player, CD player, speakers, camera (for certain kinds of pictures), telephone, word processor and news paper. Some of those tasks are really optical drive specific. You can work around the lack of an optical drive pretty easily if you have to, and if you are working with newer media. What I like about the optical drive is it means that I can go back and look at older stuff I put on CD- loosing that would mean transferring a lot of data to my harddrive and just keeping it there.
I dunno. I think the iPad is very pretty and shiney, but I think I would wait for them to work through the first generation's kinks before I put any money down.