Anyone going to stand in line for this thing? Just wondering

[mdv2000]

Might be of interest for some:  http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/358/how-my-499-ipad-purchase-became-a-1170-credit-card-bill/

[Arkhan]

Might be of interest for some:  http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/358/how-my-499-ipad-purchase-became-a-1170-credit-card-bill/

whats funny is, the person made the choice to spend all that.   None of it was required.

[bloodline]

Last time I checked, Bill Gates owned 40% of Apple.  Has that changed?

B Gates has never owned an Apple Stock (though he might have some stock in investment funds managed by other people)... Microsoft owned a small amount in the late 90's.

Anyway, I like the iPad, I can't see how it fits into my life... but it certainly is the first tabletPC to get it right. All the other units have simply stuck a desktopOS on a touchscreen device which needs a stylus... totally impractical.

I'll probably pick up a unit cheap second hand

[Karlos]

I'm sure it will sell plenty.

For myself, I'd rather have a Tegra 2 based device running linux.

[Lando]

It's the worst product I have ever seen Apple produce since I started using Macs back in 2001'ish.

It simply serves no purpose.  It does lots of things and is crap at all of them.  It runs the same OS and Apps as I already have on my iPhone.  And it can't run any of the apps I have on my MacBook Pro.

Plays movies but has a 4:3 screen - Apple's own publicity photos show Star Trek playing with about half of the movie missing due to the image being cropped, and if you play in letterbox you have black bars covering half the screen, especially if the movie is in 21:9.  No HD as it doesn't have the resolution even for 720p.  And no DivX / MKV / M2TS due to it being encumbered with the iPhone OS which doesn't let you install anything apart from what you get from the Apple Store, all of which is very tightly controlled by Apple themselves.

I do not read books, so that aspect (which seems to be the one they are focusing on) has no interest for me.

The maps, iPod, etc features are irrelevant, there is no way I'm lugging one of these around when I can take my iPhone out of my pocket and check the map, and I'm not going jogging with one of these in a backpack just so I can listen to music.

Most games, apart from those specifically designed for it, are crap with a touch screen.  I have GTA Chinatown Wars, Street Fighter IV, and other big-name titles on my iPhone and they're fun, but the controls and the playability are hampered by the touch screen - the PSP versions are so much nicer to play.

Web browsing? Still no Flash support.  It cripples my iPhone, as it seems that many of the sites I visit regularly require Flash functionality.

I'm a big Apple fan, but this thing is junk.  Whoever designed it needs to be fired.  Almost all of the reaction on the web about this are negative, including the Apple 'fanboy' sites, which are usually full of "Wow! Amazing! Jobs is God!" comments whenever Apple releases so much as a new mouse.  That's almost unheard of.

Some of the apps being showcased by Apple on their site as showing the revolutionary nature of iPad are ridiculous - scrabble and a recipe app?  All they need now is snowman maker.

It should have been a MacBook Air without the keyboard and price.  Instead it's an iPod touch without the portability.  It will fail, and it deserves to.

[Karlos]

@Lando

So, that's a no, then is it?

[persia]

Which happens to be more powerful and cheaper than the recently announced SAM 460EX.  People in glass houses should throw stones....

Mac haters? Perhaps, but...
 
This is just another overhyped, underpowered piece of closed hw/sw apple mac(in)trash.
 
I see nothing good about mac, expect perhaps running morph os on one.
Otherwise, I'm not interested.
 
Steven

[Darklight]

Personally, I can see the merit in the iPad, but it's just not for me - and to be honest, I doubt there's many people on amiga.org that it's designed for.
For creators of content, or users who are familiar with the internals of their devices and how to get the best out of them, it's simply not enough.  No Flash, Apple's walled ecosystem, very limited expandability, no true filesystem, multitasking etc.  
However, for others, it's perfect.  My Dad for example, understands the internals of a computer.  He and I used to do countless operations on PCs, Macs and Amigas alike.  However, sit him in front of a computer, and he has very little idea how to use one.  He has, however, been using my iPhone quite regularly and understands how to use it.

The iPad is perfect for him.  It's also perfect for a lot of other people who mainly consume content.  For creators, it's not worth it unless you're developing - at least in my opinion.  I will say that some of the new apps look really good, and Sam and Max Season 3 on a nice big touch screen?  ALMOST worth it.

[Tomas]

----->     http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Nope.. Dont want any hardware with artifical limitations and DRM crap.
There are other products that does the same but has none of these said limitations.
The ipad is even a joke as a ebook reader due to it having a LCD screen.

[cv643d]

I would buy one if it was open and 200 dollars less, as I have understood its like the Ipod, you can not transfer your own files to it, you have to buy it from the Apple stores.

[Tomas]

Ah, the Apple haters come out to play.  Apple will sell 300,000 today.  X1000 if it ever comes out will sell 300 total.  Apple succeed on the same basis (hardware tied to software) that Commodore/Amiga failed.

Probably because most apple fans are brainwashed idiots. Apple fanboyism is like a religion for some. You cant really compare a small company and a hobby platform with one of the biggest companies in the world.

[Tomas]

Which happens to be more powerful and cheaper than the recently announced SAM 460EX.  People in glass houses should throw stones....

Yet the Sam is more useful since it isnt crippled by limitations like no multitasking and so on.

[bloodline]

@Lando

So, that's a no, then is it?

:lol:

"I'll put you down as undecided, then..."

[spihunter]

I cant install Logic on it so I dont see the point of it? Must not be marketed toward me...I already have an iphone to run all the apps

[Bigbronc]

Cammy, past the eggs, what a bunch of hype, I would not wait enless they give them away, then I would tear it apart to convert the screen to work on my a2000

[bloodline]

Probably because most apple fans are brainwashed idiots. Apple fanboyism is like a religion for some. You cant really compare a small company and a hobby platform with one of the biggest companies in the world.

You are worse than the Apple fanbois though... at least they have real products that work and are innovative.

I don't like Microsoft, but I can't deny that they managed to basically get everything right with their spreadsheet package for example, that is something no one else managed to do... I won't talk about the latest version, as they did something horrible with the interface... but my point is, you don't have to like Apple to submit that they are really good at some stuff. The iPhone, wasn't the fastest, most feature rich phone when it was released, but it ticked all the right boxes and totally changed the smartphone market... the same for the iPod, and even the original Mac (think the Amiga would have been GUI based without Apple?).

I don't need an iPad, there is no really gap in my computing life that needs filling with such a device, I'm a computer guy, you're a computer guy, we adapt to technology. But it is easy to see where it would fit in to the average person's life, someone who doesn't want to move to the technology, they want technology to come to them and make their lives easier.

Also, Apple have let me realise a dream I've had for nearly 20 years... It's not much, but I have had a game published and is now available to 75Million people! The iPhone made that happen.