Apple iPad announced

In regards to gaming, the iPad could be huge with real-time strategy and roleplaying games. I could easily see Square Enix release the whole Final Fantasy franchise (after all, Final Fantasy I and II are already coming for the iPhone) on this device or Warcraft / Starcraft / Diablo from Blizzard.

 

Bluetooth keyboards are supported.

What $200 tegra2 tablet are you referring to?

 

Beta SDK is already out

http://www.apple.com/ipad/sdk/

 

My understanding is multitasking is out. It's like the iPhone - no background apps. To me that is the biggest blow in making this thing useful. How can you really use productivity apps like iWork without being able to run all the apps at the same time, or have a web browser open in the background?

I guess I can see this being useful the more I think about it. It just isn't useful for me. If you want to sit on the sofa and read, or watch a movie in the yard, it's definitely more comfortable than the iPod or iPhone. Or if you're at work it would be easier to drag to the board room than your laptop. But I couldn't see doing any heavy work on it with iWork. It seems more like a tool for taking notes, running a slide show etc, not a tool that you'd use for heavy work. I'd still prefer the iMac scenario I was describing, but I guess battery life would be the issue.

 

Actually, I prefer e-paper to tablet pc.

The paradox is that-

1. e-paper so thin that built-in 3.5G configuration is implausible ! )

2. Tablet PC is over weight that normally E-Reader stand cannot support.

3. The Good connection speed between hardware and server.

4. The Digitial-Rights management

 

I am not so sure about that. It would be an impulse buy if it was at least a hundred bucks cheaper at least to me.

 

I think the Apple A4 SoC is just a custom Cortex-A8@1GHz. Even Apple would have mentioned it if it's a dual-core. I mean with the iPhone 3GS they didn't mentioned the type or clock speed of the CPU, and here they mentioned the SoC and the clock speed, but not that it's gonna be one of the first available mobile dual-core CPUs for consumers? No way! Plus without multitasking there's no real need for a dual-core CPU.

I congratulate Apple for the introduction of a new device category (at least to the masses). And I have great hopes for tablets in the future. But this is why I'm disappointed in this years iPad:

Display:
- Low resolution (9.7" 1024x768 132ppi), no HD (720p), even lower ppi than iPhone (3.5" 480x320 163ppi), no comparison to Motorola Droid's ppi (3.7" 854x480 265ppi), Nexus One (800x480) or even Kindle DX (9.7" 1200 x 824, 150 ppi)
- No advanced display technology (Pixel Qi etc.)
- No digital TV-Out (Micro-HDMI, Mini DisplayPort etc.)
- For a modern device weird display ratio (4:3), IMHO iPhone's ratio (3:2) would have made more sense
- Glossy

Storage:
- Only 64GB. Last years iPod touch has already 64GB, iPhone 32GB. I'm sure only a few months after the iPad comes out we'll see 64GB iPhones and 128GB iPod touches.

GPS:
- No GPS in WiFi only model

Sound:
- No stereo speakers (Seriously? On top, just opposite to the bottom one would have been so easy. I mean there's no camera and no telephone speaker up there as in the iPhone, there's got to be room there for a second speaker. I mean there are even tiny dumb phones out there with "decent" stereo speakers, e.g. from Nokia and Samsung).

Battery and Power:
- Only "up to" 10 hours of WiFi surfing (comparable to the iPhone)

Size and weight:
- Bezel too big
- Too thick (0.5"), thicker than iPhone and iPod touch
- Too heavy (1.5 pounds)

Camera:
- No camera, not even a low-resolution front facing one for video conferencing

OS:
- No multitasking, notifications etc.
- Just iPhone OS 3.2?

 

Makes me want a product like it but better...
Any word on the HP Slate availability or links to a good Android tablet with Skype ?

 

ChromeOS based netbooks and tablets will blow this away in performance and battery. This was really a letdown, essentially a huge iPod, no camera, no SD card port, no multitasking, no 3g/GPS (only $800 version has 3g for $30/mo and unclear it has GPS).

The Kindle is 1/2 the size/weight and has 72 times the battery performance, and is easier on the eyes when reading, and cheaper.

This was a pretty disappointing launch. Look, you'll soon be able to buy Dual core Atom/Dual Core Cortex A9 Nvidia Tegra2s on Netbooks/Tablets for much less cost and run the operating system of your choice.

 

Great Points as you made !

Also I don't understand why we have to read one page at the time instead of two pages.

 

Oddly, the only thing I don't like about my Acer 1410 ($399, and new models have dual core Core 2 processors, mine is a Core Solo which is peppy enough sans Flash) is I wish the screen rotated into a portrait mode for easier writing--and the iPad has that. But that aside, my Acer1410 has a 250GB HDD, 1.4GHz Core processor, 2GB memory, solid GPU for the mobile space, a 1366x768 11.4" display, full sized keyboard, 3 USB, HDMI, VGA, SD slot, forward facing web cam, WiFi and ethernet, and so on. It came with Windows 7 to boot and run my entire library of software.

If these smaller netbook makers can get with the program and do more convertibles and screen rotation to portrait mode and "bundle" Amazon and other readers out of the box--and pitch it as a "netbook eReader"--I think these devices could totally sweep this market. I am sure Apple will do fine based on name and marketing but I don't see this devise as a good value, at least for anything I could think of being useful. Then again I wouldn't buy a Kindle for similar reasons and people love those...

 

Although I understand the shortcomings, I can see where it would excel. This is truly inspired by Jef Raskin.

He said that an information appliance would be a computing device with one single purpose—like a toaster makes toast, and a microwave oven heats up food. This gadget would be so easy to use that anyone would be able to grab it, and start playing with it right away, without any training whatsoever. It would have the right number of buttons, in the right position, with the right software. In fact, an information appliance—which was always networked—would be so easy to use that it would become invisible to the user, just part of his or her daily life (source).

Which pretty much boils down to the current iPhone OS and now the iPad. The iPad is a computer my mom could learn to use pretty easily and cover all her needs.

 

The 3G version has GPS! Plus it starts at $629, you don't have to sign a contract and it's unlocked:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

 

You forgot to tell us how long the battery lasts, or how easy it is to rotate the screen into portrait mode to read with, or how much it weighs

 

But it is not a computer, it needs to synced with a computer.

 

Does it need to? If you've got no media to put on it, I'd argue you don't. And if you do, a friend could help you out I guess. Ongoing, it doesn't need a computer after that.

 

Devices like the Notion Ink Adam will blow the iPad out of the water in terms of hardware specs (really big time). But software is another thing and usually Apple's strength, but what they showed with the iPad wasn't quite as promising as everyone expected. Quite a let down actually. I could live with the iPad's mediocre hardware if the software would have been fantastic, but this? E.g. no multitasking, and you can only run one iPhone app at once, even unmodified/unscaled? A dashboard like view with multiple apps would have made more sense for facebook etc. I mean even Palm's Pre smartphone can show multiple live apps at the same time...

 

So far I've only found one tablet with Skype...nokia 810...boo

Seriously I'd buy a wifi only ipad for long plane rides and international-to-family comms if it had skype.

 

In theory, if it's able to run any iPhone app it should be able to run Skype (it has a microphone).