Apple's iPad: Initial Hand's On Impressions

[tuannguyen]

So is it simply a giant iPod Touch? We tell your our initial findings of Apple's iPad and highlight a few things about it you should know.

Apple's iPad: Initial Hand's On Impressions : Read more

 

[wintermint]

Well If we can jailbreak the iPad then it's a different story

 

[Guest]

well if it were anything like everything else, we wouldnt have to jailbreak it.

 

[AMW1011]

IF you like this POS, then try a real UMPC.

I recommend the Viliv S10.

 

[SneakySnake]

Looks great, but you stayed away from the negatives. Although I suppose eveyone hear knows about no flash and multitasking.

That display extender app looks great

 

[matt314]

So why would I buy this instead of a netbook??

 

[philologos]

Impressions started changing however, when more and more publishers and developers jumped on the development opportunities.

In other words: "If we play along, there's money to be made."

 

[long2know]

Tuan bought an iPad? No way! Using it in bed? Reminds me of that line from Three O'Clock high from the hot chick: "I don't do homework in bed."

I must say the first impressions weren't very compelling. It still came off sounding like nothing more than a big iPhone.

 

[jmchien]

I've been using the iPad for a few hours now and so far it's pretty good.
My only real complaint is that it's not that intuitive/easy to transfer files (e.g. pdf) besides email... hopefully the 4.0 OS will help address that.

 

[coolgod]

[citation][nom]philologos[/nom]In other words: "If we play along, there's money to be made."[/citation]
lol your right.
I wonder about the amount though. Apple is a very rich company

 

[cletus_slackjawd]

looks pretty cool. I've been very happy with my ipod touch and I can imagine the useability with a much larger screen. I think it is similar to a netbook, it's just probably more fun to use. I can imagine playing hearts, watching a movie, or reading a book on it during a long flight. It's a luxury item to be sure, not really necessary at all but to those that have the money, why not?

 

[cadder]

There are a lot of interesting video demos on apple's site. Apple says it will multitask in that if you are playing music with it ala the ipod app, you can do other things and it will keep playing music.

Apple also says it has a USB adapter that you can use to connect a digital camera and download photos.

I'm surprised that itunes is required to activate the device. Seems that it would be open to working on wifi networks right out of the box. Is it possible that people would buy one and not have another computer that they can load itunes on? This eliminates the arguments of whether it replaces a netbook or not, if you have to have the netbook in order to run itunes.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned- how much memory does the OS use? Does it use any of the stated memory of the device or is it elsewhere in other memory? The iPad is supposed to have a dictionary built into its OS so I was wondering how much space that takes.

Another thing I wondered about- how long does it take the machine to come on, if it is already on and if it has been completely turned off?

 

[TomD_1]

"So far I'm finding that using it in bed is great."

you might need to get a few screen protectors then

 

[chise1]

Am I the only one who finds it fishy that initial views were negative, but they all turned positive right before the iPad debuted?

 

[marraco]

So, to really tiping on it, you are forced to:

-Suffer the constant wiggling because of the curved base. BAD design. But it looks beauty on the store.
-Put it in your lap, in an uncomfortable position for typing, and far from your eyes.
-grab it with one hand, and use only the other to typing. Annoying fot such an expensive thing.
-Pay 70$ for a keyboard. 70!!! just for a keyboard, and then discover that the thing is not so portable if you are forced to carry a keyboard.
worse, you cannot charge the battery whit usb. USB are anywere, ready for use, but the ipad does not have it. Carry also the power charger.

 

[dtm4trix]

when is Google Android coming out with it's version of the slate format? I think things will get real interesting then. Hopefully it has network file browsing capabilities along with Xvid and Mkv capabilities.

 

[tuannguyen]

[citation][nom]chise1[/nom]Am I the only one who finds it fishy that initial views were negative, but they all turned positive right before the iPad debuted?[/citation]
Nothing fishy about that. What people think of a product can be different than what they think after actually using it. It's no different than commenting about unreleased components. People still demand for a real take after a product is released.

 

[war2k9]

For all the apple haters out there, you don't have to read any apple product news or reviews. I am not an apple fanboy but i love reading tefch news and review, so i can be an inform consumer.

 

[chronicbint]

Still seems to me to be more of a luxury device rather than a useful device.

 

[Nexus52085]

"There's no doubt that the potential for the iPad that we're seeing today is simply just the tip of the iceberg."

That's the big problem. Apple is only doing the bare minimum when it comes to the potential of the iPad. It could have had a webcam for on the go video conferencing, it could have had a more involved OS--a hybrid between iPhone OS and snow leapord-- "it could have been a contenduh!" We already know the advantage of having a larger screen, but that's just not enough...