iPad love/hate thread

[rumsfald]

[quote author=rumsfald link=topic=3709.msg145695#msg145695 date=1270720800]
I think I've become a marketing victim and will buy an iPad. FML.

Nooo, there are better options that give you more for less!

[/quote]

Spill. You've got a week or so to convince me before I feel I will succumb.

I require light, low maintenance, long battery life, mobile connectivity other than wifi (usually of the 3g variety), primarily to be used for as much web surfing as possible, calendar/contact via exchange OTA, email via exchange plus 3-4 gmail accounts and 2-3 other e-mail accounts, and IRC/instant messaging. I'm ok with modest content creation (e.g., modest office-like functions). The flash is a mild issue for me on the ipad, the lack of multitasking is somewhat more concerning.

The primary use of this device will be to enable me to browse the web freely, free of the websense admins that are clueless when it comes to business needs to perform environmental scanning and in general, you know, know what the fuck is going on in the world. Most of the time it will be set up next to my work laptop in my office (think NIPRNET and SIPRNET). So in that sense, need to be able to copy/paste/email/upload stuff from the device to my work laptop or home PCs for massaging. Oh, and the wireless IRC is so I can join brbu once in a while so Caff will stop bugging me about all the "intellectual" conversations that I am missing out on.

Given the above, I'm not necessarily going to be swayed by a primarily value for money argument. This device isn't going to replace my ipod, my blackberry, my work laptop, or my home PCs.

[CaffeinePowered]

Hate

There's much better options from other companies with the features you are looking for, I will look them up later, but I believe there was at minimum one from HP that would not be nearly as chained down as the iPad


Edit:

Here's just a few that were unveiled at CES

[zaneyard]

I'm totally against it being locked down the way it is so hate.

Why don't you just get a netbook and a 3g card?


tablet pc's are for drawing
iPad is for cleaning up period blood.
Will It Blend? - iPad

[Mission Difficult]

If you do plan on getting one, wait till fall/winter. That's when it will get the features that the iphone is getting with os4 this summer (multitasking, folders, universal mail, multiple exchange accounts, etc...). Also, it's probably not a good idea to buy the first generation. There are already problems with overheating, weak wifi, retarded headphone jack placement, and some other things. I vote against for the time being.

[Tricks]

The only reason to buy an IPad right now is to lord it over people you know. In terms of functionality, there are many other better options. In terms of “looky what I got” it’s one of the better ones at the moment.

[Surf314]

I dunno, to me even though I should hate the closed aspect of apple products they present a complete package geared towards a certain audience. If you are in that audience the product is great. If you aren't there really isn't much reason to yell at those that are. Like Rummy I'm a bit of a media whore. A big iPhone would be amazing for me. I'd love to find a better product but until one is released and shown to me, I'm with Rummy on wanting an iPad.

That said I'm curious about the courier.

[Spore]

No.

[KarthXLR]

My band teacher has an iPad, so I got to tinker with it a bit. It's very nice, gets much more credit than first thought....but it is really pricey for the amount of features it has.

[Greatbacon]

No.

you make a compelling case sir.  

[Didzo]

Get a goddamn netbook instead.

[Duck, Duck, Goose]

Netbook + 3G Card = best choice imo.

[Eschatos]

Why would you pay the price of a laptop for half of one?  Also no multitasking kills it for me.

[Surf314]

Why would you pay the price of a laptop for half of one?  Also no multitasking kills it for me.

They just added multitasking. Also I never understood what the big deal was for the iPhone, I literally never ran into a situation where I was like "if only I had multitasking." You could listen to music while doing everything else and that was all the multi I needed.

[zaneyard]

besides the fact that every modern operating system has the ability
it means that you can't run a chat program in the background while listening to pandora radio while sending text messages.


on a side-note, isn't apple becoming too mainstream to be hipster?

[backfire]

So you got a big iPod touch.


Where's the extra $400 come into play?

[copulatingduck]

@Surf Re:Multitasking

you cant use gps while running data collection software, for one thing. it doesn't come up often but when you need 2 programs running it's really a giant pain in the ass. edit: was collecting data for an app a friend is writing for iphone


also, there's too much hate and not nearly enough sane and reasonable suggestions for alternatives in this thread, I was hoping to steal ideas for shit from it :\



edit: so I googled 'ipad alternative' and the most interesting one that came up was the iTablet from european-based X2 computing. From all the articles single recycled article I've read on multiple sites, it is supposedly launching in April. Seems a bit bulky, but after checking the specs on the iPad it's dimensions aren't as bad as I expected. I'm not entirely sure what to expect of the product, it sounds promising, but a tech company with a crappy website makes me just a tad uneasy.

News Release with specs (warning: pdf :-\)

[rumsfald]

Yes, obviously I know that netbooks exist and can be paired with 3G cards. The question is, which ones? I've looked at asus/aspire netbooks before and haven't seen the great appeal. Also, I want an internal 3G card, anything external will break/snapoff/ruin the USB port after a year of getting knocked around. I haven't done the research, but I'm under the impression that not all netbooks have that great of battery life. I'm also don't get wet in the pants thinking about running yet another device with windows on it. I'd be interested in an alternative OS, provided it meets my criteria (3g support and exchange support being usual sticking points).

@mission, yes thanks for reminding me the headphone jack placement is so utterly retarded they can't possibly not fix that in the next iteration.

@caff, the freescale and lenovo ideapad are interesting to me. But I'm not necessarily interested in waiting forever for the next big thing to come out. An argument can always be made to wait for the next gen BLAH or new entrant BLAH BLAH, but we all know that's always a gamble.

also, there's too much hate and not nearly enough sane and reasonable suggestions for alternatives in this thread, I was hoping to steal ideas for shit from it :\

^true dat.

[Surf314]

The only serious alternative I've found for what I'd want is the Microsoft Courier, and they've been pretty tight lipped on any new details. That is more in line of what I'd want as far as reading/organizing/notetaking but the two smaller screens seem to be a drawback to web browsing/netflix streaming. Which makes it tough. You get a pen and more do stuff versus get sold stuff but you lose the nice big screen to watch movies on. Although as a book reader it would probably be better as it's easier to hold (reports say iPad is too heavy to get any serious reading in comfortably) and you can highlight and take margin notes.

Also Apple's 4.0 update adds multitasking so it's no longer relevant.

[Turtle]

So you got a big iPod touch.


Where's the extra $400 come into play?

400 dollars worth of paper weight!

[Surf314]

http://www.fastcompany.com/1580582/micro...-shows-why

This brings up a good point. Apple is the first serious contender and they are already selling well. Even though they are fairly closed their app store provides a great revenue stream for developers. So closed or not apple is going to get a huge head start in apps. Hell NPR, Reddit, Digg I think all already have iPad portals and that is most of my internet browsing.