So the iPad...

[Mr.Ben]

From a different angle this time, would you have liked it to have been full osx with a special skin/ui but the ability to run your osx apps as oppose to a more limited iPhone style app store?

I would have thought strongly about buying one if it was more full osx to iphone distro and paid a little more. They could still have the custom app builds (aka ipad iworks etc) but the ability to run other full osx stuff like you do currently on your air, now that would have been a killer product imo.

 

The abilty to plug in a usb pen/ SD Card to transfer a document would have been nice too, I'm not always somewhere that WiFi is available. The air is a far better product!

[ZeroHour]

Imagine Air with a touch, roatating display to turn it into tablet mode with access to iPad apps... ooooh

[Mr.Ben]

Imagine Air with a touch, roatating display to turn it into tablet mode with access to iPad apps... ooooh

 

I can't, I already get told off for slobbering like a St Bernard at inanimate technology objects.....let alone just the thought of them, oooooooooooh.........

[Guest Guest]

From a different angle this time, would you have liked it to have been full osx with a special skin/ui but the ability to run your osx apps as oppose to a more limited iPhone style app store?

I would have thought strongly about buying one if it was more full osx...

 

and so would have alot of people in the creative arts industries id have guessed. The potential for it as a control surface for synths, mixers, etc would have been huge, and it would have been really competitively priced compared to the £1500+ touch surfaces you can buy. Maybe it could still do that with a remote desktop app but id have certainly preferred a full os behind it.

 

This was actually the first apple product ive ever been excited for... ill know better next time

Edited January 27, 2010 by Guest

[Dos_Box]

Well, I've been waiting a while for this to surface (see what I did there!), but the sad fact is that is too large. I was hoping for a 7" device about the size of the Sony ebook reader we had on the stand at BETT. That would have made a great travelling companion as it fits very nicely into the inside pocket of my jacket. Even my Acer One is smaller than the iPad. I was hoping for something I could browse the web, quickly do my email on and have some multi-media features, but it is simply not transportable.

Time to invest in a Lenovo X series device I think, and if anyone saw Rics at BETT you will know just how small and nice they are. Sorry Apple, but I think you missed a trick here.

[Dos_Box]

I would be using it myself. There is no way i would voluntarily use Windows - I hate it. Shoddy, klunky mess that it is. Currently I use my own MacBook Air at school because I won't accept a school-provided laptop, so the iPad would do what I need perfectly.

 

That comment is soooooo Windows Vista

[DanW]

i'm disappointed .. i personally would of liked it slightly smaller say 9" and running full blown OS X ... the price point is spot on ... mind you we never know what's around the corner.

 

I'm predicting the next apple event to be in March with the preview of iPhone OS 4

[gaz350]

good point Dan, it might be that apple has something in the works that they aren't showing us. I hope so.

 

I love my iphone, i love my macbook pro and i love my 30 inch cinema display (now running Windows 7 instead of vista!) i was really wanting a device bigger than the iphone but with OS X but smaller than my Macbook Pro but not as heavy as a macbook and not as expensive as an Air

[DanW]

Windows 7 on a Macbook .. bah ..!

 

Must admit yes i love my iphone and macbook .. i resisted upgrading my iphone last year so the money that i'll was going to spend on the ipad i'll use to pay for the new iphone that will hopefully be coming out.

[theriver]

I knew I shouldn't have bothered posting in a geek forum. Geeks love Windows.

 

Actually, real geeks love BSD.

 

Oh, hang on . . . . .

[Arthur]

The main thing its missed out for me (please correct me if i'm wrong). Doesn't have the ability to run regular apps that you install from a cd, you can only get apps from the app store. If it was just a hardware release and ran full version of OS X then, for me it would have been a lot better. Too much like the iPhone IMO

That's because it runs iPhone OS v3.2. It was pretty obvious that the iPad going to be a bigger version of the iPod Touch/iPhone because of the latter's success.

 

If it did run the full version of OS X, a CD/DVD drive would still be pointless because it would add unnecessary bulk to the device, reduce battery life, increase the price even more and be another part that could break easily. With the Internet (and to a lesser extent, USB flash drives) optical drives are of little use these days. Within the next few years, I reckon Apple will remove them from other model's in their line-up the MacBook's too.

 

Personally, the iPad looks like the perfect computer for my parents and it would also make a fantastic remote control for my HTPC.

[Dos_Box]

I feel nausious, and not just because of the bug I've had for the past day or so!

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Hz8dhQw8Q]YouTube- Apple iPad Video[/ame]

 

If only they'd stop smiling!

[BryanDavidWilliams]

My Daughter would love this for home. Other then that.. I'm kind of at a loss.

I would like to say this would be great for classrooms. But how would you manage it? How would you turn in assignments? Another problem is that a lot of educational websites use flash and also use windows video files. This would be nice if HTML 5 had already gotten rid of Flash and Video Plugins. Really disappointing because I really like how iWork is on the iPad it would be perfect for kids and maybe simplify the headache that is my fleet of MacBooks trying to connect to active directory resources. It would be nice to have one stand alone simple device that works. I wanted apple to finally make a stand alone simple appliance for web computing.

 

Disappointed

[Dos_Box]

I wanted apple to finally make a stand alone simple appliance for web computing.

 

Agreed. My earlier comments about it being too large are my main bugbear. It's hardly a portable device, regardless of how light it is.

[TSCL]

No flash, no os x.

It is "magical" though.

[Arthur]

But how would you manage it? How would you turn in assignments? Another problem is that a lot of educational websites use flash and also use windows video files. This would be nice if HTML 5 had already gotten rid of Flash and Video Plugins. Really disappointing because I really like how iWork is on the iPad it would be perfect for kids and maybe simplify the headache that is my fleet of MacBooks trying to connect to active directory resources. It would be nice to have one stand alone simple device that works. I wanted apple to finally make a stand alone simple appliance for web computing.

Apple already provide methods to lock the iPhone down in an enterprise environment. Since the iPad runs the same OS, I assume there must be a way to do this at some point in the future?

 

Assignments could be handed in and marked by teachers using VLEs e.g. Moodle. Other resources could be accessed via your schools' Intranet or maybe even WebDAV. Alternatively, students could connect to your Windows servers remotely using an iPhone app like Citrix Receiver.

 

The lack of Flash really doesn't matter too much IMO, because educational software companies are going to be clamouring to make apps and games for it via the App Store in iTunes if the iPad becomes popular. Very easy money for them! If they don't make their websites and videos compatible, then I'm sure their competitors will. Also, you can already do some impressive things in JavaScript via frameworks such as JQuery & MooTools along with CSS3 + HTML 5 so it's definitely possible to live without Flash.

Edited January 27, 2010 by Arthur

[flyinghaggis]

I think Apple have approached the iPad from entirely the wrong angle.

 

What I was hoping for was a streamlined/svelte Macbook Air running OSX with fully integrated multitouch/keyboard to replace the keyboard and mouse. That could have made it the first truly workable laptop computer without a keyboard/trackpad.

 

What they've delivered unforutnately is nothing more than an ipod touch with a larger screen. And given it's running the ipod OS it's never going to work as a standalone device as it doesnt have driver support for peripherals and lacks the ability to customise it or install your own software. Also will likely mean you've no easy way to copy files to and from it either so that's the music/video functionality of it pretty much nerfed aswell.

 

I'm pretty disappointed as I think Apple were in the position to bring to market the first viable "tablet PC" for want of a better word but all they've delivered is a niche toy which isn't going to replace any of my current devices (neither PC,laptop or phone) so I cant see any point to it!

[BryanDavidWilliams]

Apple already provide methods to lock the iPhone down in an enterprise environment. Since the iPad runs the same OS, I assume there must be a way to do this at some point in the future?

 

Assignments could be handed in and marked by teachers using VLEs e.g. Moodle. Other resources could be accessed via your schools' Intranet or maybe even WebDAV. Alternatively, students could connect to your Windows servers remotely using an iPhone app like Citrix Receiver.

 

The lack of Flash really doesn't matter too much IMO, because educational software companies are going to be clamouring to make apps and games for it via the App Store in iTunes if the iPad becomes popular. Very easy money for them! If they don't make their websites and videos compatible, then I'm sure their competitors will. Also, you can already do some impressive things in JavaScript via frameworks such as JQuery & MooTools along with CSS3 + HTML 5 so it's definitely possible to live without Flash.

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

I can barely get most educational developers to keep there websites accessible by Safari or Firefox on a Mac I'm not sure that they will be redeveloping there content for the iPad anytime soon. For instance Plato Learning Environment in particular has been a hassle.

 

Do you have a way to deploy iPod Touch "images"? Trying to think about how a Teacher could manage content on 30+ devices daily.

[Dos_Box]

The lack of Flash really doesn't matter too much IMO, because educational software companies are going to be clamouring to make apps and games for it via the App Store in iTunes if the iPad becomes popular. Very easy money for them! If they don't make their websites and videos compatible, then I'm sure their competitors will. Also, you can already do some impressive things in JavaScript via frameworks such as JQuery & MooTools along with CSS3 + HTML 5 so it's definitely possible to live without Flash.

 

As regards to UK educational software companies, I doubt very much that they would divert resourses or look at a complete re-rwite of their core products just because of a niche device. The iPad in education will be a non starter I'm afraid, especially once the new Windows tablets hit the shelves and that the available educational software will run on them with zero modification.

[Arthur]

Not sure about "images" of the device, but I imagine it would be easy enough to sync content with them using iTunes (using the optional dock) or the DropBox iPhone app. If most of your content is web-based then syncing data would obviously become less of a hassle.

 

I agree that many educational developers are behind the times, although I can see companies like Boardworks would love the sell special iPad versions of their PowerPoint presentations for just a few £1,000 pounds.

 

My school uses It's Learning for our VLE and they are happy to support modern web browsers (Safari/Chrome/Opera/Firefox) and operating systems like Mac OS X and Ubuntu. I only wish more companies were like them.

 

I think Google's Chrome OS and Jolicloud are quite similar in some ways to the iPad, but I don't see many people complaining about them.

[ZeroHour]

Also remember you cant upload files in safari using the iphone. Its custom apps only and then you can only access certain areas.

[Arthur]

Also remember you cant upload files in safari using the iphone. Its custom apps only and then you can only access certain areas.

I was wondering about that. I assume if you create a document using the iPad version of iWork, you would either have to save it on the iPad itself, sync it to MobileMe/your iDisk or use iTunes to transfer it back to your computer when docked? Google Docs sounds a lot easier if that's the case.

[Arthur]

As regards to UK educational software companies, I doubt very much that they would divert resources or look at a complete re-write of their core products just because of a niche device. The iPad in education will be a non starter I'm afraid, especially once the new Windows tablets hit the shelves and that the available educational software will run on them with zero modification.

That's true, although in time it would be nice if they eventually made the transition to using web standards instead of plugins like Flash Player and Silverlight. Mobile devices are surely going to become a lot more popular within the next 10 years and not all of them will run Windows.

 

I suppose at the very least Apple's iPad may put a little pressure on other tablet manufacturers to lower their prices a bit. HPs latest tablet running Windows 7 looks pretty nice, although it would be even better if it was < £500.

[Arthur]

This is interesting...

 

Apple has unleashed iPhone OS 3.2 SDK to developers today to prepare for the launch of the Apple iPad. The new iPhone OS 3.2 only runs on the iPad device and will not run on the iPhone or iPod Touch. The accompanying documents are said to have revealed a number of interesting features about the iPad and the latest version of the iPad operating system.

 

- External Display Support. iPad applications will be able to display content specifically targeted to an external display connected to the iPad via the Dock connector. This sort of external monitor support has never been allowed with the iPhone SDK.

- File Sharing. A shared file directory is provided that will mount on your Mac or PC. This is presumably how files such as iWork documents will be transferred to and from the iPad. iPad applications will be able to access this shared directory.

- No Multitasking. Only one application runs at a time according to official documentation.

- Universal Apps. There will be support for universal apps that support both iPhone and iPad.

 

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/01/27/ipad-sdk-3-2-details-external-display-file-sharing-system-no-multitasking/

[mattx]

What a waste of time !!

 

It's running, what is essentially, a beefed-up iPhone/iPod touch OS.

So no multi-tasking, you can only get software from the app-store,

No USB ports (dongles), no memory card reader (another dongle), no Display-port (yet another dongle and only VGA from what I've read).

So this thing is essentially even more crippled than the MacBook Air.

 

Apple must think April 1st is sooner than we thought....