no it does not change my mind. I’m content with my smartphone and my netbook… according to jobs: “netbooks are not better at anything”

he can suck it

A lot the media has missed the bigger question of whether people will buy this beyond the Apple fanatics and people who need the latest thing.

I compare this to the Segway. The media similarly hyped the **** out of it; it was extremely cool and innovative; and mostly people didn’t buy it.

That point might be valid if the iPad was actually a tablet PC. It is quite a bit less than that, it is very literally a blown-up iPod Touch.

Like was already said, that might be fine for the Apple devote or iPod fanatics, but not necessarily the general public.

@icebrain

You just argued against my point and then said you would buy an iPad if it was cheaper.

That IS my point. Nobody needs an iPad for $500 on top of their laptops, phones, games devices and netbooks. Not for $500.

You also said you would buy one if it was more useful (read: had Linux).

That is again my point. Why would people buy an iPad if others start selling Linux and Windows tablets for $249. And they will.

I’m still debating in my head if tablet PCs will take off, if they do it won’t be an iPad I buy. Apple are just too DRM close it up and throw away the key type.

I’d much rather get a device I can actually do what I want with it. I’m not even the modify change everything sorta type either x.x (way too lazy). But Apple are just too strict and I know I’ll run into some road block eventually when I want to do some small thing with what I’ve brought.

Apples products are just too much of an interoperability nightmare and I’m really hoping they don’t catch on too much, lock in isn’t fun.

“I’m still debating in my head if tablet PCs will take off”

they haven’t in the last 20 years, would be my argument but neither did netbooks and now *everyone loves them

flip a coin

If you have spent hours on your ipod touch – then you can see the potential in the Ipad a giant I pod touch. I think for simple things such as showing pictures at a family gathering on an acceptable size screen with no wires and no mouse, keep a child quiet while at a resturant while watching a movie. An Ipod touch is quite usefull without a camera or a phone – and I expect the ipad to sell quite well even in this economy

I salute you, sir. Everything I own eventually gets taken apart (I’m probing a Keurig coffee machine right now), but not the minute I acquire it.

@pete

The iPad is capable of running an RDP client, at least it should be–I have one on my iPhone. Actually that’s the only thing that makes the iPad somewhat appealing to me.

The iPad is almost interesting to me as a dedicated web browser and media center with a file-system interface for about $300.(IE an oversized Playstation Portable)

It is not interesting to me as a dedicated web browser and media center for $500, no matter what kind of interface it has, and iTunes is a deal-breaker at any price. I can buy a netbook and a Bamboo Pen&Touch for about as much and build my own slate PC if it comes down to it, and it’ll still have a full OS, built-in camera, and built-in USB ports, none of which applies to the iTouch Magnum.

overo fire and a $80 12″ 5 wire USB LCD..

OMAP is FBGA so role your own PCB design takes a lot of effort and design time.

@ Tony Cole Totally agree, whatever peoples issues with the ipad its here and its possible of so many more things than just box fresh! The original iphone release saw only a handful of apple apps and people saw the potential of the device, hacking the shit out of it, I can see some really useful remote desktop, or even lemur style apps for it. TouchOSC at Hexlar.net is porting a version for the ipad, just that application alone is enough for me to want to buy one. HACK IT!!!

Apple seems to get everyone in a huff! People where very frustrated that the ipad was not as full featured as THEY wanted it to be! What did you expect? All this bitching about it makes me think that people love apple products so much that they all feel that they have somesort of ownership over it then project feelings of negativity. You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time.

If Apple sales dep will somehow manage to market ipad successfully than they deserve golden statue

I have a wobbly table leg. Good for that unless my table leg wants flash…

Good grief, Quote “we see some awesome features and tricks Apple implemented. Most notably the two separate 3.75V lithium polymer cells, not soldered to the motherboard, allowing users to easily replace the battery if need be”

The most notable thing from the teardown was user replaceable batteries, highly innovative, give it a year and jobby will claim that replaceable batteries are a crapple idea and we should be grateful that he can still breathe to tell us.

Engadget have a nice feature where you can view their site without ever having to see an apple product.

http://www.engadget.com/exclude/apple/

The iPad will sell well because so many people are too ignorant or afraid to really understand technology. They just want to sit on their butts and watch youtube, so this will be right up their ally. It just bugs me that it’s being hyped as more than it really is. It’s a media consumption device. That is all.

“I mean ipad literally least capable computer on the marked in past 10 years”

This is exactly why it will be a huge seller! The mistake that electronics companies have been making for years is that they give the average (l)user too many options. The brain of a laymen doesn’t work like our brains do. They see a ton of options, openness, and expandability and get confused and afraid instead of inspired. Apple makes devices people that don’t really “get it” and probably couldn’t grasp a technical concept if they wanted to. In short, they make stuff for non-hackers and morons.

@john the R2H while it looks cool is almost 2x the cost of the ipad…not that i’ll be buying either because I stopped buying “toys” a long time ago.

what teardown? I see the single picture of the case cracked and a pile of comments. Followed the links and got nothing except the fcc teardown.

The iPad is an ebook reader with a bunch of extras. Basically, as Morphoyle said, a media consumption device. It is not for power users, or for people who want lots of options. It’s an appliance, and that’s fine. Stop bitching about linux not being on there, nobody in the real world wants to touch that piece of shit.

Nerds are the worst.

>Apple puts out quality products

What the ones they shipped with pre-broken cases?
The computers you have to take to the “genius bar” to be told “the logic board needs to be replaced”..

>that last a lot longer than most things Windows

WTF is a Windows thing? If you mean generic x86 hardware (Which desktop Apple machines are) from Dell etc.. well you can get well built machines from a number of vendors.

>cells/laptops into something that
>interests people.

Do these things really interest people? I’m sitting here with a bunch of Apple gear, and I could give you some actual good points and actual bad points of each… but most people that buy Apple stuff can’t. “It’s better!” or “It’s easier to use!” or “It’s about the experience” seem to be the hard hitting reasons for buying Apple.

>Yes, open-source is the future

Large parts of OSX come from open source. In fact without opensource projects like GCC the whole computing landscape would be a very different place. Saying open source is the future totally ignores that fact that there would be no “now” without it.

And here I thought Hackaday would be my island of sanity in the iPad madness…

Alas…

iFixIt – Not a single mention of ESD protection, ie wearing a grounded wrist strap.

Also “use a metal spudger, some tabs may break off”.

These guys sound like total n00bs, I would not trust them to change a battery in my watch let alone repair my iPad or other expensive electronics…

You obviously haven’t worked in the industry since 1986 then brother. ESD is taken very seriously (£10,000 air de ionisers to remove charged particles from the air required for Motorola level 3 mobile phone service centres is just one example).

It just depends how proffesional you want to be…

right cba to read up to find names and quotes but for all you people bitching about ‘nerds suck’ etc wtf are you doing on a site called ‘hackaday’ surely the name of the site gives away the sort of people that view it. Personally i am neither a nerd or a hacker but i respect those that are they can do stuff that boggles my mind, i mean seriously i can chip an xbox and thats about the limit of it but some of the stuff you see on here is amazing.
Now the iPad as with every other apple device i will be boycotting this simply because of everything else apple produce, their products are summed up nicely in a three dead trolls scetch ‘next time your daddy says the computers ‘not working’, tell him its broken and send him out to get an iMac, its a computer especially designed for idiots… i mean mummys and daddys’

@devin and the other “non-nerds”:

This is not a site for you. Take your flame-bait over to gizmodo or another equally luser-ish site. It’s a good place for people that THINK they know what they are talking about when it comes to technology.
ignorant laymen are the worst….