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The iPad, announced earlier this week, has been a massive media extravaganza. Some people were elated, and some let down. We’ve been asked over and over what our thoughts on the device are. Join us after the break to find out.
[Caleb]–My grandma would love this. I really think that she is their target. It is easy to use, portable, and has a custom interface that removes all of the windows style interface cruft. Personally, I don’t need one. I have an iPhone (yes, I know most of you hate them). The iPad offers me nothing that my iPhone doesn’t, except a larger screen.
I am excited though. I’m excited at the prospect of a mid level touch screen tablet with an appliance style interface becoming common. I can’t wait to see the knockoffs that can run Linux with a custom interface. The knockoffs that will actually have USB ports, and a non wobbly back. Those same knockoffs that will most likely have a front facing camera. I want one of those.
As far as hackability goes, this might actually be fairly hackable. The processor isn’t actually as proprietary as some would think. It is ARM based, and not too different from some other devices we’ve seen. It appears as though they planned for a camera. There might even be a spot on the motherboard for it. I fully expect to see it “jailbroken”, but what I WANT to see is the guts modified. I want to see home hackers add external storage (card slot), load a different operating system, up the storage. Then again, I thought the same thing about the iPhones and iPod touches, but haven’t seen hardware hacks at all really.
[Mike]–This is the first I’ve heard of the iPad. I got soooooo tired of all the apple tablet rumors that I quit paying attention. I run Linux only and unless this device will sync out of the box with my Linux systems I’m not interested. I also don’t usually do hardware hacks on anything that cost me more than $250 but buy so I’m not going to be cracking the case open on this thing anytime soon.
[James] — The iPad has the opportunity to be a great product, but probably not for me, and probably not for most of our readers. It markets itself to the casual internet user who wants to listen to music, browse Facebook, or watch Youtube on the couch rather than the hardcore photo editor, writer, or programmer. I am excited to see someone like Apple really push the market, and cant wait to see the responses, especially from people like MSI and Asus. Personally, I’m waiting for someone to make a really great convertible tablet netbook with native support for Linux.
[Jakob] — I hate Apple products, I mean almost with a passion. But I actually do own an iPhone – and I admit, it is one slick nice device. Small, powerful, convenient – all things the iPad is not. Its like Apple couldnt decide on making yet another iPhone revision or a full tablet PC and decided to give us a semi nerfed iPad instead. From what I’ve heard, there is no multitasking and several other features that – if can be included on the iPhone – why did they remove it from the iPad? Final note: being an apple product, its about $500 more then it should be.
(And it doesn’t even come with wings for extra absorption)
[Devlin] — Meh, I don’t think there is going to be much to do with hacking the iPad, I won’t buy one because I don’t see a reason for having it. If others have the same thought, not many people are going to be buying the iPad and therefore not many people are going to be hacking the iPad.
My issue is not so much with the product, but with the marketing. The iPad is not a “tablet PC”, as it is being billed. It’s a huge-ass iPod.
I would have seriously considered purchasing one if it had been priced semi-competitively, and had been powered by OSX rather than the stripped down version used on iPods. Alas, it was not, and I am, yet again, severely disappointed. However, I am perfectly content with my Dell mini that has .6hz more processing power, multitasking, a built in webcam, flash support, a physical keyboard, a mouse pad (which, gasp, is multitouch) and a 160gig hardrive that can store all of the applications and media I want, rather than just a fraction of it. And best of all, this particular dell cost me only $200.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the iPad, I just see that, outside of being utterly technically illiterate, this is a product with a very small market, that will nevertheless sell extremely well.
I for one intend to get one to interface with an Arduino.
I don’t really get all the hate on this product!
This is not a “computer”, not a “Mac”, not a “PC” y’know… What on earth would you do if it ran a full-on OS X? Probably bitch about it, cause it would drain your battery and the touch experience would be nothing like using a mouse and keyboard. Of course this needs a different interface! And Human-Computer interaction is something that Apple does pretty good considering everyone has been copying them for years now.
I won’t get one, cause I don’t really need it – got an iphone and a macbook and I’m having a great time already (DRM?? Who? Where? Don’t see any on my devices… I can listen/watch/read whatever I desire – and I don’t mind BUYING some music from iTunes every now and then and Apple having my credit card, I’m an adult…).
But my mum and dad would love this instead of a netbook with a tiny keyboard, a reckless touchpad and a tiny font on screen. It would play Flash videos/games though, i must admit.
I see this device triumphing in the future, as HTML5 becomes de facto and its hardware evolves (where’s the freaking cam???). It’s a first iteration of a device, and Apple is known to not give its most and best. But it is a serious candidate for best interactive coffee table ‘book’. Get a Blu-ray or multimedia box for your hdtv, guys!
And a final word: Apple is a corporation, not your dear friend – get over it! Play along or play elsewhere, I guess!
I fail to understand why so much of the so called ‘geek’ community or enthusiast communities fail to see the point of most of apple’s product offerings.
The hardware helps sell content on itunes. Content on itunes helps sell the hardware. All of it helps sell macs to some extent as well. And in general they want to get the devices in as many hands as possible while still making profit on the hardware. All of the products are more or less geared with that end-result in mind. They always try to have a somewhat limited roster of products to choose from, always making sure that certian key features are always there for whatever unifed user experience they are trying to put forth.
And they really do shape the market to an extent. If this thing gets popular enough, we are going to see less and less flash and more HTML5. *shrug*
I don’t think this is a great idea for the reasons mentioned above, but i hope it sells like hotcakes, because that can only mean touch screens get cheaper.
Or would you prefer a macbook wheel??? (see link)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA
Doesnt this get more true every day?
http://media.ebaumsworld.com/mediaFiles/picture/370286/424748.jpg
The IPAD are jalbreak , losk here if you want how to for jailbreak you’r ipad http://www.forum-ipad4g-pro.com/jailbreak-spiririt-le-jailbreak-de-ipad-reussi-t118.html
I love going back and reading old posts. So many haters in this arena and its hilarious to look at so many with egg on their face. Cheers!
Men and women can improve the features and run games and other programs by the use on the Pandora battery. Pandora batteries are modified flat batteries for use inside the Sony play station PSP. They enable the software to go into support mode and boot into a loaded memory stick.