Apple iPad Impressions

Ours is similar, though multiple partitions on one mac make sharing somewhat easier. Drag and drop from any device would be so handy, wouldn't it? One-way only is such a pain.

 

The ipad will play aac lossless. But no. Just like now you would have to rip on a pc or mac and transfer to the ipad/iPod.

 

You can import songs off of cd into iTunes.
We have a similar setup to yours. One library though with a master playlist for each person.
Turned on home sharing and we can access any part of the library from any computer in the house. My wife's ipod is set to synch only 'her' playlist, my ipod only sync's my playlist.

 

Hey Hiyo!

That's why god created playlists. I couldn't bear thinking about managing my playlists manually.

 

Hey, Alric!

Sure, playlists are fine. But, when one of the kids brings something home on their iPod from a friend's computer, and all I want is that one song uploaded to my library....but of course, that would be stealing, wouldn't it? And why would Apple want to make that easier, when you can buy everything from the iTunes store?

 

Funny as some of the comments are, the ethos of computing may very well change with the launch of iPad. How many of us spend time supporting the PC installs of relatives, family and friends? The ones who just want it to power on and be able to browse the web and send email or write a letter?

PC's have never been friendly whatever the claims. My ageing parents cannot grasp the complexities of knowledge required to keep even a simple laptop running with updates, anti-virus etc and frequently call in frustration when it won't 'do' what is asked of it.

Solutions such as this are game changers and we may well look back on this time and reflect on the huge change it was the catalyst of. PC's the enable us to do what we want!

I know many here will be technically aware but don't overlook the greater many who are not. And even though my living is made from internet and technology, I'll be buying an iPad as soon as they are launched as for me its the ideal lounge based computer. Lying on the couch browsing or updating social networks etc, much more practical than any laptop.

This closed system may well be a game changer in computing.

 

Admittedly, the Lisa was a game changer in computing as was the Newton, but I wouldn't have bought either of them even if I had the money at the time, and I would be glad of my decision.

 

I wish flash worked on it, but similar to the way flash works if you have a flash-filter installed. When I browse the web, a gray box shows up where a flash plugin would be. I then click the gray box if I want to load the flash. This prevents me from having to see all the ridiculous flash advertisements, and it prevents any slowdowns because flash is such a piece of garbage software. But if I need flash, like on YouTube, I can just click it and it works fine, I can even add certain sites (ie, YouTube) to a whitelist so that their flash apps show up automatically.

It just occurred to me that the iPad is similar to what Google wanted to do with their Chromium OS. They are both tiny computers with operating systems that are useful for most people, except for power users.

I agree with Darren it's a great lounge computer. I wonder about the iWork suite of apps. I can't see myself doing any serious composing on it, unless I was on a trip or something.

About e-ink. Yeah, the Kindle is better to read on. But, you can't browse the web (you know what I mean) on the Kindle, you can't listen to your music, watch movies, or run 140,000 different apps on a Kindle. I wonder if the iBook application has an "invert" feature so you get a black screen with white or (haha) green text.

The lack of multitasking sucks. I can't believe they haven't addressed this. I love my XM Radio and Pandora apps. It'd be fantastic to be able to listen to them and browse the web, or write something, etc. Or to be able to browse the web and quickly flip back and forth to a document, if you're doing research or whatever.

And lack of a forward facing camera is puke.

But I'll probably get a 3G model. The no contract / activate whenever you want is just too damn convenient.

 

I agree. If you use those sites the iPad is not for you. However, Google and CNN have iPod apps that rival the web interface (I am sure Apple's strategy). Hulu and Netflix will likely get an iPhone OS app soon.

 

Hi brother! Nice to see in this thread.

 

<3

 

That's a great point that some primarily flash driven sites have or will have their own apps.

Hulu and Netflix applications would be absolutely fantastic. That'd be great to spend downtime catching up on a missed TV show or whatever else, or spend that frustrating couple of hours at an airport waiting on a plane sitting there watching some movie. (Netflix needs to get all their new releases into the dang netflix on demand though!)

For Hulu, they already have a Mac app. Seems like it'd be pretty easy to port to the iPad - just some UI tweaks, etc. I just hope if they start charging it isn't ridiculous.

 

On multitasking - some music-playing iPhone apps do this: They have a separate "tab" that loads a webbrowser. So a Pandora or an XM radio app could build in a webbrowser (the SDK makes it pretty easy.) At least that's something.

 

Multitasking is selective (by Apple) on the iPhone. For example, iTunes will keep playing music and continue to be controllable by headphone remote no matter what else you open. You can play video on iTunes, turn off the screen and continue playing just the audio. However, most third party apps will stop playing and quit when locking the screen or pressing the home button.

 

For sure I think the iPad is the best bang for the buck. I was really worried it was going to start at $999.

 

I read a quote from the netflix head guy this week indicating they have no plans to do a netfix app at the moment. They want to stay focused on what he called the bigger boxes (computers and tvs).

 

I've finally had a chance to really check out the information on the ipad this morning. I was looking into a kindle a few months back simply to address the amount of reading I have to do for my graduate program, but found that it isn't a convenient way to read pdf's which would be the way I would have had to transfer journal articles etc.
I was intrigued to hear mention of textbooks in the ibook library.

Absolutely. When you really do a time analysis of what you use a notebook for, most people will find that the ipad was designed to maximize what we really use it for. browsing and media. The one missing piece that surprised me was chat. I'm not really surprised they left out the camera. i think the cost added doesn't equal the time usage for most users.

+1000 (except for the way I earn my bucks. )

The fact that people can use it for media and it's a touch screen that they can just "resize" will attract the aging baby boomer population. I marvel and dread the creative capitalist genius behind apple.

It will come. The M.O of apple is to create "replaceable" technology. This coupled with our consumer competitive society enables them to not sell one device to each purchaser every 5-7 years but rather to sell 2 or 3. How many "outdated" ipods are out there? I'm sure they will be releasing a second "bigger and better... what you asked for America" model within 18 months, making all the first gens obsolete. Would not surprise me one bit if they hadn't planned it that way and were holding back some of the chat/cam features for that model.

The techno geek in me loves them,
while my anti-capitalist social worker side hates them.

 

Why I might get one:

Almost all my home computing is done on a 15" macbook pro on the couch or in bed. I've found that larger notebook to be a bit cumbersome, both at home and for travel, so I was already looking to get something smaller. I could then get rid of my really aging lamp style imac. The macbook air seems a tad underpowered and overpriced. The 13" macbook pro seems a tad heavy. With the Apple ipad case (lets you prop it up in various configurations) and maybe Apple's the tiny wireless keyboard in my bag, I'm good for most everything I might need or want to do at home or on the road.

First impressions from the bloggers are that this thing is fast and convenient, and the screen very good. Seems like a much better e-reader than the other options. I know the e-ink is supposed to be easy on the eyes, but the color, video and full internet capability win out for me.

I like the iphone interface and simplicity and don't miss flash at all when I'm using it. The app store has created a whole new universe of cheap, simple, focused, and easy to find software, that can now be extended to take advantage of the greater screen real estate. A whole new world of software possibilities opens up: awesome remote control of thermostats, lighting and other homelinked devices; awesome remote control of TV and home theatre; iphone like multi-touch manipulation of various software or software elements.

The tech exists to turn this into an active TV interface. We've already seen a Samsung remote with TV picture built in, and a baseball game interface that lets you pop up game and player statistics, etc. Marry the picture on the remote with what's playing on the TV, hover over an actress in a movie playing on the TV to get her name and other movies she's been in, for a sports or other live event, choose your own camera feed/angle, instead of the one being chosen by broadcaster's booth.

$15 for 250 megs per month, with no contract (turn it on and off at will) is reasonable. No more boingo service needed at airports, etc.

Why I might wait:

First year tech. Will inevitably be much improved in the 2nd or 3rd generation (front and back cameras anyone?). Not so easy to justify handing it down to other family members, like I did with my iphones. 3G is already moving to 4g (LTE or whatever). Not sure I need to pay an extra $130 to have the optional 3G, plus the extra $15 monthly service charge, since most use will probably be at home or near a wifi spot (unlike iphone). Might be some limited situations where a full computer would be needed.

Lack of multi-tasking. Too be fair, the rumors seem pretty strong that rev 4 of the OS, coming by this summer, will have some form of limited multi-tasking.

Annoying lack of at least one USB port.