Quick thoughts...are you going to buy an iPad?

Nope...won't be buying it since I already have an iPod Touch.

Was truly hoping for MBP updates...bummer.

Nope!

And I was looking forward to this announcement. And I didn't even mind if it was part of a closed ecosystem, or no camera. But the design of both the hardware and software is just so beneath Apple's level of competence that I just can't force myself to desire it.

And no, I do not desire to own it.

At least they got the pricing right. Perhaps that is part of the problem.

I think Apple expect developers to make this product great. Apple's own software is so underwhelming.

Nope. I'll get a Touch instead. Portable is more important to me than size.

Someone needs to write an OS X emulator to run on this thing.

You nailed it, this product is for non-geeks. One of my brothers would love and use one, he's computer illiterate. My niece has already said she might start saving.

Actually they do.

I can't fault anyone who wants one, but not me. I would rather have a real computer. What would stop Apple Engineers from making a 10 inch Mac Book Pro? Perhaps the iPad is Apple's reply to the netbook Hackintosh.

No way would I buy an Ipad. touchscreen notebooks have limited use, especially 10 inch ones.

I think it will increase sales of Itouch, as its more portable & pocketable

A touchscreen, which cant play cd's or use memory cards, isnt much use as a multi-purpose alternative to a notebook.

I would jump at a 10"mini mac laptop , with proper keyboard (netbook size) like the sony vaio TZ /Z range.

I bought a 13" macbook this year, my 1st apple product & I love the speed , way faster than windows, & great for editing videos/pics direct from my camera or sd card. Unfortunately its too heavy for me to carry around, so I use a sony vaio TZ which is slower but superlight (about 1.2kg), and I can copy cds of pics etc & give to friends, & I take it on holiday & for presentations, because all the ports are there & SD /usb/ external monitor connections. Unfortunately with the ipad, you'd need another pc to transfer files & special software. Its too much hassle. If you could edit pictures with it , like a graphic tablet, then that might have some use, but even then it has a limited size (overpriced) hardrive for doing that, which cant be increased. You'd have to load & delete video to plaY as the drive is small, & for business people thats too tedious. I'd also be worried about carrying a glass screen with screen not closed, even if its in wallet. I'm sure itd be more likely to break if dropped, than a notebook/netbook. Also how behind is it, not to me able to run mutiple apps? Even a basic netbook can do that

My nokia phone contract has expired & I'm considering the iphone or itouch as an additional internet gadjet or phone, just to get the iapps. I'm more inclined towards an itouch as its much cheaper, & internet on the O2 is to my surprise, much slower than the 3 (three) network. (I've tried O2 & 3 sims in my phone & my friends 3Gs iphones).

On the ipad, No camera is also a hassle & it would be really awkward to handle a screen thats flat on a surface & typing. If you hold it up , youd need 2 hands to keep it there, or youd have to lean it on a wall, window etc to view & type. It would be a pain bringing it out on a tube & watching it flat on your lap.

I'm not sure what the thinking was on the ipad, its illogical as flat laptops dont sell in mass ,well , & is mostly used as far as I can see by service engineers/ couriers etc , not everyday consumers. People dont want 10 inch phone screens, so why would they want this?

The small portable laptop market is strong. I can see lots of sales for this initially as a gimmick, for apple fans, but practically it has limited & awkward use. It'll probably do better than the palm pre but I don't think it will be as big as the iphone.

An itouch with camera on the other hand would do well.

I'm thinking of getting an itouch , & using my 3 wifi/internet & sticking with my vaio notebook

Consumers/Apple would want a fast mini-mac more. That would shake up the pc market. That would also dent the netbook, ultraslim laptop market, especially when people realise how much faster macs are

I was at lunch today and the waiter took our order...in his head. When asked if he needed to write it down, he said no. Then he proceeded to get the order all wrong.

I see the iPad as a viable tool for markets like restaurants (take the order...send order to kitchen), healthcare folks, etc. Maybe someone will design a bar code scanner for the dock connector (maybe someone has)...in that case, the iPad would make sense as a means of keeping inventory, etc.

But for a computer user, it falls woefully short. The iPad seems like the answer to a question that wasn't being asked.

Totally agree with you. Itouch type wifi/internet devices, would be great for service industries (not 10 inch), but I never remember thinking, If only I could take my stand off my LCD monitor so I could carry it on my lap on the tube & view downwards???? Otherwise, what would you lean it against. Its not a great angle to view & type on.

I can imagine, the amount of dropping off laps, incidents occuring on crowded trains, or when youre trying to drink a coffee & have this on your lap precariously, with nothing to balance it out properly.

& theres no stand to use it for presentations. Have you ever seen anyone, lower a laptop screen towards flat level in normal use, its not a desirable viewing angle. 90 degrees is much better.

Do you know what the question is? as all those things you gave as an example have had solutions available for years.

Not saying that I'm getting one, but the Apple apps like iWork and iCal are the only reason I'm somewhat interested in the iPad. Those look really slick to me.

I think I'll probably wait for rev b as that should bring a camera to it and hopefully some more ports. The other limitations, such as lack of multi-tasking, can and likely will be addressed with software updates.

Will buy the 16GB on launch day, then the top model when rev. 2 comes out.

I'm thinking I'll probably buy one... will have to play with one a bit when they are actually real.

It does exactly what I want... It's not a replacement for my computer... but a portable "companion device" that will cover my needs when I travel (3 days every week)... it'll cover my web-browsing and email better than the iPhone does... also better for watching movies on the flight... plus the iWork stuff for LIMITED productivity stuff... though for me it will be mostly an entertainment device.
It'll be interesting to see what external developers come up with... god knows the iPhone does tons of stuff we never envisioned prior to it's release.

Anyway, I guess I'm Apple's target market ... a device between my iPhone and iMac, but not a replacement for either one.

Nope, I think it's cool, but I already have a Macbook and an iPhone. The iPad lies in a gap inbetween that doesn't need filling for me.

That said, If Apple splashed out on about $3 worth of additional hardware, they would have me jumping at the bit for one.

Here's the deal: I think Apple missed a massive opportunity. They should have whacked IR & RF transmitters in the iPad, so you could use it as a universal remote.

Look at devices like the Logitech Harmony remotes. What are these things but $400 portable touch screens with an IR and RF transmitters? The expensive part is the screen, the processor, and the software development costs. The transmitters cost next to nothing.

With the iPad and iPhone OS, Apple has the portable touchscreen device, the great software, and the great SDK. All they had to do was include two cheap transmitters.

Heck they even have a pre-existing app for controlling external media devices: iRemote. They could have added Universal remote functionality on top of it. The new version of iRemote could be equipped with configurable generic device profiles. and you could download pre-configured vendor supplied profiles with in-App purchases. (which totally bypasses the annoying thing about universal remotes: setting them up.)

This could have been "the killer app" of the iPad. Who would buy a $400 touchscreen remote when a $500 iPad could do the same job and so much more. They could have completely killed the universal remote market.

I'm new to AppleInsider. At this stage the iPad would be quite useful to me but two considerations immediately came to mind and I'd be interested to hear your response.
I have an iPhone and I love it. I've just discovered it's possible to tether it to a computer for use as a modem and I was thinking the iPad should be able to take advantage of this feature.
My iPhone is always with me but due to size, an iPad cannot. Why must I have to be paying for an extra/separate data service when I already have one on my phone? So my first thought was the iPad should be able to tether to my iPhone.
Secondly, I think the ability to attach a removable USB Wireless modem would be an attractive feature.

No. I just don't have a use for it yet.

Definitely getting this. I see a lot of potential in the device and how it works, and should fill out a fair few roles that annoy me with my normal macbook pro.

Looking forward to it

I'll buy one for the same reason . . . my wife told me to order one for her as soon as they were available.

I'm thinking about doing that as well, but part of me hates only having 16 GB (I have about 15 GB of music)

edit: my iPod is a 20gb white iPod photo and my laptop is a 2003 iBook, so I don't have other new apple products, which might be a reason why I'm comfortable getting one of these.

I will be replacing my MacBook with an iPad. This is a 'kitchen/ livingroom' device that is used for music, general internet news consumption and resolving disagreements. The keyboard dock is perfect. Hopefully the iTunes App for iPad will get remote library and/or speaker capabilities.

I am, for web browsing, home email, light portable computing and some games. The 16GB version on launch day.

There already at least two companies that will turn your iPod Touch/iPhone into a remote control. There's really no need for Apple to attempt to extinguish opportunties best suited for 3rd parties. Apple's delivered hardware device compatibility with the 30 pin dock connecter which is across millions of products running the same OS. We'll see nifty stuff like what you ask for coming from people specialized in delivering such accessories in time.


The Tethering question needs to be answered by AT&T soon. They've already promised some action here ..but we're still waiting.


I'm in as well. I really don't like reading PDF and other documents on a sub 4" screen. It's doable ..but not something my aging eyes really like. I'm loving 1.5 lbs and a nice bright screen. Funny thing is some state the iPad isn't a good deal but it's the same price as the original iPod.

and with 9 years of inflation on top of that. The same people were saying the iPod Touch was too small to watch TV on. People just complain.

Thanks for this:
So are you saying the iPad hardware is already built to enable it to be tethered to an iPhone, using the iPhone as a modem?

I would if had the extra money but i don't right now. I posted this in another thread but I think there are two mindsets at work here. First, Microsoft/netbooks with the idea that you can scale back the desktop/laptop form factor and still be productive and still use all the same software and operating systems. The second one is Apple/iPad/iPhone all touch based and running a modified system software optimized for mobile computing (as Apple sees it). I think for the most part Apple's concept for the iPhone (all touch based) has work, but people are not so sure about the iPad.

I'll demand my employer pick up a couple. I have a functional MacBook Pro for the big apps, I can use these for sound and video duties, and for presentations. They'll fit into what I need far better than a laptop, and I'm very interested to see what developers will do with the platform.

I will get a rev 2 for my parents. I really want a front facing camera so they can do video conferencing via Skype or iChat.

I don't think anybody knows. Apple added tethering to the iPhone just last year and AT&T has yet to enable it here in the US. So it wasn't discussed during the presentation. SJ did say that they were going to start negotiating 3G plans for the rest of the world the day after the presentation. So we may find out when these plans are announced.

I am ABSOLUTELY getting one to replace my old iBook G3 as a portable base...90% of my uses would be covered by what the iPad offers, and iWork was the icing on the cake...

I think Apple has found the perfect balance between smartphones (and their tiny screens) and laptops (with bigger screens but too much power)...this thing is gonna sell like hot cakes, AGAIN.

Which one? Probably the 64Gb WiFi, although the 3G model has the great advantage of incorporating GPS (Assisted GPS, which is as good as normal GPS, mind ya) as well...oh boy.

Staff at my local Apple shop expect the Australian iPad release will be very close to the US. Local iPad pricing hasn't been announced yet, also Wireless Broadband in Australia is quite expensive compared to the US and due to this I'll opt for the Wi-Fi only version, probably the 16GB version.

Some people are disappointed that the iPAD does not have more functions. Or a camera.
I think Apple made a smart distinction here.

A laptop allows you to CREATE.
The iPAD allows you to enjoy EXISTING MEDIA and not just at home but also on the go. So you get on a plane, you can have your New York times, business week and professional journals, all on one pleasant sized device. Some people are saying "I have a cell phone, why would I carry something else?" They don't get it. They already ARE carrying something else. The NEWSPAPER! The iPAD will replace the newspaper and in addition you will have ALL your media (journals you subscribe to as well as music and movies), all on one electronic device with a gorgeous screen. With 10 hour battery life you can get on a plane, read all your papers/journals and watch three movies and arrive in Hawaii and have a bit of battery power left.

Remember the Enterprise on Star Trek? Other than the episode with the lawyer, you NEVER saw a book. They were all electronic!

Anyone in 1st or 2nd year of college today will get their first apt. in 3 years and instead of buying bookshelves to house their books and DVD's they will all be on their iPAD.

I believe this device is a game changer. And Amazon has BULLIED the publishers to lower prices for ebooks to $9.99. Apple told publishers we think between $12.99 - $14.99 is a fair price, PLUS there is a formula that takes into account the cost of the hard cover. So if a publisher releases a hard cover book for $100 the e-book price will reflect that and be substantially more than $14.99.

Did you see what Amazon did to Macmillan this week?
They stopped selling Macmillan's e-books bec. Macmillan is fighting them on the $9.99 price pressure. That's okay. Macmillan is one of the largest publishers in the world, and they have signed a deal with Apple for the iPAD. I predict the kindle is going to die a fast death.

Where else is this going? Within ten years no child in a private or even a reasonably well funded public school will carry a 15 pound knapsack loaded with books. ALL their books will be on the iPAD.

The iPAD will do for electronic media what Gutenbergs printing press did for books.

And lets remember, that if you WANT to create on the iPAD Apple has facilitated that. Apples iWORK (word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program) will sell for $10 each.

The iPAD is an absolute game changer.

Absolutely!

I have a 2006 MacBook Pro that I used a ton in school, but now that I'm out, it's basically a Mac mini. It sits closed and tethered to a 22" Samsung all day with the battery out, and disconnecting/reconnecting it is a big chore. When it ultimately runs out of gas, it will be replaced by a Mac mini. I'm hoping for 2-3 more years out of it, at least.

I've been wanting a netbook that I can keep in the living room to avoid the whole hassle of disconnecting the MBP. Apple's got the best solution for me. Now I can lay back on the couch, watch TV, and browse the web...just as God intended.

It would be nice to have the ability to run IRC in the background without going through all of the Colloquy push junk, but it's a small price to pay to get out of the chair I work from 12 hours a day.

I will definitely get the 2nd gen version. No way am I going to buy the current one.

I wouldn't underestimate the iPad's potential as a creative platform, either. It's not going to challenge a Mac Pro any time soon, but there's no particular reason it couldn't be an 80% solution. It's no accident that Omni Group are porting all their apps over. In some ways, the direct interaction of the touch platform will be better.

Personally, I like it as a replacement for my aging PowerBook. I'm going to wait until I see some software and accessories appear that will allow it to take over the PowerBook's role completely. I assume they will appear, but there's no pressing reason for me to buy the iPad until they do.

I should point one thing out as far as multitasking goes: The way OS X manages memory, it keeps as much of an application in memory as it can even after you quit the application. Memory pages are swapped out with what amounts to a "least recently used" approach. This is why restarting an app is so much faster than starting it for the first time after a reboot. If you're switching between two or three applications on the iPad, the most common case is that the majority of each application (including its data) is going to be lingering around in RAM anyway, so the difference between relaunching them and switching between them will be fairly academic (again, in the common case, not in every case). Even if an application does get swapped out, it's getting swapped to solid-state memory instead of a hard disk, so reading it back into memory should be significantly faster. I'm not saying there's no difference, only that the difference is minimized by the way OS X manages memory.

The main obstacle to achieving something-like-multitasking is the problem of sharing data across applications. I'm not convinced that a Finder is the best solution to that. I'm interested to see what Apple eventually comes up with, but an expansion of the "Share" option seems obvious.

I was going to buy an Ipad after giving my nephew my old laptop. After seeing it, I will now buy the Alienware mx11. My first pc since 1994.

So many people are comparing this to a laptop or a netbook. It wasn't meant to be that type of device. It fits more of a "niche" that wasn't there - a whole new category. I think it's perfect for what me and my wife need -- a device to use on the couch or in bed while watching tv. I'll buy one on launch day, then buy the next model that has video chat too!

I just need something to surf the web from my couch, laptop not needed, ipad could have done the job, but no flash, so it can't do the job, so the mx11 seems like the next best thing.....