Now that is just propaganda. The good ones do pretty much any "single thing" plenty well, including playing flash videos. They can even do several things at once.
His suggestion is just silly.
Ah. He's learning from the best, but the Force is still not strong with him
(and you must apply significant force to distort reality field successfully)
This is the same restriction more or less that you will have on any other type of computer. It's restricted to the storage capacity it's got unless it's connected to something else. The objection seems to be in actuality the lack of a conventional file system. This is a difference, which you are free to dislike, but it's not a dependency. If 64 GB isn't enough storage for your needs, I suppose you won't be buying an iPad, but my sense is that 16 GB is in fact enough for most people, for the uses they are likely to have for the iPad. (FWIW, the photo adaptor kit also serves as access to external storage on SD cards for some purposes.)
All this being said, I don't think at this point that Apple conceives of many iPad owners not owning any other computer, as witnessed by the fact that one is used to initialize it. The point I am making is that calling it a dependent device is an exaggeration of the actual situation. Beyond this exception, the iPad is no more dependent than a conventional PC.
ok, maybe you're not getting my point. I'm trying to get across to you that the iPad SHOULD NOT BE, AT ALL, EVER BE dependent on another device for anything. It really has nothing to do with storage, except to point out that if it wasn't dependent on a computer, you could provide some kind of alternate storage, independent of a computer.
The LAST thing Apple will allow is the touch to die on the vine. A pocket-sized music player that also runs Apps is one thing only - the touch. Look for it to gain features that differentiate it from the iPad.
Ditto. Love my Touch for music in my left breast pocket. iPhone for calls & Mail in my right breast pocket. iPad for big stuff and watching V at home or in my backpack. I don't perceive the overlap as much as some do. I plan to buy the next iPod Touch in September as well as the new iPhone next month. And I have both 32 GB 2nd gen and 64 GB 3rd gen Touches. I think you could categorize me as an Apple touch screen whore.
I love touch so much that I can't have enough of them around me. I wrote this post on my new 64 GB GPS iPad. Arrived yesterday from MacConnection I ordered April 3.
I'm hooked on the plethora of Apps that help you do so many different things plus entertainment. I'm a charter Mac user since February 1984 and just past 63 years young. For me this is the future I will only be alive long enough to experience the beginning. You younger kids may not realize how significant this paradigm shift is for the future of computing communications. But I see it and wish I could be there with you when you get to be my age and instead of looking back at slide rules and typewriters you look back at this time when Apple gave the world a very special gift that ranks among the all time greatest milestones in the history of mankind's communication technologies - touchscreen phones, game & music players, iPads, and next month the realization of the science fiction of the Dick Tracy Video Watch in the next iPhone HD with OS 4.0.
We are so blessed to live in this time. In the face of massive political and economic upheaval, historians will also note this was the era when Touch was born and quickly rose to dominance.
At a recent 6 day trip to the UK I did not take my 4 year old MBP15 (due to bulk/weight) as I had the iPhone to show pictures to friends and family. I had an extra 7 day holiday thanks to the volcano ash, and then I missed my computer.
I am considering an iPad (with iWork) as a replacement for my laptop for my travel needs but if I take this road, I fully intend to get a 27" iMac as well. I am not happy with the syncing of iWork from what I have heard, and I think I would like a camera (not that I use my MBP one much, but I do). And is it that difficult, technically to add USB/SD card slots to the iPad itself?
Not sure what the thinking is to not let iWork for iPad become (mostly) compatible with the OS X version, so perhaps this will come with time. My options include MBP13 (still too heavy?) or MBAir (too weak?). Any chance, your Steveness, or your Iveness, of a MacBook Feather? You know, a slightly larger Air, without a custom (read weak) processor, and Ethernet and 2x USB on board?
Or a MBP13 with GPU? And, matte screen options, please, please? I was just thinking, if the MBP13 is the most popular Mac, how come it comes with the least options? I have difficulty accepting the cannibalisation arguments, as we are being asked to choose the lesser of various evils rather than something that fits our needs exactly. We can't take the wish list too far, though, as we end up with chaos...
The article is about iPads cannibalizing netbook sales, and for people considering one or the other, all of the points I made are 100% valid. That's why I don't think iPads will cannibalize a significant quantity of netbooks.
Definitely iPod touches and/or iPhones, though.
Think as you will.
It still won't impact on the millions of iPads that will be sold this year.
Hell, they're not even available to the REST of the world!
33.3 million sold in the USA in 2009? How is that a "small fraction"? Sorry, but to me, 1 in 10 americans owning one makes it a mainstream product...
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The iPad can use a keyboard through USB or bluetooth.
The iPad does NOT have a USB port.
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Now you are making disclaimers. Skype is overwhelming used to make phone calls, very little video communication
.
Show me some numbers, man. Everybody I know that uses Skype and has a webcam uses the friggin webcam and does video chats. If you would stay on topic, I was mentioning a few reasons why the iPad doesn't "do everything a netbook can only better", as was stated in the original article.
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Exactly what proprietary cables are you talking about? The iPad uses USB, mini stereo, WiFi, and bluetooth. All standard networking protocols.
Sorry, pal. Still no USB on the iPad. It has a proprietary "docking cable" so you can plug it into your computer at home, or into the wall. How will you connect it to a printer? How will you connect it to an external hard drive?
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You are just making up problems.
The only one making things up is you.
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MP3 is by far the most widely used music codec. To use FLAC you are just needlessly making life more difficult than it has to be.
Very funny.
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Why would someone need to rip a DVD into MKV?
Again, funny.
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Flash has not caused the iPhone any problems. Content distributors simply bypass it and deliver H.264. There is no reason it has to be wrapped in Flash.
There are plenty of websites you can't properly see on the iPhone due to flash being broken. That won't change for at least several years, unless apple accepts Flash 10.1 when it arrives...
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Yes the iPad will outsell netbooks. The iPad is not trying to replace anything for content creation, my point is that there are lots of apps for that use.
Do you mean this in the same way you meant Apple computers are outselling PCs?
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On an 11" screen? What's the point?
Ever tried cmb+TAB? (Alt-Tab in windows) Multitasking IS a feature that helps productivity, even with limited screen real estate.
Anyways, nice try with the imaginary facts. You're trying to pull the dialogue way off topic to get to some sort of "correct zone", but you're really just making a lot of silly claims, so I'll just stop responding to you now. You're more than welcome to continue by writing that the iPad, in addition to USB has Firewire, a built-in Bluray player, a 15" screen, and that not only does Apple outsell PCs, but that every american will own 2 iPads by the end of June. Thanks. Have fun with the furry elephants.
33.3 million sold in the USA in 2009? How is that a "small fraction"? Sorry, but to me, 1 in 10 americans owning one makes it a mainstream product...
Teno may have been wrong in claiming that netbooks are a niche market, but trying to correct him by using incorrect figures doesn't really do you any favours.
Netbooks are usually purchased for light word processing, emails, and Internet on the go. That is why they're bought, in addition to their low cost. Netbooks have never been about being a full computer, it's been about cheap and quick access to the Internet and some light popular computer functions. The iPad definitely is better than a netbook then. You have to remember, they said netbook, not notebook. Huge difference.
All that said, it still replaces my notebook.
But a Netbook will do anything a 5 year old desktop can do. The CPU is equvalent to a slow Pentium 4, and they have 1 or 2 gigs of RAM.
An iPad will not do half of what a real computer will do. Even for surfing the web, a Netbook will display/play Flash sites, while the iPad will not.
For light word processing, you can use Word on a Netbook, while no version is available for the iPad. And a keyboard is really nice while typing.
Your third example is email - if you have Word, you likely have Outlook too. But not on an iPad.
Look - the iPad is a great little device. But it is NOT a Netbook. A Netbook is a real computer.
I know of many people who have a netbook strictly for:
* email from family
* Facebook
* web surfing
* sync their iPod
* some YouTube videos.
That's all they need their netbook to do. For them the iPad is fine as a netbook replacement, and they plan to get one when available here.
Anybody who buys an iPad for Facebook will be very disappointed to find that lots of the content is unavailable on the iPad, like Farmville.
And they will not be able to sync their iPod either. Even if they could, a netbook has 160 or 250 gigs of storage, while the iPad has only a tiny amount of storage - generally not big enough for mass storage of music and video collections.
You want to believe that 16gb is enough, who is it enough for? Not me,
I just did some backups today.
Recent downloads, unsorted, all types: 80 Gigs
Movies: 60 Gigs
Music: 22 gigs
Documents of various types: 70 Gigs.
Email (including attachments): 38 Gigs
Pictures: 25 Gigs
I did that in order to clear out the old 320 Gig HD in preparation for a new one. These are just the stuff on the computer itself - the 1T backup drive already had substantial amounts of data on it.
So the computer is limited, yes. But to say that it is limited in the manner that the iPad is limited is to ignore a difference of sufficient magnitude that the comparison is meaningless.
It is like saying that both a one-room shack and a magnificent mansion are both limited in floor space. Both the statement about the shack and the statement about the iPad are similar - they are both true and both meaningless.
ok, maybe you're not getting my point. I'm trying to get across to you that the iPad SHOULD NOT BE, AT ALL, EVER BE dependent on another device for anything. It really has nothing to do with storage, except to point out that if it wasn't dependent on a computer, you could provide some kind of alternate storage, independent of a computer.
I get your point, and I get that it's an exaggeration of the actual situation. With the already stated exceptions, which I have acknowledged, a computer is just as "dependent" on other devices as an iPad. You are expecting the iPad to be able to do more things independently than your PC can do independently, which strikes me as an unreasonable expectation.
I can't see canon, HP, Brother, Epson... doing printer and other drivers for iPad any time soon, but that would be cool.
Why not? IPhone OS is based on Mac OS X, so it may not be a huge problem. In any event, iPads are selling like hotcakes - I can see 'iPad ready' being a big selling point.
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Originally Posted by antkm1
ok, maybe you're not getting my point. I'm trying to get across to you that the iPad SHOULD NOT BE, AT ALL, EVER BE dependent on another device for anything.
Why? That sounds like the philosophical 'software should be free' argument. It's a pure faith-based argument with no bearing on reality. There's absolutely no rational reason why 'connect to computer to sync' is bad while 'do not connect to computer to sync' is good.
Furthermore, for some people, there IS no need to connect to a computer. Ever. They can have it activated before they leave the store and then it will work for many people's needs without syncing. Not everyone needs to upgrade their OS every time a new version comes out.
You are assuming that just because YOU want something that it must be essential. It's not.
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Originally Posted by Superbass
Everybody I know that uses Skype and has a webcam uses the friggin webcam and does video chats.
Maybe you should avoid thinking that the whole world is like you and your friends. Every one of the employees in my company who travel use Skype - and not a single one uses video. None of our customers use video on Skype (we do a lot of international business, so Skype is one of our main means of communication).
Then there's the issue of where you want Apple to put the camera. Landscape or Portrait? And how you expect a video picture of a handheld device to remain stable and properly oriented without becoming a nostril-cam.
But, if you really insist on using vide with the iPad, someone announced a camera that will use the 30 pin connector. I just don't see why I should pay for it just because 0.02% of geeks want it.
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Originally Posted by Superbass
There are plenty of websites you can't properly see on the iPhone due to flash being broken. That won't change for at least several years, unless apple accepts Flash 10.1 when it arrives....
No doubt. 15 years ago, there were still some companies that provided their software on floppies. Change is uncomfortable, but when it's the right thing to do, you do it. It has been thoroughly demonstrated why Flash on the iPhone is a bad idea. Of course, that's hypothetical because ADOBE NEVER RELEASED FLASH FOR THE IPHONE. Don't believe me? Then where is the full version of Flash for jailbroken phones? Or the full version of Flash for Symbian? Or WebOS? Or Windows Mobile? Or even Android? (Yes, I'm aware that after years of promises, they're saying that the Android version will be out 'real soon now', but even that version reqiures much more CPU power than the iPhone will provide). So if you want to whine about lack of Flash, blame Adobe for never creating a full mobile version capable of running on the iPhone.
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Originally Posted by Stevie
An iPad will not do half of what a real computer will do. Even for surfing the web, a Netbook will display/play Flash sites, while the iPad will not.
You're confusing check lists with usefulness. If you buy every product by going through some check list and looking only at features, you're right. Fortunately, not everyone works that way. Lots of people look at what they need and what they're hoping to accomplish - and then see if a product meets their needs.
For a lot of people, the iPad meets their needs quite well. I personally don't miss Flash. There are only a few sites that I would ever use that require it and that number is dropping fast. Fortunately, even if I absolutely MUST VISIT a Flash site while traveling, I fire up LogMeIn to access my home computer and visit the Flash site. So why cripple the iPad by adding Flash when it's not necessary?
Furthermore, you are falling into the trap of believing that the iPad is the only computer in a household. While that might be true for some people, there are a lot more who are buying an iPad as a second (or third or fourth or fifth) computer. Syncing isn't a problem. Even its 'limitations' aren't a problem because they have another computer to use. The iPad is for light content consumption - and it works very, very well for that.
The fact that a Ferrari won't easily haul 6 kids doesn't mean that it's not a good car.
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Originally Posted by WilliamG
If what you say is true, then the iPad "needs" to support Flash.
Based on what? Your arbitrary view that Flash is essential? So far, there are 85 million customers who disagree with you. Why should anyone believe that you know what I need better than I do?
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Originally Posted by Smiles77
The one mistakeI think you're making here is that Apple is comparing the iPad to a net book, not a notebook.
Not really. Apple said it's neither a netbook nor a notebook. It's a different device. The rest of your post was accurate-though. The mistake being made is that the iPad haters are apparently refusing to understand that different people have different needs. If even 1% of computer users could use the iPad instead of their computer, that's tens of millions of users. No one ever said that the iPad was right for everyone.
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Originally Posted by ltcompuser
Sure it is, for some people.
Reason: For SOME people even a netbook provides more than they need. I know of many people who have a netbook strictly for:
* email from family
* Facebook
* web surfing
* sync their iPod
* some YouTube videos.
That's all they need their netbook to do. For them the iPad is fine as a netbook replacement, and they plan to get one when available here..
Exactly. SOME PEOPLE will find the iPad suitable. Some will not.
Anybody who buys an iPad for Facebook will be very disappointed to find that lots of the content is unavailable on the iPad, like Farmville.
And they will not be able to sync their iPod either. Even if they could, a netbook has 160 or 250 gigs of storage, while the iPad has only a tiny amount of storage - generally not big enough for mass storage of music and video collections.
Anybody? Really?
There's far more to Facebook than just Farmville. No one I know plays it. I have ClicktoFlash installed and I've never used Flash yet on Facebook.
Tiny amount of storage - I guess that's why no buys the iPad Nano. It may seem hard to believe, but not everyone has a huge media collection.
You're assuming that your usage for computers is the norm. I doubt that many who hang out on this board, would have "normal" computer usage needs.
Never underestimate how little some people actually use their computers.
It's amazing how many get their in panties in a wad because the iPad because it doesn't do everything a "real" computer would do. So what. Digital point and shoot cameras don't do everything a D-SLR does. Yet many want a point and shoot instead of a D-SLR. Some may even get buy on the camera in their phone, while others will have all 3 types and use them at different times for different tasks. Is any of these the right way?
Netbooks were selling on average 15,000,000 units a year from introduction in 2008 until now. Keeping in mind slower start, current numbers are much higher; Asus alone was expecting to sell 10 million Eee?s in 2009, from global sales numbers of 20-30 million for that year.
I would say price is important. Not to everyone, of course. But still.
You have to look at the full context, roughly 310 million PC's sell worldwide annually. Netbooks are about 8% to 10% of total sales and growth is already beginning to slow.
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Netbooks already are mainstream.
Dell and HP have abandoned the netbook market. The two largest computer makers in the world don't seem to believe in its future prospects.
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I was wondering about this one. Closest match I can think about would be: you can't go with iPad to your mate, plug it to his home lan and copy last party photos from his HDD. And if your printer dies (and you need to print something), you can't go to your mate with iPad, plug his printer's USB cable to your iPad and print your documents. Etc.
True you would have to use wireless networking for printing. But WiFi enabled printers are more and more common now days.
Depending on how important it is for you. You can use pastebot to transfer copy/paste files from iPad to computer.
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Flash is very commonly used one at present \
Yes but we clearly see what direction that's headed in. Every major video media distributor is transitioning to providing pure H.264, there is little reason they have to use the Flash wrapper.
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Last one I tried, SketchBookX, was interesting but ultimately useless for any serious work. Some applications just can't be done right with finger-touch input. Some tasks need mouse or stylus.
That can depend on what you are doing. My point is that these tools are available.
So now you're saying Apple is outselling PCs? What the hell are you smoking, pal?
In growth percentages, yes they are.
Quote:
33.3 million sold in the USA in 2009? How is that a "small fraction"? Sorry, but to me, 1 in 10 americans owning one makes it a mainstream product...
That's worldwide an is a drop in the bucket to total PC sales worldwide. Netbook growth is going down.
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The iPad does NOT have a USB port.
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Show me some numbers, man. Everybody I know that uses Skype and has a webcam uses the friggin webcam and does video chats. If you would stay on topic, I was mentioning a few reasons why the iPad doesn't "do everything a netbook can only better", as was stated in the original article.
Everybody you know makes up the majority of Skype users? If you want to believe most of the 33 billion Skype calls made last year were video chat you are free to.
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Sorry, pal. Still no USB on the iPad. It has a proprietary "docking cable" so you can plug it into your computer at home, or into the wall. How will you connect it to a printer? How will you connect it to an external hard drive?
You still haven't identified these proprietary iPad cables.
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There are plenty of websites you can't properly see on the iPhone due to flash being broken. That won't change for at least several years, unless apple accepts Flash 10.1 when it arrives...
Yeah porn...... What major media website can you name that doesn't already or hasn't planned to provide H.264 video without Flash?
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Ever tried cmb+TAB? (Alt-Tab in windows) Multitasking IS a feature that helps productivity, even with limited screen real estate.
Don't use Windows. I use expose on my 15" MBP. We already know multitasking is coming to the iPad. So there isn't much of a point to continue to complain about it.
Comments
Now that is just propaganda. The good ones do pretty much any "single thing" plenty well, including playing flash videos. They can even do several things at once.
His suggestion is just silly.
Ah. He's learning from the best, but the Force is still not strong with him
(and you must apply significant force to distort reality field successfully)
This is the same restriction more or less that you will have on any other type of computer. It's restricted to the storage capacity it's got unless it's connected to something else. The objection seems to be in actuality the lack of a conventional file system. This is a difference, which you are free to dislike, but it's not a dependency. If 64 GB isn't enough storage for your needs, I suppose you won't be buying an iPad, but my sense is that 16 GB is in fact enough for most people, for the uses they are likely to have for the iPad. (FWIW, the photo adaptor kit also serves as access to external storage on SD cards for some purposes.)
All this being said, I don't think at this point that Apple conceives of many iPad owners not owning any other computer, as witnessed by the fact that one is used to initialize it. The point I am making is that calling it a dependent device is an exaggeration of the actual situation. Beyond this exception, the iPad is no more dependent than a conventional PC.
ok, maybe you're not getting my point. I'm trying to get across to you that the iPad SHOULD NOT BE, AT ALL, EVER BE dependent on another device for anything. It really has nothing to do with storage, except to point out that if it wasn't dependent on a computer, you could provide some kind of alternate storage, independent of a computer.
The LAST thing Apple will allow is the touch to die on the vine. A pocket-sized music player that also runs Apps is one thing only - the touch. Look for it to gain features that differentiate it from the iPad.
Ditto. Love my Touch for music in my left breast pocket. iPhone for calls & Mail in my right breast pocket. iPad for big stuff and watching V at home or in my backpack. I don't perceive the overlap as much as some do. I plan to buy the next iPod Touch in September as well as the new iPhone next month. And I have both 32 GB 2nd gen and 64 GB 3rd gen Touches. I think you could categorize me as an Apple touch screen whore.
I love touch so much that I can't have enough of them around me. I wrote this post on my new 64 GB GPS iPad. Arrived yesterday from MacConnection I ordered April 3.
I'm hooked on the plethora of Apps that help you do so many different things plus entertainment. I'm a charter Mac user since February 1984 and just past 63 years young. For me this is the future I will only be alive long enough to experience the beginning. You younger kids may not realize how significant this paradigm shift is for the future of computing communications. But I see it and wish I could be there with you when you get to be my age and instead of looking back at slide rules and typewriters you look back at this time when Apple gave the world a very special gift that ranks among the all time greatest milestones in the history of mankind's communication technologies - touchscreen phones, game & music players, iPads, and next month the realization of the science fiction of the Dick Tracy Video Watch in the next iPhone HD with OS 4.0.
We are so blessed to live in this time. In the face of massive political and economic upheaval, historians will also note this was the era when Touch was born and quickly rose to dominance.
I am considering an iPad (with iWork) as a replacement for my laptop for my travel needs but if I take this road, I fully intend to get a 27" iMac as well. I am not happy with the syncing of iWork from what I have heard, and I think I would like a camera (not that I use my MBP one much, but I do). And is it that difficult, technically to add USB/SD card slots to the iPad itself?
Not sure what the thinking is to not let iWork for iPad become (mostly) compatible with the OS X version, so perhaps this will come with time. My options include MBP13 (still too heavy?) or MBAir (too weak?). Any chance, your Steveness, or your Iveness, of a MacBook Feather? You know, a slightly larger Air, without a custom (read weak) processor, and Ethernet and 2x USB on board?
Or a MBP13 with GPU? And, matte screen options, please, please? I was just thinking, if the MBP13 is the most popular Mac, how come it comes with the least options? I have difficulty accepting the cannibalisation arguments, as we are being asked to choose the lesser of various evils rather than something that fits our needs exactly. We can't take the wish list too far, though, as we end up with chaos...
The article is about iPads cannibalizing netbook sales, and for people considering one or the other, all of the points I made are 100% valid. That's why I don't think iPads will cannibalize a significant quantity of netbooks.
Definitely iPod touches and/or iPhones, though.
Think as you will.
It still won't impact on the millions of iPads that will be sold this year.
Hell, they're not even available to the REST of the world!
That's not a good example. A better one would be how Apple is outselling the general PC market with more expensive computers.
So now you're saying Apple is outselling PCs? What the hell are you smoking, pal?
Netbooks are an extremely small fraction of over all computer sales, their numbers don't rival any other category.
http://www.internetnews.com/stats/ar...ff-in-2010.htm
33.3 million sold in the USA in 2009? How is that a "small fraction"? Sorry, but to me, 1 in 10 americans owning one makes it a mainstream product...
The iPad can use a keyboard through USB or bluetooth.
The iPad does NOT have a USB port.
Now you are making disclaimers. Skype is overwhelming used to make phone calls, very little video communication
.
Show me some numbers, man. Everybody I know that uses Skype and has a webcam uses the friggin webcam and does video chats. If you would stay on topic, I was mentioning a few reasons why the iPad doesn't "do everything a netbook can only better", as was stated in the original article.
Exactly what proprietary cables are you talking about? The iPad uses USB, mini stereo, WiFi, and bluetooth. All standard networking protocols.
Sorry, pal. Still no USB on the iPad. It has a proprietary "docking cable" so you can plug it into your computer at home, or into the wall. How will you connect it to a printer? How will you connect it to an external hard drive?
You are just making up problems.
The only one making things up is you.
MP3 is by far the most widely used music codec. To use FLAC you are just needlessly making life more difficult than it has to be.
Very funny.
Why would someone need to rip a DVD into MKV?
Again, funny.
Flash has not caused the iPhone any problems. Content distributors simply bypass it and deliver H.264. There is no reason it has to be wrapped in Flash.
There are plenty of websites you can't properly see on the iPhone due to flash being broken. That won't change for at least several years, unless apple accepts Flash 10.1 when it arrives...
Yes the iPad will outsell netbooks. The iPad is not trying to replace anything for content creation, my point is that there are lots of apps for that use.
Do you mean this in the same way you meant Apple computers are outselling PCs?
On an 11" screen? What's the point?
Ever tried cmb+TAB? (Alt-Tab in windows) Multitasking IS a feature that helps productivity, even with limited screen real estate.
Anyways, nice try with the imaginary facts. You're trying to pull the dialogue way off topic to get to some sort of "correct zone", but you're really just making a lot of silly claims, so I'll just stop responding to you now. You're more than welcome to continue by writing that the iPad, in addition to USB has Firewire, a built-in Bluray player, a 15" screen, and that not only does Apple outsell PCs, but that every american will own 2 iPads by the end of June. Thanks. Have fun with the furry elephants.
http://www.internetnews.com/stats/ar...ff-in-2010.htm
33.3 million sold in the USA in 2009? How is that a "small fraction"? Sorry, but to me, 1 in 10 americans owning one makes it a mainstream product...
Teno may have been wrong in claiming that netbooks are a niche market, but trying to correct him by using incorrect figures doesn't really do you any favours.
The 33 million figure is worldwide, not US only.
Netbooks are an extremely small fraction of over all computer sales, their numbers don't rival any other category.
What are the numbers? I thought they were a hot category.
Or did you just make that up?
When I gave up smoking, I can't stand being anywhere near some one smoking.
When I gave up PC, I can't stand being anywhere near one.
I'm glad that I am not anywhere near you. What other people do should be of no concern to you. MYOB.
Netbooks are usually purchased for light word processing, emails, and Internet on the go. That is why they're bought, in addition to their low cost. Netbooks have never been about being a full computer, it's been about cheap and quick access to the Internet and some light popular computer functions. The iPad definitely is better than a netbook then. You have to remember, they said netbook, not notebook. Huge difference.
All that said, it still replaces my notebook.
But a Netbook will do anything a 5 year old desktop can do. The CPU is equvalent to a slow Pentium 4, and they have 1 or 2 gigs of RAM.
An iPad will not do half of what a real computer will do. Even for surfing the web, a Netbook will display/play Flash sites, while the iPad will not.
For light word processing, you can use Word on a Netbook, while no version is available for the iPad. And a keyboard is really nice while typing.
Your third example is email - if you have Word, you likely have Outlook too. But not on an iPad.
Look - the iPad is a great little device. But it is NOT a Netbook. A Netbook is a real computer.
I know of many people who have a netbook strictly for:
* email from family
* Facebook
* web surfing
* sync their iPod
* some YouTube videos.
That's all they need their netbook to do. For them the iPad is fine as a netbook replacement, and they plan to get one when available here.
Anybody who buys an iPad for Facebook will be very disappointed to find that lots of the content is unavailable on the iPad, like Farmville.
And they will not be able to sync their iPod either. Even if they could, a netbook has 160 or 250 gigs of storage, while the iPad has only a tiny amount of storage - generally not big enough for mass storage of music and video collections.
DrMIllmoss:
You want to believe that 16gb is enough, who is it enough for? Not me,
I just did some backups today.
Recent downloads, unsorted, all types: 80 Gigs
Movies: 60 Gigs
Music: 22 gigs
Documents of various types: 70 Gigs.
Email (including attachments): 38 Gigs
Pictures: 25 Gigs
I did that in order to clear out the old 320 Gig HD in preparation for a new one. These are just the stuff on the computer itself - the 1T backup drive already had substantial amounts of data on it.
So the computer is limited, yes. But to say that it is limited in the manner that the iPad is limited is to ignore a difference of sufficient magnitude that the comparison is meaningless.
It is like saying that both a one-room shack and a magnificent mansion are both limited in floor space. Both the statement about the shack and the statement about the iPad are similar - they are both true and both meaningless.
There is no need to support every obscure file type. The iPad only needs to support the most commonly used.
If what you say is true, then the iPad "needs" to support Flash.
ok, maybe you're not getting my point. I'm trying to get across to you that the iPad SHOULD NOT BE, AT ALL, EVER BE dependent on another device for anything. It really has nothing to do with storage, except to point out that if it wasn't dependent on a computer, you could provide some kind of alternate storage, independent of a computer.
I get your point, and I get that it's an exaggeration of the actual situation. With the already stated exceptions, which I have acknowledged, a computer is just as "dependent" on other devices as an iPad. You are expecting the iPad to be able to do more things independently than your PC can do independently, which strikes me as an unreasonable expectation.
I can't see canon, HP, Brother, Epson... doing printer and other drivers for iPad any time soon, but that would be cool.
Why not? IPhone OS is based on Mac OS X, so it may not be a huge problem. In any event, iPads are selling like hotcakes - I can see 'iPad ready' being a big selling point.
ok, maybe you're not getting my point. I'm trying to get across to you that the iPad SHOULD NOT BE, AT ALL, EVER BE dependent on another device for anything.
Why? That sounds like the philosophical 'software should be free' argument. It's a pure faith-based argument with no bearing on reality. There's absolutely no rational reason why 'connect to computer to sync' is bad while 'do not connect to computer to sync' is good.
Furthermore, for some people, there IS no need to connect to a computer. Ever. They can have it activated before they leave the store and then it will work for many people's needs without syncing. Not everyone needs to upgrade their OS every time a new version comes out.
You are assuming that just because YOU want something that it must be essential. It's not.
Everybody I know that uses Skype and has a webcam uses the friggin webcam and does video chats.
Maybe you should avoid thinking that the whole world is like you and your friends. Every one of the employees in my company who travel use Skype - and not a single one uses video. None of our customers use video on Skype (we do a lot of international business, so Skype is one of our main means of communication).
Then there's the issue of where you want Apple to put the camera. Landscape or Portrait? And how you expect a video picture of a handheld device to remain stable and properly oriented without becoming a nostril-cam.
But, if you really insist on using vide with the iPad, someone announced a camera that will use the 30 pin connector. I just don't see why I should pay for it just because 0.02% of geeks want it.
There are plenty of websites you can't properly see on the iPhone due to flash being broken. That won't change for at least several years, unless apple accepts Flash 10.1 when it arrives....
No doubt. 15 years ago, there were still some companies that provided their software on floppies. Change is uncomfortable, but when it's the right thing to do, you do it. It has been thoroughly demonstrated why Flash on the iPhone is a bad idea. Of course, that's hypothetical because ADOBE NEVER RELEASED FLASH FOR THE IPHONE. Don't believe me? Then where is the full version of Flash for jailbroken phones? Or the full version of Flash for Symbian? Or WebOS? Or Windows Mobile? Or even Android? (Yes, I'm aware that after years of promises, they're saying that the Android version will be out 'real soon now', but even that version reqiures much more CPU power than the iPhone will provide). So if you want to whine about lack of Flash, blame Adobe for never creating a full mobile version capable of running on the iPhone.
An iPad will not do half of what a real computer will do. Even for surfing the web, a Netbook will display/play Flash sites, while the iPad will not.
You're confusing check lists with usefulness. If you buy every product by going through some check list and looking only at features, you're right. Fortunately, not everyone works that way. Lots of people look at what they need and what they're hoping to accomplish - and then see if a product meets their needs.
For a lot of people, the iPad meets their needs quite well. I personally don't miss Flash. There are only a few sites that I would ever use that require it and that number is dropping fast. Fortunately, even if I absolutely MUST VISIT a Flash site while traveling, I fire up LogMeIn to access my home computer and visit the Flash site. So why cripple the iPad by adding Flash when it's not necessary?
Furthermore, you are falling into the trap of believing that the iPad is the only computer in a household. While that might be true for some people, there are a lot more who are buying an iPad as a second (or third or fourth or fifth) computer. Syncing isn't a problem. Even its 'limitations' aren't a problem because they have another computer to use. The iPad is for light content consumption - and it works very, very well for that.
The fact that a Ferrari won't easily haul 6 kids doesn't mean that it's not a good car.
If what you say is true, then the iPad "needs" to support Flash.
Based on what? Your arbitrary view that Flash is essential? So far, there are 85 million customers who disagree with you. Why should anyone believe that you know what I need better than I do?
The one mistakeI think you're making here is that Apple is comparing the iPad to a net book, not a notebook.
Not really. Apple said it's neither a netbook nor a notebook. It's a different device. The rest of your post was accurate-though. The mistake being made is that the iPad haters are apparently refusing to understand that different people have different needs. If even 1% of computer users could use the iPad instead of their computer, that's tens of millions of users. No one ever said that the iPad was right for everyone.
Sure it is, for some people.
Reason: For SOME people even a netbook provides more than they need. I know of many people who have a netbook strictly for:
* email from family
* Facebook
* web surfing
* sync their iPod
* some YouTube videos.
That's all they need their netbook to do. For them the iPad is fine as a netbook replacement, and they plan to get one when available here..
Exactly. SOME PEOPLE will find the iPad suitable. Some will not.
Anybody who buys an iPad for Facebook will be very disappointed to find that lots of the content is unavailable on the iPad, like Farmville.
And they will not be able to sync their iPod either. Even if they could, a netbook has 160 or 250 gigs of storage, while the iPad has only a tiny amount of storage - generally not big enough for mass storage of music and video collections.
Anybody? Really?
There's far more to Facebook than just Farmville. No one I know plays it. I have ClicktoFlash installed and I've never used Flash yet on Facebook.
Tiny amount of storage - I guess that's why no buys the iPad Nano. It may seem hard to believe, but not everyone has a huge media collection.
You're assuming that your usage for computers is the norm. I doubt that many who hang out on this board, would have "normal" computer usage needs.
Never underestimate how little some people actually use their computers.
It's amazing how many get their in panties in a wad because the iPad because it doesn't do everything a "real" computer would do. So what. Digital point and shoot cameras don't do everything a D-SLR does. Yet many want a point and shoot instead of a D-SLR. Some may even get buy on the camera in their phone, while others will have all 3 types and use them at different times for different tasks. Is any of these the right way?
Is any of these the right way?
Yes, my way of course.
If this info is correct:
Netbooks were selling on average 15,000,000 units a year from introduction in 2008 until now. Keeping in mind slower start, current numbers are much higher; Asus alone was expecting to sell 10 million Eee?s in 2009, from global sales numbers of 20-30 million for that year.
I would say price is important. Not to everyone, of course. But still.
You have to look at the full context, roughly 310 million PC's sell worldwide annually. Netbooks are about 8% to 10% of total sales and growth is already beginning to slow.
Netbooks already are mainstream.
Dell and HP have abandoned the netbook market. The two largest computer makers in the world don't seem to believe in its future prospects.
I was wondering about this one. Closest match I can think about would be: you can't go with iPad to your mate, plug it to his home lan and copy last party photos from his HDD. And if your printer dies (and you need to print something), you can't go to your mate with iPad, plug his printer's USB cable to your iPad and print your documents. Etc.
True you would have to use wireless networking for printing. But WiFi enabled printers are more and more common now days.
Depending on how important it is for you. You can use pastebot to transfer copy/paste files from iPad to computer.
Flash is very commonly used one at present
Yes but we clearly see what direction that's headed in. Every major video media distributor is transitioning to providing pure H.264, there is little reason they have to use the Flash wrapper.
Last one I tried, SketchBookX, was interesting but ultimately useless for any serious work. Some applications just can't be done right with finger-touch input. Some tasks need mouse or stylus.
That can depend on what you are doing. My point is that these tools are available.
So now you're saying Apple is outselling PCs? What the hell are you smoking, pal?
In growth percentages, yes they are.
33.3 million sold in the USA in 2009? How is that a "small fraction"? Sorry, but to me, 1 in 10 americans owning one makes it a mainstream product...
That's worldwide an is a drop in the bucket to total PC sales worldwide. Netbook growth is going down.
The iPad does NOT have a USB port.
Show me some numbers, man. Everybody I know that uses Skype and has a webcam uses the friggin webcam and does video chats. If you would stay on topic, I was mentioning a few reasons why the iPad doesn't "do everything a netbook can only better", as was stated in the original article.
Everybody you know makes up the majority of Skype users? If you want to believe most of the 33 billion Skype calls made last year were video chat you are free to.
Sorry, pal. Still no USB on the iPad. It has a proprietary "docking cable" so you can plug it into your computer at home, or into the wall. How will you connect it to a printer? How will you connect it to an external hard drive?
You still haven't identified these proprietary iPad cables.
There are plenty of websites you can't properly see on the iPhone due to flash being broken. That won't change for at least several years, unless apple accepts Flash 10.1 when it arrives...
Yeah porn...... What major media website can you name that doesn't already or hasn't planned to provide H.264 video without Flash?
Ever tried cmb+TAB? (Alt-Tab in windows) Multitasking IS a feature that helps productivity, even with limited screen real estate.
Don't use Windows. I use expose on my 15" MBP. We already know multitasking is coming to the iPad. So there isn't much of a point to continue to complain about it.