After all the breathless reporting of the Motorola Xoom, it turned out they were showing hardware running a video of Honeycomb and that's it. I think that about sums this CES up. If Apple did something like that the outcry would be palpable. No wonder investors are reassessing the viability of iPad competitors after CES. Besides the Xoom there wasn't a lot to show on the Android tablet scene; mostly they were 7 inch tablets running the phone version of Android.
The PlayBook demoed well (although for some reason all the tablet demos focused on flashy app switcher UIs, as if that's the only part of the OS that matters) but I think it has too many weaknesses to be a serious contender. Making announcements about hardware is nice, but the power of the CPU is meaningless if we don't also know the cost and battery life. Whether the iPad 2 has to match these high-powered dual core tablets (i.e., the PlayBook and Xoom) depends entirely on whether it's possible to get 10 hours on that kind of set-up for $499.
I need someone to explain to me (call me troll or stupid if you need to) how the iPad is not "a giant iPod."
Here's my take.
1. The bigger size of the iPad makes it easier for those who don't have perfect eyesight anymore.
2. Some apps just don't work well on the iPod Touch due to it's small size. Try the Zinio app on an iPad vs. an iPod Touch and you'll notice a huge difference.
3. Web browsing on the iPad is great. I don't have to zoom in like I do an iPod Touch.
4. If I have to input data I'd much rather do so on an iPad.
Even though I generally agree with the conclusion, I think these analysts are not really paying that close attention. There were definitely some devices at CES that faster and more robust than the iPad or the iPhone and that's important. The two things that stood out for me are:
- quite a few LTE capable phones.
- quite a few tablets with beefier processors and more memory than iPad.
Now personally, I think iPhone 5 will be an LTE hybrid device, but most pundits and bloggers don't think so at all. It would be horrendously bad for Apple to go a whole year with faster phones than the iPhone in the same markets, but at this point it seems to be happening.
As to the speed, anyone who has really used an iPad (and by that I mean *really* used it day in and day out and loaded it up with all their programs and documents), knows that it stalls and chokes quite a lot, (especially when doing memory intensive tasks or if you have more than one program open, or if the storage is close to the top). The next iPad *needs* to be a whole lot faster just to stay respectable. If the display is higher rez then it will be even more imperative. Apple really needs to put out a gigantic performance improvement to even stay on the same page here.
Again, if you look at the current deployment schedule - LTE speeds will not be realized fully across Verizon or anyone else for sometime. So if you are in one of the privileged zones that gets early deployment, then your points around speed are very valid. If you are in the what will be the majority of the network for the next 6-10 months or more LTE adds nothing to your speed. SO if Apple brings out the iPhone 5 without LTE capability the worst it will be is 8 months or so before the iPhone 6 is released with LTE (presumably).
However your argument about "anyone" who has used the iPad day-in and day-out has issues stalling and choking certainly hasn't been my wife's experience - it has functionally replaced her desktop iMac for all but a minor handful of duties, without complaint. In fact she not only doesn't report any issues around performance, but actually reports better productivity as her access point to her data is ready to hand on not perched on a desk, or bagged and not readily available. This is of course anecdotal, but none of my considerable group of friends which constitute a wide swath of consuming demand has reported any significant performance issues. YMMV of course, and this is not meant to challenge your claims at all, just present a different viewpoint from experience.
Apple will continue to build the platform performance as it has with all their devices, and to assume otherwise is rather silly. Whether they do it according to Prof's schedule (or anyone else's) is rather a moot point. The market has shifted considerably for tablet computing from niche to mainstream, because Apple delivered something better than anyone had offered to the general consuming public and sales indicate that they hit the sweet spot. All that remains is to see how large that sweet spot is in the consumer perception.
More bullish on the PlayBook was analyst Mike Abramsky, who said the differentiations in multitasking and performance "may be difficult" for Apple to rival.
There has been a lot of talk about the PlayBook's ability to multitask and how it is better than the iPad. I'm sure many of us have seen a video showing the PlayBook playing a 1080p movie, running Quake and doing a couple of other mundane tasks simultaneously.
So what?!? How is this useful at all? I understand that it is showing the power of the processor but when would anyone really have a movie and Quake running in the background while checking email (Bridged to their BB)?
Yes, I would like to see (and probably will see) a better processor in the next iPad, but not so I can do silly things simply to brag about the hardware. For example, I'd like to see an iMovie on iPad and more GHz will help in that situation. I love my iPhone 4 but rendering out a movie at HD is not exactly a quick process.
All this PlayBook multitasking talk seems like not much more than hype. Help me see the light...
There has been a lot of talk about the PlayBook's ability to multitask and how it is better than the iPad. I'm sure many of us have seen a video showing the PlayBook playing a 1080p movie, running Quake and doing a couple of other mundane tasks simultaneously.
So what?!? How is this useful at all? I understand that it is showing the power of the processor but when would anyone really have a movie and Quake running in the background while checking email (Bridged to their BB)?
Yes, I would like to see (and probably will see) a better processor in the next iPad, but not so I can do silly things simply to brag about the hardware. For example, I'd like to see an iMovie on iPad and more GHz will help in that situation. I love my iPhone 4 but rendering out a movie at HD is not exactly a quick process.
All this PlayBook multitasking talk seems like not much more than hype. Help me see the light...
There are apps across many different devices of all shapes and sizes and OSes that all do teh same thing. That doesn?t make them all iPod Touches.
The bottom line is Apple rewrote the iOS for the iPad which is why its a success. They leveraged their iOS and CocoaTouch and made a brand new apps, UI, and an SDK to facilitate this usability. Just look back at last year?s SDK for the iPad, it wasn?t compatible with the iPhone/iPod Touch version.
The difference between say, Mac OS X on a 11? MBA and Mac OS X on a 30? ACD is that the GUI is designed to be scalable. in iOS the GUI is not scalable because it?s also the primary way you input data. This means you can?t simply shrink or expand elements on the display and have the interaction be the same. With a desktop OS you can adjust the windowing or pointer speed.
PS: Also note that even Google has said Android won?t be ready for tablets until Honeycomb. The reason for this is stated above.
One other item that gets dropped out of discussion is the fact that Apple had the iPad well under development before they released the iPhone or iPod Touch, and that they decided to release the smaller form-factor devices first - which apparently was a very canny and successful decision on APple's part.
What I find most hysterical are people that called it a giant iPod despite the UI and apps being rewritten specifically for the I/O, yet they call the Galaxy Tab running Android 2.x for smartphones and with ½ the display area a better tablet.
I guess they've just realized how stupid they did sound!
LOL Some of those complaints are simply the way Apple works, but it?s funny to see smaller tablets with larger bezels a year later. Not to mention the inclusion of ?Pad? in their names.
Maybe DaHarder will take some time away from slamming anything Apple on Engadget to come justify that list for us.
I need someone to explain to me (call me troll or stupid if you need to) how the iPad is not "a giant iPod." The UI is the same--touchscreen and home/volume/mute/power buttons. Some apps are written differently for the large screen, but most magnify to fill the larger screen. ...
Well, essentially, you are wrong in all of the above. The UI is not at all the same, and most apps do not simply, "magnify to fill the larger screen." From your follow-up responses, it does actually seem as though you are here to troll, but, assuming the best...
The larger screen and very different UI completely change the way the user interacts with the device and the things that can be done comfortably, and I don't mean that the user touches the screen differently. In a web browser, for example, the user is able to read a page without having to zoom in and out to have the text large enough to read and to be able to navigate, the user just reads the page. Similarly, in other apps, the interaction with the device changes because the larger screen allows for more information display, providing more context, or more detail for the information be used or created, as well as completely changing, for example, the experience of typing on the device. The experience of using an iPad is as different from an iPod touch as a 27" iMac is from an iPad.
This hasn't answered my question about how playing a movie and Quake in the background while doing another task is useful on a tablet (or anywhere for that matter). I don't do that at home where my computer can certainly handle those tasks, it's just silly. That's all I want to know.
The Atrix is cool in concept but I don't think it's there just yet. Plus, I'm not really sure we're very close to a phone having enough processing power that I'm used to in a desktop where it could replace said desktop.
This hasn't answered my question about how playing a movie and Quake in the background while doing another task is useful on a tablet (or anywhere for that matter). I don't do that at home where my computer can certainly handle those tasks, it's just silly. That's all I want to know.
The Atrix is cool in concept but I don't think it's there just yet. Plus, I'm not really sure we're very close to a phone having enough processing power that I'm used to in a desktop where it could replace said desktop.
I think its just a demonstration of the processing power.
It may not be there just yet, but its damn close.
Of course if the phone rings in this get-up...wait its stuck..., rut-roh!
I need someone to explain to me (call me troll or stupid if you need to) how the iPad is not "a giant iPod." The UI is the same--touchscreen and home/volume/mute/power buttons. Some apps are written differently for the large screen, but most magnify to fill the larger screen. The 3G model adds mobile functionality and GPS, but the wifi version is the same as the 2009 iPod Touch.
I'm not saying that is a bad thing. If the iPad 2 becomes a "giant 2010 iPod Touch," with camera(s), Facetime and built-in microphone, I will buy one. The other rumored changes would be nice but not necessary to me. If not, then I will wait for version 3 or 4 or 5...
The Galaxy Tab and every other Android tablet I've seen is a waste of money compared to the iPad.
I for one don't take your remarks above as anywhere near trolling, and no one posting here is "stupid."
I think there was a lot of envy and jealousy felt by techies outside Apple's sphere, and their feelings were best vented by mocking various aspects of the iPad, including the "it's just a giant iPod" meme, as if that were somehow the worst thing that could be said about it.
And now every electronics firm is falling over each other to introduce a "slightly-smaller-than-Giant iPod Touch" that they think will be the big hit of 2011. Good luck with that.
While it may be viewed as a giant iPod, it has certainly been nothing short of a major success for Apple. I haven't owned (or needed) an iPhone, iPod touch, or an iPad, but have had the chance to explore those of friends. Like you, I fully intend to buy a G2 iPad when it comes out as I believe it will fill a need for me. I'll probably refer to it as my "giant iPod Touch" just to annoy my bro-in-law, who wants an Android tablet so badly...
After all the breathless reporting of the Motorola Xoom, it turned out they were showing hardware running a video of Honeycomb and that's it. I think that about sums this CES up. If Apple did something like that the outcry would be palpable. No wonder investors are reassessing the viability of iPad competitors after CES. Besides the Xoom there wasn't a lot to show on the Android tablet scene; mostly they were 7 inch tablets running the phone version of Android.
Even though I generally agree with the conclusion, I think these analysts are not really paying that close attention. There were definitely some devices at CES that faster and more robust than the iPad or the iPhone and that's important. The two things that stood out for me are:
- quite a few LTE capable phones.
- quite a few tablets with beefier processors and more memory than iPad.
- quite a few dead batteries after four house of continuous use.
And now every electronics firm is falling over each other to introduce a "slightly-smaller-than-Giant iPod Touch" that they think will be the big hit of 2011. Good luck with that.
Ironically, these 7" tablets are actually closer to being "just a bug iPod Touch." Well, except for the lack of iOS.
10 mins of Honeycomb preview @ Verizon's Press Event.
I didn't see that. They show pretty much exactly the same stuff they do in the video they had on the Xoom but it's obviously running live there. The only places where I think they're ahead of Apple are the task switching and the notifications. I guess widgets, too, but I've never really seen the point.
Another aside... although I was not at CES, the info and 'idea' provided for the Motorola Atrix seems like an excellant idea. Ever since the iphone came out, kind of wondered why something like this was not done.
This has been talked about by various talking heads- 'One processor to serve them all(all needs).'
I'm sure there was a similar concept thrown around by IBM ...ten years ago.
I believe it's fair to say today's smartphones have better performance than the desktops of ten fifteen years ago. Do people really want to have yesterday's desktop with today's smartphones?
On reflection, the netbook craze did take off a few years ago but nobody really talks about those now.
I for one don't take your remarks above as anywhere near trolling, and no one posting here is "stupid."
I think there was a lot of envy and jealousy felt by techies outside Apple's sphere, and their feelings were best vented by mocking various aspects of the iPad, including the "it's just a giant iPod" meme, as if that were somehow the worst thing that could be said about it.
And now every electronics firm is falling over each other to introduce a "slightly-smaller-than-Giant iPod Touch" that they think will be the big hit of 2011. Good luck with that.
While it may be viewed as a giant iPod, it has certainly been nothing short of a major success for Apple. I haven't owned (or needed) an iPhone, iPod touch, or an iPad, but have had the chance to explore those of friends. Like you, I fully intend to buy a G2 iPad when it comes out as I believe it will fill a need for me. I'll probably refer to it as my "giant iPod Touch" just to annoy my bro-in-law, who wants an Android tablet so badly...
Thanks. Apparently, either I touched a raw nerve or a couple people do not like the iPod Touch. I don't understand what is wrong with comparing them. I think the Touch is great. I think an iPad with Facetime would be great.
Comments
The PlayBook demoed well (although for some reason all the tablet demos focused on flashy app switcher UIs, as if that's the only part of the OS that matters) but I think it has too many weaknesses to be a serious contender. Making announcements about hardware is nice, but the power of the CPU is meaningless if we don't also know the cost and battery life. Whether the iPad 2 has to match these high-powered dual core tablets (i.e., the PlayBook and Xoom) depends entirely on whether it's possible to get 10 hours on that kind of set-up for $499.
I need someone to explain to me (call me troll or stupid if you need to) how the iPad is not "a giant iPod."
Here's my take.
1. The bigger size of the iPad makes it easier for those who don't have perfect eyesight anymore.
2. Some apps just don't work well on the iPod Touch due to it's small size. Try the Zinio app on an iPad vs. an iPod Touch and you'll notice a huge difference.
3. Web browsing on the iPad is great. I don't have to zoom in like I do an iPod Touch.
4. If I have to input data I'd much rather do so on an iPad.
Even though I generally agree with the conclusion, I think these analysts are not really paying that close attention. There were definitely some devices at CES that faster and more robust than the iPad or the iPhone and that's important. The two things that stood out for me are:
- quite a few LTE capable phones.
- quite a few tablets with beefier processors and more memory than iPad.
Now personally, I think iPhone 5 will be an LTE hybrid device, but most pundits and bloggers don't think so at all. It would be horrendously bad for Apple to go a whole year with faster phones than the iPhone in the same markets, but at this point it seems to be happening.
As to the speed, anyone who has really used an iPad (and by that I mean *really* used it day in and day out and loaded it up with all their programs and documents), knows that it stalls and chokes quite a lot, (especially when doing memory intensive tasks or if you have more than one program open, or if the storage is close to the top). The next iPad *needs* to be a whole lot faster just to stay respectable. If the display is higher rez then it will be even more imperative. Apple really needs to put out a gigantic performance improvement to even stay on the same page here.
Again, if you look at the current deployment schedule - LTE speeds will not be realized fully across Verizon or anyone else for sometime. So if you are in one of the privileged zones that gets early deployment, then your points around speed are very valid. If you are in the what will be the majority of the network for the next 6-10 months or more LTE adds nothing to your speed. SO if Apple brings out the iPhone 5 without LTE capability the worst it will be is 8 months or so before the iPhone 6 is released with LTE (presumably).
However your argument about "anyone" who has used the iPad day-in and day-out has issues stalling and choking certainly hasn't been my wife's experience - it has functionally replaced her desktop iMac for all but a minor handful of duties, without complaint. In fact she not only doesn't report any issues around performance, but actually reports better productivity as her access point to her data is ready to hand on not perched on a desk, or bagged and not readily available. This is of course anecdotal, but none of my considerable group of friends which constitute a wide swath of consuming demand has reported any significant performance issues. YMMV of course, and this is not meant to challenge your claims at all, just present a different viewpoint from experience.
Apple will continue to build the platform performance as it has with all their devices, and to assume otherwise is rather silly. Whether they do it according to Prof's schedule (or anyone else's) is rather a moot point. The market has shifted considerably for tablet computing from niche to mainstream, because Apple delivered something better than anyone had offered to the general consuming public and sales indicate that they hit the sweet spot. All that remains is to see how large that sweet spot is in the consumer perception.
RBC Capital Markets
More bullish on the PlayBook was analyst Mike Abramsky, who said the differentiations in multitasking and performance "may be difficult" for Apple to rival.
There has been a lot of talk about the PlayBook's ability to multitask and how it is better than the iPad. I'm sure many of us have seen a video showing the PlayBook playing a 1080p movie, running Quake and doing a couple of other mundane tasks simultaneously.
So what?!? How is this useful at all? I understand that it is showing the power of the processor but when would anyone really have a movie and Quake running in the background while checking email (Bridged to their BB)?
Yes, I would like to see (and probably will see) a better processor in the next iPad, but not so I can do silly things simply to brag about the hardware. For example, I'd like to see an iMovie on iPad and more GHz will help in that situation. I love my iPhone 4 but rendering out a movie at HD is not exactly a quick process.
All this PlayBook multitasking talk seems like not much more than hype. Help me see the light...
There has been a lot of talk about the PlayBook's ability to multitask and how it is better than the iPad. I'm sure many of us have seen a video showing the PlayBook playing a 1080p movie, running Quake and doing a couple of other mundane tasks simultaneously.
So what?!? How is this useful at all? I understand that it is showing the power of the processor but when would anyone really have a movie and Quake running in the background while checking email (Bridged to their BB)?
Yes, I would like to see (and probably will see) a better processor in the next iPad, but not so I can do silly things simply to brag about the hardware. For example, I'd like to see an iMovie on iPad and more GHz will help in that situation. I love my iPhone 4 but rendering out a movie at HD is not exactly a quick process.
All this PlayBook multitasking talk seems like not much more than hype. Help me see the light...
Take a look at this video-
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/09/m...r-look-video/#
There are apps across many different devices of all shapes and sizes and OSes that all do teh same thing. That doesn?t make them all iPod Touches.
The bottom line is Apple rewrote the iOS for the iPad which is why its a success. They leveraged their iOS and CocoaTouch and made a brand new apps, UI, and an SDK to facilitate this usability. Just look back at last year?s SDK for the iPad, it wasn?t compatible with the iPhone/iPod Touch version.
The difference between say, Mac OS X on a 11? MBA and Mac OS X on a 30? ACD is that the GUI is designed to be scalable. in iOS the GUI is not scalable because it?s also the primary way you input data. This means you can?t simply shrink or expand elements on the display and have the interaction be the same. With a desktop OS you can adjust the windowing or pointer speed.
PS: Also note that even Google has said Android won?t be ready for tablets until Honeycomb. The reason for this is stated above.
One other item that gets dropped out of discussion is the fact that Apple had the iPad well under development before they released the iPhone or iPod Touch, and that they decided to release the smaller form-factor devices first - which apparently was a very canny and successful decision on APple's part.
What I find most hysterical are people that called it a giant iPod despite the UI and apps being rewritten specifically for the I/O, yet they call the Galaxy Tab running Android 2.x for smartphones and with ½ the display area a better tablet.
I remember this from Gizmodo
I guess they've just realized how stupid they did sound!
I remember this from Gizmodo
I guess they've just realized how stupid they did sound!
LOL Some of those complaints are simply the way Apple works, but it?s funny to see smaller tablets with larger bezels a year later. Not to mention the inclusion of ?Pad? in their names.
Maybe DaHarder will take some time away from slamming anything Apple on Engadget to come justify that list for us.
I need someone to explain to me (call me troll or stupid if you need to) how the iPad is not "a giant iPod." The UI is the same--touchscreen and home/volume/mute/power buttons. Some apps are written differently for the large screen, but most magnify to fill the larger screen. ...
Well, essentially, you are wrong in all of the above. The UI is not at all the same, and most apps do not simply, "magnify to fill the larger screen." From your follow-up responses, it does actually seem as though you are here to troll, but, assuming the best...
The larger screen and very different UI completely change the way the user interacts with the device and the things that can be done comfortably, and I don't mean that the user touches the screen differently. In a web browser, for example, the user is able to read a page without having to zoom in and out to have the text large enough to read and to be able to navigate, the user just reads the page. Similarly, in other apps, the interaction with the device changes because the larger screen allows for more information display, providing more context, or more detail for the information be used or created, as well as completely changing, for example, the experience of typing on the device. The experience of using an iPad is as different from an iPod touch as a 27" iMac is from an iPad.
Take a look at this video-
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/09/m...r-look-video/#
This hasn't answered my question about how playing a movie and Quake in the background while doing another task is useful on a tablet (or anywhere for that matter). I don't do that at home where my computer can certainly handle those tasks, it's just silly. That's all I want to know.
The Atrix is cool in concept but I don't think it's there just yet. Plus, I'm not really sure we're very close to a phone having enough processing power that I'm used to in a desktop where it could replace said desktop.
This hasn't answered my question about how playing a movie and Quake in the background while doing another task is useful on a tablet (or anywhere for that matter). I don't do that at home where my computer can certainly handle those tasks, it's just silly. That's all I want to know.
The Atrix is cool in concept but I don't think it's there just yet. Plus, I'm not really sure we're very close to a phone having enough processing power that I'm used to in a desktop where it could replace said desktop.
I think its just a demonstration of the processing power.
It may not be there just yet, but its damn close.
Of course if the phone rings in this get-up...wait its stuck..., rut-roh!
I need someone to explain to me (call me troll or stupid if you need to) how the iPad is not "a giant iPod." The UI is the same--touchscreen and home/volume/mute/power buttons. Some apps are written differently for the large screen, but most magnify to fill the larger screen. The 3G model adds mobile functionality and GPS, but the wifi version is the same as the 2009 iPod Touch.
I'm not saying that is a bad thing. If the iPad 2 becomes a "giant 2010 iPod Touch," with camera(s), Facetime and built-in microphone, I will buy one. The other rumored changes would be nice but not necessary to me. If not, then I will wait for version 3 or 4 or 5...
The Galaxy Tab and every other Android tablet I've seen is a waste of money compared to the iPad.
I for one don't take your remarks above as anywhere near trolling, and no one posting here is "stupid."
I think there was a lot of envy and jealousy felt by techies outside Apple's sphere, and their feelings were best vented by mocking various aspects of the iPad, including the "it's just a giant iPod" meme, as if that were somehow the worst thing that could be said about it.
And now every electronics firm is falling over each other to introduce a "slightly-smaller-than-Giant iPod Touch" that they think will be the big hit of 2011. Good luck with that.
While it may be viewed as a giant iPod, it has certainly been nothing short of a major success for Apple. I haven't owned (or needed) an iPhone, iPod touch, or an iPad, but have had the chance to explore those of friends. Like you, I fully intend to buy a G2 iPad when it comes out as I believe it will fill a need for me. I'll probably refer to it as my "giant iPod Touch" just to annoy my bro-in-law, who wants an Android tablet so badly...
After all the breathless reporting of the Motorola Xoom, it turned out they were showing hardware running a video of Honeycomb and that's it. I think that about sums this CES up. If Apple did something like that the outcry would be palpable. No wonder investors are reassessing the viability of iPad competitors after CES. Besides the Xoom there wasn't a lot to show on the Android tablet scene; mostly they were 7 inch tablets running the phone version of Android.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YiXlkiq8Y0
10 mins of Honeycomb preview @ Verizon's Press Event.
Even though I generally agree with the conclusion, I think these analysts are not really paying that close attention. There were definitely some devices at CES that faster and more robust than the iPad or the iPhone and that's important. The two things that stood out for me are:
- quite a few LTE capable phones.
- quite a few tablets with beefier processors and more memory than iPad.
- quite a few dead batteries after four house of continuous use.
And now every electronics firm is falling over each other to introduce a "slightly-smaller-than-Giant iPod Touch" that they think will be the big hit of 2011. Good luck with that.
Ironically, these 7" tablets are actually closer to being "just a bug iPod Touch." Well, except for the lack of iOS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YiXlkiq8Y0
10 mins of Honeycomb preview @ Verizon's Press Event.
I didn't see that. They show pretty much exactly the same stuff they do in the video they had on the Xoom but it's obviously running live there. The only places where I think they're ahead of Apple are the task switching and the notifications. I guess widgets, too, but I've never really seen the point.
Ironically, these 7" tablets are actually closer to being "just a bug iPod Touch." Well, except for the lack of iOS.
"bug?" Unintentionally true...
Another aside... although I was not at CES, the info and 'idea' provided for the Motorola Atrix seems like an excellant idea. Ever since the iphone came out, kind of wondered why something like this was not done.
This has been talked about by various talking heads- 'One processor to serve them all(all needs).'
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/09/m...er-look-video/
I'm sure there was a similar concept thrown around by IBM ...ten years ago.
I believe it's fair to say today's smartphones have better performance than the desktops of ten fifteen years ago. Do people really want to have yesterday's desktop with today's smartphones?
On reflection, the netbook craze did take off a few years ago but nobody really talks about those now.
I for one don't take your remarks above as anywhere near trolling, and no one posting here is "stupid."
I think there was a lot of envy and jealousy felt by techies outside Apple's sphere, and their feelings were best vented by mocking various aspects of the iPad, including the "it's just a giant iPod" meme, as if that were somehow the worst thing that could be said about it.
And now every electronics firm is falling over each other to introduce a "slightly-smaller-than-Giant iPod Touch" that they think will be the big hit of 2011. Good luck with that.
While it may be viewed as a giant iPod, it has certainly been nothing short of a major success for Apple. I haven't owned (or needed) an iPhone, iPod touch, or an iPad, but have had the chance to explore those of friends. Like you, I fully intend to buy a G2 iPad when it comes out as I believe it will fill a need for me. I'll probably refer to it as my "giant iPod Touch" just to annoy my bro-in-law, who wants an Android tablet so badly...
Thanks. Apparently, either I touched a raw nerve or a couple people do not like the iPod Touch. I don't understand what is wrong with comparing them. I think the Touch is great. I think an iPad with Facetime would be great.