Your typical netbook will offer a vastly inferior browsing experience,
Inferior by being able to present 100% of all web pages content? And giving me option to use Safari, IE, Opera, Crome, Firefox... with all the plug-ins I got used to have? Right.
Quote:
be far inferior at displaying movies,
By being able to run VLC and support pretty much any codec out there? Um... right....
Quote:
be heavier,
Weight difference between iPad and average netbooks can be important... to newborns?
Quote:
last not nearly as long, have significantly inferior battery life
That is plain wrong - 10 hours netbooks are not hard to find nowadays. But lets wait and see how iPad battery holds in real life - might be better, might be worst from what we were told.
Quote:
be less engaging as a gaming platform, and cost more to load up with software, thanks to price gouging by major software developers on the PC side like Microsoft.
How can possibility to run WOW and other full-size titles (granted you do need ION based netbook with dual core Atom) be less engaging? We still even don't know what exclusive game titles will be made available on iPad.
Browsers, take your pick: IE, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc. I prefer Chrome.
For video, how many file types can the iPad natively playback, h.264? Install VLC on a netbook, and playback just about anything.
Battery life - not that much of a difference, Asus has some of their EeePC's that get up to 9 hours on a 6-cell battery.
The iPad is thinner and lighter, but my netbook has 3 USB ports, VGA, ethernet, and 2 card readers, as well as audio in/out. Weighs less than 3 pounds.
Gaming on most netbooks are poor, but if you get one with Nvidia's Ion (9400m), it's the same exact GPU used by Apple is most of their computers.
The iPhone can multi-task fine and the iPad will be far more capable. There is no technical limitation in allowing some form of 3rd party app multi-tasking.
That means the business made a decision to not allow it. People who enjoy wearing tin-foil hats will say it was purely to protect revenue and die hard apple fans will say it's solely to enhance the user experience. The truth is likely somewhere in between.
The lack of multi-tasking is totally indefensible. You Apple fanboys simply have no ground to stand on here.
I don't think it's indefensible. One of the worst things on a portable device would be getting invected with a virus, but if programs aren't allowed to stay running once you quit them, that limits the chance of spread. I also find the battery life argument compelling.
I hate the way on my Mac every program installs it's own freaking background daemon these days. EyeTV Helper, Google Updater, Something font manager ... I'm glad that crap will not be allowed on the tablet.
My MacBook Air, with a full-size keyboard, huge screen, weighs exactly 3 pounds, almost the same as your thingy. The ports and other stuff you listed have never been a problem for me in two years of pro work, and likely are not a big deal to many users, thus the choice.
The iPad weighs half that. And it runs iWork. I give quite a few presentations and Keynote blows any other presentation app away, period. Oh, the iPad does have a video connector cable. But for some presentations (try over lunch), you can actually pass the thing around the table with ease.
No student is going to churn out a 5000 worder on an iPad... if they try I suspect the last few hundred words may be written with the blood of their cracked and dismembered finger tips.
Assuming they have parents that have enough money to buy them one, it would be more likely they'll sit under a tree or lay in bed reading textbooks and researching on the internet using the iPad before going back to an iMac\\Macbook to actually write the essay.
For business... well some maybe. Assuming the iPad actually supports whatever you have written the presentation in it would be fine. However you won't be creating the presentation using the iPad, which would essentially make it a $499 input device for your projector. Something the higher up execs would go for, but I can't see many businesses accepting it across the board.
Um... have you seen the keyboard attachment? Makes it all very easy!
f. flash. forget about it. It's crap, and html 5 specifications just do away with it. Nobody gives a flying f. about flash anymore, even once flash websites have stopped using it, it's not user friendly, it's a hog on resources, there's a whole list on way flash sucks.
Perhaps but if you go to ABC on your notebook, you can watch almost all their shows as well as other networks and cable. It's so much smaller in file size, that's why they use it.
For children, almost all of their sites be it educational to games are all flash.
It's time to bury this hatchet and put it on these devices.
I think Steve Job and company are master psychologists, and the most vocal critics fall prey to their ruse. First create hype which can not possibly be met. Second, make a product but hold back some key features (with the understanding that a even the most ?perfection? product will be met with harsh criticism). Third before the actual product release, or after the first generation product, reintroduce the most key features that critics have been most vocal about.
Critics become neutered. In fact with Apple style Jujitsu, the critics become ardent supporters because their ?voice? was heard. The critics have not yet realized that they are being played.
By the way, ipad looks great. It will become indispensable in the healthcare world as the government is mandating electonic medical records (multi-billion dollar business), both as hand held electonic chart and medical image viewing station. With modifications it can be ecg machine, and possibly sonography machine.
College students will demand it as a replacement for text books. It will also be the wireless passport to your home entertainment center to control TV and stereo. You will find it in restaurants, carried by waiters who put in your orders wireless. Military applications are obvious. Store clerks will complete your credit card purchase with a modified Ipads. Make a docking station for the car dash, plug it in the speakers and you have a music/video/GPS touchscreen device better than anything on the automarket at a fraction of the cost.
While not as powerful as a laptop, Ipad will be the blank canvas to do whatever you want with it. No opening laptops, waiting for it to turn on. No need for a desk or table to work the computer, it will be in your hand anytime with touch screen ready to go. It will be the interface between information/data and the user. The potential is there, it just need developers to see the opportunities to make a boat load of money. Get cracking.
JoeG
JoeG
I think your right on with your thinking. iPad has lot's of potential. Apple has given the basic hardware and software and now it's up to other people to come up with great ideas on how it can be use. I'm very impressed what developers have come up with the iphone and itouch with their little screens. Now to have a larger screen and better operating system the possibilities for this device seem only limited by people's imagination. I think that's why Steve Jobs see's the iPad as a device that can be highly successful.
While the Ipad has a lot of features and lack others, the real advantage of a "giant iphone touch" is mobility. Many professionals do not sit all day in a cubicle punching a keyboard, on a computer which is sitting on a table. The killer feature is the simplicity, easy interface and most importantly--the mobility of the device.
Doctors, nurses, construction foreman, fireman, clerks, waitresses, police officers, soldiers, mothers, farmers...(you get what I am saying)... need the ability to access and enter information quickly, on the run, without having to use a keyboard. Most dedicated profession-specific hardware/software are very expensive. Each ipad can be customized for any job description at a very low price or run it just the way it is.
It's true that most gear heads on this site will not need it, but for the average working person this will be phenomenal. No doubt it will sell well for as a novelty or for home use, but it will also sell well for the workers who work on their feet.
JoeG
You are 100% accurate. You ever see how the doctor writes Rx's now? They sometimes give you a hardcopy if it's a scheduled II but then they send it via their computer. Now ask, how much easier would it be if they had a stylus or a nurse making her rounds and just needs to not down a few notes. I think one will come.
Personaly, all I wanted was Flash and voice to text recognition.
A stylus would be a perk. Makes me wonder if the microsoft device "Courier" is real, if so, that could also do well, especially if it has flash but would not be to fond of that divider in the middle if I decided to watch The Forgotten while waiting for a plane.
The other no so great thing is storage. I can see this getting filed, real quick.
There are already several printing apps which allow you to print from iPhone and the iTouch available from the app store. I see no reason why the iPad would be any different.
I meant now there has to be a way of working with files that is different with the iPad versus the iPhone or iTouch. Because you will be creating on the iPad and you will need to be able to move files from it to other computers for back up or further manipulation.
I have to say, every time I've used my iPod touch today, my first impression has been that it's like a tiny iPad.
ironic eh? Just a few days ago eveyone was saying "...please don't give us a giant iPod...then some stated no way would Apple do that, not with ALL their innovations". Yet here we are with a device that probably most could have come up with if it was just stretching the iPod. I know, I know, it's different but it's not that far off.
I was actually stunned when I saw it. It poked Ike a giant iPhone or the device HP released a few weeks back.
Indeed. Unles they can make sie major changes now and not try to mik us again withthe same product but with camera, flash bulb, flash support, multitasking. These are sie things they could do before release I bet, if they wanted to.
I don't think it's indefensible. One of the worst things on a portable device would be getting invected with a virus, but if programs aren't allowed to stay running once you quit them, that limits the chance of spread.
If a virus actually makes it onto your device, it's going to install itself as a root process and allow itself to multitask/run-in-the-background just like every other root process and Apple app is allowed to do. You do realize that the iPhone/iPod, and likely the iPad, are constantly running numerous processes all the time, right? If they weren't you wouldn't get background notifications, SMS messages, incoming phone calls, iPod music playback while doing other things, etc, etc.
Your statement is a very poor reason to allow background 3rd party applications, but would be an argument to support the only-Apple-certified-applications-allowed-on-the-device position.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ascii
I also find the battery life argument compelling.
Compelling in what way? Do you have any evidence that allowing third party applications in and of itself kills battery life significantly faster than not? It's what the app is doing in the background that matters, not that it is running idle or waiting for some trigger to do something.
You find it compelling despite my previous posts that the Android OS's battery monitor shows that the vast majority (typically 70%+) of battery drain is from the DISPLAY, with the next largest drain being "Cell standby"? You find it compelling despite Crackberry users reporting that they multitask a dozen applications per day with no significant battery drain? You find it compelling despite jailbreakers reporting that they multitask numerous apps with no significant drain unless they're backgrounding radio or GPS intensive apps?
You find it so compelling that you won't even acknowledge it could be an advanced user option for those willing to make some trade off in battery life vs multitasking?
Really?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ascii
very program installs it's own freaking background daemon these days. EyeTV Helper, Google Updater, Something font manager ... I'm glad that crap will not be allowed on the tablet.
All that crap that makes your applications and computer more useful, huh?
Do you understand how Unix based operating systems work?
Are you aware that the vast majority of daemons, once started, essentially terminate by becoming a child process of the init process, and they only become active when init gets a call to them from some external source? I'm no expert, but that's my basic understanding.
Have you checked Activity Monitor on your Mac to see just how much of your precious CPU time those awful daemons are using up? The lower the CPU usage, the less battery.
My MacBook Pro has been running for 2 days 15 hours according to the "uptime" command in Terminal. Activity Monitor shows the typical daemon has less than 10 minutes total CPU time, and most in the 2-3 minutes range. That's hardly any kind of battery drain. Check for yourself - look for processes that end with the letter "d".
Multi-touch but no multitasking? There is no reason that a device such as this can't multitask. The lack of multitasking is the primary reason why my iPhone 3G really doesn't take my time away from my computer. Not when I need to get something done,
Multi-touch but no multitasking? There is no reason that a device such as this can't multitask. The lack of multitasking is the primary reason why my iPhone 3G really doesn't take my time away from my computer. Not when I need to get something done,
It is not a matter of "can't". It is a matter of "Steve won't let you".
Seemingly, he believes that too many of his customers can't handle it. Or at least, that is what many folks here believe.
Watch the video, at about 2:50 - 3:30 in the video. Mossberg is grilling Steve on the battery life for various uses of the device. Jobs says the iTab only 10 hours for reading, Mossberg points out that the Kindle is much more, Jobs responds "it's all about the display, yes, it's all about the display, our chips don't use hardly any power." Mossberg grills him a bit more, Jobs gets defensive, then spurts out his famous "it's not a big deal" line, and continues to point out that "you're not going to read a book for 10 hours" and "10 hours is a really long time."
So, while he doesn't flat out address multitasking, it's pretty safe to assume from his comments that, as I've pointed out earlier, it's the display that kills battery life on these devices, more so than all other features combined.
All that said, Jobs seemed awfully cranky and defensive. Much more so than he has in the past. I wonder if it's his health, or the criticism of his "baby". And for what it's worth...if it's a really good book, and a weekend, I most certainly might read for 10 hours straight. ;-)
Watch the video, at about 2:50 - 3:30 in the video. Mossberg is grilling Steve on the battery life for various uses of the device. Jobs says the iTab only 10 hours for reading, Mossberg points out that the Kindle is much more, Jobs responds "it's all about the display, yes, it's all about the display, our chips don't use hardly any power." Mossberg grills him a bit more, Jobs gets defensive, then spurts out his famous "it's not a big deal" line, and continues to point out that "you're not going to read a book for 10 hours" and "10 hours is a really long time."
So, while he doesn't flat out address multitasking, it's pretty safe to assume from his comments that, as I've pointed out earlier, it's the display that kills battery life on these devices, more so than all other features combined.
All that said, Jobs seemed awfully cranky and defensive. Much more so than he has in the past. I wonder if it's his health, or the criticism of his "baby". And for what it's worth...if it's a really good book, and a weekend, I most certainly might read for 10 hours straight. ;-)
I wonder if maybe Jobs is having Newton flashbacks.
Comments
Your typical netbook will offer a vastly inferior browsing experience,
Inferior by being able to present 100% of all web pages content? And giving me option to use Safari, IE, Opera, Crome, Firefox... with all the plug-ins I got used to have? Right.
be far inferior at displaying movies,
By being able to run VLC and support pretty much any codec out there? Um... right....
be heavier,
Weight difference between iPad and average netbooks can be important... to newborns?
last not nearly as long, have significantly inferior battery life
That is plain wrong - 10 hours netbooks are not hard to find nowadays. But lets wait and see how iPad battery holds in real life - might be better, might be worst from what we were told.
be less engaging as a gaming platform, and cost more to load up with software, thanks to price gouging by major software developers on the PC side like Microsoft.
How can possibility to run WOW and other full-size titles (granted you do need ION based netbook with dual core Atom) be less engaging? We still even don't know what exclusive game titles will be made available on iPad.
Hindi is the official language.
Google it, but there seems to be about a dozen other recognized languages spoken there.
Heck, I actually new that.
Cheers.
You haven't actually used a netbook have you?
Browsers, take your pick: IE, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc. I prefer Chrome.
For video, how many file types can the iPad natively playback, h.264? Install VLC on a netbook, and playback just about anything.
Battery life - not that much of a difference, Asus has some of their EeePC's that get up to 9 hours on a 6-cell battery.
The iPad is thinner and lighter, but my netbook has 3 USB ports, VGA, ethernet, and 2 card readers, as well as audio in/out. Weighs less than 3 pounds.
Gaming on most netbooks are poor, but if you get one with Nvidia's Ion (9400m), it's the same exact GPU used by Apple is most of their computers.
Ouch... I pretty much duplicated your post.
How so?
The iPhone can multi-task fine and the iPad will be far more capable. There is no technical limitation in allowing some form of 3rd party app multi-tasking.
That means the business made a decision to not allow it. People who enjoy wearing tin-foil hats will say it was purely to protect revenue and die hard apple fans will say it's solely to enhance the user experience. The truth is likely somewhere in between.
The lack of multi-tasking is totally indefensible. You Apple fanboys simply have no ground to stand on here.
I don't think it's indefensible. One of the worst things on a portable device would be getting invected with a virus, but if programs aren't allowed to stay running once you quit them, that limits the chance of spread. I also find the battery life argument compelling.
I hate the way on my Mac every program installs it's own freaking background daemon these days. EyeTV Helper, Google Updater, Something font manager ... I'm glad that crap will not be allowed on the tablet.
Weighs less than 3 pounds.
My MacBook Air, with a full-size keyboard, huge screen, weighs exactly 3 pounds, almost the same as your thingy. The ports and other stuff you listed have never been a problem for me in two years of pro work, and likely are not a big deal to many users, thus the choice.
The iPad weighs half that. And it runs iWork. I give quite a few presentations and Keynote blows any other presentation app away, period. Oh, the iPad does have a video connector cable. But for some presentations (try over lunch), you can actually pass the thing around the table with ease.
No student is going to churn out a 5000 worder on an iPad... if they try I suspect the last few hundred words may be written with the blood of their cracked and dismembered finger tips.
Assuming they have parents that have enough money to buy them one, it would be more likely they'll sit under a tree or lay in bed reading textbooks and researching on the internet using the iPad before going back to an iMac\\Macbook to actually write the essay.
For business... well some maybe. Assuming the iPad actually supports whatever you have written the presentation in it would be fine. However you won't be creating the presentation using the iPad, which would essentially make it a $499 input device for your projector. Something the higher up execs would go for, but I can't see many businesses accepting it across the board.
Um... have you seen the keyboard attachment? Makes it all very easy!
f. flash. forget about it. It's crap, and html 5 specifications just do away with it. Nobody gives a flying f. about flash anymore, even once flash websites have stopped using it, it's not user friendly, it's a hog on resources, there's a whole list on way flash sucks.
Perhaps but if you go to ABC on your notebook, you can watch almost all their shows as well as other networks and cable. It's so much smaller in file size, that's why they use it.
For children, almost all of their sites be it educational to games are all flash.
It's time to bury this hatchet and put it on these devices.
I think Steve Job and company are master psychologists, and the most vocal critics fall prey to their ruse. First create hype which can not possibly be met. Second, make a product but hold back some key features (with the understanding that a even the most ?perfection? product will be met with harsh criticism). Third before the actual product release, or after the first generation product, reintroduce the most key features that critics have been most vocal about.
Critics become neutered. In fact with Apple style Jujitsu, the critics become ardent supporters because their ?voice? was heard. The critics have not yet realized that they are being played.
By the way, ipad looks great. It will become indispensable in the healthcare world as the government is mandating electonic medical records (multi-billion dollar business), both as hand held electonic chart and medical image viewing station. With modifications it can be ecg machine, and possibly sonography machine.
College students will demand it as a replacement for text books. It will also be the wireless passport to your home entertainment center to control TV and stereo. You will find it in restaurants, carried by waiters who put in your orders wireless. Military applications are obvious. Store clerks will complete your credit card purchase with a modified Ipads. Make a docking station for the car dash, plug it in the speakers and you have a music/video/GPS touchscreen device better than anything on the automarket at a fraction of the cost.
While not as powerful as a laptop, Ipad will be the blank canvas to do whatever you want with it. No opening laptops, waiting for it to turn on. No need for a desk or table to work the computer, it will be in your hand anytime with touch screen ready to go. It will be the interface between information/data and the user. The potential is there, it just need developers to see the opportunities to make a boat load of money. Get cracking.
JoeG
JoeG
I think your right on with your thinking. iPad has lot's of potential. Apple has given the basic hardware and software and now it's up to other people to come up with great ideas on how it can be use. I'm very impressed what developers have come up with the iphone and itouch with their little screens. Now to have a larger screen and better operating system the possibilities for this device seem only limited by people's imagination. I think that's why Steve Jobs see's the iPad as a device that can be highly successful.
While the Ipad has a lot of features and lack others, the real advantage of a "giant iphone touch" is mobility. Many professionals do not sit all day in a cubicle punching a keyboard, on a computer which is sitting on a table. The killer feature is the simplicity, easy interface and most importantly--the mobility of the device.
Doctors, nurses, construction foreman, fireman, clerks, waitresses, police officers, soldiers, mothers, farmers...(you get what I am saying)... need the ability to access and enter information quickly, on the run, without having to use a keyboard. Most dedicated profession-specific hardware/software are very expensive. Each ipad can be customized for any job description at a very low price or run it just the way it is.
It's true that most gear heads on this site will not need it, but for the average working person this will be phenomenal. No doubt it will sell well for as a novelty or for home use, but it will also sell well for the workers who work on their feet.
JoeG
You are 100% accurate. You ever see how the doctor writes Rx's now? They sometimes give you a hardcopy if it's a scheduled II but then they send it via their computer. Now ask, how much easier would it be if they had a stylus or a nurse making her rounds and just needs to not down a few notes. I think one will come.
Personaly, all I wanted was Flash and voice to text recognition.
A stylus would be a perk. Makes me wonder if the microsoft device "Courier" is real, if so, that could also do well, especially if it has flash but would not be to fond of that divider in the middle if I decided to watch The Forgotten while waiting for a plane.
The other no so great thing is storage. I can see this getting filed, real quick.
There are already several printing apps which allow you to print from iPhone and the iTouch available from the app store. I see no reason why the iPad would be any different.
I meant now there has to be a way of working with files that is different with the iPad versus the iPhone or iTouch. Because you will be creating on the iPad and you will need to be able to move files from it to other computers for back up or further manipulation.
This thread is still going? Wow.
I have to say, every time I've used my iPod touch today, my first impression has been that it's like a tiny iPad.
ironic eh? Just a few days ago eveyone was saying "...please don't give us a giant iPod...then some stated no way would Apple do that, not with ALL their innovations". Yet here we are with a device that probably most could have come up with if it was just stretching the iPod. I know, I know, it's different but it's not that far off.
I was actually stunned when I saw it. It poked Ike a giant iPhone or the device HP released a few weeks back.
Maybe with version 2.
Indeed. Unles they can make sie major changes now and not try to mik us again withthe same product but with camera, flash bulb, flash support, multitasking. These are sie things they could do before release I bet, if they wanted to.
Troll or not, 1 post whatever. Everything he wrote is true though...
Who. Where? To many pages to read. Post number, page?
Thanks. Curios to see what a one poster posted.
This one offers a breath of fresh air:
8 Reasons Why You Should Buy Apple iPad
I like the survey results parts. Very informative
I don't think it's indefensible. One of the worst things on a portable device would be getting invected with a virus, but if programs aren't allowed to stay running once you quit them, that limits the chance of spread.
If a virus actually makes it onto your device, it's going to install itself as a root process and allow itself to multitask/run-in-the-background just like every other root process and Apple app is allowed to do. You do realize that the iPhone/iPod, and likely the iPad, are constantly running numerous processes all the time, right? If they weren't you wouldn't get background notifications, SMS messages, incoming phone calls, iPod music playback while doing other things, etc, etc.
Your statement is a very poor reason to allow background 3rd party applications, but would be an argument to support the only-Apple-certified-applications-allowed-on-the-device position.
I also find the battery life argument compelling.
Compelling in what way? Do you have any evidence that allowing third party applications in and of itself kills battery life significantly faster than not? It's what the app is doing in the background that matters, not that it is running idle or waiting for some trigger to do something.
You find it compelling despite my previous posts that the Android OS's battery monitor shows that the vast majority (typically 70%+) of battery drain is from the DISPLAY, with the next largest drain being "Cell standby"? You find it compelling despite Crackberry users reporting that they multitask a dozen applications per day with no significant battery drain? You find it compelling despite jailbreakers reporting that they multitask numerous apps with no significant drain unless they're backgrounding radio or GPS intensive apps?
You find it so compelling that you won't even acknowledge it could be an advanced user option for those willing to make some trade off in battery life vs multitasking?
Really?
very program installs it's own freaking background daemon these days. EyeTV Helper, Google Updater, Something font manager ... I'm glad that crap will not be allowed on the tablet.
All that crap that makes your applications and computer more useful, huh?
Do you understand how Unix based operating systems work?
Are you aware that the vast majority of daemons, once started, essentially terminate by becoming a child process of the init process, and they only become active when init gets a call to them from some external source? I'm no expert, but that's my basic understanding.
Have you checked Activity Monitor on your Mac to see just how much of your precious CPU time those awful daemons are using up? The lower the CPU usage, the less battery.
My MacBook Pro has been running for 2 days 15 hours according to the "uptime" command in Terminal. Activity Monitor shows the typical daemon has less than 10 minutes total CPU time, and most in the 2-3 minutes range. That's hardly any kind of battery drain. Check for yourself - look for processes that end with the letter "d".
Multi-touch but no multitasking? There is no reason that a device such as this can't multitask. The lack of multitasking is the primary reason why my iPhone 3G really doesn't take my time away from my computer. Not when I need to get something done,
It is not a matter of "can't". It is a matter of "Steve won't let you".
Seemingly, he believes that too many of his customers can't handle it. Or at least, that is what many folks here believe.
Watch the video, at about 2:50 - 3:30 in the video. Mossberg is grilling Steve on the battery life for various uses of the device. Jobs says the iTab only 10 hours for reading, Mossberg points out that the Kindle is much more, Jobs responds "it's all about the display, yes, it's all about the display, our chips don't use hardly any power." Mossberg grills him a bit more, Jobs gets defensive, then spurts out his famous "it's not a big deal" line, and continues to point out that "you're not going to read a book for 10 hours" and "10 hours is a really long time."
So, while he doesn't flat out address multitasking, it's pretty safe to assume from his comments that, as I've pointed out earlier, it's the display that kills battery life on these devices, more so than all other features combined.
All that said, Jobs seemed awfully cranky and defensive. Much more so than he has in the past. I wonder if it's his health, or the criticism of his "baby". And for what it's worth...if it's a really good book, and a weekend, I most certainly might read for 10 hours straight. ;-)
Okay you "multitasking kills the battery" pundits, hear it for yourself, straight from the mouth of Steve Jobs: http://kara.allthingsd.com/20100128/...ve-jobs-cameo/
Watch the video, at about 2:50 - 3:30 in the video. Mossberg is grilling Steve on the battery life for various uses of the device. Jobs says the iTab only 10 hours for reading, Mossberg points out that the Kindle is much more, Jobs responds "it's all about the display, yes, it's all about the display, our chips don't use hardly any power." Mossberg grills him a bit more, Jobs gets defensive, then spurts out his famous "it's not a big deal" line, and continues to point out that "you're not going to read a book for 10 hours" and "10 hours is a really long time."
So, while he doesn't flat out address multitasking, it's pretty safe to assume from his comments that, as I've pointed out earlier, it's the display that kills battery life on these devices, more so than all other features combined.
All that said, Jobs seemed awfully cranky and defensive. Much more so than he has in the past. I wonder if it's his health, or the criticism of his "baby". And for what it's worth...if it's a really good book, and a weekend, I most certainly might read for 10 hours straight. ;-)
I wonder if maybe Jobs is having Newton flashbacks.