Steve Jobs: iPad to offer Word support, $10 eBooks, 6 days of music

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  • Reply 61 of 159
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTripper View Post


    The OP is looking if Microsoft Word will run on the iPad, he might need it for his job. We all know formatting doesn't move over smoothly from different programs and he might have to save as a Word for others to use. Also he might need to save files to disk or USB key, both the iPad doesn't have.



    Word isn't available on the iPad, it could take Microsoft years to come out with a version if ever.



    Telling him to buy a iPad and wait for a Word App is bad advice, it's best he get a Mac Mini and the OfficeMac suit.



    Later if the iPad better suits his needs he can get one.





    Try reading the OP first please, thank you!



    When I said "wait", I obvoiusly didn't mean to not do what you need to do in the meantime. But if this isn't a required product, and no product is really required, just desired for various reasons, then other ways will suffice, even if the portability is desired.



    But for the average person wanting to buy this, it's different. I would imagine that most people buying this will already have a computer, so this isn't necessary, just an addition, as it will be with us.



    But in a couple of years, it may be different. Considering that you can do the app store very well on this, as well as on almost any other computer, you may not have to sync it to a computer at all. If, and right now, it's a big if, the adapters that Apple has for this will allow a small USB drive, then back-ups are possible without using the "cloud". Or, if Apple gets Mobileme working the way it would be useful for people with this, then that could be used. but, right now, I'm not thrilled about cloud storage of sensitive information. Maybe in the future.



    This thing has a lot of potential.



    What I've found interesting is that people at the introduction who said they were skeptical before they actually got to use it were transformed by the experience. Two PSmag editors who weren't there, the day before it came out, said that it wouldn't be popular, and couldn't see a use for it.



    The two who went to the presentation and used it said just the opposite.



    Interesting.
  • Reply 62 of 159
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stuffe View Post


    The Nexus One has a handy app showing where you battery juice is leaking from. The screen takes over 50% of available power in all the screenshots I have seen of this.



    Bearing in mind that the phone is sitting there with a network connection constantly polling the net for phone calls and emails, and all these background apps that I keep hearing about I expect the percentage of power use by the iPad to be much greater, as the underlying chippery will be much the same, be in use less (no phone mast polling) and the screen is what, 6 times the size? Wouldn't surprise me if the screen is zapping 80%+ of available juice. Whether it's the screen, the capacitive elements, or the backlit LED is irrelevant.



    When they say "screen, in the case of the Nexus One, they are not talking about an LCD panel. You know that it uses an AMOLED, don't you? There is no backlight for an AMOLED, because it generates its own light.



    An LCD screen is very different. And the statement was that an IPS panel used more power than other LCD displays. I pointed out that LCD panels use very little power, it's the backlight that uses it.



    Now, you're changing the argument.
  • Reply 63 of 159
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Abster2core View Post


    "?beginning to??"



    Sent you private message.



    excuse me? why do you feel the need to broadcast the fact you sent a private message? how is this of any benefit to forum readers? at all.



    Anyway, I am really excited for the iPad, the more I hear the more I like it
  • Reply 64 of 159
    stuffestuffe Posts: 394member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    When they say "screen, in the case of the Nexus One, they are not talking about an LCD panel. You know that it uses an AMOLED, don't you? There is no backlight for an AMOLED, because it generates its own light.



    An LCD screen is very different. And the statement was that an IPS panel used more power than other LCD displays. I pointed out that LCD panels use very little power, it's the backlight that uses it.



    Now, you're changing the argument.



    I wasn't getting involved in any argument, much less changing it



    I was merely providing anecdotal evidence that by and large it's the screen that is the biggest drain on the battery in this sort of device. And that I expect that to be a bigger issue in the iPad than in smaller devices, due to the relatively similar internal architectures being used for broadly similar tasks, yet massively large screen.



    This is how they are getting 10 hours usage with the screen on, and 6 days with it off.



    That's all.
  • Reply 65 of 159
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cmf2 View Post


    How well do fonts and formatting transfer over? I've found that even Office on Windows to Office for mac has had some fonts that are not recognized. I think I was using Office 2003 on Windows and 2004 for mac at the time.





    If your sharing with others and they require to edit it, like at work, it's best to use the same machine and software version they are using. So everyone see's and can work on the same thing.



    If your getting files from others and not sending them out, you can chose what you want depending how complex the files are and if they can be imported or not. If your willing to tweak things or not. Usually spreadsheets and word documents come over with little disturbance, the others is less so.



    If your sending stuff out highly formatted, it's best to use the what everyone else uses or PDF it and nobody can edit it.



    If you PDF it, then you can use what you want. They are not going to be able to change it anyway.
  • Reply 66 of 159
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TEKSTUD View Post


    As an accountant and I am sure for millions of other business people- no Excel app - 100%, NO deal.



    Could you PLEASE go back to your crap netbook and PC? How many people have to tell ya: Apple doesn't give a flyin'-F whether YOU buy the tablet or not? So why should WE?
  • Reply 67 of 159
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ThePixelDoc View Post


    Could you PLEASE go back to your crap netbook and PC? How many people have to tell ya: Apple doesn't give a flyin'-F whether YOU buy the tablet or not? So why should WE?



    Yeah, get lost Tekstud, there's no room on this website for people who disagree with people!
  • Reply 68 of 159
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ThePixelDoc View Post


    Could you PLEASE go back to your crap netbook and PC? How many people have to tell ya: Apple doesn't give a flyin'-F whether YOU buy the tablet or not? So why should WE?



    Easy dude, jesus.



    Excel is widely used in the business world, it can't be gotten around. Apple even sells it on Mac's.



    He was just making a point, that the iPad needs OfficeMac App or something.



    No need to act like a rapid fanboy.
  • Reply 69 of 159
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stonefree View Post


    "The journalist said he would need to save it as a Microsoft Word document, though, because his editors "don't know anything about Pages.""



    Why does the pages file format even exist? Why couldn't Apple (who supposedly love open standards) have used ODF? Or at least have made pages a simple wrapper for ODF. You can't even export in ODF. Almost no one uses Pages and it's not compatible with any other program.



    Not compatible? I can read word documents and do a save as to save them back as word documents or I can export them to PDF, Word, RTF or plain text so this makes a good choice as a word alternative. As a bonus I can read all my old powerpoints into Keynote and use them and also add features (I could export them back as powerpoints if I wanted). I have been doing this on my mac for several years. Seems like a good choice for the iPad (but I think it would be even better if it was just bundled with the product).
  • Reply 70 of 159
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by PaulMJohnson View Post


    Yeah, get lost Tekstud, there's no room on this website for people who disagree with people!



  • Reply 71 of 159
    stuffestuffe Posts: 394member
    Textedit and Wordpad on the Mac and PC respectively open and save word files. Have you ever tried this for any serious work? Just throwing that out there for you



    I don't see pages as anything but a home, or maybe small office tool. And I'm a fan, I have it. At work I use Office 2007, and it does things that iWork can only dream of (Excel maintaining data connections to libraries of XML files in Sharepoint being a prime example). MS Office whups ass for business, always will. But I like to leave work at work, and I use iWork at home and am really happy with it. What personal MS Offfice files I had have transferred across OK over the years with a bit of fiddling, and if ever I need to send them out to other people, they are getting PDF and liking it. I'm not running MS Office on my own equipment just to make it easier for other people to read my shit.



    I'll get Pages for iPad when I get an iPad (maybe next year, new phone first I think), and I'll likely not be limited in what I can do with it. I'm more concerned that it supports Pages 09 native, than Word.
  • Reply 72 of 159
    takeotakeo Posts: 445member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ascii View Post


    Who knows Microsoft may port Word to the tablet. They already have a Mac version which uses many of the same APIs.



    Possibly... but I think "port" is the wrong term to use. In order for any productivity application to make sense on a tablet... the entire user interface really has to be rethought and recreated from the ground up.



    That's why the "doesn't run OS X" complaint is so foolish. OS X is designed for use with a mouse and keyboard. You can't just put it on a tablet and say "okay, done". Well... you COULD... like Windows on that new HP Tablet. But it would be far from ideal and it doesn't take the power of multitouch into account. This is a different interaction model and as such it requires (and can greatly benefit from) a different kind of interface.



    I'm very curious about the idea of everything being app-focused... with no file system exposed to the user at all. As a geek... of course... that doesn't work for me. But for 95% of computer users... it's probably a whole lot more user-friendly and intuitive.
  • Reply 73 of 159
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ivan.rnn01 View Post


    They learned lessons all right from what Bergermeister's poll showed them.

    P.S. BTW, I can hardly imagine an editor who would agree to receive MS Word document.

    P.P.S. I'd be hugely obliged to Steve, if he explained to that ummm... interviewer how to physically export created documents (DOC, PDF, "whatever") from iPad...



    Gee, I'd like to meet your publisher. My insists on RTF/DOC files from Word (though they sometimes use openoffice to process them).



    The funny part is that I write my books with Framemaker and the publisher uses Framemaker to lay out the book. But all the iterative editing is done with DOC files. So I'm constantly converting between RTF and FM files.
  • Reply 74 of 159
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stonefree View Post


    "The journalist said he would need to save it as a Microsoft Word document, though, because his editors "don't know anything about Pages.""



    Why does the pages file format even exist? Why couldn't Apple (who supposedly love open standards) have used ODF? Or at least have made pages a simple wrapper for ODF. You can't even export in ODF. Almost no one uses Pages and it's not compatible with any other program.





    ODF would have been the way to go.



    So in Pages one will have to save as a Word doc, as a lot of open source office programs can import in that format.
  • Reply 75 of 159
    ltmpltmp Posts: 204member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cmf2 View Post


    How well do fonts and formatting transfer over? I've found that even Office on Windows to Office for mac has had some fonts that are not recognized. I think I was using Office 2003 on Windows and 2004 for mac at the time.



    Macros also fail to make the translation from Windows to Mac.
  • Reply 76 of 159
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by icyfog View Post


    iWork = MS Office

    iWork for iPad = $30

    iWork > MS Office

    No need for MS Office



    They are both office suites but they are from equating to each other in usage needs and there is no way that iWork is "greater than" MS Office for the vast majority of people. Even for Office for Mac pales in comparison to Office for Windows when it comes to shear number of apps and complexity of apps. Just like Windows, Office has its place, especially in the Enterprise, and is far from being unseated by a consumer-based option.
  • Reply 77 of 159
    mark2005mark2005 Posts: 1,158member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jpellino View Post


    You didn't know iWork exports Word Excel and PowerPoint?



    Really?



    I know that iWork for the Mac exports the MS document formats. What I had no assurance of was that iWork for the iPad does the same thing.
  • Reply 78 of 159
    daharderdaharder Posts: 1,580member
    [CENTER]There's little doubt that I'll be buying an iPad 64gb/3G ASAP, but still...



    I don't find the entire iPad experience to be very 'game changing' in the least, but that 140 hour music playback claim is just incredible, and clearly sets some kind of benchmark on a device of this kind.



    [/CENTER]
  • Reply 79 of 159
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    When I said "wait", I obvoiusly didn't mean to not do what you need to do in the meantime. But if this isn't a required product, and no product is really required, just desired for various reasons, then other ways will suffice, even if the portability is desired.



    Right I understand.



    Quote:

    But for the average person wanting to buy this, it's different. I would imagine that most people buying this will already have a computer, so this isn't necessary, just an addition, as it will be with us.



    The iPad can't replace the OP's Dell right now, like he want's to, it's a "extra" with potential later down the road. I was trying to steer him in the right direction.



    Quote:

    But in a couple of years, it may be different. Considering that you can do the app store very well on this, as well as on almost any other computer, you may not have to sync it to a computer at all. If, and right now, it's a big if, the adapters that Apple has for this will allow a small USB drive, then back-ups are possible without using the "cloud". Or, if Apple gets Mobileme working the way it would be useful for people with this, then that could be used. but, right now, I'm not thrilled about cloud storage of sensitive information. Maybe in the future.



    I think Apple intends this iPad to become the first of a cloud device, having the plant in NC up and running sometime next year to support that.



    I also agree I don't like the idea of cloud storage or computing, it's too dependent upon network and subject to interception.



    But that's where Apple is going so they can produce lighter, cheaper and more profitable devices. I predicted this many moons ago because processors can't be made to go any faster.



    Basically the iPad is a terminal, like the very old days...





    Quote:

    What I've found interesting is that people at the introduction who said they were skeptical before they actually got to use it were transformed by the experience. Two PSmag editors who weren't there, the day before it came out, said that it wouldn't be popular, and couldn't see a use for it.



    The two who went to the presentation and used it said just the opposite.



    Interesting.





    I think there should be two classes of "heads"



    MacHeads and AppleHeads, the latter accepting the new iPhone like GUI and closed universe of the App Store.



    The iPad is not a Mac, it's something else that's going to take over eventually.



    It think that's why there is such mixed reviews, and as I predicted would occur if the "iSlate" was based solely upon the iPhone type GUI.
  • Reply 80 of 159
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Jobs seemed to be getting pretty annoyed with Mossberg towards the end with his jabs about how Word dominates editing. When only 5-10% of the machines in the world can the world can run Pages, you can't expect otherwise.



    I have personally found Pages compatibility to be quite poor and the overall program to be quite sluggish. There are other alternatives that will be based on products like OpenOffice such as QuickOffice for iphone, Documents to Go, QuickWord and they'll run on the iPad.



    Concerning battery life, I tend to agree with what Jobs said that if the machine lasts enough for a working day (24 hours - 8 for sleep - 1 for washing/toilet - 2 for meals = 13 hours tops) then it's no big deal. The only time that would become a big deal is if you took it on a camping holiday or somewhere it's hard to find a charging point. But again, the reason you go on holiday is to get away from it all so not a huge problem.
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