Roll Call: Who's Buying an iPad, and Why?
When all the BS commentary is said and done, I am buying an iPad. In fact, I'm going to pre-order at the first moment. I don't have a great justification. I will be using the bookstore. My vision is quite poor, so when people started talking about a big iPod touch, I was excited. The Kindle is too small, and the Kindle DX is too expensive for a unitasker. If the bookstore is compatible with Apple's Voice Over, that means I will be able to listen to books when my eyes get tired. That functionality alone is worth it to me.
I'm also excited about a large, handheld, touch version of all the casual games I enjoy. I never became much of a gamer due to the small size of portable game devices. Casual iPad game, also worth it to me.
I am going to buy the wifi version, but I am not convinced that I will stick with it. I would love to hear from those who have decided on the 3G version. What is your use case? I figure I will enjoy the iPad for a month and sell it on ebay when I am ready to upgrade.
Who else has decided to be an early adopter, and what is your rationalization?
I'm also excited about a large, handheld, touch version of all the casual games I enjoy. I never became much of a gamer due to the small size of portable game devices. Casual iPad game, also worth it to me.
I am going to buy the wifi version, but I am not convinced that I will stick with it. I would love to hear from those who have decided on the 3G version. What is your use case? I figure I will enjoy the iPad for a month and sell it on ebay when I am ready to upgrade.
Who else has decided to be an early adopter, and what is your rationalization?
Comments
1) At home. Sitting on the sofa or in bed, the iPhone is too small. I love the iPhone when I'm out, but a larger screen will be great for the occasional game, surfing, mail, etc. We don't have movie or TV downloads here in Japan, so I won't be doing much video watching (except for my own). We also don't have the book store, so I won't e using that function [wish Apple would allow Pages to print to iBooks; could be fun].
2) Out and about. The iPad will slip easily into my camera bag that I already carry quite often; my MacBook Air doesn't. I'll be able to jot notes, manage photos, whip together ideas for projects, other stuff. Much of this I already do on my iPhone, but again a larger screen will make things much easier, as will iWork.
3) At work. I often make presentations to small groups. The iPad is the perfect size. For one-to-one's, the iPhone will do, but not for groups. I'll also be able to share my project ideas straight from where I created them, whenever and wherever my boss wishes to see them. The size and weight also make it very easy for the iPad to be handed around. Was considering a small pico projector until the iPad was released; it's a much better solution. The iPad will also be much less obstructive during meetings; no display blocking my view.
I was going to go for the WiFi version, but will wait and see prices in Japan for the 3G (and data plans). For meetings held outside the office and its wifi, or when I'm away from home, having internet connectivity could be very helpful and fun. Now I occasionally use my iPhone to check stuff or to show people where I'm from using Google Earth, for example. These will be much more enjoyable on the iPad.
Now, I have a laptop and occasionally use it from the couch but that's truthfully not a great experience either; you lose the instant-on, no-need-to-open-it-up capability of a surface device, and need to completely resituate yourself to work with the 5 pound, L-shaped device. Yeah, you can leave it open and on but then it takes up half the coffee table and only lasts 3 hrs on battery before you have to start running power cables or go back to using the 3.5" iPhone screen. The iPad truthfully does fit nicely between these two products, and at $499 it's affordable enough not to have to think too hard about getting one. I know I will use it religiously; the biggest hurdle for me was overcoming the fact that using it means using my other devices that I paid good money for less.
I'll probably get one for my personal use as well.
I know that this is a thread for people wanting to get them, but I still want to put my reasoning out there to get some feedback (or to maybe change my mind).
1) I'd like to wait to see where the pricing settles in. I never bought the iPhone when it first came out, but I was damn close. Now, I'm not one that's strapped for cash. I'm an attorney, I make good money, but I also hate getting ripped off. If I bought an iPad and then a few months down the road they dropped the price by 20%, I'd be pissed.
2) I'd like to see what the eBook store and the iPad application store look like after a few months. Just to get a better feel for what kind of content will be available to me. Will there be enough content to keep me entertained for an entire 4hr+ plane ride, considering I don't game on my iPhone?
3) Sometimes I feel too constrained by the AppStore and its limitations on my iPhone. This is why I jailbroke it. For a device that will be almost a replacement for my personal laptop, the limitations may prove to be too onerous for its purpose.
4) The ergonomics aspect of it is unknown to me. For me to dive in, I gotta get one in my hands and spend some quality time with it. Again, going back to the 4 hr plane ride point: is this going to be something that I can look at and use on a 4 hr plane ride.
There are the things that are immediately popping into my head that are giving me pause. They probably won't be resolved until I can get one of these into my hands at the Apple store.
I know that if you look at this post and my previous posts, I may come off as an apple hater, but I really really love my iPhone and I am pretty close to getting myself a MacBook.
I wonder, will Apple bill us for the device on March 12th if we pre-order? Not that I should place an order without the money to cover it, but I'd prefer that 600+ to sit in my account til at least the shipping date. Any insight?
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Definitely getting the 32 gb WiFi model. 3G isn't necessary as I already carry the 3GS. I won't know til I start using it if the iPad will travel with me or not. It seems it could replace a lot of the time spent on my iMac, and I'm really excited about using iTeleport (formally Jaadu VNC) to control my Mac!
I use Jaadu or whatever they want to call it now every single day on the iPhone, and its ONLY downfall is the screen size....enter 9.7 iPad!!!
I was really excited about the iPad, but after giving it some thought, I'd have to say no. I recently bought a Sony eBook reader and am in the process of returning it because I had planned on getting the iPad instead. Now I'm going to hold of on getting either.
I know that this is a thread for people wanting to get them, but I still want to put my reasoning out there to get some feedback (or to maybe change my mind).
1) I'd like to wait to see where the pricing settles in. I never bought the iPhone when it first came out, but I was damn close. Now, I'm not one that's strapped for cash. I'm an attorney, I make good money, but I also hate getting ripped off. If I bought an iPad and then a few months down the road they dropped the price by 20%, I'd be pissed.
Prices will come down by a hundred dollars across all models in September. Deal with it.
2) I'd like to see what the eBook store and the iPad application store look like after a few months. Just to get a better feel for what kind of content will be available to me. Will there be enough content to keep me entertained for an entire 4hr+ plane ride, considering I don't game on my iPhone?
How many books can you read in 4 hours? Certainly not more than what the top 5 publishers in the world can offer...
3) Sometimes I feel too constrained by the AppStore and its limitations on my iPhone. This is why I jailbroke it. For a device that will be almost a replacement for my personal laptop, the limitations may prove to be too onerous for its purpose.
I have no idea how this is supposed to be case for or against the iPad. You "feel" constrained? Maybe a doctor should look at that?
4) The ergonomics aspect of it is unknown to me. For me to dive in, I gotta get one in my hands and spend some quality time with it. Again, going back to the 4 hr plane ride point: is this going to be something that I can look at and use on a 4 hr plane ride.
If you could use a Mac, or an iPhone, its hard to imagine this being so radically different, since, you know, its not.
My iPhone is 16GB, and I intend to have a lot less content on my iPad then I do on my iPhone (no need for 7GB of music). If the iPad could load RAW photos from my camera though, that'd be a whole other story.
For those of you who are ponying up for more than 16GB of memory, what makes you feel you need the extra space? I can't imagine many people using it as a gigantic jukebox, so loading it up with music doesn't make much sense to me. Loading it up with tv shows and movies seems unlikely, also (I could see maybe carrying along the one you rented before boarding a flight, but that's about it). Do we have an idea of how large iBook downloads will be?
My iPhone is 16GB, and I intend to have a lot less content on my iPad then I do on my iPhone (no need for 7GB of music). If the iPad could load RAW photos from my camera though, that'd be a whole other story.
My iPhone is 16 gb as well, and I'm considering 32 gb for the iPad, but my just go 16 gb. Music will stay on my iPhone, and free up a lot of space by removing certain apps in favor of iPad use, as well as some Video and photos. I think the 32 gb (really 26.8) of storage between them would be more than enough to balance everything.
For those of you who are ponying up for more than 16GB of memory, what makes you feel you need the extra space? I can't imagine many people using it as a gigantic jukebox, so loading it up with music doesn't make much sense to me. Loading it up with tv shows and movies seems unlikely, also (I could see maybe carrying along the one you rented before boarding a flight, but that's about it). Do we have an idea of how large iBook downloads will be?
My iPhone is 16GB, and I intend to have a lot less content on my iPad then I do on my iPhone (no need for 7GB of music). If the iPad could load RAW photos from my camera though, that'd be a whole other story.
This so mirrors my thinking and situation, I could have written this post myself. I only listen to podcasts and audiobooks when I am out and about. They travel well on an iPhone. I only have to carry one device for music and the occasional phone call and it fits in my pocket. I will never listen to music on an iPad while on the move. At home, I can just use the Apple remote app for controlling iTunes on my computer. I can see keeping a movie and two or three TV shows on the iPad, but no more.
I have plenty of apps for my iPhone that are not currently loaded for one reason or another. I suspect I will load all apps, whether I use them regularly or not, on my iPad. Why not? I will also keep all my photos on it, just as I do on the iPhone. I am having trouble coming up with a use case for more than 16GB. I was rather hoping someone would convince me that I needed the larger storage.
It'll be replacing my PowerBookG4 for travel (which is frequent.)
As for storage?... I'll get the 64GB version. (I've never had a device that I wished had less storage-space... but I've often wished things had MORE storage.)
Video... Movies... they take up a lot of space. I want to be able to have several full length movies on it at any given time. And formatting them for the (slightly) larger screen will result in even larger files than the one's loaded on my iPhone.
For instance... it would be terribly handy this week... a road trip with children... to be able to just have a ton of videos on the iPad rather than fumbling with DVD's and their clam-shell players in the car. But mostly for my OWN travel... sitting on an airplane for 10 hours at a time can get to be arduous. Being able to have several movies to choose from, plus a huge library of books... priceless! (and the iPad form-factor is so much nicer for the tight confines of air-travel compared to a laptop.
If we could tether to the iPhone I might skip the 3G option, but as it sits now, I'll hold out for 3G.
My 32GB iPod Touch is great for emails on the go or for using iPod/Phone applications, but it's a pain for web browsing-- the screen is just too small. A larger screen will also make watching movies more enjoyable when traveling.
I'll definitely be getting the 64GB model. Even with a limited amount of music on my iPod I find 32GB too limiting, as I like to load it up with movies and TV shows.
This brings up a questions, how will the iPad handle displaying movies/TV shows that were already ripped on Handbreak optimized for the Touch?
I will wait a bit, only purchasing after reading what people say about it and playing with it at the store.
The reasons have been discussed in many threads before.
The iPhone GPS uses aGPS. To work properly aGPS requires a network connection. Will the iPhone GPS work without this network connection?
I am trying to decide between the WiFi Only version and the 3G version. I am currently using a Touch and rarely wished I had 3G connectivity. Nor am I interested in a monthly data plan fee. However the iPad data plan is attractive in that it has no contract and I should be able to start and stop it as I see fit. The tripping point may be GPS. To get GPS I would have to get the 3G version. This brings up the question, on the iPhone does the GPS work when network connectivity in unavailable?
The iPhone GPS uses aGPS. To work properly aGPS requires a network connection. Will the iPhone GPS work without this network connection?
I had originally decided to get the 3G version, but I've changed my mind totally. If in the future I decide I need 3G, I will just get a phone with WiFi and tethering like the new Sony Ericsson Elm J10 (I saw it in the shop yesterday and almost bought it -- just waiting for my provider to have it on subsidy).