What do you think about this new thing?
Obviously i haven't seen it in person, only on tv. My gut feeling, it seems kind of useless. It's a giant ipod, how convenient is that, really? I've heard people saying how it can be used to replace laptops and stuff. really? somehow i can't see that thing having near the capabilities of a full working computer/laptop. Spreadsheets, pdf files, powerpoint, everything else you need. Not to mention typing on that onscreen keyboard would get tiring.
So how convenient is it really to take this over-sized ipod around, i haven't heard yet of a true benefit.
It reminds me of when those giant laser dics came out and some people ran out to get them thinking they were so great. Then what, they realized they suckedand they went obsolete after a few months?

Laser disk continued to be the premium product until DVD came along, especially if you wanted to call it "home theater" vs watching a video. I was lucky enough to live in a village with a couple of LD rental stores.

Back to Ipad though...
1) Ultimate browsing experience without Flash? Granted, flash-blocker is one my favorite add-ons for firefox, but you can still see flash pages when you want to.

2) you can only buy programs from Apple's store? Apple has denied several apps dealing with services like Google-voice presumably because they would cut into AT&T revenue.

3) (or 2b) Only supports Itunes "fairplay" digital rights management (DRM), which rules out services like Rhapsody and the system libraries use for audiobooks.


All of those are contrary to Job's statement in the unveiling that Ipad works the way YOU want to rather than you bending to the way it works.

Just as long as they don't slip the word "max" into it somehow. IMO everything should be opensource and people shoulld be able to make it work the way they want it to.

If they made it and expected no money from it after it left the store, then it might change the world. As long as they expect people to pay for things they can get from the net for free and restrict what you can run on it, people will not feel free using it. People don't want to use their PC at home and then feel tied up and closed in with this gadget thats only going to be used as a status symbol.

This is a post from slashdot..
"It's more than just an iPod touch that won't fit in your pocket...it's also an underpowered netbook with no keyboard. It's the worst of both worlds!"

I also don't feel a strong need to run out and get the ipad.
My gut feeling also is that it's kind of useless.

I think the advantage of the iPad is that you can lay its touch screen flat, and write on it with a pointer. As though that were an advantage!! We've grown out of the ages when executives looked down on typing and despised it; we now are a generation and a culture of typists, most of us can't read others' handwriting. And some of us, like I, can't even handwrite any more, since I have no motor coordination to speak of. (I just scraped by in the subject of "penmanship" in grade four.) Nice toy, but like the others here, before me, said, it's useless. I don't know how it will catch on. Mind you, they said the same about The Beatles, the Internet, the Hitlerjugend, and Christianity as well.

Oo. Edit: I thought of more advantages: You can take it to bed to read it like a book or watch some show on it as you slumber your way into sleep. I think the smallish but large-enough screen to allow it to be read as a book is an invention much too overdue; it should have been invented when I was in college, some twenty years ago, and had made all books available at a fraction of a cost of paper books, while saving the lives of many-many trees and chipmunks.

i'd take one if I won it, but I'd never pay for one.

Now this Ipad is starting to turn the publishing world upside down with the fight between Amazon and MacMillan over the weekend. There are sure to be pricing wars between Apple and Amazon and the publishers. Amazon even wants figure out how to cut out the publishers and work directly with the authors. Who needs publishers if the author simply create an ebook in word or similar format, then let Amazon and Apple distribute it...

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9150538/FAQ_Amazon_vs._Macmillan_The_iPad_wins_?taxonomyId=75

Ironic considering how iron fisted Apple was about 99 cent pricing on Itunes.

If Amazon deals directly with authors, I'd expect either them or a parter would offer print-to-order versions of those books. Lots of people still like "real"

Interesting parallels to music, where technology reduces the necessity for the physical production companies that also act as judge/gateway for who can play.