next weeks apple event

[argonauta]

I think it's an oversized ipod touch. If it came with max osx, i'd buy it.
Besides, I think there will be better options that might "copy" it in a few months (running android or windows 7 probably). I just hate the fact that Apple blatantly tells you what you can and can't use in a device you own. It's a completely closed source system....not saying it should be opensource, but it should offer options (let you install apps from unofficial appstores, or choose a different browser, etc).

I'm wondering if this device falls in the "computer" category...it'd be sweet if it gets in trouble with the EU for how they deal with this OS.

[argonauta]

btw...Here is a big advert for cintiq for anyone who wants to look.

I have one of those but I don't like it...it's way too inaccurate when you're near the borders. The more expensive one is the awesome one.

[gerbick]

Wow - I could not disagree more. From the features section on their site - http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/
iBooks
Mail
Maps
Notes
Calendar
Contacts
WiFi
3G
I'll check with some of my colleagues, but I think most of them would kill to have all of these things in a tiny, sexy, 10 hour battery life package that can be returned to office to sync with another desktop/laptop.

Not to mention the price point which makes it can't afford to NOT have rather than a can't afford.

I see what you're saying, but I'm coming from an internet tablet - Nokia N810 - that has Flash Player 9, full browser capabilities, the ability to sync with Google apps, VoIP, Wi-Fi, IM, Office reading/editing, Exchange/IMAP/POP3, ePub/eBook/PDF reader already built-in, and true multi-tasking.

For me, this is a step backwards in some cases. But the fact that I have an iPhone and this means my purchases won't be deadlocked to one device - which is a huge plus.

I'm just disappointed by the lack of a forward facing camera (sorry, but video calls/IM's is a killer app to me) and true MS Office editing alongside the lack of multi-tasking - one app at a time isn't how I work, all but my iPhone makes me do that - is a bit of a letdown.

This is a definitely mass-market item that will sell damn well. But for the "road warrior"... we will just have to agree to disagree at this moment. They solve multi-tasking, I'll turn on a dime and agree with you wholeheartedly.

[WannaBe_80z]

http://www.hulu.com/watch/94300/macheads

[moath86]

it's a giant iPod touch! they are actually mocking ppl and fans with this crap!
lets see, no webcam, no multi tasking, iphone OS, no flash support, NO USB, no external memory cards, no external battery! and above all it's overly priced..500$! there is something that includes all that and for half the price...a netbook! to be honest if such device was introduced by any other company, with all this hype, there will be some serious criticism... i'm not against apple or anything...but this is a joke...ipad is a fail

[jAQUAN]

[gerbick]

Haha!

[mehmet22]

That is a very nice find jAQUAN.
lol

[EVPohovich]

That's damn funny!!

[Frets]

I could see the use for a tablet pc especially if you have to do field work or inventory control. honestly the only thing that caught my eye in the gadget field was the yrg. I'm already in pre-production building apps for it. once I get the sdk's I'll be a happier camper.

[jAQUAN]

yrg == yoga for regular guys?

[EVPohovich]

yrg==YoungRussianGirls?

[gerbick]

Who said young russian girls!?

[jAQUAN]

[silverx2]

maybe they can donate some money to help develop world vaccines like bill and melinda gates.

[Googooboyy]

Since Bill & Melinda are already doing that.. Dear Apple, I'd like to see a 1ghz A4 on an iPhone soon. XOXO

[Genesis F5]

Bwahahaha, this is from the jokes link ihoss posted:

Mac's iPad. Mac's iPad. Mac's iPad.

Say it with me, folks.

Maxipad, maxipad, maxipad.

[joshstrike]

Man, I was so over exercised about this when the presentation happened and Jobs gave the big "F* no" to ever having Flash support. I've been an Apple user for 20 years and a Flash user for 15.

The only reason I'd ever buy one of these would be if it ran Flex Builder and let me code in a somewhat less obtrusive way, on a flat surface, on a cheap machine, so I don't have to worry as much about getting jacked or kidnapped since I spend 90% of my coding time at cafes in the third world, with a laptop that runs about half the annual income of most of the people around me.

Anyway, this is just for idiots. If Apple has a reputation for marketing aggressively stupid-to-use products to stupid people, at least in the past they left an option for those of us who wanted complete control over the machine. The idea of buying hardware you can't even download freeware for -- where every app has to come through the hardware manufacturer's store -- is sickening. Their decision to bar Flash from the platform is a slap in the face to developers like us, but it's just a small part of their hugely insulting overall campaign to rid their platform of what used to be affectionately called "power users".

I've been an Apple junkie since 1990... the reason Flash appealed to me in its earliest incarnations was because of my long standing familiarity with building projects in HyperCard. But I've gotten to the end of that. **** Apple. They've lose me as a customer. From now on, I'll just run pirated OS X on cheap PCs.

[gerbick]

You're assuming that this was for "power users" - that's your main problem.

Let me clue you in... it's not for power users. It's for folks that want to have a fancier Kindle or nook. It's not a device that I'd even consider to use for Flex; that's before the announcement. Now that the announcement is out, the form factor - too small, the lack of a proper CPU - PA Semiconductor based ARM processor, and the lack of true multi-tasking - power users multi-task, non-power users serial-task, that's what the iPhone does, so does the iPad.

The whole snub to Flash, it was halfway expected. They say that it crashes Safari the most, so they'll say that they would rather block it. The rest... Jobs ego has gotten the best of him - Adobe's lazy, Google's evil... blah blah.

I'm not insulted. This isn't a product for me at all.

[joshstrike]

Yeah, but I'm also saying that power users have been a not-insignificant subculture who sustained Apple through years of darkness in the mid-'90s when their platform was widely ridiculed by PC users. During the shift to Unix, Apple relied on the more-informed fraction of their user base to evangelize for them. Now they seem to have changed wholeheartedly to a marketing strategy aimed only at the lowest common denominator, the dumbest appliance user, the GPS-enabled cell phone consumer... or what Windows users always accused Mac junkies of being from day one. I think it's a terrible strategic error, because they're tossing out the years of investment they've made to build themselves into a legitimate competitor against what most acknowledge is a terrible hog of an OS that controls 80% of desktops, laptops and mobiles... and they're ditching that in favor of... an OS that doesn't allow multitasking? That doesn't allow any kind of creativity, only consumption of pre-made movies and music and crapplications?

The reason most so-called power users bought macs and got good on them was that we wanted powerful video editing and color calibration and preflight press tools that just weren't up to speed under Windows 3 in the mid-90's. Most of which were made by Adobe or companies and technologies it has since absorbed. We became power users because we didn't want to be constrained by out-of-the-box utilities and applications. I think Apple's mistake here is that they've become convinced that ease of use was the only reason most artists and designers opted to buy their machines. It's not and it never was. We bought their gear because it was slick and easy and we could make it do whatever we wanted it to do. Take the flexibility and openness out of the equation, stick it all into a walled garden, and you have an overpriced dummy appliance; a TiVo box on steroids. I think it's huge mistake. It's the Apple Lisa all over again, and Jobs should know better.

I've never downloaded an update of iTunes. When I buy a new Mac for my business, the first thing I do is delete iPhoto, iMovie, and everything else on the ****er that starts with a lowercase i. If they aren't going to let me do that, I don't want their POS*** platform anymore; it's worse than worthless.