Any of you goons get an iPad?

[Lonestar]

So yesterday the iPad came out. I see on the local news that crowds were waiting for the Apple Stores and "select retailers" to open, even with a father-daughter pair that flew down from Canada to buy an iPad early. For the life of me I'm not sure why anyone would run out and buy an iPad specifically(it does have a benefit over existing Win7 Tablets in that the Win7 interface doesn't really translate well to touch) as opposed to waiting a while to see what will be produced in response to this product. But then, I also know that there are some Apple users out there on this board, and maybe they pre-ordered/bought it? What do you guys think?

[Mr Bean]

It's expensive and as of yet the Ipad fills no niche I have empty. I'm happy with my Laptop, I'm happy with my PC. I'm happy with my Blackberry.
Maybe in a revision or three.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

At this point Apple could quite literally package turds, brand them with a "cute" iName, and their slavering brand slaves would line up three months before the first shipment.

It rather clearly illustrates why I have little hope for the species.

[Dragon Angel]

I didn't, mainly because it really is just a supersized Apple iPhone.

...Okay, seriously, I did not because I'm not really that excited about it. I think it's too expensive for what it does, for its capabilities, and I could probably do more with a comparable netbook...at a cheaper price, too. Although, I DO know two people who have bought one - my cousin, whom I still need to ask about what he thinks of it, and a friend from my university, who likes the fact that he could just switch it on from sleep mode anywhere, with little-to-no wait time, and just use it out-of-the-bag.

To each their own, I suppose. The iPad just isn't for me.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I have perfectly decent mobile and a perfectly decent laptop. Why would I spend such a large sum of money on something that, for all the hot air the press is expelling right now, is neither a laptop nor more than a bigger iPhone? I'm sure it's absolutely amazing, if you have this horrible brand loyalty and overabundance of cash, but for me, I'll stick to not throwing my cash at fads that are half baked (or supposedly were until so many people in the media turned around saying it's hot shit. Great, I can watch movies on a bigger screen. And it has a shiny look. Sign me the fuck up). If I wanted something Apple with that tax on it, I'd get a 13" MacBook. At least it'd be useful to me.

[Covenant]

The iPad is overhyped because of the most obvious and transparent conflict of interest in the modern era. The media, which is struggling to find a way to retain traditional business models around selling copies of a publication, was invited to collaborate with Apple to make the iPad into a distribution platform for their publications. So every media outlet except the ones unaffiliated with a print company is slavering over the iPad as a potential windfall market.

Add onto that the very real criticism that it is just a big iPhone, a criticism that even the apple people themselves don't dispute, and you've got an issue. In the TIME article the guy said, paraphrased, "There's a good way and a bad way to say that. You can say, 'Oh, it's just a big iPhone,' or you can say, 'Oh, it's an iPhone but with a bigger screen, cool!' And since lots of people own iPhones, we think they'll like the iPad."

Trying to find reviews of the iPad that even have the OPTION of being critical will take a bit of time, and some of it's mixed press so far is worrying for anyone who wants to believe. The access to this gadget has been incredibly limited, and the tainted relationship to the media outlets themselves so brazen, that I'm surprised anyone but a blogger has even written a bad thing.

[General Zod]

I have a 13" laptop for traveling and an iPod Touch. I really can't see any justification to purchase an iPad separately short of winning the lottery or something. From all accounts, it's terrible as a gaming device as well due to the ergonomics.

[Lonestar]

I have a 13" laptop for traveling and an iPod Touch. I really can't see any justification to purchase an iPad separately short of winning the lottery or something. From all accounts, it's terrible as a gaming device as well due to the ergonomics.

There was a chick on the local newsradio "Call back line" talking about how they iPad was ideal "because she traveled a lot and it was hard to work with a laptop on an airplane." I was yelling pretty good at the radio when I heard that.

[General Zod]

I have a 13" laptop for traveling and an iPod Touch. I really can't see any justification to purchase an iPad separately short of winning the lottery or something. From all accounts, it's terrible as a gaming device as well due to the ergonomics.

There was a chick on the local newsradio "Call back line" talking about how they iPad was ideal "because she traveled a lot and it was hard to work with a laptop on an airplane." I was yelling pretty good at the radio when I heard that.

I actually find that kind of funny. My boss travels all the time, and according to him he gets a fuckton of work done during his flight. (He uses a bigger laptop than mine to boot).

[spaceviking]

I wouldn't mind getting a Ipad or a kindle cause so many of my school readings are either pdf or ebook, but even still I wont pay more then $200 Canadian for one

[Admiral Valdemar]

I actually find that kind of funny. My boss travels all the time, and according to him he gets a fuckton of work done during his flight. (He uses a bigger laptop than mine to boot).

No, travelling and using a computer was impossible before the iPad. In fact, the very idea of a tablet PC was unheard of until this very device was unveiled. Your boss is just wrong, I'm afraid.

[Skgoa]

The iPad is almost exactly what I need. I have a mobile phone and an mp3 player and on the highend side I have both a desktop pc and a laptop. The iPad fills the gap between those devices, because its a bigger iPhone. The price isn't to high for what you get, either.
So if apple ever deems the rest of the world worthy to be their customers, I'm most probably going to get an iPad. (after testing it in the store, of course.)

[JointStrikeFighter]

At this point Apple could quite literally package turds, brand them with a "cute" iName, and their slavering brand slaves would line up three months before the first shipment.

It rather clearly illustrates why I have little hope for the species.

Nice fucking strawman there; because apple devices are all about hype and marketing and certainly don't have great build quality, well thought systems integration and UI design, excellent after market support and ease of use going for them amiri+e?

The amount of slavering uninformed nerd ranger over the ipad [and still over the iPhone lol] is fucking ridiculous.

[Stark]

If anyone could tell me what an iPad was for (beyond being a lounge iPhone) maybe I'd buy one. As it is, even in AU you can buy an actual factual laptop or a pair of cut-down ones; unless there's major utility in the interface beyond that of the iPhone there seems to be little point.

If only they hadn't sold the Touch for years?

[Admiral Valdemar]

Nice fucking strawman there; because apple devices are all about hype and marketing and certainly don't have great build quality, well thought systems integration and UI design, excellent after market support and ease of use going for them amiri+e?

The amount of slavering uninformed nerd ranger over the ipad [and still over the iPhone lol] is fucking ridiculous.

Since Apple are marketing premium products, you're damn right they better have those things going for it, else I'd laugh even more at someone spending £800 for a MacBook that doesn't offer anything more than my laptop of half the price.

I have to wonder what possessed Apple to start selling this device which has had questionable public acceptance at probably the worst point in history regarding personal finances.

[salm]

I hear the iPad doesn´t have usb or a card reader. How do you actually transfer data onto it? How do i get the photos from my digicam or mp3 songs from my computer to the ipad?

[Dominus Atheos]

I hear the iPad doesn´t have usb or a card reader. How do you actually transfer data onto it? How do i get the photos from my digicam or mp3 songs from my computer to the ipad?

It has the standard ipod connector that can hook into a usb slot on your computer. But the only way to actually transfer data onto it is to use iTunes.

[salm]

Can you use iTunes to copy all kinds of data or is it limited to specific types.

Another question: Is it possible to transfer data from the iPad to a computer?

[Stark]

You know Apple have been pushing press releases and nice easy to follow videos for months now.

[Admiral Valdemar]

God, fucking iTunes. It wouldn't be so bad if Apple embraced the concept of a damn memory card (Oh no, the ruined aesthetic!), but apparently this is too hard a lesson to learn. The requirement to sync everything through that port and iTunes always rubbed me the wrong way. And this is why my phone now replaced my iPod as a music and media player.

Plug phone into laptop. Copy files to E: drive. Unplug.

Did I mention the numerous other formats I can use over my iPod too?

[Stark]

You mean the numerous shit formats? OGG VORBIS!

Using iTunes to keep things organised is a major element in Apple's success over the thousand and five generic USB player manufacturers. Turns out if your media is in the library, you just press 'put on device' and unplug, JUST LIKE A CRAP PLAYER.

[JointStrikeFighter]

Nice fucking strawman there; because apple devices are all about hype and marketing and certainly don't have great build quality, well thought systems integration and UI design, excellent after market support and ease of use going for them amiri+e?

The amount of slavering uninformed nerd ranger over the ipad [and still over the iPhone lol] is fucking ridiculous.

Since Apple are marketing premium products, you're damn right they better have those things going for it, else I'd laugh even more at someone spending £800 for a MacBook that doesn't offer anything more than my laptop of half the price.

I have to wonder what possessed Apple to start selling this device which has had questionable public acceptance at probably the worst point in history regarding personal finances.

Well that's really my point; nerds masturbate themselves into a furious rage that anyone would DARE have the audacity to Market a premium product. It's like the fcuking Nokia N95/iPhone comparisons that still fucking persist to this day completely ignoring the different target audience and design choices that go into a device.

[Admiral Valdemar]

You mean the numerous shit formats? OGG VORBIS!

Using iTunes to keep things organised is a major element in Apple's success over the thousand and five generic USB player manufacturers. Turns out if your media is in the library, you just press 'put on device' and unplug, JUST LIKE A CRAP PLAYER.

I've no issues with Vorbis. It's smaller file size and better audio quality per unit storage is ideal for me. Whether anyone else cares about it, well, I care not. But I was talking about formats for video too, which my iPod was quite finnicky over.

And iTunes is just so bloated when I use it. I've never liked the thing for being such a resource hog, and I do like just dragging my files onto a memory card and plugging it in. Expandable memory, NOVEL!

Well that's really my point; nerds masturbate themselves into a furious rage that anyone would DARE have the audacity to Market a premium product. It's like the fcuking Nokia N95/iPhone comparisons that still fucking persist to this day completely ignoring the different target audience and design choices that go into a device.

Ugh, don't remind me. I find these things go about as far as your average, and often hilarious, console religion complex. I wonder how much of the web can be attributed to these debates now from emotion.

[Stark]

The iPods are awful for video due to their wierd screen size and inability to scale video. The iPhone (and I imagine iPad) can do that on the fly and don't require 'specific' versions (although I think iPhone doesn't support high profile h264 properly).

I'm trying to work out how iTunes is a 'resource hog' when I have it running all the time while playing games and encoding video with no problems, or how this is relevant to your preference for the 'old' way of doing things. I hate to repeat myself, but if your content is in your iTunes library, it is a single step to put things on your device, and iTunes is aimed at a) normal people who b) buy things through iTunes.

[Covenant]

Well, iTunes is not really a data organizer as much as it is an intergrated market and data protection mechanism. I don't have a huge issue with it, but I don't like the iTunes software itself or the way it wants to manhandle my formats--but then again I don't even own a smartphone or MP3 player so I may as well be banging rocks together. The only time I've interacted with it is on someone else's computer, and not surprisingly I didn't find it convenient.

The reason they don't want to use a lot of other data movers with their products also has to do with the fact that they really want to use their marketplace functions to generate revenue, not only for them but for their partners, which keeps the service going. If people didn't need to buy iBooks for their iPad via iStores or whatever then they'd basically just have a big expensive data reader and that's not what the newspapers want.

I like the idea of a Premium Product, but I wish they offered these things without the attendant other doodads. If I could get an iPod without the Apple-associated stuff (iTunes and so forth) then I'd be much happier. Same with the iPad and it's attendant issues. Premium products that are also brand-exclusive and have diminished functionality in areas of convenience are barely 'premium,' they're just kinda niche.