The iPad

[X]

Like I have said before I think the Ipad is a really cool device but it doesn't offer me anything I don't already have. It's a flashy and glitzy and cool toy but more expensive than I am willing to shove out right now. Not supporting flash is a huge drawback for me too because a lot of the sites I frequent need it (like my Golden Age of Hollywood social network). If the price dropped to around $300 I would seriously consider one but not yet.

Kevin

I'm a little confused by this statement that keeps saying the iPad's too expensive.  Compared to most laptops which go $600+, the iPad almost seems a steal.  Now if we're referring to those Netbooks, I guess I can see that, but unless Netbooks have ramped it up in the last year, they really under-perform in pure power.  Yes, yes, I know, they aren't supposed to be power-machines, but they seem to struggle doing simple web-browsing.  At least, that's what my experience (limited) has shown.

King

King, compared to any tech device, the iPAD is expensive. If you were to invest the same amount of money spent on a iPAD, you could get a laptop or a desktop that blows it away, Hell you could get a ereader and a netbook with more memory and processing power for less than the cost of a iPAD with a fraction of the memory it would have.

Again this isn't to bash the iPAD, but it seems that it's only a deal to those that are looking for a entertainment device and not a computing system. It also seems that it's only a deal to those less tech savy people that have more disposable income than time to research the value of the device in comparison to what you can get for the same amount of money.

Having played with the iPAD more, I like it more, but it's not cost effective for me. I have tons of things and all of them require a lot of memory. I have over two terabytes in storage and various SDHC and USB memory. The iPAD's limited memory defeats anything that I would really want to do with the device.

I would love to have one as a entertainment unit, but there are too many other options that allow me to do that and supports higher levels of storage.

I love the cool things that I've seen done with the iPAD, but they are kind of gimmicky. They would be fun for a while, but then it would go back to being an entertainment device.

If I am going to invest the money for the high end version and all of the accessories needed to make it more work friendly, like a keyboard, I'd be better off just getting a lap top and adding a touch screed to it.

[Rico]

x2 = What X said!

[QuadShot]

Quite honestly, this is like one of those discussions about politics or religion. You have your PC fans on one side and your Mac fans on the other. No matter what either side says to the other, or what proof, evidence or whatever either side obtains and exhibits, the sides will most likely never see eye to eye. My 52 cents... (inflation)....

[Bryancd]

I prefer my Ipad grilled to perfection please!  ;D

I still stand behind my previous posts. The Ipad does not make a good ereader that's why I own a nook. The lack of flash is still a hinderance to me and pretty much disqualifies the device for my needs. The Ipad is a "toy" and an expensive one at that. I don't currently have the luxury to purchase a device that does things that I can already do but maybe not as sleekly. The Ipad does not really bring anything new to the table and is not as innovative as the Ipod was when it came out. If I were to buy one I still would not use it for reading ebooks. I have tried it and it frankly....um..."sucks". It does cause eye fatigue because of the backlighting for things like books. On the otherhand for Internet type of reading or even magazines and comics it is great! The lack of flash ability is a real REAL downside for me. I think very soon we will see more competitive devices come out at far more reasonable prices that will have the features I need and am looking for. In fact I saw recently an Indian company that can make a similar device to the Ipad for only $35.00 (their cost without software costs) That should put their device right around the $200 to $300 range, which is affordable.

Now let me say this...If I had not been out of work for almost a year now and had my normal cash flow and money I could just "waste" on a cool toy I would for sure buy an Ipad just to have one to play around with. As it is I am just now working again and thankfully before I would have had to file for bankruptcy. The Ipad, for most people, is a "luxury" device and NOT a necessity. It's success just shows you that there are still a lot of people who have excess money they can throw around.

Am I a convert? Not totally.

Kevin

LOL! Well played, sir! No, I get that. My wife is very taken with reading books on the iPad, both outside during the day and and night before bed int he dark and has had no eye strain issues. I might try it myself to see how it is, but man I just love paper books. In regards to Flash, I hear some rumors that there may potentially be a peace between Apple and Adobe, a compromise of sorts, but that is TBD.  Surely there will be competitive devices of equal merit, just like in the smart phone space, but Apple still has the eco-system model with iTunes and such that keeps consumers captured. Again, an iPad isn't for everyone, your case in point, but it is for a LOT of people and that's why they have such a winner in it.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Like I have said before I think the Ipad is a really cool device but it doesn't offer me anything I don't already have. It's a flashy and glitzy and cool toy but more expensive than I am willing to shove out right now. Not supporting flash is a huge drawback for me too because a lot of the sites I frequent need it (like my Golden Age of Hollywood social network). If the price dropped to around $300 I would seriously consider one but not yet.

Kevin

I'm a little confused by this statement that keeps saying the iPad's too expensive.  Compared to most laptops which go $600+, the iPad almost seems a steal.  Now if we're referring to those Netbooks, I guess I can see that, but unless Netbooks have ramped it up in the last year, they really under-perform in pure power.  Yes, yes, I know, they aren't supposed to be power-machines, but they seem to struggle doing simple web-browsing.  At least, that's what my experience (limited) has shown.

King

King, compared to any tech device, the iPAD is expensive. If you were to invest the same amount of money spent on a iPAD, you could get a laptop or a desktop that blows it away, Hell you could get a ereader and a netbook with more memory and processing power for less than the cost of a iPAD with a fraction of the memory it would have.

Again this isn't to bash the iPAD, but it seems that it's only a deal to those that are looking for a entertainment device and not a computing system. It also seems that it's only a deal to those less tech savy people that have more disposable income than time to research the value of the device in comparison to what you can get for the same amount of money.

Having played with the iPAD more, I like it more, but it's not cost effective for me. I have tons of things and all of them require a lot of memory. I have over two terabytes in storage and various SDHC and USB memory. The iPAD's limited memory defeats anything that I would really want to do with the device.

I would love to have one as a entertainment unit, but there are too many other options that allow me to do that and supports higher levels of storage.

I love the cool things that I've seen done with the iPAD, but they are kind of gimmicky. They would be fun for a while, but then it would go back to being an entertainment device.

If I am going to invest the money for the high end version and all of the accessories needed to make it more work friendly, like a keyboard, I'd be better off just getting a lap top and adding a touch screed to it.

Really?  Because from where I'm standing, it would cost me $500 to get an iPad.  Unless I wanted a case admittedly.  To get a Laptop that I would like, I'd have to pay $900+ so that it ran as smoothly as an iPad, get the entire OVERPRICED Microsoft Office Suite, get a mouse (because let's face it, that touch pad they include is still terrible), get another battery because the battery that comes with Laptops lasts maybe 3-4 hours of normal use and etc and so forth.  I'm just saying, it would cost me a lot of $$ to get the software and hardware I want. Unless you want me to go pirate then fine, I'll do that and save myself about $200 in software costs.  

You are right on the memory and 16 GBs is limiting (or 32), but my mobile devices have never needed an exception amount of data storage.  True, I don't hold tons of videos on it, so if I were more into film, I'd probably have a bigger problem with the limitation.  As it is, I use an App on my iPhone to stream videos whenever I need it.  I haven't decided if the limitation is too much for college yet as I plan on testing the iPhone + keyboard this year.  Then we'll see if the iPad is even worth looking at.  All I ever need my mobile device to do for college is search the internet, type up notes/papers and maybe make excel sheets.  This can all be done from Apple's base software on the iPad.  

To be frank, I just haven't been impressed with Laptops in general.  After dealing with my (incredibly overpriced) laptop I had, which btw, costed me $2,000, dealing with my brother's and my Grandmother's, there is very little that Laptops offer me anymore.  The stupid recovery partition never works, the bloated software it comes with just causes me annoyance and they are heavy.  Bad enough I have to carry around a bunch of heavy books, I don't need a heavy tech gadget on my other arm, already suffered through that at OIT.  Do I really need to point out the heat-issues that these things have?  Just listening to my brother's laptop's fans scream sometimes makes me wonder if it'll last.  And no, getting another fan should not be needed, this is a mobile device.  Or so I heard.  

Gaming on the road has no appeal to me anymore.  Considering the cost of playing WoW nicely with a laptop hits more than $1,000+, yuck.  My desktop can do gaming so much faster and better and have 0 heat issues and I can build it myself and save a ton of $$.  Oh and I'm less likely to drop it.  

Sorry for the rant, but with the exception of True Flash (yuck) and bigger storage space (which is still limited on Laptops to...500 GB) I have been burned more by laptops (not literally) than helped.  At least with Apple products, I don't have to worry that I might have to send it back to the company for 2-3 months right in the middle of schooling because the cooling system failed.  Which yes, that did happen to me.  Was not happy.  

King

[Rico]

Tim - If you want to buy a laptop for $500 I can point you to several good models that all have more processing power, memory, storage, etc. than an iPad.  But, it all depends on what you want to do with either item.  For viewing web pages, videos, reading some things, etc. an iPad is just fine.  But it can't do what even a $500 laptop can handle.  I'm not knocking it, (I'd love one), but it's a matter of the right tool for the right job.

P.S.  And you certainly don't need MS Office.  Open Office is just fine - and free.  http://www.openoffice.org/

[Bryancd]

Quite honestly, this is like one of those discussions about politics or religion. You have your PC fans on one side and your Mac fans on the other. No matter what either side says to the other, or what proof, evidence or whatever either side obtains and exhibits, the sides will most likely never see eye to eye. My 52 cents... (inflation)....

Well, sales and revenue numbers don't lie or have opinions, they just are, and based on that plus the research available, a lot of consumers don't need or want the power of a laptop. Read the article on the previous page from the Best Buy CEO, laptop consumers are moving over into the iPad space. It's not a question of stupid consumers, it's consumers buying the product they want and what they want is the iPad. Again, I always advise people they need to look be beyond there own prejudices about what they like or want or need or think and look at the big picture. The devil is in those details.

[Bryancd]

Tim - If you want to buy a laptop for $500 I can point you to several good models that all have more processing power, memory, storage, etc. than an iPad.  But, it all depends on what you want to do with either item.  For viewing web pages, videos, reading some things, etc. an iPad is just fine.  But it can't do what even a $500 laptop can handle.  I'm not knocking it, (I'd love one), but it's a matter of the right tool for the right job.

Rick Pete seems to be proving that the iPad is a very versatile device...

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Tim - If you want to buy a laptop for $500 I can point you to several good models that all have more processing power, memory, storage, etc. than an iPad.  But, it all depends on what you want to do with either item.  For viewing web pages, videos, reading some things, etc. an iPad is just fine.  But it can't do what even a $500 laptop can handle.  I'm not knocking it, (I'd love one), but it's a matter of the right tool for the right job.

Well, it must not be Dell or HP, I just checked their websites and base price is $600 for most of their laptop lines.  

Forget that software isn't included in that price, so go ahead and link.  Maybe it'll change my mind.  

King

[Rico]

Tim - If you want to buy a laptop for $500 I can point you to several good models that all have more processing power, memory, storage, etc. than an iPad.  But, it all depends on what you want to do with either item.  For viewing web pages, videos, reading some things, etc. an iPad is just fine.  But it can't do what even a $500 laptop can handle.  I'm not knocking it, (I'd love one), but it's a matter of the right tool for the right job.

Rick Pete seems to be proving that the iPad is a very versatile device...

Rick isn't playing World of Warcraft on it.  ;)

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Tim - If you want to buy a laptop for $500 I can point you to several good models that all have more processing power, memory, storage, etc. than an iPad.  But, it all depends on what you want to do with either item.  For viewing web pages, videos, reading some things, etc. an iPad is just fine.  But it can't do what even a $500 laptop can handle.  I'm not knocking it, (I'd love one), but it's a matter of the right tool for the right job.

Rick Pete seems to be proving that the iPad is a very versatile device...

Rick isn't playing World of Warcraft on it.  ;)

I have a feeling my teachers wouldn't appreciate me playing WoW on it in class ;)

King

[Bryancd]

Tim - If you want to buy a laptop for $500 I can point you to several good models that all have more processing power, memory, storage, etc. than an iPad.  But, it all depends on what you want to do with either item.  For viewing web pages, videos, reading some things, etc. an iPad is just fine.  But it can't do what even a $500 laptop can handle.  I'm not knocking it, (I'd love one), but it's a matter of the right tool for the right job.

Rick Pete seems to be proving that the iPad is a very versatile device...

Rick isn't playing World of Warcraft on it.  ;)

No, but did you see that neat Medieval fighting game they had at the Apple presentation a few weeks ago? That looked cool!

[Rico]

Tim - If you want to buy a laptop for $500 I can point you to several good models that all have more processing power, memory, storage, etc. than an iPad.  But, it all depends on what you want to do with either item.  For viewing web pages, videos, reading some things, etc. an iPad is just fine.  But it can't do what even a $500 laptop can handle.  I'm not knocking it, (I'd love one), but it's a matter of the right tool for the right job.

Rick Pete seems to be proving that the iPad is a very versatile device...

Rick isn't playing World of Warcraft on it.  ;)

I have a feeling my teachers wouldn't appreciate me playing WoW on it in class ;)

King

I'm not following your point?  What has that got to do with which item can do more?  And here are a couple fine laptops from Best Buys ad this week.

[Rico]

I'm not sure why I get sucked into this discussion each time.  I guess I must enjoy it!  LOL!

Look, again it all comes down to what you need and want the item to do.  An iPad has simply less things it can handle than just about any laptop being made out there.  Does that make it bad or less desirable?  No.  It just might not be able to do what certain people need.  Now, that group of people might be small percentage wise.  But for some, only having an iPad might not cut it.

Let me use an analogy.  There are tons of cars you can buy out there.  You could own a truck, a van, a sports car, a Hummer, etc.  But you get something based on both what you need and like.  Doesn't make one really better than another.  Probably not the best analogy, but I think you get my meaning.  And I think that covers it for me.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Up to 3 hours...wow, that'll make it through a class period.  Granted that I turn everything off and make the screen dim, then it'll hit 3 hours.  -_-....I'll take the 10 hour iPad ;).

Those prices are decent, but it's the software that'll push me up high.  And I won't buy from Best Buy, they screwed us over a lot over the years, messed up my Grandmother's main computer and I still can't fix all the damage they did to that one.  (Loved their response of, "We did fix it".  ::))

But you are right Rico, we just have to find what suits our needs and for me, the iPad, MAY be the way I go.  I'm more waiting for version 2.0 of the iPad which I'm guessing may be next year.  Probably not, but I'm in no hurry to get either an iPad or a Laptop.  

Should be interesting to see how everything comes out.

King