iPad or iPad Which One?

In the precise way you specified in your post - that is, I didn't need one.[/quote]Fair enough

Sorry, I thought they came with the iPad (they were featured heavily in the Keynote). They are available serpately, $10 each I believe.

No, these are very poor analogies indeed. It's a huge advantage in (eg) the Open Source world to be able to use a huge range of software that hasn't been approved by a single body with commercial interests.

I think analogies are often suspect, but Don's one's weren't too bad. I don't know about other cases, but one of the reasons Sony can afford to sell the PS3 at a loss is that they make the money back on licensing fees from developers. Those licenses explicitly state what is and isn't allowed on the PS3 (no pornographic games, for instance).

So that's an instance of alicence providing one advantage to the buyer of the hardware; ie it's cheaper. I'm not sure the same principle is in effect to the buyer of the iPhone or iPad, but in any case it's outweighed by the restrictive nature of the licence, in my view.

I was fairly ambivalent about Apple and their products, but after working with iMacs as an IT specialist at a research lab for 2 years, I've come to loathe them. Fortunately a remarkable number of said iMacs have died, and I've been able to upgrade their users to (considerably cheaper and better-behaved) Linux machines.

I particularly despise the way Apple victims bleat about every new product as if Apple had invented (for example) the 3G mobile phone, or the Internet tablet.

No you're wrong it does not come with that, you need to buy that

But yes I stand corrected on that point there isn't software for it but still the point you are spending double the money on it for work stands, or do you get a free version of iWorks if you buy the mac version of it?

ok so "The Steve" gets a whole bunch of media buzz as people laugh and joke about the name.. by the time the product hits the stores, people will be sick of the jokes and "iPad" is burned into everybodies memory.

The techie crowd finds out it's not a mini supercomputer and cry all over thier laptops crying Heretic! We don't want it..

The non techie crowd cries why do we need such a big ipod for?

The news and magazine and book publishers see a way to save thier industry, and gladly adopt it, tree huggers see the benefits of not using paper anymore...

Kids need it for school...

and suddenly everybody finds out that alot of FREE stuff, they used to get online with thier laptops is now only availabe in ebook form either through virus ridded torrents or Itunes for meager subscription fees or purchase...
Then you will have to buy one.

looks like a well thought out plan to me!

"The Steve" makes enough money to have himself a whole farm of Steve clones to harvest for spare livers and Starts charging God for royalties on Bible sales.

Great summary Don, you put it nicely.

It seems there are Linux version that can work on ARM chip, now things are getting interesting.

No one thinks anything of a mouse pad these days...

I don't have one


I have a mouse rug Great fun

link

And they really are good in use

Wow what an interesting forum post! So just what does it do out of the box then?

Cedric

Well, what an interesting rant!

Piece of advice to Stefan though, please watch the keynote or do some research as you really, really are making so many simple mistakes in knocking the iPad in your posts that it is quite frankly embarassing to read.

Am I gonna rush out and buy one? No.

Can I see the use for it? Yes.

As an example I'm on the sofa right now with my laptop typing this, trying to get comfortable, it's not easy to lounge and type at the same time, and the iphone is really to small for this, so I can see that it would be useful if I had one.

Imagine a scenario, an iPad on a dock in the living room which is on charge whilst it is being used as a very high res / high quality photo frame, whilst watching tv a web address comes up that you want a quick look at so you pick up the iPad and look at it and put it down on the coffee table. You want to do the same thing an hour later, instant on, view website, put back down.

Mate comes round, you want to show off your latest photos (and video from the K-7), so pick up the iPad, plug it into the telly, or just show him straight on the iPad. He then asks for a copy of a favourite photo, so you say sure and email the photo straight from the iPad. Then he mentions that his wife would love to see the photos from our holiday that he's just seen, no problem, just send them up to my gallery via mobileme, then email her the link (password protected so only she can view them if I want)

Mate leaves, so the missus goes to cook dinner, but wants to try a new Jamie Oliver recipe. The App was only £4.99 and a lot cheaper than the book, but it also includes around an hour of video to help her through, which was very handy as the iPad was stood in the spare dock in the kitchen. Phone rings, it's her mum, organising a shopping trip, so goes to the iPad calendar and enters it into her diary. This entry automatically goes via mobile me to the Mac, and to her iPhone, so she has the upto date calendar wherever she is.

After dinner she fancies a read before bed, but then she gets an email from a friend thats just posted some pictures on Facebook for her to look at, so she looks at them, reads a chapter of the book and goes to bed.

This is just a quick example of what it could do for us if we had one. Some people will find no use for it at all and think that it's an expensive toy. Just take it for what it is and stop knocking it for what it isn't as it really seems very silly to me, as an example 'the Kindle DX is the same price as a 16GB iPad and it only has a B&W screen, therefore it's crap' is just as stupid an argument as 'the iPad is crap because it doesn't have a B&W e-ink screen'

The iPad, for what it is, seems very well priced especially when compared to something like the Kindle, some would even say that it's a bargain. Wether it's right for you or not is a question that only you can answer, and if it isn't just get the product that is.

I see we've come to the end of thoughtful discussion I particularly despise the way incompetent IT "specialists" bleat on internet forums and blame Apple when it turns out they don't know how to support OS X.

Unlocker, I see that you 'get' it I think that makes two of us!

I should just point out that I don't think (and never said) that the Kindle DX is crap. I just said that for the same money I'd prefer the iPad. The reading experience on the iPhone is pretty good even with an LCD screen, so I wouldn't give up all of the iPad's extras just for the Kindle's e-ink screen (which is pretty damn amazing, if a little slow to refresh).

Spot on (I said something similar but not nearly as well constructed in an earlier post).

The problem seems to be that people who don't see a need for it in their lives cannot imagine that there are people on the planet who do, and also that any gadget that doesn't appeal to them will obviously be a commercial failure.

It will sell millions of units. Of this I have no doubt.