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I agree, ever since I got my G1, I would use that even at home, but it was a pain to post on forums and so it has dissuaded me from doing that.

People are bemoaning the fact that it doesn't have multitask capability, cameras or whatever, don't know that it's important to have a proper tool to do the proper job. I will want to hold one in my hands and play with it before buying one for myself.

Music? Eh. I got XM in the car and and occasionally use Pandora at home.

Movies? At home, I don't need it. I got my beloved TiVo (and soon, BluRay). I just don't see the need for it.

Games? Maybe. If it can handle Civilization or Homeworld while I have some downtime, then I'm down for it. Just don't expect anything productive. For 10 hours.

Internet? I might use it as a substitute for the laptop at home, and might use it when I'm out and about. But only IF I have a WiFi connection.

Books? Oh Yeah, but if I can get a big enough of a selection and ONLY if they can keep it competitive with Amazon's Kindle service, including magazines for a decent price.

Photos? That's what I got a camera for. Now if it can EDIT them, then I'm down with that.

If anything, it's TOO capable, but for just a hundred or so above a kindle, it's a bargain.

For people who have regular downtime, it will be good. Commuters and the like. My wife will likely use it to watch TV shows and movies and read books during her lunch. That's actually what we got the netbook for, but video on Linux is a nightmare, and netbooks don't make it any easier because they're so under-powered processor-wise that they have to slurp up all their battery to compensate.

When we were able to get videos to play on her netbook, it ended up reducing the battery life to 90 minutes. iPad is supposed to have 10 hours, even with video; and 140 hours of just music.

I'm not excited to use it for games, but I can understand the appeal. There are some great games on the iPhone, but I find my fingers usually getting in the way. The bezel of the iPad would probably make the gaming experience more enjoyable.

Jobs told the New York Times yesterday that the iBooks will cost the same as Amazon. What I wish, though, is that more out-of-print books would become e-books. I don't mean worthless out-of-copyright crap. I mean stuff that was good 20 years ago and is still good, but you can't buy it anywhere.

I think it's a little big to really use as a music player. I think that's just a nice feature to have, not necessarily a selling point.

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But isn't that what an iphone is for? My daughter recently got an iphone and I must admit I'm much impressed.

Sorry but I see the ipad as just an overgrown iphone and nothing more. 

You say that like it's a bad thing. If you don't have an iPhone, then an iPad is a great tool instead (and cheaper!). Or if you like your iPhone and use it a lot, you might want a bigger screen.

If I had the spare money, I'd get this for my elderly mother. Right now she's using my old Powerbook. But an iPad with the keyboard dock is exactly what someone like her needs, not a whole computer.

So I guess in addition to killing the netbook market, the iPad just aborted what little there is of the thin client market, too. It's the fulfillment of everything that the networking companies have been talking about since the 90's. The network is the application.

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So I guess in addition to killing the netbook market, the iPad just aborted what little there is of the thin client market, too. It's the fulfillment of everything that the networking companies have been talking about since the 90's. The network is the application.

I'm not a fan of Apple but I have to agree with just about everything you've written in this thread editor.

Microsoft promised us something like this about 10 years ago called Mira. I've been waiting for 10 years and still nothing. I'm a big Tablet PC user and I'm sick of having a keyboard on the stupid thing. Tablet PCs without a keyboard cost more than the ones with a keyboard. I use the keyboard on my Tablet about once every 6 months. I guess MS will be copying the iPad in a few months.

This device will cost less than half my Tablet PC. I don't need to run Word, AutoCad, etc.. on my Tablet I just need to check email, surf, etc... I don't want to do it on a phone, the screen is too small.

I am worried about the lack of flash support though. Bloated or not it has become a standard and your average person will be frustrated when the page they are trying to load won't work right. There are about 11 million people out there who's first question will be... "Will it run Farmville?"

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Considering that Apple sold 3,360,000 Macs in October-November-December, 2009 and Mac sales are up 71% compared with the Wintel sector being up 17% year-to-year, I think the answer is "yes."

And that brings Apple up to what, maybe 5% of the total market?

The iPad falls into a longstanding tradition at Apple, lock the system and users up with proprietary systems and content. From what I hear on the reviews this may well be the most locked down computer ever...i mean, come on...no USB ports? Apple went this way back in the early 80's when they actually were a major player in the pc market and watched their marketshare dwindle to artists and universities. The golden lining of this is that, like with the ipod, it will spur competitor development of decently priced wintel (or linix) based tablets that are actually cheap and useful.

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Sorry but I see the ipad as just an overgrown iphone and nothing more. 

What I see is the iPad filling the gap between the iPhone and a full-blown computer or laptop. It offers a form factor that's superior for things like digital media, internet browsing, and movies. These activities can't be fully appreciated on a small iPhone screen. Laptops and netbooks are fine for their intended use, but they are not the right form factor for an airplane seat or a sofa.

As was alluded earlier, the killer app may just be the ability to load ebooks and the ability to cache media publications directly on the iPad. If you're about to catch a long flight, you could download the latest magazines, newspaper, books, etc. and have them all cached for use on a single touch-screen device, along with your videos, music, etc. Try doing that on your phone or laptop while sustaining 10-hours of battery life.

I agree that this iPad isn't perfect, so we'll see if Apple fixes some of the shortcomings in future revs. After all, it's a 1.0 product and just the beginning of a new platform. The first iPhone was likewise limited in functionality, and it wasn't until the App Store came along that it really came onto it's own.

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Considering that Apple sold 3,360,000 Macs in October-November-December, 2009 and Mac sales are up 71% compared with the Wintel sector being up 17% year-to-year, I think the answer is "yes."

Not to mention those of us who record audio for a living. Nothing beats a Mac.

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I am worried about the lack of flash support though. Bloated or not it has become a standard and your average person will be frustrated when the page they are trying to load won't work right. There are about 11 million people out there who's first question will be... "Will it run Farmville?"

My happiest day this month was when I learned how to turn off Farmville and Mafia Wars updates from all of my Facebook friends.

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And that brings Apple up to what, maybe 5% of the total market?

I'm not sure what your point is here. We're talking about iPads and mobile devices, not desktops. But if you want to play that game, what's fine. The problem is that different companies define success in different ways. You may think that market share is the most important factor. I like to look at it this way:

AAPL: $192.12

HP: $41.83

MSFT: $28.18

DELL: $12.91

Apple can buy Dell with just half of the cash it has in the bank.

Or you could look at it by company size:

MSFT $250.21 billion

AAPL: $174.21 billion

DELL: $25.24 billion

HP: $4.42 billion

We can play the game all day, but to dismiss Apple as a non-player because of its desktop penetration is delusional. If Apple is such a non-factor, then why does the world go nuts whenever a new Apple product comes out? Why is it being discussed in every newspaper, TV station, and radio station around the world? Why are you even motivated to participate in this thread? I don't seem to remember months of anxious speculation over the release of the Zune HD.

The iPad falls into a longstanding tradition at Apple, lock the system and users up with proprietary systems and content.

What proprietary content are Apple users locked into exactly? Music? Video? Ebooks? Apple uses open industry standards on all of them. Tell me which media format a Windows machine can play that an Apple machine can't. I can't think of any.

From what I hear on the reviews this may well be the most locked down computer ever...i mean, come on...no USB ports?

USB ports? Exactly what for? Demonstrate a need and I'll consider it. Otherwise it's just like the Dell people five years ago who couldn't believe it when Apple dropped floppy drives from its notebooks. When was the last time you saw someone with a floppy disk? Can you even buy those anymore? You're going to have to come up with a better gripe than that. I hate to break it to you, but the future is wireless, not yet another cable running to the rats nest behind your Wintel tower.

Apple went this way back in the early 80's when they actually were a major player in the pc market and watched their marketshare dwindle to artists and universities. The golden lining of this is that, like with the ipod, it will spur competitor development of decently priced wintel (or linix) based tablets that are actually cheap and useful.

So, what you're saying is that once again Apple leads in technology and innovation and everyone else follows. Well, at least that's one thing we can agree on. Just like there were a number of MP3 players around before the iPod, there are a number of tablet computers and netbooks out right now. But for the majority of people, they all suck. And just like with the iPod, Apple will come in and reinvent the market niche and the other companies will copy it.

I don't mind people being critical of Apple. I'm not entirely pleased with the iPad, and I'm pretty fed up with the paint scratching off of the keyboards of two laptops now. But if you're going to try to be critical, at least come up with some substantial argument. Something that makes sense. Something better than saying Apple isn't a good company because its latest product doesn't have a USB port.

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If you already have a data plan with AT&T for use with your IPhone, can you use that data plan in tandem with the IPad? If so I might get one, but if they want me to pay an additional $25.00 a month, no thanks.

Sadly, I don't think it works the way you and I want. I think you have to get the separate $15.00 or $25.00 data plan. I think that blows. I think the reason the much larger iPad uses microSIMs is so people with the $14.99 plan don't pop them out and stick them into their iPhones.

For me, I think the balance between price and capability will come from having an iPad with the $24.99 data plan and a pre-paid cell phone. My iPhone's off contract anyway, and I'm probably going to move outside the AT&T wireline footprint so I won't get my DSL discount anymore for combining that bill. I rarely use my phone and have over 4,500 rollover minutes. I'm all about the data, so an iPad works for me.

Of course, I can always make VOIP calls on the iPad, so that's an option. Especially now that the VOIP-over-3G restriction has been lifted and there are apps that take advantage of that.

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I wish there was a service that would scan your books into e-books, like those companies that will rip all of your CDs for you.

Well, I read about on another forum a service that scans stuff into PDF but I didn't get the name of it.

And of course, text can be extracted from scanned documents...right?

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I just looked at my bill and did the math. I used 161MB of data last month. If I drop my iPhone and get an iPad with the $15 data plan (250 MB), then even the highest-end iPad pays for itself in 13 months.

If I get the cheapest 3G model, it pays for itself in ten months.

Hmmm....

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I'm not sure what your point is here. We're talking about iPads and mobile devices, not desktops. But if you want to play that game, what's fine. The problem is that different companies define success in different ways. You may think that market share is the most important factor. I like to look at it this way:

AAPL: $192.12

HP: $41.83

MSFT: $28.18

DELL: $12.91

Apple can buy Dell with just half of the cash it has in the bank.

Or you could look at it by company size:

MSFT $250.21 billion

AAPL: $174.21 billion

DELL: $25.24 billion

HP: $4.42 billion

Uh...I was responding to your statistic of 3.3M macs sold in Q4. I think that makes it obvious that I was referring to desktop penetration.

We can play the game all day, but to dismiss Apple as a non-player because of its desktop penetration is delusional. If Apple is such a non-factor, then why does the world go nuts whenever a new Apple product comes out? Why is it being discussed in every newspaper, TV station, and radio station around the world? Why are you even motivated to participate in this thread? I don't seem to remember months of anxious speculation over the release of the Zune HD.

I'm not saying Apple is a non-factor. It's more like a bit player in the desktop/laptop market. Why does the world go nuts when Paris Hilton does something stupid or when Tiger fools around with his wife? We live in a media-centric society and no doubt a few people are making the big waves we have to surf on. The reason it's being discussed in every newspaper, TV station and radio station is because that's how modern marketing works.

What proprietary content are Apple users locked into exactly? Music? Video? Ebooks? Apple uses open industry standards on all of them. Tell me which media format a Windows machine can play that an Apple machine can't. I can't think of any.

How about you can only purchase content and programs via the App Store. Want to run some non-apple approved software? No chance (unless you hack it). Everything has to go through the Apple gatekeeper. Think that's a good thing?

USB ports? Exactly what for? Demonstrate a need and I'll consider it. Otherwise it's just like the Dell people five years ago who couldn't believe it when Apple dropped floppy drives from its notebooks. When was the last time you saw someone with a floppy disk? Can you even buy those anymore? You're going to have to come up with a better gripe than that. I hate to break it to you, but the future is wireless, not yet another cable running to the rats nest behind your Wintel tower.

You may not be aware of this, but USB has become the ubiquitous wired interface for electronic devices. It allows you to connect and charge your devices. USB will probably be superceded by something else at some point, but it's hardly at the point floppy drives were five years ago.

So, what you're saying is that once again Apple leads in technology and innovation and everyone else follows. Well, at least that's one thing we can agree on. Just like there were a number of MP3 players around before the iPod, there are a number of tablet computers and netbooks out right now. But for the majority of people, they all suck. And just like with the iPod, Apple will come in and reinvent the market niche and the other companies will copy it.

That's exactly what I am saying. Apple is no doubt an innovator in consumer electronics. They have to be since their propriatery approach to desktops pushed them to marginal market penetration back in the 80's. What I'm arguing is that the same propriatery mentality at Apple is going to lead to the iPad being a similarly marginal product as competitors do it better and cheaper and on a more open platform.

I don't mind people being critical of Apple. I'm not entirely pleased with the iPad, and I'm pretty fed up with the paint scratching off of the keyboards of two laptops now. But if you're going to try to be critical, at least come up with some substantial argument. Something that makes sense. Something better than saying Apple isn't a good company because its latest product doesn't have a USB port.

That was hardly my argument, but I can see how the example could have been construed to be the whole.

Here's a more comprehensive list My linkhttp://gizmodo.com/5458382/8-things-that-suck-about-the-ipad

Some of this is petty, in my opinion, but here's the one's I find relevent:

No Multitasking

No Flash

Propriatery adaptors necessary for everything. Nintendo does this with the DS systems, each edition has it's own power adapter. It's a PITA.

A Closed App Ecosystem

Or how about this? http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ipad

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Well the good thing is that nearly all of the other big computer makers are working on tablets of their own. However, instead of using Apple's proprietary A4 chip many of these companies will be using nVidia's Tegra 2 chipset. So instead of everybody being limited to the same chips there will be some real competition out there. I will admit I was expecting something more robust but this is much more exciting than another update of the MacBook line. I look forward to being deluged by innovation from all directions.

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How about you can only purchase content and programs via the App Store. Want to run some non-apple approved software? No chance (unless you hack it). Everything has to go through the Apple gatekeeper. Think that's a good thing?

Absolutely. It's called quality control. It's not perfect, but it's far superior to doing nothing.

Compare to what's going on in the Android world where it's a free-for-all: As pointed out by PBS tech columist Bob Cringley, there are lots of applications that let you use your bank account on your Android phone. But guess what? They're not from your bank! They're by random strangers, sometimes in other countries, and no one knows what they're doing with your log-on, or personal financial information because there is no vetting of the software or the software authors. At least with the Apple method there is some culpability. With Android? You're on your own, kid.

I don't understand how ensuring that software meets some basic functionality and doesn't wreck someone's device or other files on it is a bad thing. If every programmer out there was great, that would be one thing. But they're not. I don't see how it's infringing on anyone's "freedom" to require them to wait 48 hours (yes, it's only 48 hours now even on weekends) to have their program approved before it's unleashed on the masses. And the $99/year that Apple charges to be part of the developer program is a bargain when you know all of the support and documentation, video, and other help that is provided. I'm part of the program. I know. Apple bends over backwards to help people develop software for the iDevices. After all, when you make money, Apple makes money.

I think that it shouldn't just be Apple doing this. All of the players, Nokia, Palm, MS, etc... should institute tough standards so we have higher quality software. It's like this every time a new breed of devices come out -- the first few waves of software are garbage. The term "hacker" was derogatory when it was coined back in the 1970's to refer to people who put out crapware like biorhythm calculators and shoddy bits of code that crashed systems. Apple has, for the most part, managed to avoid that first wave of garbage software by setting the bar higher to play in its sandlot. It should be applauded for instituting some form of quality control in a world where nobody gives a damn about doing things right.

You may not be aware of this, but USB has become the ubiquitous wired interface for electronic devices. It allows you to connect and charge your devices. USB will probably be superceded by something else at some point, but it's hardly at the point floppy drives were five years ago.

You're not going to charge your phone off of your iPad just like you don't charge your cell phone off another cell phone. And in case you're talking about connectivity, guess what's on the other end of the cable that comes with every iPad? A USB connector! (Though to be honest, I wish Apple had stuck with the superior Firewire interface. But sacrifices have to be made to bring the Windows people into the fold.)

That's exactly what I am saying. Apple is no doubt an innovator in consumer electronics. They have to be since their propriatery approach to desktops pushed them to marginal market penetration back in the 80's. What I'm arguing is that the same propriatery mentality at Apple is going to lead to the iPad being a similarly marginal product as competitors do it better and cheaper and on a more open platform.

Do you similarly argue that Fords are proprietary because you can't use a Honda exhaust system in one?

I still don't get what it is you think is proprietary about Apple products. I'm still waiting for you to point out what standard media format can't be played on a Mac.

Looking at the MacBook Pro in my lap I see three standard USB connectors, two standard Firewire connectors, standard audio in and out jacks, a standard Ethernet port, a standard DVI port, a standard ExpressCard slot, and a standard DVD-ROM drive. The only non-standard part of the computer is the magsafe adapter, but it's not like every other laptop in the world doesn't have its own plug, too.

Are you talking about Mac desktops, perhaps? The ones that have the most user-friendly design in the industry to allow the Average Joe to upgrade them without having to slice his hands open in a maze of wires and circuit boards? The Mac desktops that use standard upgradable hard drives, standard upgradable optical drives, standard upgradable RAM? The only thing that's non-standard is that you have to buy Mac versions of video cards because the Macintosh architecture is different than Wintel architecture. If it wasn't, then it would be a Wintel machine, not a Mac.

I still don't see where you get "proprietary" from.

If by "comprehensive" you mean "lame," then I agree with you -- that was a very lame list. They complain about the bezel? They complain that it doesn't have an HDMI port? Apple already said it has video out through the dock connector, how does Giz know there isn't an HDMI option? I'd wager there's at least a Mini DisplayPort (oops! There's another standard, and like Firewire and USB that Apple helped invent!) option. There's a pretty good chance that HDMI will be an option because DisplayPort was designed to complement HDMI. Most of the things on that list are things that Gizmodo assumes but doesn't know since the device hasn't even been released yet.

Some of this is petty, in my opinion, but here's the one's I find relevent:

No Multitasking

I'll give you some room on this one. It would be nice to listen to my Sirius Radio app while surfing on my iPhone. I can understand why Apple doesn't trust the third-party programmers not to run down the way it happens on phones that do allow tasks to run in the background (like every Symbian phone I've ever owned). I'm not sure what the solution is to this. But I guess Apple would rather hear the nerds complain, "There's no multitasking!" than listen to regular users complain that their battery is always running out.

No Flash

This is a feature, not a bug. Flash is a scourge.

Propriatery adaptors necessary for everything. Nintendo does this with the DS systems, each edition has it's own power adapter. It's a PITA.

Not sure what you're talking about here. Sounds like you're spreading more FUD. The iDevices use the same plug that they've been using since 2003. I have a bunch of them. I use the one from the Nano I bought in 2005 to charge my wife's 2009 iPhone. The only iDevice that doesn't use the standard cable is the first and second generation iPod, which use standard Firewire connectors.

And in case you haven't been keeping up with things, Apple was one of the first mobile phone companies (along with Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, RIM, and Samsung) that agreed to put the new micro-USB plugs on its phones in 2010 so that chargers could be used between them.

A Closed App Ecosystem

Addressed above. I'd rather not have random Yuri von Sleazeball impersonating my bank and stealing my information. Quality control is a good thing, not a bad thing.

What about it? It's someone who made a petition based on a bunch of assumed things that no one knows since the device isn't out yet. How is the iPad's DRM "unprecedented" as he claims? How does he know that the iPad has an "always on" wireless signal? How does he know that Apple has the ability to reach into your iPad and erase your personal documents? The answer is simple -- he doesn't. He's making stuff up in order to attract attention. Especially considering that the eBooks are going to be in the open ePub format. I hate to break it to you, but you got suckered in by someone inventing controversy to pump up the number of visitors to his web site. It's the tech equivalent of Quannel-X. You've been p0wned, dude.

Furthermore, Steve Jobs is on the record as being against DRM. Remember that it was he who pushed the record companies into dropping it on iTunes. He did more than one interview about that. But the bottom line is that it's not really up to him, or Apple. It's up to the people who own the content. You're picking the wrong fight here. If you don't like DRM, then go after the content producers who require it, not the distributors who are required to play by their game in order to make it available to you.

Or just use open files. Like ePub, and MP3, and MP4, PDF, WAV, AIFF, ALE, H.264, and the dozens of other free, open, unencumbered DRM-less file formats that every Apple device all the way back to the original iPod support. If you don't like DRM, then don't buy any. Where do you live that the police are forcing you to do so?

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Well the good thing is that nearly all of the other big computer makers are working on tablets of their own. However, instead of using Apple's proprietary A4 chip many of these companies will be using nVidia's Tegra 2 chipset. So instead of everybody being limited to the same chips there will be some real competition out there. I will admit I was expecting something more robust but this is much more exciting than another update of the MacBook line. I look forward to being deluged by innovation from all directions.

I was disappointed to learn that Apple's A4 chip is more evolutionary than revolutionary. Apparently it's built around ARM's Cortex-A9 core, if I'm reading things right. I don't understand as much about chips as I used to. After the 68040 era things got a little beyond me.

I was hoping it would be completely original silicon. But I guess like a boss I once had always said, "There's no point reinventing the wheel."

On the other hand, he was one of the worst bosses I ever had and his company went out of business.

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I just looked it up and you're right it's based on the A9 system-on-a-chip. It has some proprietary additions Apple made with the semiconductor company they bought. I searched further and discovered that the Tegra 2 is supposedly also based on the Cortex A9 but with an nVidia GPU. The Tegra 2 will be able to do 1080p video (http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3714), v. 720p for the iPad (http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/). So in that sense there is room for improvement (assuming comparable price and battery life, which is quite an assumption to make) and true competition is welcome.

However at the end of the day Apple's real advantage is its "ecosystem" and also its trump card. So pretty soon we'll see some Tegra 2 products with crap-tastic GUIs from various PC manufacturers and then in March, or whenever Apple has its next event, they'll launch the iPhone OS 4.0 (which may contain multitasking and enough improvements so that a person seeing the iPad for the first time would *not* be reminded of a "larger iPod") and be back in the news again just in time to ship the actual iPads to people's doors.

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And in case you're talking about connectivity, guess what's on the other end of the cable that comes with every iPad? A USB connector!

I didn't realize that although I would still rather there be a dedicated usb port on the ipad itself because yes I can think of many reasons to have one, if not just for viewing digital pics from my camera on a larger screen. I'm betting future ipads will have one because that's the biggest gripe I keep hearing.  

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I didn't realize that although I would still rather there be a dedicated usb port on the ipad itself because yes I can think of many reasons to have one, if not just for viewing digital pics from my camera on a larger screen. I'm betting future ipads will have one because that's the biggest gripe I keep hearing.  

Like the Apple TV and iPhone, you have to think of the first iPad as an extension of your computer. Anything you want to load onto the iPad will need to be synchronized from applications like iTunes or iPhoto rather than copied directly from a USB drive. This keep-it-simple approach is what allows Apple to avoid compatibility issues that other vendors will face while keeping costs down due to fewer components.

To add a fully-functional USB port, Apple would have to introduce a file system and a mechanism to transfer data, which adds worries like detecting file types, adding a security apparatus to ensure viruses and worms aren't copied to the device, adding drivers for the various USB drives and sticks, etc. Your computer has a full-fledged OS, lots of memory and a fast (and power hungry) CPU to handle these things, but the iPhone/iPad OS is a simplified OS designed to be small and power-efficient by integrating with your computer that is built to handle multiple-media sources. Shifting some of that load to the iPad adds complexity and cost for something that most users would probably never need. It also goes directly against Apple's success over the last 15 years with stripping out features that most users don't need.

Of course, all this pushes you into their ecosystem, because you don't really have another choice in how you synchronize or use the device, aside from potentially jail-breaking it. But as long as Apple keeps improving and advancing their products and applications, most people won't have any reason to leave the Apple media-ecosystem. That ecosystem is the biggest challenge to competitors coming out with their own tablet computers. If a media-centric tablet can't integrate into iTunes, iPhoto, etc., then most iPod/iPhone users will quickly lose interest.

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I just looked it up and you're right it's based on the A9 system-on-a-chip. It has some proprietary additions Apple made with the semiconductor company they bought. I searched further and discovered that the Tegra 2 is supposedly also based on the Cortex A9 but with an nVidia GPU. The Tegra 2 will be able to do 1080p video (http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3714), v. 720p for the iPad (http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/). So in that sense there is room for improvement (assuming comparable price and battery life, which is quite an assumption to make) and true competition is welcome.

I suspect the iPad is "capable" of 1080 since the guts have similar components, but Apple chooses to only to deliver 720. Just like with the iPhone. I remember seeing somewhere on the web a demonstration video showing the iPhone (or was it an iPod?) outputting HD video to a television. The hardware can do it, but Apple tends to not push its hardware. I'm not sure why this is. In terms of HD, the only reason I can think of is bandwidth considerations.

However at the end of the day Apple's real advantage is its "ecosystem" and also its trump card. So pretty soon we'll see some Tegra 2 products with crap-tastic GUIs from various PC manufacturers and then in March, or whenever Apple has its next event, they'll launch the iPhone OS 4.0 (which may contain multitasking and enough improvements so that a person seeing the iPad for the first time would *not* be reminded of a "larger iPod") and be back in the news again just in time to ship the actual iPads to people's doors.

There was an article I read last night about all the craptastic tablet makers in Asia freaking out about the iPad. They'd designed and priced their tablets with the assumption that the iPad would start at $1,000. Now with the iPad actually starting at $500, they're scrambling to figure out how to cheapen their devices even further. A couple have hinted that they may simply choose not to compete at all. We'll find out in a few months.

I didn't realize that although I would still rather there be a dedicated usb port on the ipad itself because yes I can think of many reasons to have one, if not just for viewing digital pics from my camera on a larger screen. I'm betting future ipads will have one because that's the biggest gripe I keep hearing.  

No reason to gripe about it. Apple already has a solution. Steve Jobs talked about it during the iPad's introduction:

usb_connectors_20100127.jpg

The one on the left is a USB port. The one on the right is an SD reader. Both are intended for use with digital cameras. I don't think pricing has been announced yet, but I suspect they'll come in around the same $30 that the camera adapter for the 5th generation iPod did.

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To add a fully-functional USB port, Apple would have to introduce a file system and a mechanism to transfer data.

From what I've read, this has already been done. Jobs talked about it to David Pogue of the New York Times. Pogue asked Jobs if he should write his iPad review in Pages in an iPad, then quickly changed his mind stating that it wouldn't work because his editors require Word formatted documents. Jobs told him that he'd be able to easily save his Pages review as a Word file on his iPad and e-mail or transfer it to Pogue's editors.

From what I've read elsewhere, when the iPad is on a local network it looks like a standard file share, discovered through Bonjour. Just like when you stick a USB hard drive into the connector on your Airport. When someone browses to the iPad each application has its own folder for its documents. To get a document off the iPad, you just drag it to your desktop. To put a document into the iPad, you just drag it into the folder of the application you want to open it in.

That stuff about the dragging, though is supposedly from people "inside" Apple who worked on it. I haven't seen any evidence of it yet, but I guess it's as plausible as anything else.

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I suspect the iPad is "capable" of 1080 since the guts have similar components, but Apple chooses to only to deliver 720. Just like with the iPhone. I remember seeing somewhere on the web a demonstration video showing the iPhone (or was it an iPod?) outputting HD video to a television. The hardware can do it, but Apple tends to not push its hardware. I'm not sure why this is. In terms of HD, the only reason I can think of is bandwidth considerations.

I'm pretty sure it has to do with battery life, which I am sure is the primary consideration for all of these devices. The thing is that nVidia claims nobody else can do 1080p in a power efficient manner (see that first link I posted) because on other devices the CPU does some of the decoding. I think having an nVidia GPU on board the Tegra 2 is the difference, since video decoding is something a GPU is good at.

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I'm pretty sure it has to do with battery life, which I am sure is the primary consideration for all of these devices. The thing is that nVidia claims nobody else can do 1080p in a power efficient manner (see that first link I posted) because on other devices the CPU does some of the decoding. I think having an nVidia GPU on board the Tegra 2 is the difference, since video decoding is something a GPU is good at.

You're right -- Apple has demonstrated that it's pretty obsessed with battery life. That was one of the big things that made the original iPod a hit.

A lot of people have speculated that the iPad won't get the promised 10 hours of video life, based on their experiences with tablet computers. But I think it might still work. Just like the way the new MacBook Pros get an extra 40% battery life by using those custom-shaped battery cells instead of the ordinary round ones that other computers use. I'd bet that the majority of the length and width of an iPad is one of those square-celled batteries.

iPad would be great for long plane trips. You'd have to turn the screen brightness down anyway to compensate for the dark cabin on a trans-Pacific flight, so that would save even more battery. Maybe even enough to last the entire 13 hours to Tokyo.

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One of the better pieces I've seen regarding the iPad:

Old World and New World computing

Excellent article. This is my favorite part:

When I think about the age ranges of people who fall into the Old World of computing, it is roughly bell-curved with Generation X (hello) approximately in the center. That, to me, is fascinating — Old World users are sandwiched between New World users who are both younger and older than them.

Some elder family members of mine recently got New World cell phones. I watched as they loaded dozens of apps willy-nilly onto them which, on any other phone, would have turned it into a sluggish, crash-prone battery-vampire. But it didn’t happen. I no longer get summoned for phone help, because it is self-evident how to use it, and things just generally don’t go wrong like they used to on their Old World devices.

New Worlders have no reason to be gun-shy about loading up their device with apps. Why would that break anything? Old Worlders on the other hand have been browbeaten to the point of expecting such behavior to lead to problems. We’re genuinely surprised when it doesn’t.

But the New World scares the living hell out of a lot of the Old Worlders.

It states something I haven't been quite able to put my thumb on before -- that the internet thugs, the Gizmodos, the Engadgets, the Slashdotters, the Linux nerds and hard-core Windows zealots who all consider themselves the intelligentsia of the information age, are actually the marginalized ones. They've fenced themselves off from a world of opportunity and turned their technoscape into a "get off my lawn" environment, even if they're only 19.

I say good riddance to them. Let them puff out their chests and claim superiority over the world. Meanwhile, I'll actually get things done with my iPad and enjoy the media it provides while they're cobbling together yet another Linux driver or staring at yet another Windows crash and swearing up and down that their experience is the better one.

As has been said before -- Apple is like a professional hockey player. It doesn't aim for where the puck is, it aims for where the puck will be.

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Here's a good look back at what one analyst had to say about the first iPhone back in 2007.

The iPhone: Apple's First Flop

Apple (AAPL) begins selling its revolutionary iPhone this summer and it will mark the end of the string of hits for the company.
The real winner in all this? AT&T , not Apple or its shareholders.

Genius.

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