Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
iPredict: iFlop
So Apple released the iPad today. For $499, you get an oversized iPod. I think this one’s going to belly flop because it’s the wrong size. It’s too big to fit into your pocket, too small to serve as a nice viewer for movies, TV shows, videos. (We’re big screen people, I guess.)
It's a lidless laptop!
I want something that will fit into my shirt pocket yet give me the experience of an 18 inch monitor (or better). VR goggles with internet access, perhaps. I want to be able to type, too, but that technology is with us already. There are those cool gizmos that project a keyboard onto a flat surface, so that you can type anywhere, on just about anything.
THIS cracked me up (from the Seattle Times):
Yet the iPad didn’t receive the warm welcome given the iPhone in 2007, with some pundits shrugging and others making jokes about the name, which some thought conjured up feminine-hygiene products.
Can you imagine anyone shlepping one of these things around? Other than to show off his new toy, I mean.
What new tech would you like to see? I’m still holding out for teleporters.
D.
I don’t know if it will be what you’d properly call a flop. There are enough dribbling Apple fanboys out there to make the product viable – you know, the people who’d buy a turd if Jobs could manage to pinch them out with a logo on them.
The world wasn’t ready for pen computing 6 years ago, and it wasn’t ready 3 years ago. This one is a bit different in that touch sensitivity has improved, but I don’t think that this is The Thing that some people are saying it is.
Love me those Jobs turds!! I’ll get one, but I’ll wait a few months after the initial release so they can fix the bugs. Without my now third iPhone I feel lost. It’s not just the look, feel, reliability and ease that has me addicted, it’s the apps!!!!! I could go on and on and on and on, but I’ll spare you non-believers. The iPad is the iPhone/sans phone on steroids. Yeah, a Toyota is a good car that does everything a car should do, but I prefer to ride in a Mercedes. Sent from my iPhone.
It’s roughly the size of a textbook or manual, but lighter in weight. So, if you’re used to carrying a small stack of books around, this is no big deal. And, if the books you typically carry around are available in electronic form, there’s that much less for you to carry around.
Plus, the screen size is comparable to, and in some cases larger, than those on portable DVD players and TVs.
It’s just a little more than a Kindle DX, but has more storage capacity, a color screen, and more capabilities.
And, my mother thought it was cool. And she’s not a computer person. So, I think that says more about its potential than anything else.
So I’m reading this from work, where I only have the evil Internet Explorer as a browser, and Jobs’ face looks reeeeally loooong and the iPad looks like it’s about one inch by three feet. Wonder if this is just an IE thing since surely you guys would have commented on it. Curiously, in the comments section, the image comes through nondistorted.
Dean, I think I saw a video of that on YouPorn.
Lucie, I hear ya. I’ve been flirting with the idea of an iPhone too, just for the apps, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Dan, if they could get all textbooks onto this format AND make it such that college kids could write their lecture notes with ease, this would be BIG on college campuses . . . would likely replace laptops, methinks.
Apple is working with McGraw-Hill, which is one of the four largest college textbook publishers in the U.S. They are reportedly working with others as well, but McGraw-Hill is the only confirmed one I’ve found thus far.
And, I don’t think college kids would have too big a problem typing on the onscreen keyboard.
BTW – there will be the option of a real life docking keyboard/charger for the iPad as an accessory.
I’m still waiting for wi-fi contact lenses that’ll pop-up wiki info about anything I want. What kind of tree is that? Weird building, wonder what it’s for? Is my oil change appointment Tuesday or Wednesday?
I want to see the real world, overlaid with instantaneous answers to all my questions at the same time.
I’ve also heard you can use a bluetooth keyboard with it. That way, you’re not limited to the onscreen keyboard or the docking keyboard.
No Skype. Can’t use it like a Kindle, which in my opinion would’ve been the key selling point – an iTouch with Kindle-like ebook reading. My Husband’s opinion: “iPad? It’s an iPod touch I can’t fit in my pocket. Brilliant. No [web] camera, no multi-tasking, no shell. WTF? I want a netbook form-factor macbook. Is that so fucking hard to understand?”