Apple iPad and related items

[UnderOpenSky]

It's an ARM chip, so you can bet it'll turn up in the next iphone/touch.

That would make a lot of sense, especially as its made in house and lots of other phones now have a 1ghz CPU.

Next question for me is res...will the next iphone bypass the 800x480 that's becoming standard for new smartphones and share the same res, so make sharing apps between the devices easier?

 

[tarannau]

No disrespect meant here Ed - I'm Psion generation myself - but add Pie in and we're not the future mass market.

Styli are always clumsy imo, especially to a generation won over by more intuitive touch based interfaces and used to fingers flying on small keypads.

 

[Gromit]

This is neither ... that is the point.

Interesting analysis here - "it's all about TV": http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/01/28/ipad_equals_tv/

So its a portable telly. But not the latest telly which is widescreen. The old 4:3 type of telly with fancy teletext minus the option to read the text at the same time as viewing the telly.

Is that about right?

 

[Gromit]

No disrespect meant here Ed - I'm Psion generation myself - but add Pie in and we're not the future mass market.

Styli are always clumsy imo, especially to a generation won over by more intuitive touch based interfaces and used to fingers flying on small keypads.

Can you zoom, pinch & slide with your styli?

 

[gabi]

Well, I've spent the morning reading reviews. They're generally positive. Readers' comments on the other hand are overwhelmingly along the the lines of 'what's the point?'

This will fail.

 

[Kanda]

So its a portable telly. But not the latest telly which is widescreen. The old 4:3 type of telly with fancy teletext minus the option to read the text at the same time as viewing the telly.

Is that about right?

If you turn it sideways it's widescreen...

 

[Pie 1]

No disrespect meant here Ed - I'm Psion generation myself - but add Pie in and we're not the future mass market.

True.
But a good styli interface in conjuction with multi touch wouldn't be a bad combination would it?

 

[editor]

No disrespect meant here Ed - I'm Psion generation myself - but add Pie in and we're not the future mass market.

Styli are always clumsy imo, especially to a generation won over by more intuitive touch based interfaces and used to fingers flying on small keypads.

Maybe, but I'd say that depends on what the intended use is. I don't think, say, students or business users would have a problem using a stylus - as well as finger control - if it meant they could get things done quicker.

 

[zenie]

Can you zoom, pinch & slide with your styli?

Aye. It is a bit superfluous most of the time though.

 

[pinkmonkey]

meh

I don't think the article was suggesting it could replace a conventional TV, more like supplement it.

and while I'm reading this thread I'm replying to this post, going through my emails (via plugged in 3g dongle) and listening to the telly (via my tv stick) all on one laptop.

I'm disappointed with the ipad. I'm surpirsed at how locked down they've really made it, no usb or sd card reader, wtf? I think I'll be getting a netbook and an ebook reader instead. Would be cheaper. Dunno 'bout anyone else but on our usenet account we've started seeing ebooks appearing on there of late.

and another thing. Mobile internet service providers don't exactly give you much allowance, do they? Download a couple of films for £££ on your ipad and that's your allowance caned for the month as well. I'm already forking out £130 a month for crackberry and two dongles (landline broadband isn't possible for us).

and another thing, it's all very well getting an ipad and a subscription to a newspaper, but I wonder how many seconds I'd last reading a paper on the ipad on a local bus in Tottenham, before I was taxed for the device?

It sure is puurty tho.

 

[tarannau]

Above all, styli potentially add inconsistency and confusion to what should be an intuitive OS. And do I trust MS and their loose team of developers not to bodge up such a balance? Of course not.

TBH I reckon styli should be consigned to history or confined to very specific tasks.

 

[Crispy]

If you turn it sideways it's widescreen...

No it's not. The screen is 1024x768 - Oldschool 4:3

960x640 would have made some sense, to get exactly double the pixels of iPhone (this is 3:2)

1280x720 would have been the best size though, for proper 16:9 HD

 

[kyser_soze]

How does this device improve my life?

The iPod made carrying more music than I'm ever likely to listen to easy

The iPhone made smartphones easy to use 'for everyone' (as opposed to geeky types who bought something like a Touch HD)

What does this do? Aside from be bulky, cost loads for not much storage, and you're tied into the whole Apple content dictatorship.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

1280x720 would have been the best size though, for proper 16:9 HD

Is there an obvious technical reason why they haven't done this?

It does seem rather odd.

 

[Crispy]

How does this device improve my life?

The iPod made carrying more music than I'm ever likely to listen to easy

The iPhone made smartphones easy to use 'for everyone' (as opposed to geeky types who bought something like a Touch HD)

What does this do? Aside from be bulky, cost loads for not much storage, and you're tied into the whole Apple content dictatorship.

"use a computer round the home or on the go, without the hassle of having to use a desktop OS in a suboptimal shape for it"

not the greatest selling pitch, really

 

[Sunray]

Is there an obvious technical reason why they haven't done this?

It does seem rather odd.

Cheap screens. Its an off the shelf size and being IPS there are more limited sizes available. Just going to have black bars when watching
widescreen content.

 

[kyser_soze]

not the greatest selling pitch, really

Shiny new thing!! Lookit the shiny new thing!!! would probably be better.

 

[Crispy]

Hmmm. I would have thought 720p screens this size were being made in sufficient numbers...

 

[editor]

"use a computer round the home or on the go, without the hassle of having to use a desktop OS in a suboptimal shape for it"

not the greatest selling pitch, really

Have you seen this from Lenovo?

Showcased at CES earlier this month, the tablet packs everything you'd need from a fully functioning tablet PC - touchscreen, full multitasking, automatic screen orientation, 3G, Wi-Fi, onboard camera etc, but comes with a very clever twist: it can clip into a special shell to become a full Windows 7 laptop with a proper keyboard.

http://www.wirefresh.com/lenovo-u1-tabletpc-hybrid-well-take-this-over-the-ipad-thanks/

 

[skyscraper101]

It's not just for watching video on though. If it was then a 16:9 screen would've been better, but that's only part of the sales pitch. A more standard screen is probably better for portability and all the other apps they want to run on it.

 

[ovaltina]

Isn't tv catch up a flash service? (I've been known to watch tv in the bath with it on my battered old laptop. Would't risk it with this though, too valuable)

 

[Kanda]

Isn't tv catch up a flash service? (I've been known to watch tv in the bath with it on my battered old laptop. Would't risk it with this though, too valuable)

Works on iPhone... which doesn't support Flash.

 

[elbows]

Many services that use flash in your desktop browser are actually using h.264 video, just wrapped up in flash, so whilst the iphone & ipad dont support flash, they can use the underlying videos. We will see this increasingly on the desktop too - for browsers that support h.264 playback without flash, via the htm5 vieo tag, the page wont need to use flash, but for browsers that dont support that technology the video will be wrapped in flash so it still works.

As for the dismal reception to the iPad, there are 3 things that prevent me from being sure that the device is doomed:

The web experience might be great once people actually try it.
There could be some killer apps
Young people might like it

Time will tell, certainly initial indications are not good so I am quite depressed about my planned future career today, but really I need to give it 6-12 months before I write this one off as a complete failure.

 

[Crispy]

Have you seen this from Lenovo?



http://www.wirefresh.com/lenovo-u1-tabletpc-hybrid-well-take-this-over-the-ipad-thanks/

Spot-on formfactor, but idiotic decision to have effectively two computers in it (the Linux, ARM screen and the Windows, Intel base)

And agreed on the flash 'problem' - all the major online video people will be using HTML5 (pushed, in no small part, by the success of the iphone/touch and the lost users that represents) in the next year I reckon, so it's just a passing thing.

 

[Cm7]

Somehow, I envision iPad will be used more in retails/business, e.g. waiters taking your orders in fancy restaurant, stock brokers, props in movies etc.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Tablets really do seem a bit weird. To my mind they're something that should be great, yet nobody seems to be able to crack how to do one just yet.

 

[skyscraper101]

"YEH, I'M IN THE LIBRARY!! I'M ON THE I-SLATE. CAN YOU HEAR ME??"

Ha!

I hope there isn't a phone in it almost, you'd feel a right dickhead holding that to your ear.

It was only a matter of time...

 

[Cm7]

It was only a matter of time...

Haha, it has 3G, so it's possible.
Haven't read the features on the website though, so don't know if you can call. If so, a pair of earphones and a mic would surely be better than holding that thing close to your cheek.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

don't know if you can call

You can't.

 

[elbows]

They might allow voice over IP stuff on it though, it has got a built-in mic.