I left my iPad up at the cottage and I’m bummed.
It doesn't have Flash... therefore it would not suffice as an out of the box media device for me. Secondly, it does NOT multi-task, therefore it would NOT suit my browsing/multi-media wants/needs. And to purchase a half-decent one with adequate power/memory/net access, I'm not going to pay a $1000 plus, and certainly not at an 11% markup on US customers.
If Apple can't treat me the same as its homeland customers, then it can get stuffed. Oh, and I don't need that old 'additional export/import costs' argument... Australia is a damned sight closer to China (where the Ipad is made) than is the US, so those costs would... should be less. No, Apple has assessed how much it thinks the Oz market can bear... how much rabid Apple fanbois will pay, and it applies a price commensurate with its usual expensive product mentality. Apparently, some of other markets that won't see the iPad until August or later will pay as much as a 25% markup on US prices. Seems like profiteering to me.
Probably not a lot different... but I would rather go open office anyway Can you get that on iPad? And that's exactly my point... once you need to go beyond the out-of-the-box experience, the iPad is like having an expensive vacuum cleaner in your wallet... everything else important is a pay for app. Nope, not for me!
starkers,
I'm thinking you need to actually use one of these i-devices you disparage before you continue in this vein.....hehe
You have so much flash to use on a daily basis? So all of your media is flash? All of your pictures are flash, your music and all movies you posses are flash? Besides HTML 5 will make flash/silverlight etc. a moot point!
Multi-task? Is there even such a thing? I run many apps/programs etc. as well on a daily basis but I can't really say that I ever truly "multi-task". If the app is written well, which most of them are when you click the home button to switch apps and go to another the first app will resume where you left off when you switch back to it again. How is that any different than switching windows by alt-tabbing?
First, starkers......No one actually wants/chooses to use open/crap-office over MS Office etc. That's just plain bs. The ONLY reason you would "prefer" open-office is because it's FREE and you don't want to steal MS Office. More than 90% of the computer-enabled world uses MS Office (of course to put a number on how many use Office after stealing it would be impossible to discern) because it's the best.
Second, the iWork suite for my iPad from apple cost me exactly $30 in comparison the MS Office suite for my PC cost me $1000.
In closing.....before we can really continue this "debate" I think you actually really need to USE one of these devices you seem to scorn so much.
the Monk
HTML 5 may one day make flash redundant... but as yet, it hasn't. So for now I need an flash capable appliance.
OK, on my desktop PC, I can be converting a video while recording another, and at the same time have FF open to browse the net, my email client open to check new mail, be running WMP to listen to music, converting MP3 audio to WMA in JetAudio Player, and have Live Messenger on standby in case my mother wants to chat.... ALL at the SAME time. iPad would not allow that kind of activity... decidedly not enough memory/CPU power.
Bollocks!!! I know dozens of people personally who have chosen Open Office over the MS suite. I actually have a copy of MS Office: Home and Student Edition (adequate for my/our needs) on my primary OS on my main rig, but I am not going to purchase more licenses to cover my secondary OS AND my 3 other machines. Due to my missus and my sister using the remaining 2 MS Office licenses, I use Open Office on my remaining rigs/OSes, as does my sister on her spare machine.
Me, using an iPad??? Nah, just ain't gonna happen. I, I'll never ever buy one (have no need/cheaply made by almost slave labour in China)... and 2, I don't personally know anyone who was crazy enough to pony up near $700 AUD or more for one... and even if I did, and a feature or two possibly impressed me, it's still exceedingly unlikely I'd ever buy one. Being that the iPad is primarily a portable device, and mobility issues mostly have me tied to home, I really can't see I'd ever have a need, not when I can accomplish far, far more on my current PC.
Don't get me wrong, good luck to you if the iPad does what you need... same to anyone else who bought it. It's just not for me!
Huh?
Yeah, there was a link (not there now) on the page kona linked to above, indicating that several iPhone 4 customers were launching a class action suit because many of their iPhone 2 and/or 3 apps and accessories do not work with the new edition. Some commenters attributed this to Apple greed... deliberately making things incompatible to extract more cash from the consumer.
Why I own neither. my desktop is enough, if I go out to do something, there isn't a need for a computer or its offshoot. Not even the cellphone but I take it because I have one. Got along without one for damn near 60 years, so if we didn't have them I wouldn't loose sleep. But if thats how ya want to spend your money, by all means go for it. I spend mine for the toys I want.
You've never heard of this guy then. David Kassan, who is an incredibile artist, painted this on his iPad.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/picture-galleries/7866260/Apple-iPad-art-portraits-created-by-David-Kassan-using-the-Brushes-app-on-the-touchscreen-device.html
I'm convinced more than ever that people just don't understand, nor care to, the point of devices like this.
I think it's more of a "I need to bash something and this is available" attitude most of the time...
The I-pad is (from what I gather) a superior consumption device. Which it ought to be, given that it's a purpose designed tool for consumption. That doesn't somehow make it superior in general to a general purpose device with vastly more capability.
It's basically a really shiny dumb terminal with no wires. That not new. It's not a bad thing either. But it's not the future of computing because you can't particularly compute on it. If it fun? I bet it is. Is it useful? I'm sure it can be. Is it as useful as a computer? Well if I'm understanding Island Dog's primary usage of it correctly, he's mostly using it as a remote GUI to tell his real computer what to do. Could they do the job without the iPad? Yes. Could the iPad do the job without them? No.
So. The iPad is not and will never be the future of computing. It might be a compelling case for the future of interface devices, if only it could handle sophisticated input as well as one of the teletype dumb terminals for the '70s.
So accept it for what it is, which is fun and of limited utility.
Oh, I understand the point alright... but it's a mighty expensive toy that can do only a fraction of what a PC can. Compare the two, a PC and an iPad, what they are capable of, and the iPad isn't very much bang for the buck.
And what really pisses me off about the ad on TV here is the "crazy powerful" bit. Oh, and "magical" C'mon!!! Apple really needs to get over itself. Crazy powerful my arse! If it had a quarter of the power of my PC it'd be powerful... and if it could do something my PC can't, it might be magical... but it can't, and isn't.
Nope!!! It's the "I hate smug" and I honestly can not see a reason why I would buy a device which has rather limited capability compared what I already have... especially at the exorbitant prices being charged here in Oz. The fact that Apple has put an 11% markup on US prices here... spewing!!!
As pointed out in my previous posts. If I need flash, I can simply remote into one of my Mac's OR PC's using the iPad and play the quick flash video or browse the flash-enabled site. Unless everything you own/do is flash-enabled how big of a minus could that point really be? Not to mention, I never aspoused the iPad to be a desktop/notebook replacement, just that it CAN have a more prominent place in one's IT than just some stupid/shiny consumption-device.
Again, why sit at that desktop while it's doing all that shit? Just do what I do, let the desktop do all of that and go to the summer-house/beach with the iPad. No where in my posts have I ever suggested that the iPad is a desktop/notebook REPLACEMENT for me. I've simply stated (in contrast to you) that the iPad in fact IS A VERY USEFUL TOOL and not only a consumption device (as proven by my own IT structure).
Thank you for making my point for me (or don't you even recognize you're doing that?) You tried to use "well does the iPad run Open Office??" as a way to point out a fault with the iPad......I countered with " the only reason one would pick Open Office over MS Office etc. is cause it's FREE!" ......you've now confirmed that. Thanks.
Right. Completely ignoring my detailed posts previously on how the iPad finds itself nicely entrenched in my IT structure and has PROVEN itself to be so much MORE than just a consumption device, keep on ragging on those ghey commercials and whatever other anti-apple drivel you seem to dredge up.
As Island Dog so aptly put it. Some people just refuse to see the potential usefulness of such a device..........even when the proof is staring them straight in the face.
Why would I need Flash? The games I play online for one thing. As for the iPad being instant on what about the time it takes to lock on to a 3G or WiFi signal and the time it takes to input a password?
@ the monk:
The iPad might be firmly entrenched in your IT structure, and you might find it as useful as all f**k, but I will never find a use for it... EVER.
For 1: it costs far more than I am prepared to pay
For 2: I have NO NEED of one
For 3: I have other IT priorities.
So, no amount of explaining how it makes you feel will alter my position... and frankly, I don't give a rat's arse that you don't like the fact that I don't like or need the iPad.
I have no proof staring me in the face... not that I need proof... whatever that proof may be. The iPad, for me, is a non-event. I'm not getting one, so it doesn't matter one iota if you feel there's some relevant proof I've missed/ignored.
Now is there's some part of "It's just not for me" you just don't get?
sigh.......if you look back over the posts. What you will see is your posts trying to state that the iPad is nothing more than a shiny, over-priced mediocre device. What you will see is my posts proving otherwise.
Nowhere in my posts have I tried to convince you to go get an iPad. I've simply refuted your idiotic claims that the iPad isn't useful for anything other than light media consumption. All I've said is that I don't think you should opinionate about the "reasonable usefullness" of the device if you haven't actually used one.
I could care less if you ever get and iPad/iPhone or any other i-scorned device. What I do care about is you (since you haven't actually even USED one) to shut up about how "not resonably usefull" the iPad is. THAT is simply NOT true! That is what I'm talking about.........and that only.