“The target market for the iPad isn’t as clearly defined as it is for most Apple products,” Ryan Faas writes for Computerworld. “Is it appropriate for business use? Is it a media player or e-reader? How would it be used in educational environments? Is it just an oversized iPod Touch? Exactly what needs does it meet that a smartphone or notebook can’t fulfill?”
“We won’t fully know the answer to those questions until the iPad hits the market in March or April or for a little while after it’s released,” Faas writes. “But maybe the point isn’t what the iPad is, but what it represents.”
Faas writes, “The iPad is the latest and most striking example of Apple’s use of multi-touch technology. True multi-touch capability was more concept than reality before the iPhone’s debut in 2007. In less than three years, Apple has taken that technology and baked it into every one of its product lines. After the iPhone came multi-touch trackpads on Apple’s laptops. Then, last fall, came the new magic mouse. And now it’s being used in a full tablet. With each advance, Apple rolls out new ways to interact with devices.”
“The iPad’s arrival also demonstrates Apple’s continued ability to push the envelope in other technologies, including battery life,” Fass writes. “Over the past year or so, Apple has pioneered the concept that innovative battery design can lead to better battery life and better design. Not everyone is happy about the trend toward built-in, nonreplaceable batteries, but Apple at least makes the concept seem feasible, and even desirable.”
“Finally, the iPad is proof positive that Apple has the financial resources to develop completely new products from the ground up,” Fass writes. “The fact that Apple designed and manufactured its own processor specifically for the iPad speaks volumes about the company’s vitality, even in an uncertain economy. And it bodes well for Apple’s ability to innovate in the years ahead.”
Fass writes, “All that said, I have no doubt that even if the immediate market for the iPad isn’t obvious, Apple wouldn’t have developed the device without believing it could be a vital product… So, what sweet spot is Apple aiming for?”
Full article, in which Fass looks at all of the markets to which iPad appeals (entertainment, business, education, etc.), here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s simple really, just look at it when it’s off: iPad is a blank slate. Apple’s iPad is for moms, dads, grandparents, kids, teens, and single adults. It’s basically for humans (and some primates) ages 1-100+.
Me
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Ditto Lava!
100% me.
Me = 2. My gf is getting the wifi model to take to Europe with her in the the spring, so she doesn’t have to take her 15″ MBP. I’ll be waiting for the 3G.
For me. It is for people who use apps on a daily basis like me. You can’t utilize your apps on your Mac so this device with a larger screen is the best!!! So looking forward to it.
As new iPad specialist apps come along we will start to see just how specialist, and just how versatile this device is going to be. Its the start of tomorrows computing.
iPad is an enabling technology.
At this point in time, nobody even knows what new uses this will open.
As the product matures, it will grow and new features will be added, driven by how it is used in the real world.
C1, I’m thinking on getting just the wifi version. Most places I go have wifi, or the work I’ll be doing will allow me to transfer it to laptop days later.
Ah Lava ya beat me too it…. but me too. Can`t wait to show the off the lack of features like… oh? a REGISTRY! to the windroids at work.
Virtually everyone, as the apps come out that make interacting with computers the way it was always meant to be.
Here’s a question… will the available quality and resolution of video podcasting be raised to more than just the current levels in the iTunes Store because of this piece of hardware?
The iPad seems to be ideally sized for taking notes at meetings and conferences.
Me 2. As a power desktop user, I’ve never really been able to justify a laptop. The iPad is a perfect fit.
It is perfect. I have no desire to lug around a laptop. I find myself using the iPhone for just about everything, and the iPad is like my dream come true…….(ie: bigger, more functional iPhone)
Are you kidding?
With a conservative price like that, it must be for Republicans.
But then again, it has a liberal supply of apps, so it must be for Democrats.
Although it does offer independence from the print media, while at the same time being green to produce…..
Could this be just the item to bring all Americans together?
Nah, didn’t think so (but you never know).
explaining an Ipad to a windroid is like explaining super string theory to a house cat
except cats are cooler and will end up rubbing up against it.
I love kitties
Me!!!
@ chew,
Yeah, I enjoy it when my wife’s rubs up against me.
I spend more time web surfing on my iPod Touch than I do on my iMac. The iPad is a no brainer for me.
Okay TT,
MS will be seeing red (and maybe soon, black) while Apple is doing green while making green, and everyone else is turning green.
On my photography vacations I’ve needed a bigger screen to view my pix. I’ve needed wifi and Safari to find lodging and the like. But I’ve also wanted do this for less than the 2k needed for a decently spec’d MacBook Pro. I think this may fill the bill, . . . in several manners.
But you know, . . . if they spec out some really neat stuff in the MBPs, I may just have to do both.
I recently got an i7, after seven years of use with an MDD. I can’t believe the value wrapped up in this new machine.
I pre-ordered three iPads: one for my 1 year old daughter, 1 for my 80+ years old mother and one for myself. It will be groundbreaking for all of us.
I want iPad.
I can make Keynote presentations. Everything else is gravy!
iPad is the best experience for the 90% of the time people spend at their computers — other than computer intensive work (photoshop, movie editing, 3D modeling, animation, etc.)
I got a quad core i7 and a PowerBook Pro. I can’t wait to get my hands on my very own iPad. Yes, I join the choir. The iPad was designed for a guy like ….moi!
And one more thing. Netbooks are for neanderthals!
Architects, Engineers, Builders, Real Estate Agents, Surveyors, etc… – All get to carry all their plans around and send sketches back and forth between office, job site, car, or coffee shop. Visit a site virtually on Google Maps and see the terrain, aerial, and map views.
Imagine all the drawings in a “flat file”, all your Specs, all code books, your library of architectural books, McGraw-Hill’s Sweets, and all with search capability in an iPad with the ability to zoom in and out of details – no more concerns about what scale to draw at because the iPad is capable of infinite zoom in or out.
The 3G data paln appears to be great for occasional travelers. You can sign up for the plan, use it on your trip an, all this on the iPad itself, then cancel when you get home. If you can do this multiple times then this is very tempting.
1. Photographer out on the photo shoot
2. In the living room instead of heavy laptop or small screen iPhone
More.
Think about it, you can control your home appliances, your Apple TV, maybe soon your TV, so many possibilities.
@ Jim TIV
I’m envisioning a photojournalism workflow around the 3G model. Not sure how it all work out, since I don’t know what apps might come out between now and then, but this is how I see it happening-
1. Shoot stuff with Real Camera (in my case, a Canon XTi or G10)
2. Take notes on iPad, record voice memos or interviews with voice recorder. Mark key locations with Map application. Add contacts to address book.
3. Download images to iPad for review. This would replace the need for a laptop or a digital wallet in the field, and would have significant advantages over both – Multitouch, which is the world’s best way to interact with images, and the ability to fit easily into my camera bag. The disadvantage compared to a lappy would be the lack of a high-level Camera Raw image editor, but more on that later…
4. While still in the field, Write – use notes, recordings, and images to begin writing. In my case, I’d start a WordPress draft document, which I could do regardless of WiFi availability.
5. At the end of the day, sync iPad with computer, and import images to a real editor (Lightroom) and 2 big screens for more complex editing.
Now this is the part that has the most potential. I don’t see an App Store application that has anything like the power of Lightroom. Yet. Ideally, I would love Adobe to create a mobile version of Lightroom so I can organize images, add metadata and keywords, star ratings, labels, etc, and have it all sync to my main system when I get home. Until then, just being able to review my images on a bigger screen with excellent navigation will be a huge advantage over looking at them on my camera’s LCD. I think a lot of tasks will still need to be done on the desktop machine, like complex layers-based editing in Photoshop and maybe some web layout in Dreamweaver. For now.
I also like to move finalized images to the web server (my Mac Mini) at home because it’s a hell of a lot faster and I can just use the Finder rather than FTP.
6. Publish – Once imaging tasks are done and the images are on the web server, it’s just a matter of finalizing the WordPress draft. Again, with the 3G I can do this from anywhere. Maybe I need to do a follow-up interview in the field – no problem, I have the document right there with me. As soon as I’m happy, hit the publish button.
I seriously can’t wait.
Fraser Speirs sait it best :
The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS.
The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table’s order, designing the house and organising the party.
Think of the millions of hours of human effort spent on preventing and recovering from the problems caused by completely open computer systems. Think of the lengths that people have gone to in order to acquire skills that are orthogonal to their core interests and their job, just so they can get their job done.
If the iPad and its successor devices free these people to focus on what they do best, it will dramatically change people’s perceptions of computing from something to fear to something to engage enthusiastically with.
— Article Future Schock on his blog.
A blank slate is a great view of this product. It’s a product that will be custom tailored to an individual based on their needs and desires through software, same as the iPhone except with greater usability and reach.
I will add that the iPad is what I’ve been waiting for ; first as a Book Reader and second as a writing pad. (Maybe I’m in the minority, but I like virtual keyboards.)
Add a camera, a usb port, and a firewire port, and it’s for me.
Add a camera […]
— m159
I prefer a real camera, my small Leica D-Lux.
Technically, multitouch trackpads appeared on Apple’s laptops – the PowerBook specifically – way before the iPhone was released. Remember, two fingers is multitouch.
C1
Do you shoot in RAW, and if so, do you reckin’ it will be able to import those files?
Or maybe shoot in RAW+JPEG and import just the JPEG, save the RAW for the workhorse?
And do you have that nifty Polaroid program to make your nice shots look like a crappy instant from 1978?
The killer feature it must have for me is iTunes streaming like an appletv does. If it does this out of the box I’m in.
@ TT
“Do you shoot in RAW, and if so, do you reckin’ it will be able to import those files?”
Right now that the biggest wildcard. The simple work-around is to shoot RAW+JPG and use the jpegs for review on the iPad, and edit the Raw files when I get back to Lightroom. But I’m hoping Raw support with come to the iPad.
@ TT
I obviously got excited and didn’t read your whole comment. >.< And yes, I have all kinds of tricks to make my nice photos look like shit.
Me Me Me Me…I want one too!!
After a lot reading since the keynote there is a high likely hood in my mind the iPad is, yes, for all the above, but but still somewhat of mystery whose utility cannot be fully understood because it was really designed to be used with iPhone OS 4.0. A large blank space needs to be preserved in everyone’s mental construct of the iPad’s place in technology’s firmament. The construct can be completed when, probably in March, iPhone OS 4.0 is revealed. I have read comments that iPhone OS 4.0 makes the iPhone (and now the iPad by association) “more computer like”. That has a lot of positive implications for me, if true.
I thought it was for people?
We should all shoot raw in the raw and make large cat noises.
Do it. Make it loud.
Everything will make sense.
Wow! When the iPad was first shown there were a lot more negatives on this site. Looks like people are starting to see how great the iPad really is.
I can’t imagine a photographer, graphic designer, web developer, realtor or sales agent not being very excited about this. And that’s just business people.
Watch the video on this page.
http://www.slashgear.com/amazon-yank-macmillan-books-over-ipad-price-protest-3072126/
Then tell me that the iPad ain’t gonna be great. In the video when she is demoing photos I saw the option to send it to MobileMe which is fantastic. I figured it would be there but you never know until you see it. That means I can keep my iMac, iPhone and iPad calendars, contacts in perfect sync.
Cool Idea:
If I was building a new house, I would buy iPads for every bedroom and living room and build charging units into the wall and make some easy open picture frames that would enable you to quickly plug in the iPad. iPad would be a digital picture frame and would always be charged. Three bedroom house would only cost $2000 in iPads. Not that much when you consider the hundreds of thousands in construction costs.
Someone will build this. Griffin? Belkin?
TT:
“And do you have that nifty Polaroid program to make your nice shots look like a crappy instant from 1978?”
There’s an easy way with PS. And I know C1 knows.
Just listed my 8 year old daughters iPod Touch on eBay. She came running up to me after school yesterday, “Daddy, can I get that new iPod Touch?! That big one?”
Her birthday is in March also – so looks like it’s a go.
Funny when people say “it’s just a big iPod touch.” Duh! We know that – that’s why we all want one. The fact that it will be the best mobile presentation tool ever invented is icing on the cake.
Do any of you remember what happened on this date in 1982? It’s the day Elk Cloner appeared in the wild for Apple II.
Really stupid people. With more money than brains.
All I need to make the iPad useful for me would be FileMaker, and an outliner that has handwriting recognition.
I can’t remember the program, but my iPod Touch has a note taking program with character recognition & it works pretty well. (I still miss my Newton)
That plus what it already does with iWork would be enough to bridge between the studio & the office quite well.
And for entertainment, it’s potential isn’t yet clear, but I want the iPad to interact with the video and audio seamlessly in my home network. A bigger version of the Apple remote program with more feedback would be outstanding.
I say the iPad will be just what I want & need in about another year.
@Dallasm
Hyuck! Hyuck!, that`d be me!
next up, trading in the car for a unicycle with square wheels, maybe I`ll juggle some molotov cocktails too.
@ Dallasm
Really poor sentence structure.
All this talk about a camera. OK – maybe forward facing specifically for video chat only. But are people really asking for a real camera to take photos/movies with? I can’t imagine a worse form factor than the iPad for a picture taking device…
It’s for people who have an iota of intelligence, creativity, imagination, vision and a desire to be productive and artistic.
That leave all the pc”ers out thank god …
Oh boy, Dallasm is here.
What are you going to complain about today?
“Really stupid people. With more money than brains.”
Incredibly misguided, egotistical, stupid, ass-holish, un-American thing to post.
Complainers just don’t have an open mind.
They don’t know how to learn about new technology and would rather tinker with dos and the registry.
Can’t do that with this product.
Apple is getting closer and closer to selling something as simple as a toaster. You just plug it in and push this button. (Almost idiot proof, except for PC geeks) It just works, little or no support needed.
Me, as soon it has a webcam. iPass until then, but I still can’t wait to play with the first generation models.
@ Giles
“I prefer a real camera, my small Leica D-Lux.”
I have lots of real cameras. By coincidence, I was just looking at a Leica M9. Currently waiting for the next version of the Canon 1Ds. Anyway, but look, you can have a blast with the iPhone camera, and all the apps that can apply to it. Really amazing things possible. Some iPhone shots have even found their way into the portfolio. I want to do that with the iPad.
Now this has been a worthwhile thread to follow… no US political jibber-jabber, minimal name calling, no PeeCee trolls and lots of good ideas.
Two concepts mentioned resonate with me – the iPad as a clean slate and as enabling technology. Just watch what will come of this.
Thanks all!
What Was Old Is New Again
@ Nina Neenah-Neener: “…..no US political jibber-jabber….”
Give them time. We’re only on page 2.
In the meantime, like you, I’m enjoying the on-topic discussion.
@ TT and C1
I shoot in the raw.
@ Dallasm
Your posts remind me of the old story about the tech support droid telling the dweeb on the phone to rebox his computer and send it back as he was too stupid to have one. That wasn’t you calling for support, was it?
I can put an apple logo on a turd and you guys would still think its the best thing ever, the truth is that this iPad is a total FAIL simply because it can not multitask, take pics, play flash, cant dawnload from other than the apple app store… not to say that its better than a netbook… it is not!!!! There fore it has failed. Now I am a big apple fan but i can at least see when i see a piece of shit. I just dont get a company as big ass apple can come up with such a crappy product when it could have obviously been soooo much better. so so sad.
Folks, this is the start of a revolution!
This is my prediction and my estimates.
The iPad right out of the box could be the primary computing device for at least 50% of computer users. Lots’ of users mainly surf the web, do email, read books and light word processing etc. It will replace the landline for many.
When the iPad and/or it’s brothers and sisters are able to do Photoshop type and art and graphics programs I personally would not have a great need for my desktop or a laptop.
Yes some graphics users will insist for a while they need the larger screens. Their maybe larger screen iPads in the future. The ability to work so closely with the ipad devices may greatly reduce the need for the larger screens for many.
At that point however 90% of home users and 50%-75% of business users will not need laptops or desktops. They will need iPads.
This seachange will occur and be completed within the next 5 to 10 years.
When the dust clears, which company will own the biggest market share of pad like devices? You know who.
It is the company with the proprietary OS and chip and their successor OSes and chips; Apple.
More and more people will eschew the inevitable knockoffs for the real thing.
Their will be little need for software out of Redmond!
Google will be the dear caught in the headlights.
Apple/Steve Jobs and the iPad, is like a broken field runner (football) with the ball tucked securely under his arm knocking over wouldbe tacklers and leaving air, as he sidesteps others while streaking for the goaline.
Touchdown!
This will be big.
No registry
No vacuum tubes
No wooden handles
No aerials
No magneto
No punch cards (for real!?)
No firebox
and lastly no wheels
No sale
@Ampar – agree with everything except the “un-“
Ok, I think the I-pad is a terrible device, before you yell this is what apple will do and that is introduce a 5″ version. If they brand it as a new I-Touch or a mini Pad it will be a huge success.
The I touch was an is a winner, the Maxi Pad is too big, bulky and ignored the problems of no keyboard. Its impossible to predict how many people will initially buy the I-Pad turkeys and surprised that Jobs thought his marketing hype could turn this into a success. Offer me a larger I-Touch and you got a sale. I have no need or desire for an I-Pad and even my nice expense account or early adapter tendencies will change my mind.
@ Zura & Geek,
After perusing your posts I have come to the conclusion that your parents and elementary school teachers really let you down. And vice versa.
As soon as the name is replaced with a reference to something other then a feminine hygiene product, I will consider it. Until then, the device will continue to be the laughing stock of the world. Amazing, how one ill-informed decision, has resulted in near universal condemnation. People are not even getting to the iPad itself, as the name is just too absurd. Features? Who cares. The association leaves one sneering in disbelief!
ChrissyOne:
Lightroom???Adobe????
What about Apple’s Aperture – You can bet it’s iPad derivative will be there….
U. R. Jokking:
Long before feminine pads there were writing pads, would you know that basic fact of life?
@ U. R. Jokking,
Ever ate a roll (as in toilet paper) or a bun (as in ass cheek)?
Yeah, that’s just as stupid as your comment.
U. R. Stoopid
@ Giles
“If you own an oven it does not make you a top chef” likewise, “if you own a camera, it does not make you a professional photographer”. – Giles Christopher
Giles where can we view your photographs, could you post a link to a blog or maybe a photo sharing site like Photo.net
@ U. R. Jokking
Did nobody get the point of showing Star Trek on it??
What has been a device that is used in the show and movies over all these years? The PADD.
Google it. Apple just put an i in from of it and removed a D.
This is right from Star Trek, and yes a pad of paper also works too.
Think:
So is the iPod…
I can’t wait for the voice recognition to get better.
The ability to always listen for the keyword or phrase by the one and only voice that can activate it, then be able to listen perfectly in a noisy room to your request.
Many people often ask why processors need to be faster. Voice and sound processing for recognition is still to slow. (Yes I know voice and speech software exists. But try that stuff in everyday environments with lots of background noise.) Once that is perfected, then that’s one more feature Apple could add to their products.
Can’t wait to see and touch the iPad. Apple is moving ever so slowly to certain product ideas that they envision. Just one step at a time.
Might have to watch the Knowledge Navigator clip again. Haven’t looked at that in a year or two.
@Giles
Thanks, Giles, for the link below. Went there and spent 1.5 hours at least on the literate, informed, philosophical, passionate, and unpaid comments on the insightful article. It’s a pity MDN attracts so many trolls; it’s too like surfing cable TV which has a high percentage of tripe. For you who missed it, here ya go–
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Comment from: Giles
Fraser Speirs sait it best :
The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS.
The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table’s order, designing the house and organising the party.
Think of the millions of hours of human effort spent on preventing and recovering from the problems caused by completely open computer systems. Think of the lengths that people have gone to in order to acquire skills that are orthogonal to their core interests and their job, just so they can get their job done.
If the iPad and its successor devices free these people to focus on what they do best, it will dramatically change people’s perceptions of computing from something to fear to something to engage enthusiastically with.
— Article Future Shock on his blog.
@ breeze
Matter of taster here, but personally I don’t like Aperture. I’ve used Lightroom since before it was released.
The iPad is indeed for everyone; that is, for everyone with faith in the future.
Jobs mentioned being at the crossroads of technology and the liberal arts. He was talking about his task of creating social change. The iPad amounts to a training device, to allow us to change the way in which we go about doing the things we do – by simply using a piece of multi-touch glass. Ives comments in Apple’s online video, “In many ways, this defines our vision, our sense, of what’s next.”
The iPad user isn’t alone with this task of using this piece of multi-touch glass. The entire web must also adapt, renew itself, to be seen through this glass. All this learning will take considerable effort but, in time, the pieces will fall together in a way that might well accelerate wide-spread societal improvement.
Does everyone have faith in Apple products? What a question!
It took a drop kick of an advertisement to get people’s attention to the graphical user interface. (This Super Bowl ad also created continuing sickening, nauseating, and hateful feelings toward all things Apple, so the cost of that ad was a bit more than dollars.) Today, however, nobody doubts the use of the graphical user interface. Everybody has faith in its continued use.
Common use of the mouse appears to be doomed, though, to be replaced by the use of the fingers. First the iPhone, then the iPod touch, and now the iPad rely on use of the fingers, marvelously. I suspect he technology will spread into the entire chain of Apple products soon enough. (If multi-touch were to be introduced on the widest scale immediately, likely society would reject it. Apple doesn’t want another drop kick reaction so the time will be taken for people to learn to rely on the multi-touch approach. With the iPad, likely most people will learn to use their fingers better, quickly, and be proud of the fact.
I’ve noticed that parents do not ever object to buying their children iPod touches. There’s a common sense that says the children need this device. As it used to be important for children to learn to use the newspaper for its proper value, today parents believe it is important for their children to learn how to use the web for its value. Do parents have faith in Apple’s iPod touch, in Apple’s touch interface? You can bet on it!
Will everybody have faith in Apple’s iPad? Well, there remains a strong crowd of the sickening, nauseating, and hateful but, most people believe Apple will deliver yet another must-have product. People also have faith that Apple will improve on this product in time, as well, that Apple will improve primarily given apt user input after the product is first made available.
There are at least two problems ahead for iPad usage that bothers me right now. One is the speed with which the web responds to the use of the iPad. The second worry I have has to do with that intersection of technology and the liberal arts: Social control on the web. It seems past time to bring some law and order to the wild west of the internet. I suspect it will take Apple to first deal with the latter issue for mankind.
Argh.
Yet another tech “journalist” complaining about non-replacable batteries.
There are thee big problems with this complaint:
1) The batteries *are* replaceable in many of Apple’s products, just ask a Genius.
2) 99% of electronics owners *never* replace “replaceable” batteries. It’s only an eensy teensy percentage of consumers (read: tech journalists) that even think to purchase replacement batteries.
3) Apple’s battery technology lasts *five years.* Do you really need to replace the battery on your Powerbook G4?
Powerful desktop computers with big screens are cheaper than powerful laptops with big screens. I am a film maker. Editing is done on my home desktop, but I need something to take to meetings to show videos, take notes easily and other things the iPhone just isn’t good enough for due to the smaller screen. The iPad is PERFECT for me, it will end up being cheaper than buying a good desktop computer and a laptop!
“Finally, the iPad is proof positive that Apple has the financial resources to develop completely new products from the ground up,” Fass writes.
Financial resources? It the guy totally nuts? Apple has the *financial* resources to create the ground, itself, and *then* build new products from the ground up just to support the next level of ground.
It isn’t the financial resources that were in question. It was the engineering design and integration capability to pull all of the necessary activities together effectively. You know, the kind of challenge that has brought many a company to its knees. Apple is very carefully choosing its battlegrounds between what it designs/contracts for fabrication and what it sources from suppliers. And Apple has been wildly successful so far. No debt and tens of billions in the piggy bank give a little fruit stand a lot of clout.
There are many ways to use the iPad…it’s an EverybodyPad:
-Designer showing furniture samples to a client on an outing or to look up items that provider the designer and client inspiration.
-Real Estate Agent showing homes to client at an initial meeting.
-Sharing photos with Gramdma.
-Making everyone at Starbucks jealous
-Offering clients at a Salon something other than a magazine (at least that’s what my partner will do). Or looking up celebrity hairystyles.
-Reading RSS feeds in a more rewarding way
-enjoying stumbleupon in a most satisfying way
-photographer showing portfolio to prospective client
-use paint app in a creative way to say whatever you want to people not in hearing distance. (fun messages to other drivers)
-entertaining every niece and nephew I have
-bring bathroom reading to a whole new level
-view an excel sheet or pdf in full view on the go (huge benefit)
-ipod touch for the vision impaired. large print for any book…as I get older this will come in more handy.
-To make the airport experience more tolerable.
-To view weather radars in full high threatening definition.
-To make maps actually visible in the car.
-To highly annoy the IT folks in my company.
-Let’s face it….Porn or glorious porn.
Hey! Can we get back to the puns, double-entendres and alliteration again? This name-callin’ stuff is so low-brow. How ’bout we just start with excessive punctuation and abbreviations?
And about this “backward-facing” camera thing.
TURN AROUND!
AJ
U R so funny.
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Thanks for the laugh
AppleJack: “Hey! Can we get back to the puns, double-entendres and alliteration again? “
Amen.
I’m a doctor. Will be getting in line to get mine. I would love to see some good medical apps.
I’ve used this space to criticize the iPad and it’s lack of support for Micro$hafts Office.
Then it struck me, Micro$haft is doing almost nothing in the application end of mobile computing. While they misfire on windows mobile, most stunning is their lack of a strategy to profit from mobile even if their windows mobile os strategy falters.
Apple needs to keep developing iWorks, and most importantly numbers, to become a capable (macro’s, add ins, more mathematical functions, etc) to be a complete competitor to Excel.
I’m hoping that is what Apple is hoarding all the cash to have the ability either through acquisition, or funding development, to burst onto the software application scene in a way that creates a 7.0 earthquake in Microsoft under the Office Monopoly.
In my view, Office is a much stronger stranglehold on the market place that he Windows OS. I’m quite surprised Micro$haft doesn’t realize this and forge ahead with mobile apps for this “true” monopoly they own. It is certainly theirs to lose.
Brian:
How about carrying around an entire Library of reference and text books for students and professionals everywhere?
How about Teaching professionals hooking up the iPad to projectors anywhere and doing a pre prepared presentation that enables pre prepared work to be accompany their lecture/lessons and enables keyword searches into any of the books in their libraries or simultaneous live internet searches to supplement and encourage debate ?
How about a live library subscription providing access to all books in the Public Library?
How about no more lugging around piles of books for students?
How about……
Oh, just off the top of my head:
Package delivery folks (UPS/Fed-Ex, etc.)
Medical professionals, especially emergency first responders and field hospitals
Anyone who wants to provide “live” bulletin boards of current activities
Students taking “open book” examinations
Real estate agents (photos and all specs related to current offerings)
Seriously, think back to the Apple II and IBM PC. Exactly who and what were *they* really for?
Attorneys who will store case records and legal references
@Finn
“I pre-ordered three iPads”
That’s a neat trick, considering it is illegal to offer these devices for sale or loan before they clear the FCC.
Where at?
@TT
‘Could this be just the item to bring all Americans together?’
Nope but it will Canadians as it can operate at -20oF
DallasM is Zune Tang during that time of the month
Not enough O’s in Stoopid to describe UR Jokking
The iPad is ideal for me to read the newspaper on the deck, show some photo’s at a get together, take off the shelf to look up something quick on the Net…etc etc…
@Applejack
That statement was a stupendously superb supplication
I will jot it down on my pad.
Sorry,,,,that stinker was 2/3rds of a pun…P.U.
to all those naysayers —
If you cannot recognize the fact that the iPad represents
“The Next Big Thing” ..then you have already missed the boat !
Remember– you were wrong about the iPod —
You were wrong about the iPhone–
So– what makes you think you have any clue about the iPad ?
I really hate to make predictions– but…
IMHO — the iPad IS the future !!
(get used to it !)
Apple stock down $20 for the week. That’s the steepest decline in resent time. Ipad failed to meet expectations. Ipad did not surprize anyone nor revolutionize anything. It lacks needed features. It’s hard to figure what was Steve Jobs thinking. We see that Apple fanboys are impressed but the world is not. IPhone is a super product, ipad is not. Ipad will sell to apple fans and their dependents but thei will buy anything with apple logo anyway.
@ palaver,
Foolish statement. Prepare to eat your words.
@palaver
Learn how to write English. Moreover, it is iPad and iPhone not Ipad or IPhone.
Gee….fluctuations in a stock….never seen THAT before. How does it work on your planet?
my cat gets string theory
DallasM-go take your meds.
What sort of apps? Here are some ideas.
As a stand-alone IO device – With the right transducers:
it could control your home systems, security, light, heat from wherever you happen to be;
it could help you to map your home’s energy loss weaknesses, so you can fix them;
it can monitor the life signs of a patient and sound alarms. Useful if a family member is sick;
it can be the ultimate, easiest to use and to program home remote control;
it could adjust your energy use as the weather changes outside;
an amazing, interactive learning tool for anyone;
it can be an automated data gatherer for almost any situation;
an automatic stop-motion trigger for a camera;
a point and go navigation tool for the car;
an easy to use Star Trek style life signs display/alarm for ambulances, clinics and hospitals;
etc etc you add your own ideas.
As a connected controller for apps running on a Mac (or a WinPC):
a drumskin to ‘hit’ to create percussion beats in Logic Pro etc;
a piano keyboard to drive a music app, sequencer or synthesizer;
a guitar fretboard to ……. yada yada yada
a multi-handed, multi-fingered active surface on which you could create a musical instrument design to your liking (imagine that)…..single note pads chord pads y y y:
a music mixing deck controller;
an MIDI control interface for a rack-based synth;
a highly effective, multi-modal control panel for Final Cut/Logic Studio apps;
a finger-driven graphic tablet surface for any graphics app on the Mac;
etc etc etc you add your own ideas.
And, as time passes and it gets camera(s), multi-tasking, phone capabilities and more features, these lists will grow.
Give it time
There are a lot of talented, imaginative people out there.
Also, all those add-on devices expected for the iPhone, now have a better platform to run on.
It’s a cool device but I’ll pas for now. My Touch is just about perfect for me.
Coupla things: firstly, I don’t think steve intended this to be anybody’s primary computer. You are supposed to bring it back to base and sync it every so often.
Secondly, I’m hopeful that the remote desktop apps will run better on the iPad due to the n-wifi, faster processor, and bigger screen. We might be able to run 99% of our desktop applications remotely from the iPad.
Now, that being said, do you think I could play Hulu on my iMac but have the picture streamed to
my ipad?
I’ve been warming up to the iPad and I think it’s going to be for a lot of people. That is, as long as there’s someone semi-technical around for syncing help.
I would like to think my mom would dig it, but I can hear the tech support calls now walking her through syncing iPad to iTunes on her computer… which would be necessary for updates, backups, etc. The only way it’d really work is if I did the syncs and maintenance when I came to visit. Wireless auto sync would be more compelling. (But, ya, there’d be support calls for that too.)
I want handwriting recognition. At the end, the app for the Newton was very good.
And a few years ago I had an otherwise terrible Toshiba PDA that recognized my terrible handwriting. Yes, as hard as it was for me to say, it was Windows.
That tells me that Apple can make it great now.
I am a teacher who likes to take notes in my classes, comment on my own lesson plans , what worked and what did not, make markup comments on student documents.
Typing, whether virtual or real keyboard will not do it. That requires me to shift my eyes and my attention to the keyboard. No way.
So here goes, I am going to bring the stylus argument to this thread. I want a stylus option even if I have to develop the app myself.
When taking notes with the stylus, all I will need to do is look for position, write notes while watching and listening at the same time.
If some of you have done that successfully with a keyboard, more power to you, but………………
And I am not going to write or draw with a finger. Are you kidding? Gestures do have some great functions, writing and drawing…..No.
But as someone said, this thing is a great starting point, and a year from now we will be amazed at the things that people are doing with them that we have not imagined now. Uh…….make a phone call?
@ M159 – 05:17 PM
I don’t doubt for a second the iPhone camera is good but I would have preferred an iPhone without a camera (I know I’m in the minority) like… my Leica doesn’t make phone calls, my pen can’t turn screws, my desk lamp doesn’t play music, etc.
@ Sky Lark – 07:50 PM
“If you own an oven it does not make you a top chef”
You’re absolutely right. But I didn’t pretend for one second to be a professional or even a good photographer. I prefer equipment that do only one thing.
@ Ringgo – 08:34 PM
It’s a pity MDN attracts so many trolls
But MDN’s takes are funnier than FS and MDN offers much more information. And there are relatively few trolls or Windows enthusiasts (poor fellows…) here, just ignore them.
@ Giles,
Darn, and I was going to give you a Swiss Army knife for your birthday:
http://www.swissarmy.com/MultiTools/Pages/Product.aspx?category=doityourself&product=53771&
I guess it will be a new toothbrush instead.
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Yes Chano, . . . I think you might be on to something. Do you remember when just a few weeks after the iPhone 3G release a small group gathered with their iPhones, and with various musical instrument apps, performed some tunes?
I imagine with more processor, bigger speakers and screens that we’ll be seeing some much richer development of musical instrument apps. . . . How long before a large group of music geeks get together with their iPads for Beethoven’s Fifth?
I would bet that it won’t be long before someone docks an iPad and uses it with a MacBook and Pianoteque to fill an auditorium.
The future for this thing is mind-boggling!
@ Sir Bates
I already have a Swiss Army knife… the one with only one blade.
I might have missed it in the comments but the largest and most logical market for the ipad is in the school systems. It will replace all of the text books. Ebooks are cheaper and easier to distribute then text books. Ipads are also cheaper then laptops and practically everything the school systems are using laptops for they can design ipad apps to take their place.
@Zura: Flash sucks; I had two Flash crashes today on my MacBook, and several times have gotten stuck in a Flash scripting loop I can’t get out of. Second, you can’t multitask on an iPhone either, but I expect multitasking to be in a future iPhone OS (and by extension on the iPad). Only thing I’d like to do is listen to one of my radio apps or MLB audio while either Web surfing or typing in Pages, but I can wait
I did some quick google searches with iPad together with each of the following terms to get a feeling for the level of interest in the iPad in each area.
Activities:
iPad business – 18,000,000 hits
iPad games – 16,000,000 hits
iPad education – 14,400,000 hits
iPad art – 13,400,000 hits
iPad medicine – 718,000 hits
Media:
iPad games – 16,000,000 hits
iPad books – 14,800,000 hits
iPad music – 14,600,000 hits
iPad movies – 13,700,000 hits
I’m not sure what it means other than the level of interest in all of these areas is phenomenal.
People have no idea how big this is … Steve knows exactly what he is doing .. he’s just made computing dead drop easy for your grandmother, father or anyone else who needs to work on a computer in your family … Here is the scenario. You have a mac with multiple accounts … each of your family members syncs their ipad to their own account … bingo … they walk away and never have to worry about how to work a computer .. everything they need is on the ipad … with no crashes … no viruses .. but access to all the apps they need for 99% of all users. The other beauty of this is … everything goes throught itunes … that’s all your apps … mail… etc .. etc … in other words there will never be a usb port to “install” anything .. it’s a completely controlled computing environment through itunes .. .and that’s a good thing.
NExt … you DON”t have to have a mac to use the thing!! BEcause it all goes through itunes which is platform neutral!!
So this is a hardware trojan horse into the pc world that was started by itunes for pc …. BRILLIANT!!!
A colleague was proudly showing off his new netbook the other day. I had to suggest he turn off some of the toolbars in IE so he at least wasn’t getting a letterbox view of the web.
P.S. I told him I was holding out for the iSlate (this was prior to the unveiling) and he said, “Huh?”
@ justme2,
If your using Safari, Chrome or IE (with Chrome Frame) you can view many YouTube vids with HTML5 instead of Flash. Simply got to http://www.youtube.com/html5 and click on “Join the HTML5 Beta” to begin.
Many of the Flash videos here on MDN won’t play correctly on my old G4 iBook, so I follow the included YouTube link instead. HTML5 works a heck of a lot better for me.
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