“Having used the iPad for some time, I can tell you that the device just makes sense,” Tim Gideon reports for PC Magazine. “When you combine basic-but-essential work tools with iWork, an improved browser, e-mail, iPod, and photo applications, a well-executed e-Book platform with iBooks, and throw in thousands of downloadable apps and games, and package it all in a gorgeous, slim slate with a beautiful 9.7-inch touch screen, you have yourself a winner. Is the iPad cheap? No. Is it flawless? Not at all.”
Omissions including support for multitasking…
MacDailyNews Take: Wait a couple of months for iPhone OS 4 (and, it is “cheap” for what you get; only a Windows PC sufferer would complain about iPad’s amazingly low price).
A built-in camera for video chats…
MacDailyNews Take: And a wireless network that can handle millions of such chats concurrently. This isn’t about checking of a feature list, PC Mag’er. This is about creating a totally new paradigm. You want to take snapshots? Use your iPhone. You want to take photographs, get a real camera.
and Flash support in Safari…
MacDailyNews Take: And they call Mac users dreamers.
Gideon continues, “[All] leave room for improvement, but otherwise, the Apple iPad is a very convincing debut. And it will undoubtedly be a driving force in shaping the emerging tablet landscape… There may be things it doesn’t do, but what it does do, it does remarkably well. Aside from the aforementioned limitations, there isn’t a lot else to gripe about. And to my great surprise, you can actually get real work done with the iPad. There aren’t a lot of directly comparable products in this nascent category. We haven’t had enough quality time with the competing Fusion Garage JooJoo, but it will be a huge coup if it can match the utility and grace of Apple’s first tablet. I’m curious to see who actually buys the iPad, apart from Apple enthusiasts. But I can tell you that when my laptop eventually dies, I’ll be getting one.”
Full review here.
MacDailyNews Take: A funny review in spots, as it comes from someone who doesn’t quite get iPad (complains about the lack of USB ports), but still wants so badly to get an iPad. Tim definitely seems to be stuck straddling the crack created by Apple’s paradigm shift; jump on over, Tim! Anyone who values soon-to-be over a hundred million iPhone OS users – iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users who have disposable income and the proven will to spend it – is moving from Flash video to HTML5. Economics will drive the shift from a buggy, proprietary, sluggish, outmoded plug-in to a universal open standard more rapidly than many seem to grasp. Flash is dead. The review also has its share of mistakes (that’s not a “Windows icon” on iPad’s Mobile Safari, Tim, that’s the “Top Sites icon”), but overall a very positive review to add to the collection.
Apple !
King of Kings, reclaims the throne after 34 Brilliant years of pure innovation!!!
iPad is a game changer.
Amazing what you can get for $1 a year….
Congratulations Apple and family!
AAPL is on a rip!!
So what PC Mag wil admit that MDN wont, is that even Apple has its limitations on innovation. The iPad has great potential, but don’t have quite the innovation enough to back it up.
Sot, purchase more thinks to do what you want it to do. With that attitude, we will always need to carry around multiple devices. Unless Apple becomes more innovative.
I’ll hang onto my Macbook and iPhone for now.
I love apple very much but this site is a bit excessive on the apple worship, the writer finds a way to discredit anything negative said abou apple as oppose to see the legitamate arguements as room for improvement. I also love how he glorifies everything apple does and loves to call every other company beleaguered. I’ve grown to hate that word due to this site
I’m surprised he didn’t mention the missing floppy drive
Sf….Agree!!
Hello you morons. It is an apple fan site. Troll much. Engadget doesn’t work for you anymore. F*#k off and head back to your windblows experience.
@ Sf
Feel free to get your Apple news from other sources if you are offended by MDN’s take. The people who host MDN “get it” as do a lot of others readers of this site, and they do criticize Apple on things in which they disagree (example: Apple’s treatment of Apple TV). Lastly if you do not understand the use of the word beleaguered by this site you have simply have not followed the history of Apple long enough to “get it”.
This comment is not meant as a flame it just serves to support those people with informed opinions… but opinions are just that… opinions, everybody has one.
Cheers,
Ok Mactacular…. I also use Mac and iPhone products.. calm down.
I don’t think RP3 knows what “innovation” means. Apple has for the last 3 years been introducting a new paradigm. In order to succeed in this shift, the change has to be almost imperceptible, and at the same time feel inevitable. That means, not forcing people to give up what they know, but to gradually persuade them with what feels like next. Just like this PCMag writer. You do know PCMag is not AppleMag, right? They rarely write flattering articles about Apple. And, yet, imperceptibly, the writer, while ticking off specs that he feels are missing, and grudgingly admitting that the iPad can do “real” work, admits he wants to get one, when his laptop dies. It’s what is next, what is inevitable. That’s what Apple is shooting for. Getting people to change too rapidly will only harden their stance against you; getting them to change imperceptibly, a slow seduction, is how you get them over to the bright side.
Some of the twats that post on here! Like RP3 and Sf…
Unless they’re being ironic?
You can accuse Apple of being many things… Too well designed. Too well promoted. Too modern. Too easy to use. Too well thought-out. But “Lacking in innovation” ???
What planet are their posts coming from? For the life of me I can’t think of any other company which includes Genius in almost every product. Free of charge. The people at HP or Dell would have to look up the word.
@Sf.. Sorry you just don’t get it… this is a highly HIGHLY biased site. It’s designed to be for all things Apple, there are no other good computer manufacturers, they all serve as fuel to the Almighty, All Knowing, Being that is Apple Computer. Now say 10 Hail Marys an ask to be forgiven for your heretical thought. Then you may approach the alter and present your offering to Apple. BTW “beleaguered” is a “High Worship Word” on this site. Take care not to incur the wrath of the Apple minions by speaking it out of context or by showing disdain for its use upon those who would smite Apple.
RP3:
Look at MDN as an Apple user sentiment gauge with some good valid opinions including some MDN takes that are spot on…Ignore the political BS which is totally stupid and regrettable and have a sense of humor when it comes to morons – you might then see some
value here.
LOL
“straddling the crack created by Apple’s paradigm shift”
Simply brilliant!
Some of us out here have a perspective on computing that pre-dates Microsoft. We were not raised on Windows.
It is a frequent source of amazement for me to watch someone like Tim Gideon wrestle with the massive amount of cognitive dissonance caused by an encounter with a new Apple product: “but it doesn’t…but it doesn’t…but it doesn’t…”
People in that ms/pc world realy are of a different neurodevelopmental profile…
bond co. stooge:
It’s even worse than dyslexia.
“The tight, thoughtful integration of the Mail, Photos, and iWork apps is one of the more impressive features of the iPad.”
And on the Mac. Welcome to the world of Apple! We hope you enjoy your stay.
@Sf “call every other company beleaguered. I’ve grown to hate that word due to this site”
Now you know what it’s like to be an Apple fan!
“beleaguered” was used in the 1990s and early 2000s to describe Apple.
“beleaguered” was hated by Apple fans then as much as you seem to hate it now.
I’m surprised they didn’t B!t**h about the iPad not have a media card reader.
The iPad will definitely make a change in my house.
@MDN
The Camera is the main component that should’ve been there from the start. Would’ve been a great device for video chats. And that can be a deal-breaker for many.
Even the Cheapest/ POS netbooks have Cameras. Maybe not of the best quality, but they’re there and work. Oh well. Maybe later this year Apple will slap on a camera..
@lilochris
Why a fixed camera on iPad? You want to showcase the inside of your nose? If it matters get a good clip on camera, and keep it for ever. What’s the next deal-breaker – no 1080p cam in 2011? No built-in toaster in 2012? A fixed cam is useless on a tablet and Apple will never build in a swivel cam. Moving parts are so yesterday, maaan!
Ever wonder why you only get USB to 30 pin cables and not full chargers with Apple mobile devices? Buy one good USB to mains adapter and use it across all your devices. It’s good policy. Less is More.
@Lilochris:
I agree with you about a camera … from a technical perspective.
However, from a business perspective, its a different story.
First, since all signs are indicating that Apple is going to be selling this “less-than-optimal” version like hotcakes despite this shortcoming, it suggests that the iPad can “survive” without this feature at least for the time being.
Second, there are lots of examples of where certain users explicitly do not want any camera, due to local security issues. As such, if Apple tries to make everyone happy, they’re going to have to double their number of models – – that incurs a hit on inventory management & costs, so it is better to wait to see what the sales volume is going to be and plan accordingly.
Third, to have a plan in your back pocket for what your major changes are for your “2.0” update…is not a bad thing.
Fourth, simpler = faster to market. What would the schedule repercussions be for the iPad if testing-out of a camera were to cause a, say for example, 2 month delay? Pragmatically, it probably would have created a lost opportunity for the June budget planning decisions by EDUs, and since this would have also been after the end of a school year, it likely would have also had a negative impact on the August Back-to-School market for Students. Lacking those to spur interest, how much of an unknown does that then create for projecting Christmas sales?
And so on. There’s many more factors involved in the marketplace than merely the technical specifics of a product.
-hh
@roguedog I laughed until I cried! Thanks!
@breeze:
Rully?
@ Bearman341 – Thought we could all use a bit of brevity, was gettin a lil stuffy