Apple iPad

[Steve Williams]

My son has one and he being not only a computerphile but so also a Macaddict. This is truly one remarkable device. Colors are extraordinary. I would be interested if Ray Soneira here could give us measurements of its color palette.

The neat thing about this is that IMO it is a portable iMac with a built in key board. For methe latter is what makes it so good and along with the much larger screen gives the appearance of an iPhone on steroids.
My son has the original version which allows only for local networking but no 3Gs as the cost of such a data feature added to the monthly cost.

No doubt further iterations will follow but if Steve Jobs ever included a camera and then a telephone, I would buy one and have it in my kitchen for Skyping, video chat and whatever. The keyboard however is a blessing for us old gomers with big fingers. Even with the larger keyboard on the iphone as compared to other smart phones it is still too small. The keyboard on the iPad however is very functional for those of us with Paul Bunyan fingers

 

[Jay_S]

I looked at Ipads and was impressed with the design. A few weeks ago the ring around the demo Ipads at the SF Apple store was three people deep. I went to the store last Friday evening and the lines had disappeared. Anyway, I bought the 13 inch Macbook Pro. I plan to buy an Ipad in the future but for now I need something with a real keyboard that can work with a printer. The Macbook Pro has 10 hour battery life, a terrific screen, a backlit keyboard, and only weighs 4.4 pounds.

 

[vinylphilemag]

The Macbook Pro has 10 hour battery life, a terrific screen, a backlit keyboard, and only weighs 4.4 pounds.

And has built in camera and mic for use with Skype et al, and has proper multitasking and supports Flash, Java, and other scriptable content.

 

[Steve Williams]

I'm betting furure iterations of the ipad will have all of the above

 

[amirm]

I also don't lust after iPad with my 3.3 pound Sony Z-series laptop with its matt, ultra-bright display with accurate colors (and 5 hours of battery life). I will get one to play with but right now have no real use for it.

My main issue in limited playing with iPad is that I find it too heavy to hold and use. Touchphones are light. This one is not. With my laptop, it is sitting on something so I don't have to support its weight.

Mind you, I think they have made real innovation here that will lead to better things. But for me, it doesn't yet solve a problem but yet, adds considerable hassle in yet another thing to carry, charge, etc.

 

[Steve Williams]

Amir

Trust me whenI say this is a terrific piece of equipment

My son has an iPad case made by Incase that sell for $59.95 and it folds so that it supports the ipad

http://store.apple.com/us/product/H0958ZM/A?fnode=MTc0MjU2Mjc&mco=MTc0MjY5MTU

The battery life is exceptional. So much so that my son uses the ipad more so than his Mac Pro G5

 

[amirm]

As they say, "everyone is different." As you know, I spent quite a bit of time using various tools to manage this forum and do my everyday job on the run (Photoshop, Expression Web, PowerPoint, various pro photo tools). So iPad cannot become my only device and winds up being another chain around my ankle, wanting to be fed with power and attention . For people who just browse and email, then it is far more useful of an appliance.

 

[Steve Williams]

As they say, "everyone is different." As you know, I spent quite a bit of time using various tools to manage this forum and do my everyday job on the run (Photoshop, Expression Web, PowerPoint, various pro photo tools). So iPad cannot become my only device and winds up being another chain around my ankle, wanting to be fed with power and attention . For people who just browse and email, then it is far more useful of an appliance.

I think deep down it is the stigma of you Microsoft guys using something that has an apple as the logo on the front.

 

[Jay_S]

At the risk for changing the topic slightly: the Sony Z laptop is definitely relevant to a "what's best" discussion. Fully loaded, it runs $4,500 and nothing can touch its combination of power and small size and weight.

 

[amirm]

I think deep down it is the stigma of you Microsoft guys using something that has an apple as the logo on the front.

There is probably some truth to that. But more so, is my very negative view of the iron fist Jobs is using to rule this world. I shutter to think of a world where the only products for entertainment come from Apple. So anything that comes close to 90% of Apple has built, gets my money . My Zune music player is an example....

 

[amirm]

At the risk for changing the topic slightly: the Sony Z laptop is definitely relevant to a "what's best" discussion. Fully loaded, it runs $4,500 and nothing can touch its combination of power and small size and weight.

Well said Jay. I will write a separate view for it when I have a few minutes free.

 

[Jay_S]

Well said Jay. I will write a separate view for it when I have a few minutes free.

Are we going to add a computer forum?

 

[amirm]

Are we going to add a computer forum?

Oh, Huston, we have a problem!

Steve, can you please do the honors and create a forum for "What's best in computers?"

 

[Steve Williams]

As a followup, my only problem with the iPad is the need for a touch screen keypad which for my fat fingers frequently results in many typos and extra time needed for correction. I was just about to buy a keyboard with a dock for my iPad in order to make things easy. Down side to this is typing must be done in portrait mode rather than landscape. In doing a search I found this which for me is hopefully the solution for which I have been searching


http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/24/keycase-ipad-folio-packs-a-bluetooth-keyboard-scores-fcc-approv/

 

[brianherlihy]

Steve, to Amir's point on Jobs - i think the Iphone and Ipad (of which i have both) will suffer from not having Flash for quite some time. Jobs is convinced that flash brings down his Mobile OS and has publicly dug his feet in on the subject. i love apple products and have owned many but Jobs inflexibility could be a liability for the company in the near future

 

[Steve Williams]

I do agree with you and Amir about the iPad and iPhone and lack of flash. The lack of it and my use of my iPad for posting frequently precludes my ability to see the full content of a post.

BTW, not sure I understand but my son who is a die hard Mac Addict talks about the use of HTML 5 in the future to work around the absence of Flash. Perhaps some of you computer wizards can comment on that as I cannot substantiate what my son said

 

[audioguy]

The keyboard is nice but my biggest issue is lack of cursor control from a keyboard. I still have to use my finger to place, for example, the cursor in the middle of a word. Clumsy !!

But a fun product nontheless!

 

[Steve Williams]

Again agreed. Interestingly enough I find my accuracy on the iPhone keyboard is much better than the much larger iPad keyboard. The ipad key pad is far more touch sensitive IMO

 

[amirm]

BTW, not sure I understand but my son who is a die hard Mac Addict talks about the use of HTML 5 in the future to work around the absence of Flash. Perhaps some of you computer wizards can comment on that as I cannot substantiate what my son said

Here is a quick tutorial.

Flash dates back to times when people didn't think animated graphics and video playback were mainstream things. So they were relegated to "plug-ins" which are add-ons to the browser. Even inside Microsoft, despite times we enjoyed higher download rate for Windows Media Player than IE (!), the two still stayed separate. Kind of victim of different groups with different missions. But we digress.

Today though, media playback is mainstream triggered by Google putting it on the map with buying Youtube for ungodly amount of money. Youtube used Flash and combined with clever (and at times improper) marketing, Adobe pushed Flash from a graphics plug-in to becoming standard for video on the web.

Apple's beef with Flash is really about wanting to own all formats that are proprietary. Look at FairPlay which is their copy protection. They license open format compression systems but for copy protection, they like to jam their own. They couldn't put that forth as the reason for for not liking Flash and instead, talk about lack of reliability with the Adobe plug-in.

Turns out Apple does have a point about the reliability issue. At Microsoft, we would get crash reports from IE and Adobe Flash from what I recall, was the number one reason IE was crashing a few years ago. Unfortunately the way browsers used to work, if the plug-in crashed, it would take down the browser with it.

The other sin Adobe committed was that it was extremely late to the party in making a version of Flash for anything other than a Mac or Windows.

Of course, Apple is not the only party unhappy about the dominance of Adobe with a proprietary media system. Microsoft is also in the same camp. And the typical "open source" guy is not too happy either as they can't play around with Flash content. So with video now being popular, an effort started to create a web standard for sending and displaying audio/video in the browser called HTML 5.

All is not well though in the wonderland. As always, a quick war broke out over which video format to use. Some companies are in favor of picking MPEG-4 AVC (as used in Blu-ray for example). Others say no in that MPEG-4 has to be licensed for fee and it is protected by patents -- something that other web standards are not burdened with. So a bunch of companies are taking the position that no codec should be picked. What kind of standard that makes is beyond me. Yes, it sucks that video codecs are not free. But the concept of a standard where the core component -- video compression -- is left to the browser maker to implement seems like a stupid way to dismount Adobe Flash with its single audio/video format.

And of course, nothing happens with speed when it comes to standardization. Earliest estimate for the first recommended draft is 2012 and full ratification is out as far as 2022 by some estimates although that is likely very pessimistic. Piecemeal implementations will occur sooner, leading to a fragmented world and possibly grief for content owners. Even with solid standardization, the world of web does not spin on a dime. With millions of hours of content in flash, it will take at least a decade until you can live with HTML5 only browser.

Net, net, for now HTML5 is a dream and talking points for Apple and nothing more. If you have content and you want it to reach the world, you have no choice but to use Flash to reach all the eyballs. Sad affair really as I don't think Adobe deserves such dominance but here we are.

 

[Steve Williams]

Thanks for the explanation Amir