[ctdonath2]

One more alleged criticism eviscerated.

Yes, the plural of anecdote is not data, and of course the device can crack, but the iPad is nonetheless well made and tough.

[ctdonath2]

Heh!

[irishtenor]

Legal disclaimer: This unit is not intended to fly through the air at any speed over 16.8 MPH. Nor is it intended to land on anything harder that stale biscuits. However, if in the event said unit survives any event of greater proportion that the above statements, count yourself lucky :>)

[1rudeboy]

I had a ski rack come off my car at 80mph with minimal damage. The thing flew like a frisbee . . . which was good, since I had about $3000 worth of gear on that thing.

The scariest part was running back to to the rack before some trucker nailed it (it was sitting in the middle of the lane). God Bless you, Ontario truckers . . . there are at least three of you who I owe a beer.

[Leo Farnsworth]

My abacus lost the 1,000 column after doing the same thing.

Little black balls with holes all over the freeway...

[tacticalogic]

True story.

I had the back window of a Ford Taurus blow out going down the highway at 70. It was a really hot day, the AC wasn't working, and I had all the windows rolled down. Suddently it got very quiet in the car, and I look in the side mirror and saw that window about 20 ft. in the air, turning end over end. There was also a blanket on the package shelf that went out with it. I went back for the blanket, and found the glass laying in the median, without a crack in it. I put it in the back seat and drove on to the next town big enough to have a glass shop, and had it put back in.

[kingu]

Was at JiffyLube on Saturday (I know, I was in a hurry, should have just done it myself..) and a nice couple with Obama stickers plastered on their car were each fooling around with their iPads. He got called out to the service bay (so they can show you a...dirty air filter! I didn't have such stickers, they didn't bother with me..)

Anyway, he puts down his iPad, goes out, chats a few, adds on to his services (gotta get a new air filter) and comes back in, jabbering away on his iPhone and sits right down on his iPad, cracking the screen in two places.

If I ever see him again, I'll suggest he store it atop his car instead of on the hard plastic seat in a repair waiting area.

Pretty expensive trip for them, that's for certain.

[tommythev]

During the ‘80’s, I worked for a microwave electronics firm that did most of its work as a defense subcontractor. We were building a frequency translator that was a key component for the ECM system of the B1-B. One of the environmental tests required for each unit was a constant acceleration test. Being a small firm, we decided to build a rig so we could do the test ourselves and save money. We put an armature kind of like an airplane propeller on a large electric motor. Not unmindful of the fact that the device would be spinning at 700 mph, we enclosed the rig with a box built out of 1” particle board. Well, the guy who designed it was an electrical engineer, not a mechanical engineer, and he underestimated the sheer stresses on the screws that would be holding the units on the ends of the nearly three foot “propeller blade”. Sure enough, the screws gave. The unit shot off, blasting a hole in the 1” particle board and slamming into a concrete wall at what must have still been several hundred miles an hour. Luckily, no one was in the way. Out of curiosity, we hooked the unit up. It still met specs.

The redesigned constant acceleration test rig was massively over-engineered to insure against a repeat performance.

[edh]

I’m pretty impressed with the (hardware) quality of the iPad as well. I agree 100% ... it’s a nice, rugged device. I recently got one from work ... and I am one of those people that never have anything nice to say about Apple :-).

Now don’t get me started on how inferior its OS is to other netbooks ;-). Also, I had forgotten how much I hated iTunes. I know, it runs better on a Mac, but I loathe overpaying for my hardware as well as using inferior operating systems ;-).

I still can’t believe I am actually enjoying an Apple product though. I wanted an iPad for two things ... the ability to take notes by hand (somewhat fails in this department as it wasn’t made for handwriting, but the two apps I found for a whole $7 total work fairly well with a stylus) as well as have basic computing functions that you might find on a netbook.

Is it worth $750 (I got the 32GB model with 3G capabilities) ... based on the quality of the hardware, hell yeah! This thing was made for travel and abuse. It definitely one of the nicest toys I’ve used :-).

Still, I think there are going to be several alternatives in the near future that’ll allow me to give this thing to one of the more brainwashed Apple fanboys I work with. I’m looking for more of a laptop replacement in an iPad form factor with better handwriting capabilities.

If only this thing had an x86 processor :-). Yeah, I know, the battery life wouldn’t be as long, but it’d also replace a laptop I’d have to lug around when traveling.

[Boogieman]

This iPad was not so lucky...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2reUy9YHseg