No camera. Really? My 2 year old vanilla Razr has a camera. My $300 Linux based netbook has a camera.
No multi-tasking, one app at a time. Are you kidding me? In the age of multi-core cpus where even windows has figured out multi-tasking :-) a new device and new interface is limiting the user to one thing at a time? I can see that on an iPhone or iPod touch - small screens. But an iPad? No background music while doing other tasks?
Apparently no VoIP nor Skype? Not real clear on this one but really?
No USB slots. This is a joke right? Oh, yeah, you can buy an adapter and use your one hardware interface to create a USB but no "native" USB? They can't be serious.
No Flash Compatibility. Just what is the beef between Adobe and Apple anyway?
A default of 16GB? Even my low-end netbook has more flash memory than that. And you're going to pay a premium for an iPad? Why?
I've heard other things such as having to move media files through iTunes or some such. I don't remember the details, just that it seemed very limiting.
No camera: yeah, my Razr has a camera. It sucks. So does the $300 Linux netbook. Why allocate weight and space and money to a camera which, well, sucks? I have a dedicated camera that takes FAR better photos, which fits nicely in a pocket, and which I can easily transfer photos to the iPad from with a tiny adapter.
No multi-tasking: most people who bitch about this don’t know what they’re asking for, really. Multi-tasking is a very broad term: which subset do you really want? Most people really just want a tiny subset of the term. FWIW: iPhone OS 4 will have it; Android has it and it’s causing users problems (ill-mannered apps chewing up CPU and battery).
VoIP is available. Skype won’t offer it over 3G, but that’s Skype’s decision (seems Verizon has a controlling interest and doesn’t want the competition), not Apple’s.
No USB: the iPad’s usage paradigm is different from what USB was designed for (I was a USB product designer in a prior incarnation). Devoting weight, space & money to a USB port really doesn’t make sense for this kind of device - really. There really shouldn’t be ANY hardware interface on this thing; Bluetooth/WiFi/3G + inductive charging should be enough - really. It’s that big of a paradigm shift. Adding USB is a BIG can of worms; trust me, you don’t want it on this kind of device.
Memory size: 16GB is there if you want it, 64GB is too. This thing is built for “cloud computing” - as in if you need more space, you’re doing it wrong.
It’s an attempt at getting past the problems of the current “notebook” paradigm. Yeah some stuff is abandoned - and for good reason.
Of course, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to buy it. I have one and love it. I’m happy that I don’t have to sacrifice right-there always-on just-works convenience to crappy cameras, ill-mannered multi-tasking, soon-obsolete ports, etc.
It is designed to use photographs and videos... and you can link cameras to it. More and more cameras are Bluetooth enabled... and the iPad is Bluetooth enabled. Why place a crippled, simplistic camera in the iPad when you can use a sophisticated camera from a third party and send your photos either directly or through an adaptor to the iPad? I posted an article on how to use an iPhone 3Gs as a camera for an iPad on FreeRepublic last month.
There will be more in the future. This is intentional.
No multi-tasking, one app at a time. Are you kidding me? In the age of multi-core cpus where even windows has figured out multi-tasking :-) a new device and new interface is limiting the user to one thing at a time? I can see that on an iPhone or iPod touch - small screens. But an iPad? No background music while doing other tasks?
Apple has announced that multi-tasking will be part of the next release of iPhone OS... in June... and for the iPad in September. The problem with multitasking on a battery powered portable device is the longevity of the battery. Droid users are discovering this to their dismay. Run multiple apps... and your hour long battery life suddenly can be measured in minutes. And the core functions of the iPhoneOS do multitask on the iPad and always have just as they do on the iPhone. That they don't is propaganda from the anti-Apple people. Besides, WHY do you think you need multitasking on a portable device on which mostly you do a single thing at a time for the most part?
Apparently no VoIP nor Skype? Not real clear on this one but really?
Not true. I have both Skype and iCall on my iPad. . . and there are several other free choices as well.
No USB slots. This is a joke right? Oh, yeah, you can buy an adapter and use your one hardware interface to create a USB but no "native" USB? They can't be serious.
What do you need a USB slot for??? There is one... and if you need to plug in a USB device, there is an adaptor... that plugs iPad connector that IS a USB connector as well as other connections to the device. Most people will never need it. Apple was the first computer manufacturer to make USB the standard and to drop serial and other connectors, making USB actually universal. The geeks howled then about how much they needed the old ADB and SCSI ports and cables. Now Apple is making the next logical move away from wired USB ports and cables to wireless. The iPad has both WIFI and Bluetooth. Many printers today have BlueTooth capability... and the iPad will have Bluetooth printing capabilities. So why have a wired connection? Newer cameras are going to be Bluetooth capable... again, why have a wired connection. What are you going to plug in to it? Why add the weight to support USB ports? Why add the thickness? Why add the complexity?
No Flash Compatibility. Just what is the beef between Adobe and Apple anyway?
Flash. Flash is an energy hog and CPU hog (I'm talking to a friend on Yahoo right now and she was wondering why her fans were roaring on her PC. She just checked and found that 60% of her CPU was involved in running FLASH on a simple online game in FireFox!!! GENERATING HEAT on a desk top computer... think what that would do to a mobile computer and its battery?)... and it is dependent on Mouse over event triggering. The touch screens of mobile devices do not have mouses or pointers... and as such do not support mouse over or pointer event triggering. The much vaunted demonstrations of mobile devices showing flash operating do not show mouse over or pointer event flash operations... they show special Flash applications that are NOT mouse over event flash. And even Adobe's demonstration crashed twice. Will the vast majority of Flash scripts be re-written to exclude mouse-over or pointer event triggering? No. They will not. It would not be economical for them to be rewritten. So, there will always be FLASH websites that will not work with touch screen mobile devices. The fault lies within FLASH at the core of its design. Flash is proprietary, the closed private property of Adobe. Apple is pushing the open standards that are free for everyone to use, that are not dependent on Adobe writing drivers for it to operate on every platform.
A default of 16GB? Even my low-end netbook has more flash memory than that. And you're going to pay a premium for an iPad? Why?
That's not a "default," that is just the starting entry level machine. It is perfectly adequate for many activities. The OS takes 304MB of that RAM to operate... leaving you almost 15.7GB to store your libraries of tunes, movies, books, photos, etc. That's a lot of data. The iPad is not intended as a device for mass storage... it's a device to load with what you want to take with you for the short term, use, then change for the next time... you don't keep your library of every book you own on it... because you aren't going to be reading every book every time you are out with your iPad. Your computer is your primary storage device. If you want more, buy a larger capacity iPad. I did.
I've heard other things such as having to move media files through iTunes or some such. I don't remember the details, just that it seemed very limiting.
Limiting???? Content media file providers such as Netflix, ABC, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, TV.com, YouTube, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Pandora Radio, Zinio, and a host of other content providers would disagree with what you heard rather vehemently. Yes, you can buy media files through iTunes... but there are many other sources, including your own, that you can provide. I have one free app, called "Free Books" that has 28,000 free titles... all out of copyright... including all of Mark Twain's works, All of William Shakespeare's plays, all of the classics... etc. Barack Obama has tossed his inaugural Speech in there too... ugh... trust him to think it qualifies as a classic.
I don’t really need a camera on my iPad. I have a DSLR for pictures which I can connect to the pad. I have no desire to make video calls either. I do have a camera on my iPhone though.
The iPad, and iPhone too for that matter, multi-task just fine. The issue is in software. For the iPhone, Apple wanted to make sure that the device’s core functions (you know, being a phone first) were not compromised, not to mention battery life, so decisions were made as to what apps would be allowed to multi-task. They have continued to work the issue on the OS level and iPhone OS 4 will allow for more apps to multi-task.
Correct, there is no iPad specific Skype app. There is an iPhone version that I don’t see why it couldn’t run on the iPad. The interface may not look as elegant scaled up 2x, but you’re really only using it to make calls. Now the multi-task issue would be a problem. You’d have to stay in the app to keep you call going. I think. Don’t have any experience with it so I can’t say for sure.
Please explain to me how you’re going to use the mouse over functionality of Flash on a touch device? And for the record: Flash is a buggy and bloated, battery sucking application. It doesn’t matter on what platform you’re talking about. Flash needs to go.
USB? Why, you going to carry around a 1TB USB drive with you? A printer perhaps?