Posted on 04/01/2010 6:42:26 PM PDT by myknowledge
For the past week or so, I have been testing a sleek, light, silver-and-black tablet computer called an iPad. After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades.
But first, it will have to prove that it really can replace the laptop or netbook for enough common tasks, enough of the time, to make it a viable alternative. And that may not be easy, because previous tablet computers have failed to catch on in the mass market, and the iPad lacks some of the features—such as a physical keyboard, a Webcam, USB ports and multitasking—that most laptop or netbook users have come to expect.
If people see the iPad mainly as an extra device to carry around, it will likely have limited appeal. If, however, they see it as a way to replace heavier, bulkier computers much of the time—for Web surfing, email, social-networking, video- and photo-viewing, gaming, music and even some light content creation—it could be a game changer the way Apple's iPhone has been.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
HP and Acer make flip top laptops that double as both a tablet and a laptop. That is where Apple should have gone.
Droid is about twice as fast as iPhone for internet access. Also, it has Google maps, Street View, and voice navigation, which iPhone doesn’t have. The screen resolution is far superior. There aren’t as many apps, but most apps are a waste of time anyway.
Plus I'm sorry mine is not as slow as you are saying. I strongly disagree with you about the apps.
Here is a video from CNET comparing both phones.
Well, that’s when I bought mine, November. No need to get emotional about it. It’s a phone. It gives me directions, lets me read Free Republic while I’m waiting in line, and doesn’t drop calls. What more can I ask of a phone?
LOL! Ditto...
I have a friend who owns a tablet PC running Windows 7 sitting next to me at this moment and he is using his finger to navigate. You don't necessarily need a mouse or stylus - although you do have the option if you wish.
So the problem is that it needs to be bigger and smaller?
Not even close.
First of all, there’s no Flash (I’m guessing because it would run too slow and eat the iPad’s battery, making the product look bad). That’s pretty much a non-starter right there. I mean, one thing I can see people using this for is kind of casual, coffee-house type use, and you’re going to need flash for that. I mean, walk into pretty much anywhere with free wifi, and you’ll see a woman on FarmVille.
Add to that the fact that this is essentially a tablet with no stylus, and you just have to scratch your head. There will no doubt be some people for whom this is just what they want, but I don’t think that’s going to be a very large number.
One or the other. It's too big to stick into a jacket pocket, so when you're walking around you either need to hold it or stick it into a briefcase or backpack. If I'm going to do the latter, why not carry a full-featured laptop?
It's not big enough to take over the laptop, and too big to take the place of the iPod Touch.
Yes. No. I mean that for it to replace a desktop computer, it would have to have a larger display. For it to be a phone, it would have to be smaller. In other words, the iPad will not replace either the desktop or the pocket phone.
It's not supposed to replace the desktop computer or the smartphone. Apple is still making a healthy amount of money selling both of those. What it can replace, for a lot of users but certainly not all, is the laptop. Most folks with laptops, and especially netbooks, use them to surf the Web, send and receive e-mail, maybe watch a movie on a plane, look at and send photos -- all stuff the iPad is well-suited for.
I've had both a laptop and a desktop computer for about the last dozen years. My priorities for the laptop have always been light weight and low battery life -- anything performance-intensive, I do at my desk. Hard drive capacity was never a huge deal, and with ubiquitous access to the 'Net it's less so. The iPad won't replace my desktop, but it's a better fit for my portable needs than any laptop.
1/3 the size, weight and price, a better interface, and double the battery life.
The device most directly in the iPad's crosshairs -- other than the Kindle, of course -- is the netbook. They've always been a pretty poor set of compromises.
I got a little carried away with my numbers, there. Compared to the 13” Macbook, it’s about 1/3 the weight, 1/2 the price, 150% of the battery life. Netbooks compare more favorably on some of the numbers, but a netbook is hardly a “full-featured laptop” by definition.
Actually I meant to say laptop, since that was what the article referred to. I use my laptop as a desktop. The main problem I have with iPad is the touch screen. If I could use a stylus on the screen, I might be interested. But it still probably wouldn’t have enough memory or processor to run Photoshop quickly. I guess it just depends on what one uses a laptop for. I use mine a lot for processing images and documents. But for just surfing the internet, sending email, etc. a laptop is really overkill.
Yeah, I don’t see the iPad taking the place of a laptop that’s taking the place of a desktop (if that’s not too convoluted a construction). Serious video and image editing aren’t going to be great, though something like iMovie and iPhoto, with basic editing capabilities, would be pretty cool.
I suspect there are a lot of folks whose computer needs are like mine. I want raw power and I want portability, but generally don’t need both at the same time. You’re never going to get as much bang for the buck in a laptop as in a desktop, because of space, power and heat limitations on the former. For the price of a fast laptop, I can get a considerably faster desktop with a huge screen and an iPad — more power and more portability.
I think it will thrive or fail based on content.
This is [almost] as dumb as when Microsoft wanted touch-interface coffee table computers. Idiots.
Except that a laptop can be one device that does a whole range of tasks in one box. GPS, surfing, content creation, games, etc. Better to have one device that can do any of the tasks you do, rather than to have one device for each task, precisely as powerful as that task needs. So I assume you're talking about people who use their laptop for nothing but websurfing.
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