[Swordmaker]

Hell must have frozen over... quick someone stick a thermometer into it and check! Paul Thurrott has written a positive article about the Apple iPad and is criticizing Microsoft's response to it—PING!

Please, No Flame Wars!
Discuss technical issues, software, and hardware.
Don't attack people!

Don't respond to the Anti-Apple Thread Trolls!
PLEASE IGNORE THEM!!!

Apple iPad Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[SamAdams76]

Furthermore, businesses are buying iPads, too, and piloting them in ever faster numbers.

I am seeing that in my company, which up to recent times never considered deploying Apple product.

We are now testing the iPad for our field technicians (which will replace Windows XP laptops).

With the iPads, our technicians will be able to easily access technical manuals, parts catalogs, email, technical bulletins, etc. They will also be able to receive, dispatch and close service tickets while using GPS to get to their next service call. They will also be able to access service histories and other data to help them resolve the issue.

In my opinion, we are only in the beginning of the tablet revolution. While the current version of iPad does not have all the features of a laptop, it is only a matter of time before future generations of tablets render the laptop obsolete. Soon the standard laptop will seem as antiquated as the typewriter.

[JerseyHighlander]

Interesting article.

I just bought my first touchscreen device. It runs Win7.

Check out the UI for multi-touch screens that MSI developed in house, it is very very nice... has the groundwork for everything needed to compete against iPad. Albeit just groundwork, it’s not polished and surely not optimized... the UI is a RAM and power hog.

MSI Wind Touch UI

[Greysard]

It's not surprising. MS is a one trick pony. Their "Windows Everywhere" push was pushed not because it makes sense but because they don't have anything else. WinCE and its descendants are nothing but a disjointed pile of pieces (I worked with them some time ago) and is much worse than Android and iOS. It's on the level of Lego blocks; that might be OK if you design a printer, but it's not OK if you design modern gadgets. The lack of imagination is apparent in all Windows products starting from ... Windows NT, perhaps? And all Windows releases (except Win7 - must be an oversight) are slower and take more space.

I personally don't like Apple for their elitist policies, but aside from that, technically, their iPad/iPod/iPhone products appear to be excellent. Android devices aren't as good yet, but eventually they will be competitive. Windows will never be competitive; Windows is the new OS/360 - a system that is locked into a legacy mindset, runs legacy stuff, is good at that, but is utterly useless for anything else (like the new stuff that people want to do today.)

I have one older Windows Vista based tablet, and I'm now seriously considering installing Linux on it, or perhaps Windows 98. This is because the tablet has a slow CPU, and Vista takes about 10 minutes to boot up. This is the future Ballmer wants to push down our throats. I'm using this tablet only to read books in bed, and do last minute FR checks, so either Linux or Win98 would be fine.

[Vicki]

I wish Microsoft would just stop trying to copy Apple. It’s embarrassing. Just look what happened with the Zune.

[Question Liberal Authority]

It would be so cool if the name of the product actually WAS “Microsoft’s IPad Response”.

[martin_fierro]

The company will arrive eventually at Windows 8, which will reportedly feature an alternative, tiles-based UI that closely resembles the superior, modern, and multi-touch-friendly Windows Phone 7 UI.

Sexy like a brown Zune.