Posted on 03/27/2011 7:16:27 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Good. The fewer people plugging things in, the better. We'll buy adapters for those who have an actual business need.
And it doesn't have a systemwide, user-accessible file system like those on traditional computers.
Good. Users losing their files on a computer is a common problem. What, you didn't put your .pab and .pst on a network drive before we reimaged your desktop? Oops. Or, we backup your My Documents, but you put your file someplace else, so it's gone. With the iPad, if you create or edit a document, it's just "there."
Given that Apple pioneered USB on desktops, nothing. But in this case the standard Dock connector has USB in it (plus audio and video), so another connector would be redunant.
iPads are quite underpowered themselves. No flash permitted!
Tablet computers have, in fact, been around a long time.
In general, nobody wanted them - even though they had everything the naysayers are today whining the iPad doesn’t. Now, without USB, upgradable XYZ, or other “must have to be taken seriously” factors, the iPad Spring 2011 version is chronically sold out. The author knows neither history nor reality; why his opinion warrants publishing I don’t see.
The Messiah...I mean, Steve Jobs didn't invent them.
If you absolutely, positively need Flash, then an iPad is not going to work for you. Then again, neither is just about any other mobile device, if you car about your battery.
With most sites moving to HTML 5 for video, at least as an alternate delivery mechanism, Flash will become less important except for some legacy applications. Frankly, for my desktops (and laptop), I use NoScript on Firefox to prevent Flash from running unless I whitelist it, and I rarely need to do so, because there's so little useful Flash content out there. Most of it are crappy ads I dont want to see anyway.
Good luck. Remember, Netbooks are supposed to be inexpensive, and thin costs money, so the best are coming in at just under an inch, over twice as thick. The thinnest ultra-portable (and very expensive) notebooks come in at between 0.6-0.7 inches max thickness, while the iPad 2 is less than 0.4 inches. Even the MacBook Air is almost twice as thick.
Forget flash....look at iPad specs and compare to any Dell desktop or medium priced laptop with an i3 core processor and 4gb memory. There is no getting around that an iPad is an underpowered runt compared to that Dell.
iPad people have made a fairly rational trade off of power for portability and convenience.
No, a guy at Intel did. But Steve Jobs was the first to jump on it, dumping all legacy connectors in favor of USB with the iMac in 1998, back when Winodws barely supported it (95 OSR2 and 98 had it, but it was buggy, NT didn't support it at all until 2000), and few PCs shipped with it. Even today, many PCs still ship with those legacy ports.
If you want/need small form factor and plan to type up a lot of Docs and want easy transfer of them..... then a $300 netbook will suffice. You could spend more to get a fancier one or You can load MS Office on it and it has USB for easy Doc transfer and portability. If you want to torture yourself then try using an iPad for the above purposes. And go blow $150+ on iPad stands, on bluetooth iPad keyboards/mice and docking stations which one poster says have USB ports
Here is a real winner for you coming in at 3.5lbs
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/vostro-v13/pd
Dell Price $349.00The sleek, striking Vostro™ V13 laptop gives small businesses a premium ultra-light laptop experience without the premium price tag.
- Slim, Sleek and Striking: Razor-thin, ultra-light aluminum body and energy-efficient Intel® processors let you travel lightly and in style.
- Designed for Productivity: Enjoy on-the-go productivity with a full-sized keyboard, generous 13.3" WLED display, 2 USB ports and full communications suite.
- Ready to Protect: With optional Dell DataSafe™ online backup and recovery, you get easy, "set and forget" protection for your business data.
Display: The Dell has a higher raw number of pixels due to larger real estate, but the iPad's pixel density is about 15-20% greater.
Weight: The Dell is 3.5 pounds, the iPad 2 is 1.34 pounds (1.35 for the 3G model)
Size: The Dell is larger is all dimensions: 13" x 9.06" x .78" vs 9.5" x 7.31" x .34"
Battery: Advertised battery life of the iPad 2 is about double the Dell: 9-10 hours vs. 5 hours. In practice, I'll just let the folks at engadget have their say:
Battery life is where the Vostro V13 comes to a screeching halt. On our video rundown test the V13's six-cell, 30Wh battery lasted only 2 hours and 39 minutes with brightness set to 65 percent. That's more than half the runtime of the ASUS UL50Vf. Even worse is that because of its solid aluminum build the battery cannot be swapped out. There's really no good news when it comes to battery life here -- the reality is that you'll spend more of your time looking for an outlet with this ULV than others out there.
Neither unit has swappable batteries.
Now, mind you, that $349 price is a sale price on the base model (list price is $619 -- far more than the base non-3G iPad at $499). I think it's quite clear looking at the numbers that the iPad 2 is the better device for mobile users who do not need a full desktop replacement. As I've noted before, if you are a content creator, then the iPad is likely not the right choice for you.
That's a nice small notebook, but you were talking about netbooks (/notebooks) the same size as the iPad. They simply don't exist, and aren't ever likely to. This one's over twice as thick.
2:40 in a mobile? I’d put that into the “absolutely unacceptable” category for mobiles these days. Also interesting is that’s half the advertised life. Apple is known to go overboard on the advertising claims (remember near the end of the PPC’s life?), but one place I like them is their conservative battery life estimates, since many tests report more than advertised for their various devices.
To be fair, this test was intended to be a battery drainer. I don't know offhand how the iPad stacks up under the same conditions, but I have to assume it would last at least twice as long, probably more, based on similar types of tests.
livin on the bleeding edge, ehh!? (written and posted from my IBM Selectric), ((WITH auto return!) /s
Ping.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/03/lenovo-thinkpad-edge-13-review/
ThinkPad Edge 13-—
-—7 hour battery life and
— weight 3.5 lbs
Review says-—
Ran Windows 7 Professional without a hiccup and didn’t lag when we had Firefox, Microsoft Word 20078, GIMP, TweetDeck and iTunes all open and running.
Another review has it at 4:10 battery life for Dell Vostsro V13
7 hour battery life on the Lenovo 13 incher
Yes I realize a 13 inch laptop is not a direct comparison to an iPad but if you have to work on a lot of Docs it becomes a better head to head competition because then you have to rig up unwieldy keyboards, stands, docking stations to the iPad
As far as I can tell, Lenovo doesn’t even sell that model anymore.
I also have no idea what you’re trying to accomplish with these links. Are there low cost netbooks/notebooks out there? Yes. Are they really direct competitors to an iPad? No. They cater to different markets: content creators vs. content consumers. The former will want a netbook or notebook and the latter will gravitate toward the newer tablets (or make do with smartphones).
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