Comments on: My take on the iPad

By: Hugh Roper

Hugh Roper — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:41:03 +0000

Great points Elissa. The iPad would be perfect for my daughters (high school and middle school) their backpacks are sooo heavy with textbooks. Michael, sorry the iPad/iPod will never have Flash.

By: Elissa Minor Rust

Elissa Minor Rust — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:05:04 +0000

As a college instructor, the more I think about the iPad, the more I like it as something for students to use. I teach both online and face to face classes, and in both cases there are serious benefits. I am finding I have to crack down on students using laptops in the classroom, because I can’t see them behind their screens and they tend to isolate students from the larger discussion, but I really like that students have the ability to take notes on a laptop; something like an iPad seems like a great answer to that dilemma. I like, too, that I could lug it to campus instead of my Macbook (hate the PC in my office) and hopefully plug it into my media-rich classrooms for use with the projector.Also, am I the only person who isn’t bothered by the name? I actually think it’s fitting. Call me crazy.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:00:33 +0000

I feel like I may have been overly critical of this device. The platform is amazing, the possibilities are endless and I honestly believe that Apple has introduced the future of portable media. With that being said I firmly believe that this is just like the first generation of the iPod, an amazingly good idea that is rough at best. The apps that can and will be created will floor us all, but in it’s current state it is nothing more than an overhyped underperforming great idea. Like you said if the price point doesn’t come down a little it won’t go mainstream, at least not any time soon. Also, if people are going to use this as their main source for internet surfing (which is what Steve wants) then it must be capable of showing us all the internet has to offer, this includes flash Apple geniuses. Thirdly any third grade computer nerd could see that this is probably the single greatest opportunity for video conferencing that exists and yet they fail to put a simple camera in. Fourth we are a generation of multitaskers. Very few of us ever devote any of our time to a single activity, in fact I am watching tv as I type this. However, Dear Leader and his minions failed to see the importance of this feature. This by far is the largest weakness of the entire product. Granted many of these problems are simple fixes, but if they are so simple and so much of the public can cry foul so soon after the release because of the lack of these things then why not include them in the first generation? Perhaps it is because this is Apple’s pattern with all of it’s products. Release a rudimentary shell of what your end goal is and get the die hard fanboys to bite. If it starts to go mainstream even a little throw out a gen 2, then 3 and so on until you get to what you already have in your head around gen 5 or so. All the while creating more and more buzz around the product and gaining more and more followers as the product gets better and better. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not faulting Apple for doing this, the marketing and business strategies are second to none. That being said you would be a fool to get sucked into buying the first generation when we all know that a new and improved version will soon be available that makes this look like the first gen iPod. Sure it was a great concept but it is old technology now that is worthless. However, the idea and concept is priceless. Apple I applaud your innovative thinking and your ability to bring a game changer to the market. However, I personally would much rather play with this http://files.lesterchan.net/images/apple/ipod_touch.jpginstead of this http://gigapple.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/first-gen-ipod.jpgSo I will be waiting a while.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:35:13 +0000

Erin – Pages (from iWork) will be available for $9.99 as a downloadable app.

By: erin

erin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:26:53 +0000

I would think about getting it if it had word processing on it, which it doesn’t seem to. I was kinda hoping it would be a cross more with the Macbook Air.