I would like to be enlightened.

[cyrano]

Tech folks? Tell me about the iPad. My personal research tells me it's kind of like an iPhone except it has a bigger screen and doesn't make phone calls. I don't really understand the revolutionary nature of the iPhone, which may be part of the problem.
However, I know many people (most of whom are not part of the "It's shiny and I have lots of money" school) who desperately want an iPad. Joel at Gizmodo has called iPad "the stage for some of the most exciting software of the last decade."
There is something that I'm obviously missing, and this would not be the first time, but in this instance I hope that somebody can explain it to me in words.

Comments

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

Are the folks you know that are lusting after one actual tech folks or normal people?

The better analogue to the iPad is the iPod Touch. Both do exactly the same thing, save one is bigger.

In this little corner of the Verse, all the people who lust after an iPad are non-computer oriented folks, most of whom are members of the Church of Apple. All the computer literate folks are yawning with boredom, because, let's face it, the iPad is a tablet computer, albeit a wussy one.

Personally, I'm not going to bother. The Kindle works much better for books (can't read an iPad in full sunlight) and the iPod is good for music and video. Games hold zero interest for me.

[cerulean-me.livejournal.com]

It's basically a giant iPhone. Up to and including the desktop pic and icons. I don't get it. I LOLed when I saw it last night because it reminds me of those comical items from the 80s that are very large but still function like the normal versions.

[scarywhitegirl.livejournal.com]

My sister (who is not a tech person in the slightest) got one for her birthday. She seems to be using it as a music player, book reader, and movie player. She also has some of the same apps that I have for my iPhone that I bought/downloaded to entertain my nephew (her son). It is shiny and neat, but I can't really see much of a point to it, since it has no phone function. :)

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

An iPad (depending on which version you get) is a big iPod or a big iPhone, but it also runs Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, (the Word/Excel/Ppt for Apple), has iBook, which totally pwns Kindle, and a really good email program. It's also large enough to see movies on without being too big to easily carry around. Mine is getting here next week.

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

What it's good at:

* an e-book reader. The kindle is lighter and has easier to read text due to the eInk stuff, and is better in the daylight because of glare. The iPad is better in the dark due to being backlit, and can sync with both the Kindle and iBooks stores and your libraries. The Kindle is better as an eReader, but the iPad does a whole lot more.

* An e-comics reader! Marvel already has an outstanding app for beautiful, full color, nearly full size comics for reasonable prices. They've got a lot of back catalog available, but haven't quite taken the leap to new releases. There's some other apps for more indy comics. It's a really good experience.

* Mobile email reader. It's a nice size, a good interface, and if you have the 3G version you can do email pretty much anywhere. The keyboard isn't bad for typing on.

* Mobile web browsing. Again, a good interface, and just about everything except Flash works.

* Video. Looks great! There's a streaming Netflix app out, so anything Netflix has streaming, you can watch on it. ABC also has a streaming app, and the scuttlebutt is that Hulu isn't far behind. Also, for baseball fans, you can stream any major league baseball game live to it.

* Games. There's a lot of fun iPhone games already, and a lot of them are better with more screen real estate. Plants vs. Zombies, one of the best casual-style games of the last few years, is really better on the iPad than on my Mac. Plus, the apps are generally cheap - Most are $4.99 or less, a lot at .99 or even free. For video games, these are awesome prices.

* Other apps. The one that really blew me away was StarWalk. Basically, it's an enhanced reality app for Stargazing. Hold the iPad up at the night sky, and it will show you the stars that are in that direction, drawing in constellations and labeling things. You can get more information about any heavenly body with a touch. And it even works indoors. :) It's also really good for mobile calendaring, streaming audio (Pandora app!), as a giant iPod, to-do list management, ordering pizza, playing sudoku, and as a photo album.

Having had one for about 24 hours, I'm liking it. I wouldn't trade it for a netbook, and it's a lot better than my Kindle. For certain types of people, especially those who travel a lot, it's the perfect device. I'm more in the "It's shiny and I have lots of money" camp, I admit, but the thing does a lot, has decent battery life, is fantastically responsive (the Kindle is not), and has a really satisfying UI. It kind of is a giant iPod Touch, but in the same way that a 60 inch Plasma is a giant version of a 20 inch TV - bigger is a different experience, and aside from portability, a much better one.

[amanda_lodden.livejournal.com]

I fall pretty solidly into the "It's shiny and I have enough money" camp, most of the time, but I hadn't even considered an iPad until you said the "e-comics" bit.

For cyrano's benefit: often, you can try out new technology simply by geeking about it at John. If John gets excited about a shiny, one appears in the house. (Also, if you'd like to try out a Kindle or an iPod touch, they are already lying around.)

[yukonsally]

My IT husband played with an ipad for a few minutes this week. We'll probably end up buying a 2nd generation ipad--I refuse to be an early adopter. They get screwed.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Short version, IMHO: Don't do it.

For one, it it is just an iPhone that's bigger and deoesn't make calls. It also is locked to only certain programs, won't handle flash (and therefore won't handle a lot of websites) and, most importantly, if you really decide you want one... the 3G version is apparently coming out in just a few months, which would immediately blow the current one out of the water. Think of all those poor people who bought iPhones in the first month or so they came out... and how much cheaper they got almost immediately thereafter. If you do decide you absolutely must have one of these things (which, for what it's worth, I think would be a bad idea because, really, you'll get a lot more usability out of a standard netbook, and a high-end one will cost you significantly less), wait a few months. You'll just be wasting money on it now.

But, then again, I have a Thing against Mac lately. So I'm probably not the person to talk to.

[mister-sunshine.livejournal.com]

The iPad would be a near perfect "computer" for someone like my mom who wants to surf/email/IM but knows little of computers and doesn't want to spend much time dealing with them.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

So would you say it's comparable in function to the candy colored iMacs?

[spideyj.livejournal.com]

The iPad 3G is out now, actually.

[mister-sunshine.livejournal.com]

No--I actually know people who got a great deal of work done on those iMacs. I don't think that will be possible on the iPad as it stands now.

Though... I just remembered that my boss bought one as a tool to assist in giving on-site presentations and product demos. If you are able to do programming for this platform, the iPad is a pristine canvas begging for some paint.

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

My "boss" at SF Pride is using one to keep specs for every stage and vendor/community area we have to deal with, as well as lists and other information he used to keep in a huge binder.

So I think it could have some specialized uses, but you cannot load third-party software onto it, (like MS-Office,) so it's not a replacement for a real laptop computer.

For someone like me, it might be a fun toy/tool to have, but not really something I need.

[7leaguebootdisk.livejournal.com]

Sit tight for now, there will be a bunch of non apple tablets hitting the market in the next 6m, some that will do full motion video and be quite readable in full sunlight (though they likely will be greyscale in full sunlight), based on the Pixel Qi screens (derived from the OLPC screen tech, those do work nice).

Think couch computer. I'd like one, but I'll get an open non apple tablet.

Notion Ink Adam is the one I'm most interested in, but I've not looked too hard yet.