

IPad review - elblanco
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/04/05/1544234/iPad-Review

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marknutter
I combine two of his statements into one:

"I used it for a day and a half and think that it will be an excellent couch
companion PC"

and

"This version isn't a replacement PC for anyone yet, but future versions might
be. You probably want to save your cash until then."

and I roll my eyes. If the casual browsing bit sounds good to you and you have
the extra scratch, do yourself a favor and buy this thing now or you'll be
screwing yourself out of 1-2 years of an awesome cutting edge experience.

I do agree with him that user profiles should be implemented, but his other
complaints are nit-picky. I personally think the lack of Flash is a feature,
not a problem, considering I have flash block installed on all my browsers. If
Apple had included flash support, it'd be very unlikely that they'd have
provided a flash blocker, so I'm actually very grateful that they made this
decision. In my opinion, flash is only good for two things: games and videos;
and I tend to avoid both of those things when I surf anyways.

As far as the keyboard goes, I can actually type on the damn thing almost as
fast as I can my laptop keyboard, but that's probably because I'm so awesome.
I do, however, often find it hard to get into a good position for typing,
however, since I'm usually using the iPad in some obscenely relaxed pose.

I'm a total Apple fanboy and in love with my iPad though, so take what I say
with a grain of salt.

~~~
johnrob
Is the browsing experience really better than the iPhone, or is it just
faster? There are things that annoy me on the iPhone, but screen size has
never been one of them. I wish my phone had the computing power of the iPad...

~~~
weaksauce
Definitely better... No question. I actually prefer it to the desktop because
of the double tap to center and zoom your screen on a paragraph of text or a
picture. Using the iPad for a while and then going back to the iPhone makes me
feel like the phone is a toy. This device is actually letting me read some
PDFs that I have been putting off for a while because reading PDFs on the
computer screen is just so damn inconvenient. Reading it on the iPad is very
sharp and overall a good user experience.

I do wish this thing had competing web browsers like chrome and opera but
safari is ok for now.

~~~
rimantas
A quote from iPad review by Jason Snell:

    
    
      There’s just something about surfing the Web
      using Safari on the iPad. It feels different,
      somehow. Apple’s marketing pitch says “it’s
      like holding the Internet in your hands,” and
      while that’s a little bit cheesy, it’s not
      far off. There’s just something different about
      holding that Web page in your hands, rather
      than seeing it on a desktop or laptop PC, or on
      a tiny iPhone screen. Tapping on links doesn’t
      feel the same as clicking on them with a mouse.
      It’s a good feeling.
    

Source:
[http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/462192/review/apple_...](http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/462192/review/apple_ipad_with_wifi_16gb.html)

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booticon
"My iPad has no 3G, therefore it has no GPS. But applications were constantly
asking me for permission to use my location. This seems like an oversight: if
you don't have a location sensor, don't ask! Even the built-in Map app asked
me for information that it could not possibly have."

Uh, ever hear of Skyhook?

~~~
gr366
I posted a nearly duplicate comment (now deleted). My iPad has successfully
located me in the Maps application in several different places. It's actually
quite accurate.

~~~
stcredzero
Accurate and fast! I had location services turned off because it's slow on the
iPhone 2G. I just fired off Maps, hit the crosshairs, and ZAP. It was right
there. 3 seconds later, it corrected by 30 feet. Right on the money!

~~~
ugh
There also seems to be some caching going on. The maps application in my iPod
touch could track me accurately when walking around the city – with Wifi
turned off. It seems to download the locations of all the Wifi routers in your
area as soon as you have a internet connection, when you lose that connection
it can still find out where you are (it needs only the MAC addresses).

Nice feature, pretty useless, though.

~~~
gojomo
I ran a test this morning, running the Google Maps application as I traveled
to work. Wifi-only geolocation continued to accurately position me to the
nearest intersection for about 3 city blocks after I left my home access point
(and without connecting to any other access points for network access).

So it's got a cache of nearby access points it can use for positioning even
without a network connection.

About 4 blocks away, it mistakenly placed me on a hillside 4 blocks in the
opposite direction from my starting point -- but the local topography makes it
very possible it caught a momentary signal from a faraway access point still
in its cache.

From that point on, it provided no additional updates to my location -- even
though I was following a 'directions' route previously called up, stepped
through, and zoomed-on. From this I conclude: it precaches Wifi points near
where you are when initially using location, but not along planned paths or
all map areas viewed.

~~~
trjordan
The Wifi doesn't have to connect to know where you are. I'm pretty sure it's
not doing anything fancy like caching -- it's just occasionally looking at
available wireless routers and locating from their broadcast.

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stcredzero
In a way this is a good sign. You don't have a game changer unless you can
take it far enough to get a Slashdot contributor to wonder what it's really
useful for.

That said, it's a roll of the dice. It's just like the original Apple
computer. It's a great device looking for its killer app. Steve pushed it so
far, there is no known and tested current use case to fall back on.

Now it's up to those of us who see the potential to implement the future.

------
jm4
_Finally let me talk about the device itself. It's heavy. I mean, surprisingly
heavy. The specs say that it is 1.5lbs, which sounded very light on paper. For
the first few minutes, I liked the heft; I felt that I was holding a solid,
well-crafted item in my hands. But then I started trying to figuring out ways
to type. ...After a day of heavy usage, I felt a little sore._

Wow. This guy really needs to get some exercise.

~~~
stcredzero
Get the apple case. It's very well made and thought out. For one thing, it
increases friction, so typing on your lap is a whole lot more comfortable. I
can type full speed this way. Doing it now.

~~~
barrkel
Does it have a dvorak layout?

~~~
stcredzero
Not the cradle, the case. Combined with the Bluetooth keyboard, it's great for
typing-intensive stuff.

~~~
discipline
Speaking of typing, has anyone here tried out the new Dragon Dictation app?
Sounds like a natural for the iPad (I'm waiting for mine - got a preorder of
the 3G).

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elblanco
I played around with one for a few hours. Typing was far better than I thought
for the form factor. Would I use it to write a novel? No, but that's not the
point. I was able to type little things like forum responses reasonably well.
There cases where the form factor is actually better than my netbook, like
standing (It's not great, but it's better.)

The lack of flash, usb and a webcam are pretty much the only things that
prevent me from buying one. It's too bad, the price isn't half bad, the device
fells pretty good, I didn't really have any problems using it.

But those things are the easy stuff and they aren't even present on the device
and they effectively lock me out of most of the daily web sites I use,
connectivity to devices without buying some ridiculous adapter connector, and
the ability to use it for the one thing that it seems to be absolutely
designed to do, video chat.

------
mkramlich
I played with an iPad today at an Apple store.

My take: It is both awesome and _meh_ , at the same time.

The web browsing experience is really fun and satisfying in a way that's
different than on a desktop, laptop or iPhone.

The Google Maps app is much nicer because the view window is so much bigger
and it can show so much more detail.

The Book reading thing was also pretty _meh_ for me.

Verdict: I'm much more likely to buy this for my mom than myself, for reasons
similar to what others across the web have said already. I can see it filling
a niche, but for me, those niches are all already filled well or well enough
that I can't justify the price. But I see how it could be mind-blowingly
awesome and a great fit for some folks. Just not me, not right now.

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jsz0
It's interesting he mentions Flash being a problem. I've yet to see the blue
lego block. Not even once. It really depends the type of sites you visit. For
some people the lack of Flash is a big deal, for other people it's not at all.
Unfortunately this requires the customer to know a bit of technical background
on the sites they visit frequently to judge how much of a deal breaker the
lack of Flash really is and they won't easily know if the site serves up H264
to iPads based on the user agent.

~~~
sumeeta
> I've yet to see the blue lego block.

I think Flash content is just blank on iPad.

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weaksauce
Unless something has changed with the iPad from the iPhone I would wager that
if you want to do the scrolling in a frame like he was talking about that he
could do a two finger scroll which should break the focus from the main page
to the captive frame.

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nickpp
No Flash. No Video Camera. Lame.

Reminds you of anything? Yeah, it's Slashdot!

~~~
macrael
Yeah, it's actually the same guy. CmdrTaco

~~~
stcredzero
Time to coin a new unit: the milliTaco. 1000th of the innovation necessary to
flummox a Slashdot editor. Thought to be the quantity of innovation required
to make a game changer.

