

Guess what the most wanted christmas present will be... - cyphersanctus
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/21/more-american-kids-than-ever-clamor-for-iphones-and-ipads-this-holiday-season/

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Shivetya
I can understand. Part of it is certainly going to be peer pressure related.
My own nephew has friends he knows are getting an iPad so in his mind nothing
else would suffice.

Pretty much the biggest innovation of Apple was marketing. Yes the devices are
very good but their marketing is something that their competitors always seem
to overlook.

Fortunately you can buy iPad's of earlier generations, even the first retina
types, for a lot less off of either Apple's own site or even through their
e-bay entity.

While I see the value they represent I am all for finding more reasons to keep
kids outdoors instead of indoors. I kept my Kindle for reading because of this
one issue, it is much better outside than any tablet. If need mail or internet
my phone is fine and any serious mail/browsing is best on the computer (iMac
fwiw)

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cyphersanctus
Well, I suppose its a matter of taste. I initially didn't know what I would
need an iPad for when I received it. Nowadays, a year and a half later, I
wouldn't change it for anything. Its amazing for checking emails when I wake
up, for checking facebook right before bed. For porn its amazing, easiest
thing to take to the bathroom, try taking your macbook pro hehe.

~~~
corporalagumbo
How much do you love it? Do you think it's perfect? Do you like responding to
emails on the iPad? What about reading HN? Do the thumb keyboards work for
you? Do you like the autocorrection? Do you use a case or cover?

~~~
cyphersanctus
I use a cover that works quite well. I always use the ipad sideways, so that
the keyboard is bigger and the format of the pages is good. Its not great for
responding to emails but it works. For reading them its perfect. I love it
very much, then again im sure it will become better over time. I have the
autocorrection disabled because I write emails and messages in various
languages.

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corporalagumbo
I feel sorry for the kids. I think the iPad is going to lose its lustre pretty
fast. If you want great games, get a Wii U, not an iPad. If you want a great
tablet, wait two years or so until the ecosystem is mature. Buying an iPad now
is little better than buying a ticking clock of obsolescence.

~~~
garyrichardson
I agree with you 100%. What?

I'm on my second iPad and I sold the first one for about 1/2 what I paid for
it. I'm not really sore at that since I got to use an iPad 1 for 2 years, then
I got an iPad 3. I also get a new laptop roughly every 2 years -- another
ticking clock of obsolescence.

I could wait two years, or I could buy and iPad now and another in two years.
The difference is I get to use an iPad for the next 2 years while I wait. When
I buy something computer related, I don't really expect it to meet my needs
for more than 1 or 2 years (except maybe LCD's).

~~~
corporalagumbo
My point was not a general one about tech products becoming obsolete with
time. You and I are perfectly capable of assessing the range of tech products
available at this point in time, weighing up the advantages of buying now
versus what products are likely to be available soon, and making a buying
decision which is optimally satisfactory. Additionally, we have large
disposable incomes, so even if we are not that happy with one or two of the
purchases we make it is generally not a big deal for us.

Kids on the other hand are, in general, poorly informed, vulnerable to fads,
and have limited disposable incomes. I'm sure a lot of kids barely even know
what an iPad is - they just know they want one. And when they get it, and they
do what kids generally do with these devices - play games - how are they
supposed to know that the iPad sucks for gaming? For a lot of the current
generation of kids, the iPad will be an entry point into gaming - it has the
cachet that Nintendo had for earlier generations. Kids buy or ask for iPads
because then they can show them off at school. But the iPad is such a limited
device - the cost for a highly modular OS with an abundant app ecosystem is
that there's just not much to get your teeth into with the device. The most
interesting thing you can do with the OS is long-press an icon until they all
start to wiggle.

I watch my little brother with his $600 iPad. First he's playing Dragonvale -
a Farmville clone - for hours. Then he's playing GTA3 - do you know that
videogame is 10 years old I ask him? Don't you want to play it with a real
controller instead of slidy glass controls on a heavy tablet? Then he plays
Chinatown Wars - more slidy glass controls for a ported DS game. Maybe I'm
just being cranky and my-generation-was-better-ist. Maybe there's a lot to be
said for one device that can do all of these things. Maybe the iPad is great
because first kids plays with the games, then they find other cool apps, then
suddenly they've set up recording studios at home. I dunno. Anyway as a game-
playing device in my opinion the iPad is too limited, and as a useful tablet I
think it is very far from a mature ideal of how a tablet could work - and I
think tablets will evolve very, very quickly over the next three years, and
the iPad will look very outdated soon. So I feel sorry for the kids because I
think they could do better for gaming and because their new treasure is about
to submerged in a looming surge of innovation.

------
Toshio
Kids don't watch Oprah, dontchaknow.

~~~
thedrbrian
Au contraire Oprah is pimping the cool tablet this Christmas

[http://www.cultofmac.com/201944/oprah-gushes-about-her-
love-...](http://www.cultofmac.com/201944/oprah-gushes-about-her-love-for-
microsoft-surface-while-tweeting-from-her-ipad-image/)

