Comments on: ipad, you pad, don’t we all pad? http://www.jon22.net/ipad-you-pad-dont-we-all-pad/ The Website of Jonathan Dobres Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:09:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: GDeeeeZL http://www.jon22.net/ipad-you-pad-dont-we-all-pad/comment-page-1/#comment-5839 GDeeeeZL Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:28:11 +0000 http://www.jon22.net/?p=1085#comment-5839 I never thought that I would have wanted the iPad until I watched the video and saw just how damn cool this device looks and how it further capitalizes upon the touch capabilities of the iPhone and iPod Touch. However, there are some profound limitations to this device in the hardware and price. Spending $499 on a glorified e-reader is already pushing the bar on price, even though a widely cited "study" says many folks would spend upwards of $700 on the anticipated Apple slate device. For about 500 bucks I would want a hard drive that is bigger than 16GB, especially if the device is designed to be a media player and handheld gaming device. There are about 30 apps, 4GB of music (from a library of over 50GB), and 5GB of podcasts and videos I regularly sync to and use on my iPhone. I imagine loading all of this media onto my iPad, and I anticipate downloading at least a dozen (more graphically intense) applications designed specifically for the iPad. Plus, I would hope to download about five or six books for casual reading and I would like to sync about 100 PDF files for my research. My iPad is now full. I can't imagine after this relatively limited spread of media (i.e., I'm only loading 10% of my music, podcasts, and PDF files) that I would even have room to download the temporary files for a movie rented from iTunes. Perhaps, I should just spend another $200 for the 64GB model. Let's face it, though, the hard drives in the iPad are the equivalent of USB keys and I can buy an extra 32+GB of this flash memory for only $70 from newegg. Trouble is, I don't know if I'll be able to upgrade my iPad on my own to save money, and the iPad doesn't have even a single USB slot. While we're criticizing netbooks (by the by, I just purchased one for my niece for Christmas and it works beautifully for her academic needs), I remember that we recently put down Windows 7 Starter edition for only allowing 3 programs to run at once. If there were ever a time to debut the updates to run parallel/concurrent applications for the iPhone, it was when Apple unveiled the iPad. We don't even get the lame three-application limit that so many Windows users fought to have lifted from 7 Starter. Lastly, I hope someone develops a very basic file system because I disagree with you that "most users do not want to bother" with them. Maybe we users don't want to have to deal with system trays and applications running in the background that eat battery life, but these are problems typical of Windows operating systems and not Apple's OS. If you're giving me the ability to use the iWorks suite and read books and PDFs on the iPad, I would like to be able to store, organize, and sort these files in folders in the same ways I can have stacks of photos that I can peak into using iPhoto. As a researcher, I would think you could imagine and appreciate the possibilities of organizing dozens of journal articles for reading and note taking for an upcoming publication. I'd rather have folders on the desktop set to my specification than having PDF files embedded in an e-reader application's library or bookshelf. Maybe this folder system will be developed, after all, but I haven't read anything of it yet. I never thought that I would have wanted the iPad until I watched the video and saw just how damn cool this device looks and how it further capitalizes upon the touch capabilities of the iPhone and iPod Touch. However, there are some profound limitations to this device in the hardware and price. Spending $499 on a glorified e-reader is already pushing the bar on price, even though a widely cited “study” says many folks would spend upwards of $700 on the anticipated Apple slate device. For about 500 bucks I would want a hard drive that is bigger than 16GB, especially if the device is designed to be a media player and handheld gaming device. There are about 30 apps, 4GB of music (from a library of over 50GB), and 5GB of podcasts and videos I regularly sync to and use on my iPhone. I imagine loading all of this media onto my iPad, and I anticipate downloading at least a dozen (more graphically intense) applications designed specifically for the iPad. Plus, I would hope to download about five or six books for casual reading and I would like to sync about 100 PDF files for my research. My iPad is now full. I can’t imagine after this relatively limited spread of media (i.e., I’m only loading 10% of my music, podcasts, and PDF files) that I would even have room to download the temporary files for a movie rented from iTunes. Perhaps, I should just spend another $200 for the 64GB model. Let’s face it, though, the hard drives in the iPad are the equivalent of USB keys and I can buy an extra 32+GB of this flash memory for only $70 from newegg. Trouble is, I don’t know if I’ll be able to upgrade my iPad on my own to save money, and the iPad doesn’t have even a single USB slot.

While we’re criticizing netbooks (by the by, I just purchased one for my niece for Christmas and it works beautifully for her academic needs), I remember that we recently put down Windows 7 Starter edition for only allowing 3 programs to run at once. If there were ever a time to debut the updates to run parallel/concurrent applications for the iPhone, it was when Apple unveiled the iPad. We don’t even get the lame three-application limit that so many Windows users fought to have lifted from 7 Starter.

Lastly, I hope someone develops a very basic file system because I disagree with you that “most users do not want to bother” with them. Maybe we users don’t want to have to deal with system trays and applications running in the background that eat battery life, but these are problems typical of Windows operating systems and not Apple’s OS. If you’re giving me the ability to use the iWorks suite and read books and PDFs on the iPad, I would like to be able to store, organize, and sort these files in folders in the same ways I can have stacks of photos that I can peak into using iPhoto. As a researcher, I would think you could imagine and appreciate the possibilities of organizing dozens of journal articles for reading and note taking for an upcoming publication. I’d rather have folders on the desktop set to my specification than having PDF files embedded in an e-reader application’s library or bookshelf. Maybe this folder system will be developed, after all, but I haven’t read anything of it yet.

]]> By: Tall One http://www.jon22.net/ipad-you-pad-dont-we-all-pad/comment-page-1/#comment-5838 Tall One Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:40:57 +0000 http://www.jon22.net/?p=1085#comment-5838 You disagree with the prophets at Penny Arcade! How can the world continue in this fashion?! Also the Nook has gotten somewhat better when I found places I could download e-books for free. Still, though, it's hard to use, ugly, and pretty limited. You disagree with the prophets at Penny Arcade! How can the world continue in this fashion?!

Also the Nook has gotten somewhat better when I found places I could download e-books for free. Still, though, it’s hard to use, ugly, and pretty limited.

]]>