10. First generation hardware, foshizzle. I don’t care if it is an Apple product, it’s going to have bugs and shortcomings and pieces of watermelon rind stuck in the bezels. Let other people find the problems and wait until iPad 2.0 hits the shelves before plunking down a car payment for one of these things.
9. I don’t see a red alligator leather carrying case yet. Not gonna bust my mojo with a black leather or polyurethane piece of dung.
8. I have a hard enough time putting my iPhone down. Gimme an iPad and you might as well wire the Internet directly to my brain.
7. iPad. It’s a bad name, (expletive deleted). It should’ve been iSlate, and I don’t think I’m alone on thinking this.
6. No camera? I can’t even begin to describe how much that galls me.The iPad is about consuming content, not creating it. What makes the iPhone and MacBooks and iLife so amazing is their ability to allow non-artistic people to be creative. The iPad is trying to turn back the clock to where newspapers and magazines generated all the content instead of permitting the general public to create. My iPhone can take pictures, record video and sound, and publish that content on my website. The iPad can’t. It’s not revolutionary, it’s de-evolutionary.
5. No iGrill app? I should be able to cook hamburgers and hot dogs on the screen. Or make stir fry with my iWok app. If the iPad gets hot enough, I should be able to do everything a single-burner hot plate can do. Gimme an iPan for my iPad and I’ll cook for the masses.
4. Contrary to what you might believe, I’m not a gamer. I have no interest in games for the iPad. I have a Wii for my son, and we play two games: Mario Kart and Sport Resort. I don’t play computer games, I don’t play games on my iPhone, and I won’t be playing games on an iPad. Portable gaming is of no interest to me.
3. eBooks I can already do on my iPhone. I have a Kindle app for my iPhone and, while have a larger screen would be nice, I don’t need an alternative.
2. Dog hair. I get my yellow lab’s hair all over my iPhone, and I cannot begin to imagine the creature that would emerge from the electronic cauldron that an iPad and my 100lb Puppy of Love’s hairballs would create. I would probably be able to claim it as a deduction on my taxes, though.
1. New tires, summer camp, tickets to Gatorland, shorts for the boy, dog food, Mobil 1 oil change, carpet cleaning, summer trip to my sister’s, electric bill, tickets to the Epcot Flower Show, minor surgery on the Puppy of Love, electroshock therapy on the cat to make her stay out of my son’s closet, renewing my domain, and Nordstrom’s is getting a new shipment of Tommy Bahama shirts.
The other points notwithstanding: the name thing is a non-starter. You’d really, truly rather be using a product called the isLate? Let’s face it, Dan: this is Apple. There is NO POSSIBLE NAME they could have given the device that wouldn’t have been made fun of within microseconds of the announcement.
Besides, I find it deeply difficult to believe that women have seriously never in their lives encountered a pad of paper without rolling their eyes at the person who had the gall to name stationery after a feminine hygiene product.
Stupid name and everything notwithstanding, the reason I think the iPad is so stupid is it’s supposed to be a tablet computer. It’s not a computer, it’s a really big iPhone without the phone. You can go on the internet and play with apps, and that’s about it. You’re not going to use this to type up a document for work, or draw a webcomic, or anything remotely productive. Meh!
Gatorland RULES!!!
Ipad – its a mac/Ipod touch on steroids.. Besides a Ipad doesn’t fit on my pocket like a Ipod touch does..
#6 is what gets me. Here’s hoping.
In order of appearance:
10. Apple’s first gen hardware is better than most companies second or third pass.
9. I have no comment on this, other than Raspberry lattes.
8. I’ve had a hard time articulating this, but the ability to interact with the Web, or games (I know you don’t play mobile games and I tend to agree, but some of them are just too fun at that screen size and potential for immersiveness) with your fingers really seems to provide more of a…connection to the content.
7. iSlate is stupid, too. Everything is subjective. When the came out, Wii and iPod were ridiculed. Funny how things work out.
6. Gotta leave something for those version 2 products. Honestly, probably the biggest thing I’m missing from the iPad.
5. It doesn’t get hot at all. This isn’t an intel chip in there.
4. Understandable. But it is impressive how some of the games are taking advantage of this machine.
3. eBooks on the iPhone are nothing compared to what you can do with the iPad. Once you see it, you really can’t go back to try and reading on the iPhone. Trust me, I’ve tried.
2. Having two cats, I haven’t encountered too much of an issue yet, but this remains to be seen.
1. Can’t disagree with that one.
And Trevor is completely wrong. I’m using the iPad as a replacement for my laptop at work and so far, while being a shift in how I do work, I’m able to create all the content I need. So far, the biggest challenges have been the iPad not supporting custom fonts and a lack of printing. Fortunately, I work in the interactive industry so I don’t need to print more than one per week.
And Jim Lee (comic book artist) would disagree with you about being unable to create content: http://twitpic.com/1damu1
It’s not a computer yet. But it does *most* of what a computer does, and does it well.
Pretty much agree with you on every point. Much as I’ve become a convert to the iMac/Macbook Pro, and I love my iPod Touch (especially now that I have a stylus for it so I can type without backspacing every other character), I see absolutely no reason whatsoever for me to own an iPad.
I have a dozen apps on my Touch; I use three: iTunes, Hold ‘Em, and Twenty-One (the latter two only in an airplane). Clearly, I’m not the appstore’s target audience. But that audience is exactly congruent to the iPad’s audience.
I’m waiting and hoping that Microsoft’s offering measure up to their prototype. If it does, I’ll probably buy one for every member of my family.
Would the iPad really make that good a camera anyway? I just try to picture holding that thing up and trying to steady it for a good shot. Seems way too cumbersome for the task honestly. Almost as bad as trying to use it as a phone.
#8 is why I made a point of not getting the 3G version. Anything that will force me to leave the thing home is for the best.
I want a forward-facing video camera so I can video conference and the ability to run Pandora while I’m reading an ebook. Until then, my droid does everything I need it to do (albeit in a slightly more beta edition sometimes).
Frankly, the iPad was never really meant for the people that are doing all the complaining about it.
I wish I could put a link on it, but the original blog post has since been lost to the internets.
I states (and this is me pulling this from the recesses of my mind, so bear with me) that for the longest time, that computers were designed by and for about 5% of the computer-using population, while the other 95%, comprised of non-IT people like my grandfather and my technoilliterate in-laws had to suffer with a device that not only did what they needed, but a billion things more, and was obtuse and generally poorly documented to top that off.
The iPad is the computer for that 95%. Would I buy a Macbook off the shelf, hand it to Grampa Orion, and be reasonably comfortable that he’s going to be able to use all it’s features out of the box, and not wind up harrumphing at it and using it for a coaster?
Uhh, not a chance. Frankly, he’d probably use it as a skeet down at the range the moment he couldn’t figure something out.
As far as an iPad, though? I brought him to the store on release day. Within minutes, he’d figured out how to email, watched a demo video, checked out an eBook, played with a couple other apps, and admitted that, and I quote “Hrmp, not bad.”
That’s high praise from Grandpappy O.
As far as Daniel’s #1 point, though, oh my YES, while Apple’s first-gen is frequently far better than most company’s 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th-gen products, anyone who owned a rev A iMac G5 knows why you wait at least one revision.
And yes, come on. Camera required, even Gramps said so. =)
Edited for a quick addendum: The moment the next generation of iPads comes out, I’m buying my grandfather a 3G one, with the utmost confidence that not only will he use it, but he’ll wonder how he got by without it.
Completely agree about the Ipad being a lame name. I think it is a shame Apple opted to go for the simplicity of name instead of all the cool classy names they could have gone with.
My morning has started off well! Thanks for the smile. Good to see a couple new posts from you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAl28d6tbko
this is all i will say (yes it is work safe)
Quick question from a more-or-less non-apple user to those who might possibly know more; Is the iPad able to do more than one thing at once? i.e. can you listen to your music AND read a book/surf the web.
You can listen to music while doing other things (but i’m not sure if it’s 100% true depending on the other app much as it is on the iPhone) with version 4.0 of the OS coming out (and to iPad within the year) there’ll be more ability to multitask as well with the new APIs
I know you’re not playing, but I am sure you’re at least intersted in the massive Hunter changes in Cataclysm: http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/cataclysm-class-preview-hunter/
eg:
Cobra Shot (level 81): A new shot that deals Nature damage instead of Physical damage. This ability will share a cooldown with Steady Shot. This will give hunters an alternative to Steady Shot on heavily-armored targets, and we will have talent incentives in the Beast Mastery tree to make this a signature shot.
Trap Launcher (level 83): When used, the next trap can be shot to a location within 40 yards. This provides the current Freezing Arrow treatment to all traps and, as a result, we will be removing the current ability Freezing Arrow. 1-minute cooldown. No global cooldown.
Camouflage (level 85): The hunter enters an obscured state that prevents him or her from taking ranged damage. The character would still be subject to melee or area-of-effect attacks, and dealing or taking damage will break the Camouflage effect. The hunter can move and set traps when under Camouflage, and will receive a damage bonus when attacking while under Camouflage (which will then break the effect).
@Corv You are evil for posting that.
Daniel I agree with what you posted, if anything the iPad will be a netbook killer (not that they needed the help).
The biggest problem for the iPad I see is purses. Of course this is based off of my personal/professional environment so it is definitely not true for everyone. But a lot of guys won’t want to walk around holding an iPad and will otherwise have no place to put it. Most men don’t carry briefcases anymore and a laptop bag is a bit overkill. Women however can easily carry it around if they have a purse and from my experience a lot of women have bags/purses they frequently carry. I will not be purchasing an iPad, however I look forward to what will come from this a few years from now.
I want it. It’s always been my dream to have my old Etch-a-Sketch be able to do all the things a computer can. But agree, won’t get one til next version comes out.
I saw a dude reading comic books on his iPad yesterday.
Didn’t know if it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, or a portent of the end times.
Or, possibly… both.
So, if some unnamed developer of games was to, say, offer you a freebie to see if you would test an alpha build of the client for an MMORPG that has over 10 million users, you would say “NOT A CHANCE! Bah! Let that unholy piece of technology not venture into my grasp!”
Suuuuuure.
Kids like it. You can watch Phineas & Ferb on it while Dad drives.
No to IPad but yes to MacBook Pro. I can finally bid farewell to Windows & cheap arsed PCs that last less than 2 years.
Awesome post as always, thank you for posting all this helpful content on a regular basis.
I feel the same way on all points. While I agree the iPad looks real nice, its just not the device I wanted it to be. They should have put a full version of OS X into the thing. They could have just as easily made it with a custom interface over the top like front row, and when you needed a real computer, you could have it.
Oh and leave us alone about the hunter stuff!! Some of us are off the fix and would like to stay that way. I’m sure Danniel has removed all things wow from his life for many of the same reasons I have and doesnt want to be reminded of them.
WTF the BRK is not a gamer?
A time will come…
Maybe it will be playing wii bowling for money or mario kart tutorial videos or training a small cadre of your kid’s friends how to do a proper build strat to dominate starcraft 2 and become mega superstars in Korea.
Someday BRK, someday.
I wish folks would get this wrapped up in things important.
I am loving the new iPad (my first 1st gen purchase in forever) and don’t really care what it’s called. The pace of app development and polish is brisk and, for the target it’s aimed at, it doesn’t miss the mark by a pixel.
Kids backpacks at school will be exponentially lighter in a year.
Folks need to relax about it and let it evolve. All these comments were made about the mouse and the GUI too. By polishing and pushing the gesture based UI into the limelight Jobs/Apple has done us a good service. The brand on the back matters not.
You popped up on technoroti when I did a search for office furniture.. I’m doing research on this vocation right now and this assisted. I myself am looking into acquiring some office furniture for my home office. I’m going to send this link to my roommate.