Why the iPad is stupid but will take over the world anyways
First off, iPad? Ew.
Second, Apple has got itself some phenomenal swag, as the kids say. It created enough buzz with this product launch to render an Obama State of the Union speech all but irrelevant and the kicker? The company describes its own product as magical.
Whaaaaa? Can you imagine if Ford came out with a new car and called it “The most fuel efficient, stylish and magical car in its class”? They would get laughed out of the country. I think the use of that one adjective is going under reported in all this tablet hoop-la, but hey — that’s just me. I’m totally going to call everything I do magical from now on though; be forewarned.
Anyways, as for the iPad itself, my initial reaction was… meh. It’s a giant iPod touch, which may or may not be exciting depending on who you are. The potential of the hardware does make you think though.
If, for example, a university professor somehow found a way to put an entire course syllabus, text book, videos of his lectures immediately after class, powerpoint notes, relevant website links, interesting journal articles and videos (TED videos or whatnot) into an easy to navigate interface, one that allowed for simple bookmarking and note taking… couldn’t a device like this revolutionize the way students learn? Instead of a textbook and a pencil, suddenly you can immerse and navigate all your information in a more tactile manner, plus amendments can be made in real time.
It certainly beats WebCT. I hated that thing.
That same train of thought can naturally be applied to magazines and newspapers. Some may whine that Apple didn’t do enough for print media, but I totally feel it is incumbent on magazines and newspapers to learn how to evolve their content for an entirely new type of medium. Somewhere between a blog, a website and a magazine is a digital publication that has the intimacy of print but the interactive and rich-media experience of a website, mixed with the responsiveness of a blog.
It’s not up to Apple to make that product, but it has created a device which makes that product inherently feasible (if not inevitable).
At first blush, the iPad may not change the world, but it has definitely prodded the technological paradigm in the direction of digital tablets as a medium. Think travel guides, cook books, interactive museum guides with video… the possibilities are endless. The potential for the iPad is enormous, constrained only by the software developed for it.
Considering currently the thing has no multi-tasking capabilities, or even flash, I am unimpressed. But I am intrigued. We may laugh at the stupid name, but in hindsight this might be a more seminal product than we currently realize.
i still think iPad is retarted. i wanna buy it, but i dont have the money to waste for a giant ipod when i already own an iphone… again, iPad is retarded!
it may start more tablets being made and becoming more popular, but as long as they have virtual keyboards they will never be as popular at laptops because touch screen keyboards are way slower and miss like every other letter you type…also all the other things you suggest they might be able to do are just as easy to do on laptops…maybe you move the mouse instead of your finger but it’s not like it doing revolutionary things its just a finger instead of a mouse for doing the same things.
My hope for the future is a laptop/tablet 2-in-1 which resembles a laptop, except that the display can be detached and used as a tabet.
-d
Make an Apple Tablet that appeals to graphic designers!
We’d buy them in droves!
You mean like this: http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/01/04/lenovos-u1-is-a-netbook-with-removable-tablet/
LMAO! This is retarded……..you can do all this shit on ur freakin iphone or netbook or laptop or desktop. GIVE ME A BREAK ALREADY! First TV shows, now Electronics, are giving us the same shit in different wrapping! The personification of STUPID. But luckily for him, most Americans are stupid, and will buy any shit they’re told to be on MTV or VH1, or MTV NEWS[for IDIOTS!]
o_o
You’re right the iPad is one big iPod touch or iPhone. It’s ridiculous the hype they are trying to create for it. It’s not magical it’s just a bigger iPod touch! I wouldn’t spend my money on that ridiculous thing, though I already have an iPod touch. Next you’ll be seeing people making calls from their iPads, haha
I have the Always Innovating touch book and love it its a netbook/tablet has an ARM Processor And is completely opensource.
This piece of crap is absolutely ridiculous, it appeals to ridiculous people, and it is absolutely amazing how this crappy company is being able to put out such a fuss over this one piece of shit. I have never ever seen anything so stupid in my entire life, and yet, there are people who wish to buy it in DROVES. Ha!!!! Oh, please, GAAAAWD!!!
Go do the dishes and you’ll be just fine! FIND SOMETHING TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE INSTEAD OF LICKING APPLE’S BALLS!!!
They have to call it magical to hide the fact that it is a large ipod touch. Apple’s marketing department hard at work to make up for the ipads shortcomings. And, how are you supposed to hold it? Oh well, I’ll see this saturday because my friend pre ordered one…against my advice. I love apple and I own a lot of their products, but this isn’t revolutionary…(seems like someone is running out of ideas.
This thing is so stupid. And most modern electronic devices are stupid.
What happened to the good old days when people actually read newspapers, not everyone can read newspapers or books on a screen, there are several people I know who get eye strains or blurred vision from trying to read stuff from a computer screen, but yet when they read a regular book they are fine.
Sure it may reduce the paper and save trees, but if we got rid of paper completely, then what is going to happen to the paper that is piled up in the recycle facilities?Are we just going to throw them away (yeah that’s real environmentally safe), you can’t get rid of paper 100 percent, we can still use paper, but just keep reusing (recycle) it into new paper, so this saves trees, and the people at the recycle plant won’t loose their jobs.
I think we have to stop making everything electronic, and just stick with the older stuff, they were better made, and the older products made more sense, then most newer stuff now.
Also you know how much radiation we are exposed to by all this electronic stuff, wifi it’self releases radiation, radiation can cause cancer, and it can also destroy cells. Radiation is also affecting the environment, nature makes it’s own radiation that it needs to survive from the sun, but yet we are releasing more radiation in the air, with these stupid electronic, more radiation means more plants and animals, becoming extinct, it also means an increase in cancers.
Also The way the economy is WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE CREATING JOBS, not taking them away. All this crap that computers, and machines do, we could have someone doing it. for example, we have machines to put labels on pop bottles, get rid of the stupid machine, and have someone put the label on themselves, then we have another person making income…just like with computers, all this filing and stuff that it does, we could be creating a job where some one is actually filling this stuff.
Many electrons are going to actually hurt us in the future instead of help us. For example, my friend got a playstation 2 about 5 years ago, it was the hit newest thing, not ther is a playstation 3 and playstation 2 is obsolete, why are we releasing things so fast, everyone wants to keep up with the newest thing, so my friend pays like 500 dollars to get a new ps3, then what he is goint to waste another 500 dollars if they come out with a playstation 3.
companies release new technologies so fast that it’s imposible to keep up with it, we will all end up broke just trying to keep up with it. We cannot afford to be wasting our money on stupid electronics in an recession.
Also not to mention we are coming out with so much stuff too fast, that what will we have to look forward too in the future?
So basically this stupid Ipad thing is saying you don’t need books, or a tv or a computer, basically you don’t need a house, just a carboard box and your ipad and your set.
This thing want to be the newest form or literature, yeah just what we need to have our young children handle something like this. It’s bad enough we are exposing children to the internet, where they can easily find pornography on it, or end up chatting with someone they are supposed to be chatting with like a stalker or something.
we are becoming lazy as a society, everything is offered to us on the internet we don’t even have to leave our seats except to go to the bathroom or to bed. And they wonder why so many people are overweight or unhealthy in our society.
Get rid of the stupid ipad and anyother stupid thing
The iPad is a good example of marketing over substance and practicality. There are other similar technologies but Apple are very good at marketing and positioning – a strategy that seems to appeal to shallow and materialistic individuals. I doubt if any of these people that have shelled out money for an iPad will ever admit that it is gathering dust on a shelf.
Commenting way late… I have an iPad and I’m sort of, kind of, happy with it.
I like new toys and it’s a cool new toy. I think anyone who can’t see that it’s a cool new toy is probably a miserable person who doesn’t like puppies or kittens, either.
iPad operates easily (although I have to admit the set-up took hours, due to my own idiocy and a forgotten network password). Actually, it operates awesomely. Everything is literally at my fingertips. I bought the wireless, bluetooth keyboard, too, and that may be my favorite thing about iPad. Okay… …Maybe not. But the keyboard is pretty awesome, too.
But then the fun wears off. I actually don’t spend much time on the Internet, watching videos, checking email or facebook. And I have a perfectly-good, way-more-portable and efficient iPod nanochromatic for music.
When you go to watch movies or listen to music, you realize the built-in speaker is never going to be satisfactory. Luckily, a cable allows me to quickly connect it to my computer, home theater, or HK docking station…all with GREAT sound. So, as long as I’m willing to do that, the movie/music experience can be as good as I want it to be. (Sadly, video won’t play while plugged into the adapter in my husband’s car – even though there is no problem with my iPod or my husband’s iPhone. I suspect that is a problem with the adaptor, not iPad.)
I have yet to find a reasonable word processing program for iPad. So half the reason I bought an iPad is still unsatisfied. (I did try doing work with Pages for iPad. It was fine, until I lost an entire day’s work because of how stupidly the product operates. The iPad almost sailed out the window on that occasion. I’m better now. Thanks for asking.
That leaves the whole media viewing/listening thing. These are files I already have, though. Looks like I’ll have to buy or rent new media, if I want to keep it fresh. I looked through the new movies available for rent through iTunes; none cried out to me. There is one new movie I’ve been wanting to see, but it’s not available for rent through iTunes.
I can’t…er…don’t read. But as of yet, in my area, only “classics” (and maybe some not so classics) are available for download, for free. The iBook categories available to me are retarded, too. Fiction, biographies… …That kind of thing. I need science and nature, in order to get interested. I’m not sure I even know how to buy a book via iPad, yet. (wondering in type)
Right now, I sometimes try the different app’s I have, just so I can play with my iPad longer than it takes to sweep through the screens of icons once or twice before realizing there’s nothing I really want to (or can) do with it, right now. I play the one game I have, mostly. So, for now, that’s a pretty expense game. (Ironically, I play that game in the same spot I usually play it on xbox…on a much bigger screen.)
Some of the app’s are cool. I just don’t need them. They came over from my husband’s iPhone, when I first synced my new iPad. The traffic tracker is helpful…or would be, if I drove a lot in the city. The remote access to administrator accounts would be good, if I still worked. (But I’m retired.) The 911 scanner novelty lasts about one or two times opening it, and realizing that you live in one of the safest areas of the world. (You may choose to go to cities with reportedly higher crime rates, but you quickly realize the inane banter of unknown police officers is not as appealing as one might thing.) I can only do SpeedTest so many times.
Okay… In fairness, iPad is still new to me. I’m still learning how to make it fit into my life. I would never buy a full-size laptop to do the few, simple tasks I was hoping iPad would permit me to do from our rear patio next to the beach, my favorite spot on the sofa, the passenger seat of my husband’s sports car, or our remote cottage.
When I am watching video on iPad, it is truly a superior experience than any laptop I’ve ever used because of its good quality screen combined with its slim profile and overall tiny size (compared to a typical laptop).
Other than the smallest Vaio, all laptops are far too big and heavy for my blood. I want extreme portability for word processing, so I can do it absolutely anywhere, anytime the mood strikes me. For whatever reason, my husband didn’t want to buy a Vaio for me and, instead, bought me a Lenovo netbook. (We had many discussions on this subject.) That was fine, but it was still kind of heavy for such a small device, and too big to fit in my purse…which was the ultimate goal. The screen was smaller than iPad, too. (He gave it to one of his business partners the day he ordered my iPad.)
If I give up on iPad, I will replace it with the teeny, tiny Vaio, for its more familiar complement of Windows-based programs and connectivity/usability, but with its proper keyboard. (Yes. I’m THAT old. I can actually type: asdf jkl;.)
But, for now, I go through periods of really enjoying the inherent fun of using my iPad, halted by periods of feeling as though it was a bit of a mistake. But, hell, I have countless technological “mistakes” littering my home in this drawer and that.
iPad hasn’t yet earned its keep. But I’m still hopeful it will. As I said to one eager enthusiast who can’t yet afford one, “Keep in mind, it’s just a computer, not a cure for cancer. That said, it’s pretty cool.”