I've done video chat with a few friends, and it's always awkward - you can't scratch your arse! Worse yet, if you're holding the damn thing, you can't write down what people say! If you have it in the fancy dock - it's pointing slightly upwards so the camera angle would be silly.

No camera is a good thing imo. But I'm a jaded misanthrope.

IBM thought the same thing about OS/2.

It turns out that when you can run a more popular machine's software, developers rely on it and never make the killer app that sets your new overpriced pile of crap apart.

"The problem is netbooks aren't ready for anything... .they're slow they have low quality displays... they're not better at laptops than anything, they're just cheaper." - Steve Jobs, 2010



"There's something in the air." - Steve Jobs, 2008

Welcome to page 2, Jon`C, I already pointed that out :p

Seriously, that's just sad. That and no multitasking. For something that's supposed to be better than a netbook, why is it worse than my phone?

It's unlike Apple to have something that shoddy in their keynotes i must agree.

Which phone have you got Matty? Pre?

Not to mention you can already get real laptops with 15" displays and pretty decent hardware for under $500. That makes this device even more ridiculous.

Yep. Flash isn't here yet, but it's coming next month sometime I believe. Unlike Apple who refuses to allow flash, so Adobe says.

I can live without flash. I only tend to lurk around a select few sites, most of them don't have flash. The only flash video I have to turn my mbp on for is Zero Punctuation.

Well very dissapointed really, still reading up on stuff, I mean my price on this could be really good, sub £300, but really a large iPhone, with no files system still, no more than on app at a time and no camera, I might as well just keep using my MBP 17", yeah its big but it does everything under the sun. The amount of 20 questions we are already getting is just stupid and the moans are getting bigger by the min, gets for families, crap for the more tech literate of us all.

I imagine Apple is holding out for HTML5 to kill Flash.

The only reason the iPhone doesn't support Flash is because Apple would have to open up the browser to do it.

What's funny is that it does support IIS Smooth Streaming. (Or rather Microsoft made IIS Smooth Streaming support it.)

Not sure what you're implying here, but I don't remember hordes of salivating fanboys clamoring for os/2. This tablet has instant developer buy-in. Even if the developers don't care about/like the iPad, they will still make apps for it because they found out how lucrative iphone development can be.

iPants ... apple fashion.

Hopefully those ghetto pants don't become popular with this device.

There probably won't be that many going for this either. If it's just a fanboy product, it won't succeed. iPhone did not succeed on fanboy sales.

Fact of the matter is, this is a new platform that is completely untested. The iPhone store people knew would be a success, because there were already so many iPhones out there (remember there was no app store when the iPhone launched!).

Let me ask this though: If you already have an iPhone or a similar smartphone, why would you buy this? If you have a macbook or similar laptop, why would you buy this?

They are attempting to create a new category of devices, between laptops and smartphones. However, it neither matches the speed and utility of a laptop, nor the portability and capabilities of a smartphone.

Steve Jobs did have one thing right. The netbook is just a cheap laptop, but unfortunately, it's still more computer than this... thing.

Problem with laptops and desktops, when you start using them you are officially 'using a computer', which is a task in itself. With a tablet which is very intentionally NOT a fully-featured computer, but rather a collection of standalone functions. It's basically a tool you can leave around your home and pick up whenever you want to get the news or check your email.

I know it's hard to define because it's so subjective, but I genuinely feel the purpose of tablet isn't so much what it can do, but rather how it feels to do it. It's trying to move the age of computing beyond having a station at your desk where you do things (and regardless of their portability, laptops end up doing this too), towards the idea of technology being truly ubiquitous and accessible. If the iPad was just a fully-featured version of Mac OS with a touchscreen I don't think it would accomplish the same goals.

It may take several generations of the device for it to truly get it right and separate itself from the idea of being an oversized iPod Touch, but I'm genuinely excited by it all the same.

Thats exactly what I was told by Adobe. They'd have to open up the browser and that would be unfair to other developers.

You just described what I've been doing with my phone for the last 6 months, except I don't have to carry a 9" version of it around.

and it's what I've been using my phone for, except the screen is too small. who woulda thunk it?

Yay, another trendy bright white POS that people can sit on the street/public trans/coffee shop with and look hip with their baggy dark green cargo pants and tons of long useless straps hanging off every clothing article they own.

now your statement reflects reality!

I'll wait to see what the pirates can do with it. A locked down device in terms of media playback and applications seems pretty stupid to me.

Well, unless you wanna wear iPants, you can't make it bigger, so...

iMurse. A male purse used for carrying/storing an iPad. You guys just wait. Don't hate.

This is why people think Mac owners are gay.

I think that a lot of Mac owners are gay. As a matter of fact, the 2 gay guys that I know both have Macs. I don't think that either of them have murses though.

Seriously how are you supposed to type on this ****ing thing?

Set it down flat on a table? That would murder your spine and wrists, if you could even see for all the glare. Sit with your legs up, I guess?

use the case <_< (sold seperately)

What an odd device. I get what detty is saying, and this will probably do that for some people or work environments (I imagine showing off concepts and images to clients) but it seems like a half step making a way-too-big iphone. The prices are relying on people's perception of the device as a netbook competitor, despite being a phone. I also like how my phone has cheaper 3G.

It's not a phone because it doesn't make phone calls ... it's trying to be a new category of device, basically (that does what Detty said better than smartphones can)

It reminds me of the G4 Cube, (being "between" two existing successful apple products, except this time it's mobile space instead of desktop space), but I think its value proposition is stronger than the G4 cube's was.

I've never respected any mortal more than you.

I'm very dissappointed by the iPad. I COMPLETELY feel like the iPad is just a hox product that someone made up to be funny. It feels like a complete joke.

And what's with the 29.99 data plan? I've heard a few people comment on how cheap this is. Is it really that cheap? My unlimited 3g data plan with t-mobile is 24.99 a month, the iPhone on AT&T is 29.99 a month. How is it "so cheap?" It practically seems like it should be the exact same plan, yet somehow since it's for the iPad, it's cheaper?

Sure the iPhone has a voice plan on top of it, but think of it this way, you have a normal cell phone, and an iPad, and you're probably paying the rough equivalent of what you would pay monthly for just an iPhone. I'd rather just have the iPhone and have one device that's easier to carry around.

You kinda lost me at your supposition that the gaming industry doesn't tolerate bull****, but you won me back with the Halo reference

I meant to say, "I don't think the game industry would tolerate their bull****."

Ipad, seriously? What a stupid name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsjU0K8QPhs&feature=player_embedded

Good thing: Point and click adventure games.

Man, I can't wait to play Monkey Island on the iPad.

Looking forward to the onion on this.