iPad 2.0 - What do you want?!

[Oreo]

kmanmx, serious question. Do you work for Apple?

So far we have 10 iPads here at work, and they've been sitting on the shelf. Only one individual uses his on a regular basis, but he totes his laptop around with his iPad since he needs more functionality than what the iPad alone does. I'm questioning why those items were purchased, but nonetheless, we have them, and they're just kind of sitting there. They're more limited than I thought they would be since I had not used an iPad prior to its arrival.

I can understand the appeal for a non-laptop device if you just want to check email or something, but Mak really hit the nail 100% on the head in pretty much every category. From a practicality standpoint in regard to features, price, and what you can vs can't do, there's absolutely zero contest. That's not saying it's a bad product. I know one user in particular who absolutely loves their's. Ironically, they won their's for free, so perhaps that's not the best comparison... Don't get me wrong, it's got a real slick interface and I wouldn't mind having one if it had a price tag of 159.99 or so. It just doesn't hold water to justify its price in regard to its capabilities.

I think i'd be sacked pretty quickly for saying what i said in my previous comment

But i agree. They are expensive, they have limited functionality, there is no flash, browsing isn't very fast, low storage, no outputs, no alternative inputs. But i still love mine (before i sold it to get money for the iPad 2, anyway). I don't know why, it just has something i love that i can't quite figure out. Maybe it's the screen ?, i love the screen as it looks super.

If i really thought about it, i don't love it for it's technical specs. You could get a netbook which is more powerful with more features. But it just isn't.. nice?. Yeah that's definitely it. When i use my iPad it is just easy to use, i can do what i want 90percent of the time, easily and comfortably with nothing getting in the way. With a netbook you have a tiny little keyboard and trackpad which is awkward to type on, it has a screen (which is nearly always lesser quality to that of the ipads) which you have to flip out everytime you go to use it, they are made of plastic that doesn't feel to great too.

If i am at home and want to watch TV, i could use my sisters laptop, or my dads really high spec work laptop. But i don't, i grab my ipad. By the time they have plugged in there laptops, logged into windows, waited for the desktop to load, i have done what i wanted to do.

The kind of things a powerful feature full laptop will let me do, i can do on my PC way easier. Laptops to me are just not easy to use, the trackpad is just awkward. And before you ask, no, i don't like MacBooks either - infact i think that clicky pad thing is pretty crap.

So yeh i guess it's a bit weird why i like my ipad, i understand all it's flaws but in the end it still does what i need it to do (watch TV and browse the internet) perfectly. And for the record, it looks like it's going to be a lot cheaper than most opposing tablets to be released using Android. It's a high tech piece of equipment, it can only be so cheap.

 

[Jayce]

Your reasoning behind why you like your iPad is exactly why I would like an iPad. But again, for me to pay that much for something with that kind of functionality, the justification just isn't there. Maybe if I won the lottery, or I had a 6 figure job. But until I'm rich and famous, I just can't see.. well... I just can't see ANY value in such a device.

 

[nosbusch2005]

Those are the reasons I really like my Ipad. I'm not going to sit here and say it is the greatest thing ever invented, it definitely has its flaws, but its just so easy to use. My favorite thing about it is I can lay on the couch and comfortably use it. In an average evening of watching TV about 10 things come up that I want to look up, just super easy to grab the Ipad look it up. Maybe you can do that with a netbook to, I've never used one so I don't know, it just seems like it wouldn't work that great to use it lying down.

 

[Oreo]

Those are the reasons I really like my Ipad. I'm not going to sit here and say it is the greatest thing ever invented, it definitely has its flaws, but its just so easy to use. My favorite thing about it is I can lay on the couch and comfortably use it. In an average evening of watching TV about 10 things come up that I want to look up, just super easy to grab the Ipad look it up. Maybe you can do that with a netbook to, I've never used one so I don't know, it just seems like it wouldn't work that great to use it lying down.

Correct. I have a netbook and it was awkward as heck to use. Let alone when lying down.

Your reasoning behind why you like your iPad is exactly why I would like an iPad. But again, for me to pay that much for something with that kind of functionality, the justification just isn't there. Maybe if I won the lottery, or I had a 6 figure job. But until I'm rich and famous, I just can't see.. well... I just can't see ANY value in such a device.

It is expensive, yeah. But when you hold and use it, you kind of understand. It certainly doesn't feel like it's cheap in any way compared to build quality. And the way everything just works pretty much perfectly makes you feel like you know your £500 was well spent compared to lesser products. Technically, it's processor is slow. And technically, it has a terribley small amount of ram (256mb..yowzers). But it's a heck of a lot more responsive than most Netbooks/Laptops and even full dekstops out there. I have the game Angry Birds on my PC and my iPad. It takes me longer to find and launch angrybirds on PC than it does on an iPad, it's not asif i'm on old hardware either. It kind of makes me think the only reason i need this ridiculously powerful hardware is because applications and operating systems for PC's are badly designed and have to much excess baggage then what you need most the time. I could go 100days straight on my PC and all i will do is open Firefox, and open Steam to launch some games, okay i am not pretending an iPad will run Crysis 2 - But if a Crysis Ipad version came out i could be playing it a lot simpler, easier, and quicker than i could the PC version.

Which makes me think, they should make Windows 8 learn how you use your PC. It should totally remove and disable parts of the operating system you never use, to make it quicker and simple for what you want, with no excess crap getting in the way. That would be sweet.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

That's the thing about Apple products. They cost a lot, don't have hardware comparable to other similar purpose devices available, have silly restrictions (especially if you're a developer), run proprietary software, have proprietary connectors, etc.

BUT they're easy to use, and that's what a lot of people are looking for. Lets face it, people like to be lazy; we want to put in the least amount of effort possible to get what we want. Opening Angry Birds on a PC takes 20 seconds, on an iPad it takes 5. Guess what? iPad wins.

THE PROBLEM is once you want to do anything else*, you're gonna find yourself in hot water. That lower-spec'd hardware is gonna come back and bite you, that software that won't play nice with everything else on the market will limit you. Lets face it, there's a reason Apple restricts you from changing/installing/doing certain things on the iPad. They've fine-tuned their software to run on the available hardware extremely well, but if you knock that out of sync you'll be in a world of trouble. There's only so much 256mb of ram and a 1Ghz cpu (on that size screen) can do.

*I don't literally mean 'anything else' obviously, I'm using 'Angry Birds' as a fill in for everything people like to do on the iPad.

 

[tahliahernandez42]

If you can wait a few months either the Blackberry Playbook or Motorola Xoom would be the way to go. If you are buying now the Samsung Galaxy Tab is the best alternative to the iPad.

Great! Thanks for the suggestions, I will definitely look out for them.

 

[tahliahernandez42]

iPad 2 will be thinner.
It has front and rear cameras
The screen will be the same size, but details in iOS 4.3 strongly hint towards twice the resolution. 2048 x 1536 has been suggested, but it may be different.
Very likely to feature Apple A5 processor based on the dual core Arm Cortex 9 processor. Also feature dual core SGX543 GPU.
Likely to bump ram to a minimum of 512mb. Likely 1gb, due to large screen resolution (rumour).
HDMI out is a possibility, but i am skeptical
SDHC slot possible, again i'm skeptical.

Any news on whether the ipad 2 will have e-ink technology like the Amazon kindle?

 

[iFargle]

Any news on whether the ipad 2 will have e-ink technology like the Amazon kindle?

I can already tell you now that won't happen.

What I want in iOS 5 (not neccesarily the iPad 2)... WIDGETS!!! For the love of God.. DO something with the extra screen space, Apple

 

[Yami]

Angry Birds opens pretty much instantly for me on PC, I don't see what you mean about 20 seconds If you have it on your desktop you should find it pretty much instantly.

Still, the fact that you have to organise it to your desktop on PC, while iOS (and Android) does it on its own is a point against it.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I have the game Angry Birds on my PC and my iPad. It takes me longer to find and launch angrybirds on PC than it does on an iPad, it's not asif i'm on old hardware either.

If you put a shortcut to every single app on your pc on the desktop it might be as quick to find and launch as the iPad.