iPad

**buzz** · 06-02-2010, 07:41 PM

I wanted to post here for 3 reasons:

1. Gotta get my post count up
2. Wanted to subscribe to this thread so I could learn more about multi-tasking
3. Wanted to show off my updated User Title

In the words of a wise member: "Kirstie Alley something something... I have no idea why I posted this."

Is it Friday yet?

-Buzz

**EGeekBMe** · 06-03-2010, 03:38 PM

Seeing the heated discussion around this post I am a bit hesitant in responding to this as my first reply as a member on this board. However, with that being said, since I am new here I have no bias as to any of the posters since I don't know adam from sam.

Let me start with the background that I am a pc geek and have been in the IT field for nearly 15 years and have been a hardcore Windows advocate the whole time. That is up until a couple years ago when I got a Macbook for work and after the learning curve, I feel in love with it. I am not gung-ho that the Macbook is better than a Windows notebook, I just personally like it better at this time.

I also have an iPad, in fact both my wife and I each have one and we both also have iPhones. Most of our kids have an iTouch as well.

I love my iPad and do not regret getting it at all. It does serve a basic purpose of portability and convenience since I do not have to carry around my laptop. Yes, the iPad is an over sized iTouch but as I mentioned, it works for me. I can actually use my iPhone to remote into my home or work computer and although it isn't as efficient as doing it from another computer, you take it for what it is and fits the bill in the need arises. I also have it setup on my iPad to do remote administration as well. I mostly use the iPad for web browsing, ie. social networking, news, forums like this but I also use it for games and productivity. My wife is a network engineer and she has a bunch of network tools on hers that she can use in the office. With the exception of cellular activity, the iPad can do virtually anything the iPhone or iTouch can do. The upside is that when traveling, the iPad can be used to watch movies for about 10 hours which by far exceeds the duration on my Macbook.

As for the data plan, it is completely independent of your cellular plan and is quite flexible. I have the 3G/Wifi model and had it for several months before turning on the 3G. We took our daughter to Disneyland for her 7th birthday so we turned on the 3G ($15/250MB per month) and let her have at it in the car. When we get close to the 250mb, an alert will pop up and we have the option of turning off the 3G until next month, bumping up to the unlimited for $30 (technically only another $15) or just turning off the 3G so it will not auto renew. You can pretty much turn it off and on as your needs require it with no contract and no penalties.

Now here is the apparent sore spot with everyone, multi-tasking. To me, and this is just my idea of the term, multi-tasking is the ability to do multiple things at the same time. In that sense, the only thing that can be done at the same time, is to listen to music via the native iPod application while doing other things. This means that I can start a song, close the app and proceed to do other things like web browsing, writing a document or putting together a presentation or use almost any application while the music is playing. However, sometimes i prefer to listen to Pandora Radio and when I do, that is the only thing that I can do. If I close the app, the music stops. Yes, I can open a web page and copy some text, then go to notes and paste it in there and then go back to the same web page but your are essentially closing one app to get to the other which can be viewed as a form of multi-tasking as well. In either case, the point that I think was trying to be made initially is that the iPad/iPhone/iTouch do not allow background services. If it did, you could put Pandora Radio in the background while surfing the web via Safari. Alas, that is not the case with the product line and is a down side to some extent.

There is a caveat to that in my opinion, again, just my opinion, which also apply to why there aren't any expansions ports, or why the product lines are not open source, or why they do not support flash. I feel that if they were opened up for any vendor or designer to just do whatever they want to these devices, they wouldn't be as sound as they are. I suppose, that statement is more of my perception but it is my my opinion that the Apple products are far less flaky than most other OS based products.

I am not looking for a flame war or to continue the one that already exists in this thread. I am just providing some iPad insight to those who may not have had much experience with them. If you have your mind made up about Apple products, then this response wasn't really intended for you and I apologize if it seems as though I am stepping on anyone's personal opinion.