iPad

**EGQ** · 05-01-2010, 12:09 PM

Anyone using these? I just got one -- rather than replacing the aging laptop that I used when I didn't want to be tied to the desk. I'm not an iPhone user, so this is relatively new territory for me, but I'm generally pleased and impressed. It looks like most internet sites are fully operational, and I can post on here, so I'm pleased.

The best feature that I have come across is the streaming netflix videos -- great picture and sound quality. Pandora radio is also pretty sweet.

**BigMacFU** · 05-01-2010, 01:59 PM

Had mine on release day. I've loved it so far. The battery life is amazing. On my flight home from china, I could've easily been watching movies the whole time (I just didn't have enough movies).

Look for GoSkyWatch, uses built in compass and location to show you the constellations where you are (you literally hold the ipad up to the part of the night sky you want to know about).

GoodReader is awesome if you want to keep certain pdf's, word docs or other documents on you at all times (PDF maps are great if you don't have the 3G).

ABC Player you can watch any ABC show. Feedler is a good, free RSS reader. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

**Kenyth** · 05-04-2010, 02:29 PM

My wife and family were going to buy me one as a Fathers day/ graduation present, but after talking to me about them, decided not to. I just don't know what it does that my current laptop doesn't do. Sure, it's more portable, but is it useful as anything but a neato toy? Anything really useful, like GPS and mobile wireless is going to require a mobile plan, right? Is it useful for tech stuff? Does it have USB ports? Can I connect it to other devices like thumb drives or to an ethernet cable? Can I take remote control of a windows PC or conect to a remote network with a VPN client?

Although neat as hell, I'm not sure this is a tech geek centered tool as much as a toy for media and internet use.

**BigMacFU** · 05-04-2010, 02:39 PM

Originally Posted by Kenyth

My wife and family were going to buy me one as a Fathers day/ graduation present, but after talking to me about them, decided not to. I just don't know what it does that my current laptop doesn't do. Sure, it's more portable, but is it useful as anything but a neato toy? Anything really useful, like GPS and mobile wireless is going to require a mobile plan, right? Is it useful for tech stuff? Does it have USB ports? Can I connect it to other devices like thumb drives or to an ethernet cable? Can I take remote control of a windows PC or conect to a remote network with a VPN client?

Although neat as hell, I'm not sure this is a tech geek centered tool as much as a toy for media and internet use.

It can utilize VNC protocols and you can set up VPN. It is a rather impressive machine and it's the portability that trumps all netbook/laptops along with battery life. Most people do their geeky stuff at home on a big monitor with their laptops essentially docked. This isn't supposed to replace that. But, there are times I'd have never brought my laptop to an event that I now bring my ipad without a second thought because of its media capabilities. It works as a useful portable portfolio/photo album. As a teacher, it holds all my documents, syllabi, articles, web-links, research. I just got back from a trip to china and showing people photos on my iphone sucks. De-docking my laptop isn't fun, and if we're meeting at a bar, I don't have to use a laptop. I can pass the ipad around.

Yes, for serious geeky stuff, don't waste your time. But for making parts of your life more portable that you wouldn't have thought of before, it definitely fits the bill way better than even the tiny netbooks.

**EGQ** · 05-05-2010, 09:38 PM

I don't speak the "geek" -- all I know is that my 6 year old Dell XPS laptop weighs about 10 times as much the iPad, and I only do basic, non-techy stuff. I can surf the web, stream movies, look at pics, listen to music, blah, blah blah. I dig it, but I'm a simpleton when it comes to these things.

My only complaint thus far is that it isn't Flash enabled/compatible -- which really hampers my ability to watch online pr0n...

**Kenyth** · 05-08-2010, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by BigMacFU

It can utilize VNC protocols and you can set up VPN.

This is exciting! Do you know what VPN types are available?

**Kenyth** · 05-25-2010, 12:47 PM

I got to play with one. For what it does, it's nice. Think of it as a big screen Iphone without the phone. It is great for web surfing, youtube, social network sites, etc.

Pros: It's very light and portable. The OS is very easy to work with since it was designed for a touchscreen device. Bluetooth built in.

Cons: No upgradability. No external interfaces except for the Itunes cable, so you can't use removable thumb drives. This kills it's potential as a portable multimedia device when combined with it's dinky memory capcity (16GB). No flash player software. This hampers it's usability for online multimedia and games. No camera for video chat. You have to pick either a cellular data plan, or regular wireless. You can't have both. I'm not sure if you can sync it with outlook or not. Since they are competitors, I'm guessing not.

This device has potential, but it's not yet a fully developed technology. If they could make these I-devices share a phone account and build in cameras for a video phone, they would really have something. As it stands, it's just an expensive toy, mostly for portable chat, internet surfing, and email. I get a feeling it will grow into a niche the tablet PC and PDA failed to meet, and that smart phones are too compact to take advantage of.

**BigMacFU** · 05-25-2010, 02:01 PM

Originally Posted by Kenyth

I got to play with one. For what it does, it's nice. Think of it as a big screen Iphone without the phone. It is great for web surfing, youtube, social network sites, etc.

Pros: It's very light and portable. The OS is very easy to work with since it was designed for a touchscreen device. Bluetooth built in.

Cons: No upgradability. No external interfaces except for the Itunes cable, so you can't use removable thumb drives. This kills it's potential as a portable multimedia device when combined with it's dinky memory capcity (16GB). No flash player software. This hampers it's usability for online multimedia and games. No camera for video chat. You have to pick either a cellular data plan, or regular wireless. You can't have both. I'm not sure if you can sync it with outlook or not. Since they are competitors, I'm guessing not.

This device has potential, but it's not yet a fully developed technology. If they could make these I-devices share a phone account and build in cameras for a video phone, they would really have something. As it stands, it's just an expensive toy, mostly for portable chat, internet surfing, and email. I get a feeling it will grow into a niche the tablet PC and PDA failed to meet, and that smart phones are too compact to take advantage of.

The no memory upgradeability is a joke (why no micro sd or sdhc). As for exchange/outlook, ipad/iphone's have been compatible since iphone os 2.0 I believe.

**Mizicke5273** · 05-25-2010, 02:03 PM

I'm not too thrilled with tablets yet, now give something like Tony Stark has in Iron Man 2 in the court room. That I would be all over. I'm waiting to see what HP will bring to the table with their tablet and as well as Google before I decided if I even want/need/have a use for a tablet.

The idea is "sorta" cool at this point in time to me, but no where near enough to start thinking about buying one. Too many other things to buy first.

ilikefishes · 05-25-2010, 05:29 PM

I am holding out for the Google/android based tablet. What are all the Apple people going to do when they pull YouTube from them. And without Flash it seems to loose interest. Why Apple did not include a camera is beyond me as well.

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**Mizicke5273** · 05-27-2010, 04:35 PM

Hmm, now I am thinking more and more about a tablet. The iPad, can you listen to music and read a book at the same time? What about browsing the net while listening to music? Basically can it multitask? How is reading a book on there? Can you add notes and stuff like bookmarks?

ilikefishes · 05-27-2010, 04:47 PM

No, that is the drawback of i-shit technology. No multi-tasking ability. That is why I am holding put fir the Google device coming out this summer.

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**Kenyth** · 05-28-2010, 07:17 AM

Originally Posted by Mizicke5273

Hmm, now I am thinking more and more about a tablet. The iPad, can you listen to music and read a book at the same time? What about browsing the net while listening to music? Basically can it multitask? How is reading a book on there? Can you add notes and stuff like bookmarks?

No multi-tasking, but the books look great! The pages flip when you draw your finger across the screen. The font and color look just like a book, etc.

**Mizicke5273** · 05-28-2010, 08:22 AM

Well, thats a deal killer for me. I won't invest in something like this if it has no multitasking capabilities. Looks like I'll have to wait.

**EGQ** · 05-30-2010, 09:02 AM

You can multi-task -- you can have music playing while you surf the net, read a book or use most apps (at least the ones I currently have). In fact, I'm doing it now.

Reading books is pretty sweet -- you can add bookmarks, but I don't see how to add notes -- but there also different apps for book reading -- iPad has one, there's a kindle app as well -- may depend on what you use. I'd strongly recommend putting your hands on one and checking it out -- it isn't the ideal computing machine, but it does a nice job on the stuff is does.

ilikefishes · 05-30-2010, 10:37 AM

Your definition of multi tasking is not in line with mine. Can you jump from one app to another without closing the app you are in? That is why I dumped the iPhone. If you are happy with the ipad, great. I am waiting for a better device to hit the market.
Edited for spelling
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**Philosophy Guy** · 05-30-2010, 12:28 PM

As far as multitasking, you can. Like it was said you can do two things at once (ie multi-tasks). And you can swtich from app to app and resume exactly what you were doing. So that appears to be multi-tasking. You cant have two apps open and being used at the same time.. but really what the hell is the point? Like you cant write in both the internet and a word processing program at the same time, even though they are open, you cannot use them both at the same time in terms of actually using them without switching back and forth. Also there is an update patch that is apparently coming out to upgrade the multitasking abilities of the ipad. I have heard that you will be able to have apps open side by side and the like. So as far as I can tell it is pretty decent at multi-tasking.

Will I buy one? nope.

**EGQ** · 05-30-2010, 03:39 PM

Originally Posted by ilikefishes

Your definition of multi tasking is not in line with mine. Can you jump from one app to another without closing the app you are in? That is why I dumped the iPhone. If you are happy with the ipad, great. I am waiting for a better device to hit the market.
Edited for spelling
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I'm going to try and show some restraint here -- I'm going to simply say that my use of "multi-task" was in accord with Mizicke's. Regardless, I don't give a shit as to what your definition is or isn't...

ilikefishes · 05-30-2010, 08:31 PM

Originally Posted by EGQ

I'm going to try and show some restraint here -- I'm going to simply say that my use of "multi-task" was in accord with Mizicke's. Regardless, I don't give a shit as to what your definition is or isn't...

Right back atcha. I have had the iPhone which is an identical operating system as the ipad. When I am talking about multi-tasking I am not talking about listening to music and then reading a book. I am talking about working in an application, then going to the internet to get some information that I need in the said document and then going back to the worksheet I am in. The ipad or any other ishit device cannot do this. So in that respect it DOES NOT multi-task and that is a fact. Couple that with the fact that it does not have a camera, a USB or SD card reader or any other feature that would have actually made the device worth purchasing other than just a toy and you have just a toy. There will be at least a dozen, that is 12 devices that run the Linux operating system with Android in the next couple of months. And with a purchase price of less than $250.00 and a camera, card reader, and USB port it will be much more functional for the business person. If you wanted a toy you should have gone down to K-Mart and bought yourself a My Little Pony.
I personally don't give a shit about your opinion either and could care less what you think of mine. Wish this forum had a MOON icon. Now everyone let me have it!

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**EGQ** · 05-31-2010, 03:41 PM

You are an ass-hat, and your reading comprehension sucks.

You weren't the one talking about multi-tasking -- Mizicke was. The iPad is a fucking toy you moron -- it is a glorified iPod/iPhone. I don't use it for work; I have a big-boy computer for that. Maybe in the future it will be more functional, maybe not -- I really don't give a fuck.

At least we're all clear on your definitions of "multi-tasking" and "dozen" -- thank you. Before I go, let me reiterate this --