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iPad Reactions

TriskettheKid said:
As for videos....what a joke. As I said previously, you are severely limited by space. You can't use something like Hulu, either. You'd be better off with a netbook (with a widescreen) running iTunes for your videos, as you could hold way more than the iPad.
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I really don't mean to come off as Mr. Defender of Apple products (especially since my last purchases were a netbook and a Kindle for my wife) but don't you think some people would rather watch video on a larger screen than a netbook and they'd be okay hopping on a plane with only a couple dozen movies and TV shows than fifty or sixty?

And you do realize how painfully slow netbooks are right?

But I'm with you 100% on the lack of flash. It's omission is mind-boggling.
 
Who does all the woo-ping at these events , are tech journos often prone to such manic enthusiasm or are they just "tired and emotional" Apple plants ( iPlants) ?
 
HarryKeogh said:
I really don't mean to come off as Mr. Defender of Apple products (especially since my last purchases were a netbook and a Kindle for my wife) but don't you think some people would rather watch video on a larger screen than a netbook and they'd be okay hopping on a plane with only a couple dozen movies and TV shows than fifty or sixty?

And you do realize how painfully slow netbooks are right?
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Many netbooks have 10 inch screens and a 16:9 ratio resolution which is pretty much ideal for video viewing. As to how slow a netbook is it really depends on which one you buy and what os you run on it. Some might be painfully slow but some are pretty powerful little machines. And as I said before the m11x looks like it will be the answer for anyone who wants an ultra powerful netbook.
 
Policenaut said:
Many netbooks have 10 inch screens and a 16:9 ratio resolution which is pretty much ideal for video viewing. As to how slow a netbook is it really depends on which one you buy and what os you run on it. Some might be painfully slow but some are pretty powerful little machines. And as I said before the m11x looks like it will be the answer for anyone who wants an ultra powerful netbook.
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The Alienware m11x is NOT a netbook.

It's got a great size, and it fits in the ultraportable category, but it weighs something like 4lbs.

That being said, when I travel for work, I'd love to have it with me to get some gaming in when I've got downtime (though the Acela's are getting wi-fi, so transit time will be harder to call downtime).

But the m11x is not and will not be a netbook. Not with something like the GTX 335m in it.
 
TriskettheKid said:
The Alienware m11x is NOT a netbook.

It's got a great size, and it fits in the ultraportable category, but it weighs something like 4lbs.

That being said, when I travel for work, I'd love to have it with me to get some gaming in when I've got downtime (though the Acela's are getting wi-fi, so transit time will be harder to call downtime).

But the m11x is not and will not be a netbook. Not with something like the GTX 335m in it.
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Whatever category you put it in the thing is a tiny, heavy beast. I want one badly but I think it's a bit out of my price range. But for what you get it is definitely worth the money (I would certainly spend $1k on the m11x before spending $1k on a 13" macbook let alone the iPad). It has just about any feature you would want in a gaming/entertainment laptop but shoved into a "netbook".
 
PhreePhly said:
As someone else stated earlier in the thread, it is a solution searching for a problem.
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I did. But as someone else noted, one potential application for this kind of technology is in hospitals. With an application that wirelessly referenced a database of patient records, this could completely replace the old clipboards that residents and surgeons routinely carry around. Plus, they would also have access to PubMed and other online resources. They could act as a messaging/paging system for emergencies and even allow a surgeon to remotely monitor and perhaps control patient care systems in real-time.

Stop thinking of it as a replacement for a desktop or a laptop, and start thinking of it as a specialised tool that can change specialities at a moment's notice.
 
arthwollipot said:
I did. But as someone else noted, one potential application for this kind of technology is in hospitals. With an application that wirelessly referenced a database of patient records, this could completely replace the old clipboards that residents and surgeons routinely carry around.
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That kind of thing sounds good until you consider the privacy issues of beaming patient records wirelessly around a hospital. I don't even know if current medical privacy laws in the US would permit such a system.

Also, doctors do seem to have a clipboard a lot, but for inpatients it's typically the record they grab when they arrive at a patient's room.

Now, a wired system where one tablet is assigned per patient room, per exam room, per OR, etc. could be interesting. Test results, radiology reports, patient identifiers and the like could be automatically updated to the patient's location throughout the day. Tie it in with an RFID tag on a patient identity bracelet and it could be great for having the most up-to-date record available wherever a patient happens to be. Even in an outpatient setting, a receptionist or nurse could send a patient to a particular exam room, note the room in the computer and, bam, the patient's complete history is sent to the dock in the room.

Sounds neat to me (as does the iPad itself, but "neat" doesn't get my $500+). :)
 
By the way, speaking of revolutionizing: anyone else here notice that Apple stole the interface for iBooks directly from Delicious Monster? I talked to a friend of mine yesterday after the demo who told me exactly this, and I looked into it-- Apple totally jacked the interface, and didn't even change anything or cite DM as their "inspiration" for the design.

Stay classy, Steve-o.
 
arthwollipot said:
I did. But as someone else noted, one potential application for this kind of technology is in hospitals. With an application that wirelessly referenced a database of patient records, this could completely replace the old clipboards that residents and surgeons routinely carry around. Plus, they would also have access to PubMed and other online resources. They could act as a messaging/paging system for emergencies and even allow a surgeon to remotely monitor and perhaps control patient care systems in real-time.

Stop thinking of it as a replacement for a desktop or a laptop, and start thinking of it as a specialised tool that can change specialities at a moment's notice.
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They certainly could. And have. For some years now. :) The vertical market apps which sprang up around tablets for use in the medical community, not least of which the Motion I've mentioned here, are abundant. A friend works in IT at a major university hospital local to here. His job is specifically to support the portable and laptop devices used by the hospital, and he's been phasing out Motion tablets that have served their useful service life and been replaced by new ones.

The iPad may get some kudos in that niche for weight and size, but nobody in that market is going to look at it as the least bit groundbreaking. From what I've read here about this new gizmo's horsepower and OS shortcomings it will stumble badly in that same niche because of an inability to handle the many tablet oriented medical apps which have been established for so long.

It's funny that you should mention clipboards. That's exactly what the Motion tablet I used on jobsites replaced. The tablet specific handwriting software let it function just like one, only with better sorting and search capabilities. It was neat that I could also carry all the contract documents and blueprints for a $160,000,000 project at the same time. These took up three full drawing racks (twelve sticks of drawings per rack) and a bookshelf or two back in the office trailers. :D We had an in-house program to keep drawing updates synced and everything was downloadable from a website in TIFF format. Of course it had built-in wireless capability, and even a fingerprint reader for biometric log-in. It had enough CPU and RAM to run CAD software (albeit slowly), and enough hard drive to handle all of that plus my jobsite photos (lots of photos). This was in '04, and the price for the bare bones tablet, while steep for the street, was still under $2K. I can find used ones today for under $300.

For this iPad to compete in the work market, which is where the real tablet activity is happening and has been for quite a while, it's going to go up against those sorts of expectations.
 
Babbylonian said:
That kind of thing sounds good until you consider the privacy issues of beaming patient records wirelessly around a hospital. I don't even know if current medical privacy laws in the US would permit such a system.

<snip>
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You would be surprised (dismayed?) at the amount of info flying around the airwaves for wireless access in modern hospitals.
 
quadraginta said:
For this iPad to compete in the work market, which is where the real tablet activity is happening and has been for quite a while, it's going to go up against those sorts of expectations.
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No, for the iPad to compete, it's going to have to have apps that are easy to learn, do exactly the job required, and are cheap and convenient. Since there's so much being done on iPhone app development - including some highly specialised apps - there's no reason to think that this army of developers would have any trouble coming up with the perfect apps for the situation at hand.
 
arthwollipot said:
No, for the iPad to compete, it's going to have to have apps that are easy to learn, do exactly the job required, and are cheap and convenient. Since there's so much being done on iPhone app development - including some highly specialised apps - there's no reason to think that this army of developers would have any trouble coming up with the perfect apps for the situation at hand.
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Incorrect. For the iPad to compete in a corporate/business environment, it will require the ability for IT to lock the device down to secure its data (especially important in hospitals) and to keep extraneous programs and data from finding their way on the devices (for typical computer security). I see nothing about this device that will allow for such a thing, so I highly doubt this is going to be seeing any serious acceptance in the corporate world. Having iPhones for executive staff is one thing-- and the iPhone only barely covers the necessary requirements for many corporate IT departments, while completely failing for others-- but to have an iPhone-like device working in an operations capacity would be completely out of the question as the iPhone OS currently stands.
 
arthwollipot said:
No, for the iPad to compete, it's going to have to have apps that are easy to learn, do exactly the job required, and are cheap and convenient. Since there's so much being done on iPhone app development - including some highly specialised apps - there's no reason to think that this army of developers would have any trouble coming up with the perfect apps for the situation at hand.
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I don't dispute this in a sense of looking forward. What I was trying to stress was that in (for example) the hospital environment you had brought up they are not going to be breaking new ground. They are going to be playing against an established, entrenched, mature tablet market with expectations which will compare this new offering to existing and quite well received competition that is itself constantly innovating and improving, and doing so on a foundation of experience, selling to loyal customers.

You had brought up the "potential application" of the iPad as a tablet in hospitals in a way which seemed to suggest such application was largely unexplored. I'm just saying that it isn't, it is more of a "been there, done that" situation, and from what I've read here the iPad would be going into such an environment with a lot less ammunition than the troops already in place.

Scout around this link to get an idea of some of what is already in place. Just in healthcare, and just with this one tablet offering. Here's an example of some of the other players already pursuing this market in applications, and taking specific advantage of tablet form technology. This is all just from the Motion people, and they're only one of the established tablet manufacturers out there.

I think that the general public perception of the tablet format has been that it is somewhat 'geeky', as well as 'not as good as a laptop', and the relatively widespread use in vertical market industrial applications (including healthcare) has been largely unnoticed. I don't think Apple is going to break down any doors with revolutionary new uses. I think it's way too late. I see Apple (hopefully) as mainstreaming a product concept which has been hidden in vertical market niches. It looks like they are doing it with their usual stumbles.
 
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