After 10 minutes at a Best Buy

[tmedvick]

I touched one! I didn't hate it!

I see so much untapped potential here (and as a Pre user, I know my untapped potential). My really quick impressions did nothing to get rid of the "rushed-to-market" feel I had after the announcement.

It is an overgrown iPod touch, with all the positive and negatives that go with that. I had to remind my son when he complained about it that while that is a complaint, he had to remember that the iPod Touch is awesome beyond its pocketability.

I feel like in just playing with the UI that there is another show to drop, that the hardware is there, but the first party software isn't fully baked. It's good, but it doesn't address all the basic stuff.

I was looking at it as a possible tool for my father, who will soon be recuperating from 3 upcoming surgeries. If I could look past the lack of flash (I swear, everyone over 65 in my family has a weekly quota of Flash video to forward to everyone else), would this be a good working pc for him? I am still really undecided.

So, to those of you packing iPads: Am I crazy, or does it feel like Apple pushed this a bit early to get the "First"?

[r0k]

I touched one! I didn't hate it!

I see so much untapped potential here (and as a Pre user, I know my untapped potential). My really quick impressions did nothing to get rid of the "rushed-to-market" feel I had after the announcement.

It is an overgrown iPod touch, with all the positive and negatives that go with that. I had to remind my son when he complained about it that while that is a complaint, he had to remember that the iPod Touch is awesome beyond its pocketability.

I feel like in just playing with the UI that there is another show to drop, that the hardware is there, but the first party software isn't fully baked. It's good, but it doesn't address all the basic stuff.

I was looking at it as a possible tool for my father, who will soon be recuperating from 3 upcoming surgeries. If I could look past the lack of flash (I swear, everyone over 65 in my family has a weekly quota of Flash video to forward to everyone else), would this be a good working pc for him? I am still really undecided.

So, to those of you packing iPads: Am I crazy, or does it feel like Apple pushed this a bit early to get the "First"?

I'm sitting in a classroom waiting for a lecture to begin at 5:30 and my six pound Dell is out in my car. What I have in front of me is a 1.5 pound iPad. I have all the course notes on this thing in PDF format. I can take notes either in a web browser or in the memo app.

Still, it does feel a little half baked. There is no filesystem access and this is a blunder on a device that runs iWork and does email. Would I have wanted to lug that Dell around another month waiting for all the iPad kinks to get ironed out? Heck no! I love using this thing and I'm glad apple rushed it into my hands. Now bring on os 4.0 and clean up a few of these mistakes.

Btw, I'm replying from my iPad. The scroll bars for reply to topic with quote were missing. I thought i was gonna have to bail. Nope. This is multitouch we don't need no stinking scroll bars. All I needed was 2 fingers!

[RobbM]

Although I have no firsthand iPad experience, the first line of Ars Technica's review of it tickles me and really puts it into perspective:

Its not a big iPod touch; the iPod touch is a little iPad.

Its a long review. Here it is:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews...pad-review.ars

[Varjak]

Thanks for the link Robb; but when I realized it was 18 pages, I passed. 18 'pages' is ridiculous.

[Ed Hardy]

So, to those of you packing iPads: Am I crazy, or does it feel like Apple pushed this a bit early to get the "First"?

I could agree that it feels a bit rushed. For example, it comes with the version of Google Earth for the iPhone, not one optimized for the iPad's screen.

I don't think this makes it fatally flawed, though. Far from it.

-

[tmedvick]

I could agree that it feels a bit rushed. For example, it comes with the version of Google Earth for the iPhone, not one optimized for the iPad's screen.

I don't think this makes it fatally flawed, though. Far from it.

-

I think the hardware + the framework of the software is too nice for it's flaws to be fatal. Lack of flash probably meant I was never going to be able to offer this to my father as a real alternative, but the lack of polish aggravates that.

What shocks me is that Apple came out with this now. It seems like Apple loves to play the hero, swooping into a market after everyone else's flaws have been exposed. It has done this so well, that whenever Apple isn't in a tech market all of the existant products are judged against an imaginary Apple offering and found wanting.

Why not wait? Why not take the "best, not first" attitude to the tablet market? Giving that ground away as the "response" product seems foolish given HP's history as touch-enabled software designers (Touchsmart) suggests that the Slate will be flawed enough to create a real market for a response.

[r0k]

I think the hardware + the framework of the software is too nice for it's flaws to be fatal. Lack of flash probably meant I was never going to be able to offer this to my father as a real alternative, but the lack of polish aggravates that.

What shocks me is that Apple came out with this now. It seems like Apple loves to play the hero, swooping into a market after everyone else's flaws have been exposed. It has done this so well, that whenever Apple isn't in a tech market all of the existant products are judged against an imaginary Apple offering and found wanting.

Why not wait? Why not take the "best, not first" attitude to the tablet market? Giving that ground away as the "response" product seems foolish given HP's history as touch-enabled software designers (Touchsmart) suggests that the Slate will be flawed enough to create a real market for a response.

Apple is a money machine right now and can afford to launch whatever it likes whenever it likes. Still, with 300,000 iPads sold on Day One, why is it exactly you think Apple should have said "I'll wait a little longer for this $150 million dollars in revenue!" And with 450,000 sold as of yesterday, they would in reality be saying no thanks to $225 million in revenue.

If iPads were collecting dust on shelves I'd agree with you but people are hungry for a new form factor and are snapping these things up. It's the same reason Apple can't totally kill off the Mac Mini. People have watched music devices go from the size of a Boom Box to an iPod shuffle while their desktop computers started out as boom boxes and their laptops as 6 pounders and here we are 20 years later still staring at boom box desktop and 6 pound notebooks. The only thing we've gotten rid of is the massive CRT. Everything else we use in computing basically says it's 1990 around here.

That's why the netbook market has been kicking so much butt. Everybody knows instinctively that electronics is supposed to get smaller and do more. I wish Apple had provided more of this or less of that, but overall I'm quite pleased with my iPad. I did not want to wait even one more day to begin the process of shedding the heavy netbook/notebook ball and chain I have been dragging around for years.

[SyncRaven]

Not sure about the rush to market question, but honestly I don't know what all the fuss is about..

My phone is a great ebook reader, internet station, and when I want to take notes I roll out a pocket keyboard.
Not really seeing anything that this is offering other than more bulk.
But I guess i'm getting old.

[r0k]

Not sure about the rush to market question, but honestly I don't know what all the fuss is about..

My phone is a great ebook reader, internet station, and when I want to take notes I roll out a pocket keyboard.
Not really seeing anything that this is offering other than more bulk.
But I guess i'm getting old.

There is a point to what you are saying. But when I have my iPod Touch in my pocket and have to walk upstairs to get my iPad to look something up, I make the trip. The iPad is a lot better and now my iPod Touch feels like a teeny-weeny wanna-be-iPad.

For my usage, it's all about the screen. I have a BB phone, iTouch and an iPad. I'll eventually get a different phone. Perhaps a Palm Pre (for the wifi hotspot for my iTouch and iPad) or perhaps an iPhone or a better BB. I can read ebooks on all 3 devices. In fact, I can get amazon kindle for BB, iTouch and iPad. Guess which one I use most? iPad. And not just 'cuz it's new. It works better for ebook reading and web surfing. While the iPad is the smallest "real computer" I've ever had, it's too big to take everywhere so I hang on to my iTouch... For now.

[tmedvick]

Apple is a money machine right now and can afford to launch whatever it likes whenever it likes. Still, with 300,000 iPads sold on Day One, why is it exactly you think Apple should have said "I'll wait a little longer for this $150 million dollars in revenue!"

Because I look at the iPad and think, "I hope that HP's Slate will be better". If they hold until 4.0 is ready for the device and HP's Slate is already out, I would be waiting, thinking Apple is going to come out with a better solution. Because Apple's glorious model has been to allow other companies to do their useability work for them and then solve those problems.

The money Apple has made so far does not include my money, and that is why I think they should have waited. When you are Apple, and supply meets demand on opening day, it is not true success. I can walk into an Apple store today and walk out with an iPad.