Topic: The Tablet Computing Thread

[Something Else]

I like to think of it as hitec and adidas. Adidas can release some utter shite, yet it will sell in its droves, they can release something that is just as good as hitec, but it will sell in its droves, then they can release superb stuff and it will sell in its droves.

Hitec however will sell to those who just want something thats cheap and does the job, to get the others, they would have to do something exceptional.

The fact that Hitec can release stuff that does the job but is cheap, gives them no credit, no one wants to look at your hitec trainers, despite the fact it does the job of the competitors, but maybe less pretty. Or maybe you have to lace them up, instead of slip ons.

[iSmiff]

What makes you say that?

I'm a pessimist.

[Brian Blessed]

can i jailbreak a C5?

Do you have a walk in freezer and a Cadbury's cream egg?

[iSmiff]

Do you have a walk in freezer and a Cadbury's cream egg?

I don't personally have them both but I can arrange access to them.

[scatman]

saw this on sickipedia, had a chuckle

Free iPad for all iPhone users.

Just hold it closer to your face

[JLStretton]

Try looking behind you, for the point you missed

  Sorry should of been a  instead of a 

[iSmiff]

so $14.99 for a text file, sorry an ebook

would anybody ever pay that?

[Endoe]

so $14.99 for a text file, sorry an ebook

would anybody ever pay that?

If it was $20 cheaper than the text book, could work for students who have to pay a lot to buy all those text books, it adds up.

[lachesis]

The argument can go round in circles. Can anyone practically say how an iPad will integrate into their lives. Just give me a day in the life of you, from when you get up in the morning and return home at night - from picking up your ipad on the way out of the house, what will you do with it.

[wacko]

If it was $20 cheaper than the text book, could work for students who have to pay a lot to buy all those text books, it adds up.

Depends. I managed to get most of my books second-hand, and sold them on again. I probably paid 20-30% of the list price for the books I needed.

Academic publishers adore ebooks and online tie-ins. They destroy the market for second-hand books.

[boots]

The 64Gb memory is a bit lame. Ive got double that in mp3's alone. Let alone all my porn.

[Jimmy Conway]

The 64Gb memory is a bit lame. Ive got double that in mp3's alone. Let alone all my porn.

Can I bring my removable USB hard drive round for a 'backup'?

[boots]

Can I bring my removable USB hard drive round for a 'backup'?

I hope that isnt a euphamism.

[redchiz]

I hope that isnt a euphamism.

Or even a euphemism. 

[iSmiff]

The argument can go round in circles. Can anyone practically say how an iPad will integrate into their lives. Just give me a day in the life of you, from when you get up in the morning and return home at night - from picking up your ipad on the way out of the house, what will you do with it.

i'd assume it would go like this

get up, breath in own farts, remark on lack of stink
go to bathroom, shower, brush teeth
go to wardrobe, select favourite black polo neck, blue jeans and  white trainers...

[Alan_X]

The argument can go round in circles. Can anyone practically say how an iPad will integrate into their lives. Just give me a day in the life of you, from when you get up in the morning and return home at night - from picking up your ipad on the way out of the house, what will you do with it.

I've posted earlier in the thread but as a recap:


I have a laptop - fully specced - that I will still need for work, so I don't want a netbook (I've looked into it and it doesn't make sense). I have an iMac at home which runs most if not all of the programmes I need if I want to do work at home (I have access to the server via VPN).

I have an iPhone that goes with me everywhere at all times and allows me to do a lot of work out of the office but the screen is too small to work on presentations, documents and spreadsheets.

What I could really do with is something lightweight that runs email (synced to my iPhone and laptop), manage multiple Google/iCal calendars at larger scale), lets me work on Word, Excel and PowerPoint (using a £5.99 app rather than full-priced Microsoft Office at £439.95 per licence) as well as read pdfs of drawings etc at a reasonable size. It would be nice to be able to read ebooks on the train (I have enough to carry without lugging books around with me) and watch movies.

So:

Typical work day -

6.00 am. Get up, log on to RAWK and get a few early morning bans/warnings in. Have a shave and clean my teeth while watching last nights episode of Mock The Week on iPlayer over WiFi on the iPad.

6.30 am make breakfast, watch/listen to the news while copying a movie onto the iPad from the iMac.

7.00 am check overnight emails while eating breakfast. Make call to contractor on iPhone in response to email query. Check details of proposed spec change on internet. Download NBS specification clause in Word from manufacturer's website, amend and email to contractor/client and QS.

Amend calendar and sync through Google Calendars - updating iPhone and Laptop.

7.45 am walk to the station - listen to podcast on iPhone and call colleagues etc.

8.00 am Find seat on train - too crowded to work with laptop so iPad ideal to work on Pitch for new gallery. Work on Pre-Qualification Questionnaire in Word and review PowerPoint Presentation. Add images from Photo selection copied from main file server.

8.30 am get to station other end and put lightweight iPad into bag. Catch bus and make phone calls on iPhone on the way in.

8.45 am. Get to office. Plug iPad into laptop and sync.

For the rest of the day I generally use laptop and iPhone for work when in the office.

Lunch - sit on one of the sofas in the office and watch Screenwipe while eating a bacon sarnie and drinking a cup of tea,

If I have a presentation I'd probably take the laptop and projector, although if the output is ok the iPad would be a great option. A lot of client react really badly to the sight of a laptop/Powerpoint presentation because so many of them are tedious.

7.00 pm finish work at the office. Check I've got what I need on the iPad by way of documents/images and stick it in my bag.

7.15 pm bus to the station. Make a few calls.

7.30 pm train home. Either work or watch a movie/read.

8.00 pm walk home.

8.15 pm home, make dinner. Sit on the sofa watching TV and moderating RAWK. Email my brothers and friends to catch up/arrange to see them.

Weekends I might take my lap top home to do any serious work.

It's a perfect device for me. Lightweight and capable of doing pretty much everything I need when I'm out of the office. I always have my phone with me (like 99% of people so I don't need it to be a phone) which doubles as a camera.

My son doesn't use his PC anymore - he plays all his games on the Xbox. He uses his laptop but only for email, chat, surfing the web etc. He wouldn't take it out of the house so a Wi-Fi version synced to the iMac would be perfect.

There are clear differences between the way I use a phone, the way i use a laptop and there are a lot of things that aren't ideally covered properly by either. I recognised that and have been looking for a solution (hence the dalliance with, and rejection of netbooks as just a smaller laptop).

So my "equipment" would be:

At all times - iPhone

In the office - iPhone & laptop

Commuting/ travelling and at home iPad and iPhone. iMac if necessary for bigger documents  and PhotoShop, InDesign Cad and Modelling programmes. Documents accessed over VPN or exchanged via iPad or USB stick.

Presentations/pitches - laptop/projector & iPhone.

[Mudface_]

tl;dr

[killer-heels]

Your amazing!

[Alan_X]

Your amazing!

No, just work long hours and hate lugging the laptop round.

[iSmiff]

Alan, your life has made me feel better about mine.

Cheers.

[Brian Blessed]

Alan, your life has made me feel better about mine.

Cheers.

You should hear about mine.

[iSmiff]

being up 3 hours before work, fucking hell

[Paul JH]

So:

Typical work day -

Typical work day for me -

8.10 - Hear alarm, go back to sleep.

8.50 - hear second alarm, go back to sleep.

9.10 - Wake up, jump out of bed, shower, honey cheerios. Still half asleep...

9.55 - Arrive in work 25 minutes late...

9.55 - 5.45 - Log into Facebook, then basically go crosseyed with boredom, still half asleep, randomly checking mobile phone even though it hasn't beeped or rang... slag off anyone with an iphone for never looking up from it all day... using the term 'iphone zombies' regularly.

5.45 - Go home still half asleep.

The end.

[Alan_X]

being up 3 hours before work, fucking hell

And that's the point. Not every one lives their life the same way. I love what I do and love running my own business. It's hard graft but the rewards are worth it. All I'm trying to do is illustrate one particular lifestyle where an iPad (or something similar) would slot right in.

There are plenty of others who live their lives in ways you can't imagine, who would find an iPad a really useful device. That's not because they are sad fucks sold by the marketing (although some will be) but because their criteria for what's important are completely different to yours.

For me, useability, interface, simplicity of installation and simplicity of maintenance have always been the priority over computing power.

[SMD]

You should hear about jeffiner's.

[markcd]

It depends on what content is available for it. For example, if LFC ever got their shit together and starting selling the programme as a PDF or some other 'e' format. Then I could sit at home, and at half time I could read it instead of listening to some gobshite banging on about zonal marking....

Or watch spankwire.

[iSmiff]

spankwire FTW

personally i only buy compute type yokes i have control over, i'm aware the iphone is a closed system as well but with jailbreaking it's not


if the ipad get jailbroken then it would be a much better device

[Brian Blessed]

spankwire FTW

personally i only buy compute type yokes i have control over, i'm aware the iphone is a closed system as well but with jailbreaking it's not


if the ipad get jailbroken then it would be a much better device

It will be.

[Endoe]

Depends. I managed to get most of my books second-hand, and sold them on again. I probably paid 20-30% of the list price for the books I needed.

Academic publishers adore ebooks and online tie-ins. They destroy the market for second-hand books.

I believe this is one of the markets Apple will be trying to intergrate into the ipad's world. All the students taking there iPad to school rather than the text books- writing paper etc.

[iSmiff]

It will be.

see it probably will but the only reason the iphone was ever hacked was because it was locked into at&t, that's why geohot did it

there is no point unlocking a 3g ipad since they use mini sims and they have to be network supported, at&t will be the only ones supporting them
,
it's of course possible that the dev team etc will find a way to do it, i just think it will be later rather than sooner since the latest iphone can't be properly done yet (tethered) and it's been out quite some time, though of course rumours suggest that might be because they aren't boterhing to hack it and are just waiting on the next major firmware update

[lachesis]

Commuting/ travelling and at home iPad and iPhone. iMac if necessary for bigger documents  and PhotoShop, InDesign Cad and Modelling programmes. Documents accessed over VPN or exchanged via iPad or USB stick.

As I've said before I believe 'commuters' are the prime target of this hardware. Ebooks and simple tasks like facebook and email. Can I ask you a question though - does the ipad offer anything that couldn't be accomplished with a larger peripheral display? (This is a serious question as I use neither).

For instance, would it not be better if you could plug your iphone into a larger display rather than have to sync between devices? I think that actually makes more sense.

Lastly, I can see how it could help you out with certain aspects of on the move - but there are instances where you will need the extra functionality of a laptop, and then you will have a laptop bag on your shoulder and an ipad bag. Seems a bit weird. Either way, it has nowhere near the level of functionality I would require, but I suppose that's dependent on your job.

For me, the market it appeals to is niche, and not in demand at that. Of course, there are plenty of commuters but I just don't see the ipad being as big a success as people think it will be. The smartest thing about it, is the price in my opinion. The 1024 x 768 desktop is not a good resolution; even secretaries in the NHS are getting 1280 x 1024 as the standard now, the compromise on the inferior display is what makes it light and cheap compared to a proper tablet PC. Not much desktop space at all for 'pictures, presentations and graphical work'. Views of books will be limited in screen size and it's all a bit meh. HD content at that resolution? Forget it. Movies on a held device? Forget it.

The software OS is excellent, no doubt about that. I think I need more from a device but I can give your point of view and choce credibility now because it is easy to see why you think it could do a job for you. For me, I'd need more.

[Jimmy Conway]

As I've said before I believe 'commuters' are the prime target of this hardware. Ebooks and simple tasks like facebook and email. Can I ask you a question though - does the ipad offer anything that couldn't be accomplished with a larger peripheral display? (This is a serious question as I use neither).

For instance, would it not be better if you could plug your iphone into a larger display rather than have to sync between devices? I think that actually makes more sense.

Lastly, I can see how it could help you out with certain aspects of on the move - but there are instances where you will need the extra functionality of a laptop, and then you will have a laptop bag on your shoulder and an ipad bag. Seems a bit weird. Either way, it has nowhere near the level of functionality I would require, but I suppose that's dependent on your job.

For me, the market it appeals to is niche, and not in demand at that. Of course, there are plenty of commuters but I just don't see the ipad being as big a success as people think it will be. The smartest thing about it, is the price in my opinion. The 1024 x 768 desktop is not a good resolution; even secretaries in the NHS are getting 1280 x 1024 as the standard now, the compromise on the inferior display is what makes it light and cheap compared to a proper tablet PC. Not much desktop space at all for 'pictures, presentations and graphical work'. Views of books will be limited in screen size and it's all a bit meh. HD content at that resolution? Forget it. Movies on a held device? Forget it.

The software OS is excellent, no doubt about that. I think I need more from a device but I can give your point of view and choce credibility now because it is easy to see why you think it could do a job for you. For me, I'd need more.

Till they get tw*tted by some smack rat. I wont even get my £40 mobile that's beat to f**k out on the trains these days.

[timiano]

As I've said before I believe 'commuters' are the prime target of this hardware. Ebooks and simple tasks like facebook and email. Can I ask you a question though - does the ipad offer anything that couldn't be accomplished with a larger peripheral display? (This is a serious question as I use neither).

For instance, would it not be better if you could plug your iphone into a larger display rather than have to sync between devices? I think that actually makes more sense.

Lastly, I can see how it could help you out with certain aspects of on the move - but there are instances where you will need the extra functionality of a laptop, and then you will have a laptop bag on your shoulder and an ipad bag. Seems a bit weird. Either way, it has nowhere near the level of functionality I would require, but I suppose that's dependent on your job.

For me, the market it appeals to is niche, and not in demand at that. Of course, there are plenty of commuters but I just don't see the ipad being as big a success as people think it will be. The smartest thing about it, is the price in my opinion. The 1024 x 768 desktop is not a good resolution; even secretaries in the NHS are getting 1280 x 1024 as the standard now, the compromise on the inferior display is what makes it light and cheap compared to a proper tablet PC. Not much desktop space at all for 'pictures, presentations and graphical work'. Views of books will be limited in screen size and it's all a bit meh. HD content at that resolution? Forget it. Movies on a held device? Forget it.

The software OS is excellent, no doubt about that. I think I need more from a device but I can give your point of view and choce credibility now because it is easy to see why you think it could do a job for you. For me, I'd need more.

Plugging an iPhone into a bigger display would be a good idea. Although I think it would be hard to achieve.

Personally I'd travel with both devices if working, but just the iPad on pleasure. 9 times out of 10 I'd whip the iPad out, and only use the laptop when I get to a client's site/place of work. I already travel with a smartphone, laptop and eReader as it is. It doesn't have the level of functionality I need for everything, but it's easy to envisage owning both.

I don't think commuters are the main demographic, but time will tell. It's not going to be as successful as iPhone, but it might pull through a few iPhone sales for Apple. I still think it will be relatively successful. Personally I think the pricing is stupid. The entry level options are good value, but the ramp up is severe, for what essentially is a bit more flash memory. 1024x768 is a good resolution on a 9.6" screen, think about it. You're comparing apples and oranges. The screen is actually a much better piece of kit than your standard tablet PC, multitouch capacitive IPS - not inferior at all.

You're really missing the point "desktop space, pics, movies, etc", it's a consumer tablet and it does what it does well. It'll be fine for the odd bit of movie watching on the move, better than smartphone. It'll be excellent for books, perhaps not quite as good as eInk, but a very close 2nd. Again, it's not a 'computer' as such, but it does 90% of what folk spend 90% of their time doing on a computer, in an easy to use, tactile and intimate (not that kind of intimate ) way.

[Brian Blessed]

I dunno. I had a couple of films on my ipod and the screen size wasn't an issue so much as having to hold it up. I see that as an issue for me with the ipad.

[iSmiff]

docking your iphone into a bigger screen would be pointless as the bulk of the cost of the ipad is probably the 10 inch capacitive touch screen, a tech that didn't even exist two years ago

[Party Phil]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/lQnT0zp8Ya4&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;hl=en_US&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/lQnT0zp8Ya4&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;hl=en_US&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1</a>

[Alan_X]

Question - Who actually thinks e-ink is worth a wank? I use an LCD screen all day and my eyes are fine.

[Kashinoda]

Alan, I saw your daily plan.

Wouldn't you be better off just getting a flat panel device (like the iPad) with Windows... that can multi task, support USB properly and do everything you want.

You've probably answered this already but I'm too lazy to read 15 pages.

[Alan_X]

Alan, I saw your daily plan.

Wouldn't you be better off just getting a flat panel device (like the iPad) with Windows... that can multi task, support USB properly and do everything you want.

You've probably answered this already but I'm too lazy to read 15 pages.

Why get one "like the iPad" if the iPad does what I want? I haven't seen anything else that does the job (the courier looks like the sort of thing you'd get handed at a convention. It's a software designers idea of what a creative person would want and is way too limited). I'd also have to buy full featured applications as well as all the apps I already have on my iPhone.

[wacko]

Question - Who actually thinks e-ink is worth a wank? I use an LCD screen all day and my eyes are fine.

You're largely missing the point. E-ink's USP is that it draws far, far less power than the alternatives, and is therefore guaranteed to be "worth a wank" to someone.