Breaking News: Apple Announces the iPad 3 March 7, 2012
 

Seems reasonably priced. I wonder how much a data plan will be, though.

Also wondering if the Verizon iPhone will come out. I'll get one of those as quickly as possible.

This sounds like just a bigger iPhone. Can it do anything you'd actually want a laptop to do? With 16GB of space, I don't know.

How absorbent is it?

$500 for a "big iphone/tiny netbook" type device? unfortunately for apple spreadsheets+presentations are pretty well locked-up by microsoft office...not sure how some $500 gadget will help them bust into that space. and i'm not sure i'd want to read an ebook on it unless it's got a kindle-type screen (which it doesn't since it says it's lcd-backlit). is it just supposta be cool cuz it can run all of your appstore applications on a bigger screen?

meh.

i expect the fanboys to drool though.

I was excited for this and I'm completely underwhelmed.

For 64GB you have to spend over $800? Really? You want this to compete with laptops?

Even when I heard it was basically a giant iPod Touch, I was on board. Even when I heard the price range, I was on board.

But the tiny hard drive is just a HUGE mis-step imo. Many people won't even be able to fit all of their music on this, let alone whatever else. There is an ipod classic with over twice as much HD space as the largest one of these.

Looking foward to the influx of menstruation jokes.

yeah...no kidding wade.

The fact that the major upgrades are increased flash memory is a bit silly. I'd guess they locked out the ability to add an SD card for storage.

that seems like a typically-apple-douchey thing that they would do.

It's the 499 everyone will buy. Which is a good price point for the Apple throngs.

for $499 you can get a netbook these days that would be able to do more. sure it'd be a lil heavier, but it'd also have more HD space, be more than a "big ipod touch" as far as being able to run software, etc.

FFS...it's not like Apple doesn't make computers. they could have made this thing better.

Wonder if the Google Office applications that run on web browsers would run on this machine?

Looks like the Verizon iPhone didn't materialize. Oh well.

Supposedly 30 dollars/month for unlimited 3G for the iPad, but no contract needed.

$130 to get the 3G card included though - don't forget that!

nickel and dime your motherfucking customers to death!!

lol at this

seriously

sorry I don't have more constructive criticisms. I don't think any are really needed.

I have been following this thing today and all the hype leading up to it. I have never bought an Apple product because I hate the company policy off a locked up ecosystem, and I think they are overpriced (computers), still I have no problem admitting they make quality products and do things very well overall. This I thought could be interesting though. To me it is a big fail.

It is an iPod Touch blown up.....right now. It runs all the iStore apps, but at the exact size as on the iPhone/Touch. You can blow it up to full screen size but some of those looked pretty funny that I saw pictures of. Of course new apps just for this will be made and that will improve the device in that way. They have a version of iWorks on it, which for all four parts of their productivity suite will cost you another $40 (should be included IMO). It only has a 1ghz processor and I am listening to the TWiT fools gush over the speed and how smooth it was. Of course, it was the iPhone OS with a faster processor, it wasn't Mac OS X.

Pricing. $499 is for 16GB with wifi only. If you want it with 3G it will cost you $629. Too much for what it is IMO. The 3G plans seem reasonable to me on the other hand. $15 for 256mb a month, or $30 for unlimited, both prepaid with AT&T so no contracts.

Oh, and I love how Jobs kept saying how it was the best emailing and web experience you will ever have. Really Steve? I like several websites with Flash, which your own demo showed it clearly does not support. Flash my be crap and hopefully dies some day, but it is around a good chunk right now. And emailing with a physical keyboard will always be better then on that things.

hehe :lol:

sentiment from folks online (from what i can tell in a quick 2 minute look) seems to be running the same way.

"Why not just include a little steve jobs doll and call it the iPenis? Vain and useless! When bigger isn't better!" etc.

very much agree with you on the bolded part

629 - you can get a netbook from at&t with 3g for like $350. and that's small enough to throw in a messenger bag - like this thing.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Ok, so I will throw out one positive to me since almost everything to me is a negative. I do think this thing would be very nice to watch a movie on, on the go. It's thin, light, no keyboard attached to it. So it would be better then a laptop for that I think.

Oh and just like an iPhone. No multi-tasking. How do you even act like you are better then a netbook or tablet PC when you can't multi-task?

:D

shit - my windows mobile phone can multi-task.

apparently Jobs doesn't think that people multitask.

rediculous

facepalm.jpg

I didn't say it was logical. But for Apple, this is "only 499". I'd never buy it for the reasons you've stated. But people have paid far more for far less when it comes to Apple-mania.

I want to use one before I pass judgement, but I must say the thing looks freakin' sweet.

Ok, so I've used an iPhone briefly and it seemed cool, so I had a favourable opinion of it... but seriously, it doesn't multi-task? And the iPad doesn't either? Can someone explain to me how the iPhone would handle something like: I have a browser open to a page, while playing music, then want to call someone with the music paused, and then want to launch a recipe app or something...?

It can't do that? I'd have to close the browser to play music, browse pics, etc... then close that to call someone, then get off the call to launch the recipe app?

It looks amazing, but other than that I can't think of a useful day-to-day application that would make me want to get this.

I already have an iPhone so why would I want an iPad? Hmmmm, not sold.

I'm pretty sure the people critical in this thread aren't the target audience. Seriously, if you think Windows Mobile is better than iPhone because it has multitasking, you probably won't ever "get it". (and I was a Windows Mobile user/supporter for over 4 years before switching to iPhone)

Personally, I haven't seen the value of a netbook since I've had an iPhone, but I see a ton of value in the iPad. I used an IBM x61 tablet for two years and was underwelmed, but this looks to address a lot of the issues I had with that.

I love the talk about books on it. I've used eBooks on an LCD display, and on an eInk display, and will take my Kindle with its eInk (or whatever) any day. Much easier to read, I can't read books with the typical contrast issues on an LCD display. But the publishers are fawning over this????

yes. but its not as bad as it sounds. you leave safari to make your call (music automatically pauses), when your call is done the music restarts. then go to your app. then close that, and when you go back into safari its still on the same page you left it (and you can have multiple safari pages open at once)

dola, music multitasks. you can do anything on the phone and the music will keep playing. if a call comes in, or you make one, it pauses til the call is over, then automatically resumes playing.

You have got to be kidding me. 64GB is the largest HD in the initial release? Wow. Well, I was pretty interested in this devide, now, not so much.

No camera, no multitasking, no flash, no way.

Philosoraptor: If there is no camera, why would you need flash?

This thing could theoretically be valuable in a classroom I suppose. Instead of providing books for every class, the ability to get e-versions of texts might actually work.

Granted, there are numerous other things that already do the same thing at a cheaper price.

Flash. Not a flash.

Windows Mobile stinks, maybe 7 changes that but I won't hold my breath that will be great. I use webOS for a phone, the Palm Pre. And no I don't need a netbook because I have a laptop and my Palm Pre.

As for you, what issues does the iPad solve for you? I am curious what someone who would actually want one of these to do with it that you can't already do on your iPhone or Touch?

I think once this thing gets Jail Broken, it will be pretty damn awesome. I'll wait for that to pick one up.

Engadget tidbits on this after a hands-on. Though they are in love with Apple a little bit so you may or may not take it with a grain of salt.

I am sure that would help a good chunk. That wouldn't give me a USB port though.

And as negative as I sound on this, I say it probably sells somewhat decent and by the 2nd or 3rd version of this it could probably be a pretty kick-ass little device.

Pity about the hype that produced expectations that could never had been met because it's a very reasonable machine in the end. I would personally prefer a Windows 7 touchscreen laptop or netbook but I suspect that far more software will be created for the Ipad than is currently being produced for Win 7 touchscreen.

It's a good price. Battery life looks good. Portability is good. It just isn't the great breakthrough that we were led to expect.

not a gadget guy, but when I first saw it this afternoon, I needed to have one. Then I started to find out all the quirks (such as these). Do not want.

But you can surf the web while talking on the phone!!! VERIZON CAN'T!!!!

What the hell is everyone's sudden fascination with effing touch screens anyway? Do not want.

This thing is going to be a product that people buy just because and they're are going to be a lot of disappointed people. This thing is nothing but an oversized iphone with some added features. Hardly worth the money people are going to pay.

Of course, people will buy it, and then my taxdollars will help to bail them out when they can't pay for it or make their house payment because they bought one of these things to have the next big gadget.

LOL. This is one of the most useless products I've seen.

i never said windows mobile was better than iphone, i simply stated that my windows mobile phone can multitask and the iphone can't.

Yeah, maybe this is evidence of why you have women execs in your firm. So you don't name a product the iPad.

yep...if i've got my bluetooth headset hooked up (which to be honest most of the time i don't). but it's real handy for say...having a conversation in my IM program while typing an email or looking up directions

Amazon Kindle DX.

They are only going to go solid state in the device, no hope for a platter based HDD.

So basically it counts it out as a sweet porn device.

See, I give Nintendo a pass on 'Wii,' because you wouldn't expect the Japanese parent company to necessarily go "Oh...there might be penis jokes if we use that name."

What's Apple's excuse?

And how long until we get a device aimed at "casual gamers" where the developers don't even mess around with innuendo, intended or otherwise, and just call it a 'Raging Boner,' because that's what using it will do for you?

Isn't it just a less functional version of the Sony Dash that costs $300 more?

But who led you to expect anything? It certainly wasn't Apple since they have said absolutely nothing about the product before today.

I'm really not getting this device - I just don't understand why I'd want one or what I'd use it for.

I'm neutral on Apple - I have an iPhone and iPod and love them, hate iTunes, feel like Macs are overpriced, and I'm bothered by the superiority complex that Mac users have.

I'm sure the Apple fanboys will gobble them up, but for more neutral people like me, I fail to see how this is going to generate much enthusiasm.

It's sad.

I was talking with my mother about this last night - my father overheard and he got RABIDLY upset. Like full on "Apple Fanboy" upset. "Ohhh so I guess Apple hasn't sold millions of Ipods and millions of Iphones. I'm sure they don't know what they're doing."

Very...weird. And my father is no luddite...he's worked in software development for the last like...30 years. He's also never been prone to being an "Apple Fanboy" before - in fact all of his development up until recently when he crossed over into more online video work, had been for PC's (LotusNotes, 1-2-3, Quattro Pro, etc).

The fact that he got obstinate and refused to listen to my legitmate points of criticism (which have been discussed upthread) was very shocking. He's been brainwashed by the IPhone.

I'm thinking of getting a tablet because I'm a habitual doodler and have literally thousands of pages of notes/sketches I can't find anything in. Deciding its time to waste some money and go techie, start tagging everything I write...

That said, without multitasking... not sure I'd go with an iPad, I can forgive just about everything else but its not like multiple processes on a machine is anything new Apple! When you start losing the market willing to pay several hundred just for a fancified notepad you messed up something in your design meeting (I literally care nothing for most apps other than web-surfing, although ahem FLASH mother******s!!!).

If you can't convince a rich nerd who just wants to doodle all day in technicolor for the most part you have failed!

Maybe not officially, but hype doesn't come out of thin air.


Apple unveils the iPad, its highly anticipated tablet computer - latimes.com

I've read speculation that this is the beginning of a push into the college textbook market. If that's the case it may indeed be a good idea.

Thanks that makes sense.

I thought Kindle already had started the push into the college textbook market. Or maybe that was just some speculation.

As for the iPad being "perhaps the most anticipated [release] in Apple's history", I must be totally out of the loop beause until yesterday (or whatever day it was released), I had no idea that Apple was planning on releasing any new product around this time. It caught me completely unawares.

Yeah, but from what I've read Kindle doesn't have enough color and video capabilities to excel.

As a prof I'd love to transition to e texts as they should be cheaper and would allow embedded videos, interactive charts/graphs, customizable content, etc. I don't think, though, that enough students are ready to make the transition to make it profitable for equipment manufacturers or content providers. Eventually the tipping point will arrive, but my experience in the classroom suggests we aren't there yet.

That would be pretty cool to see. I imagine it wont take that long for it to happen.

While the comparison is not spot on, I remember when I started law school in 1997 there was one guy with a laptop in our class and we deemed him "Laptop Boy." By the time I graduated in 2000, about 50% of the students had a laptop in class.

you don't want to read your textbook on an active screen though, that's the issue

Its that sort of thing which I've been keeping an eye on the kindle for - whenever I travel for work I have to lug programming books with me and these things are heavy ;)

As such I've been very tempted by the kindle in the past, but not given in simply because I'm a bookworm and I actively LIKE real books more than reading in an electronic format, yeah they're heavy and take up space - but thats something I can live with for the joy of being able to physically flip pages and scribble notes on them.

Yup. Color and video may be great, but not if you can't read them for very long.

The future may actually be one of the recent e-readers that was announced / came out that opens up and the left side is e-ink for text and the right is a more typical active display for web browsing, etc. That might work. But the vast majority of text books would do just fine on a Kindle DX that has e-ink and the larger screen. And many textbooks are already available.

As e-ink comes down with the improved tech to merge the display / controller into one, you'll see more DX-sized devices that will be awesome for textbooks.

they have those dual-screen ones?? really?? i want one!!

I really enjoyed this. :)

Speculation is that multi-tasking will be added when apple updates the iPhone OS to 4.0 in July. I was excited to learn more about the tablet, but mark me in the underwhelmed category.

No, in this case it came from people combing through patent filings and using vague references from 'people in the know'. The fact is, if I start working on a product that will show holographic images, and word gets out because I file for some patents and some of my necessary 3rd party partners leak "Fidatelo is making a hologram projector!", it's not really my fault when 6 months later people have built up in their mind the exact product they are going to receive and then the actual product doesn't match their wildest dreams. "Why doesn't your holographic projector display in 2 rooms at once??? I heard that it would!!".

I'm not saying iPad is perfect (its certainly not), but people made a lot of assumptions based on zero information and then got disappointed, which isn't entirely fair to Apple, I don't think.

I agree current textbooks would work on Kindle and I don't know much about the IPad, but my dreams are much bigger. I want the full functionality of the web accessible within the textbook format. I want text with embedded links to previous material so students can better connect from chapter to chapter. I want performance pictures, but more importantly performance video available within the text. I want design texts that incorporate CAD demonstrations into the text itself. I want live updates of regional performances that connect with the current chapter. I want editable texts so I can create the text book that best suits my class.

I want the textbook to come into the 21st century. I don't care as much about the reader as I do the content.

Do you really think analysts within investment banks/hedge funds/money managers - whose sole job it is to cover a very narrow field - get their information like that?

I still laugh at the name of this thing. The funny thing is there is of course a fight over the name now with Fujitsu who have used it since 2002.

Apple and Fujitsu inevitably caught up in iPad trademark dispute -- Engadget

this is literally 20 posts up in the same exact thread.

8 Things That Suck About the iPad - apple ipad - Gizmodo


It's not widescreen? Seriously?! In this age? I knew about the rest (well, aside for the no HDMI out and needing an adapter for USB, which are both WTF), but really...

wtf - this device just looks stupider and stupider

Didn't Jobs say at the beginning of the conference that netbooks are just cheap low-quality laptops? That seems ironic, given the rest of the conference.

given that he's trying to introduce an overly-expensive, lower-quality "netbook-esque" device...yep :lol:

I am really encouraged by it. There is no way I would buy one, but it is absolutely a step in the right direction. Two years from now I would expect it to be extremely useful and at that point I would probably seriously consider getting one, particularly once they fix the eight things that suck about it. If they fix them, it will be an incredible device.

I just sent you a fax. Did you get it?

So I'm going to guess the 2nd generation will be out by Christmas and will have a lot of those features that everyone wants. So they grab all the sales from the fanboys who buy every Apple product ever and then grab the whole market around the holidays (as well as the fanboys who need to upgrade).

Might not be a bad move.

So you're saying that all the hype built up amidst consumers was driven by money managers? That's an interesting claim, and one that I can't understand.

The hype as I, a general consumer understand it, has come from articles on tech sites and blogs and twitter and facebook and word of mouth, etc. I've read many articles or posts about how people suspected the tablet would have feature X because some dude filed a patent or there was an order for 3 million super-duper-resister chips at a Chinese factory and they could really only have one imagined use. I don't remember many articles that said the Apple tablet would be capable of Feature Y because Joe Bigbucks at BigBucks & Bartleby said so.

But lets say you're right: Joe BigBucks has the inside scoop and that's where all the rumors fed from. If that's the case, why was Joe so wrong? Why is this such a disappointment? If his whole Job is to nail this shit, why are we all amazed that this thing doesn't live up to the rampant speculation?

I'm skeptical, but as an iPod Touch owner and fan. I can see where this thing would take off. We may not be the target audience.

What is the target audience, 14 foot tall ipod touch fans?

I wish RIM would make a tablet. Or something with an android OS. The shortfalls of this thing make it useless to me

:lol:

i'm freely stealing from this thread when i talk about this thing and i'm totally using this

Well, I was debating on updating my kindle to next gen or wait for apple's tablet. These features have me so underwhelmed, I'm looking at ordering the kindle upgrade sometime next week. by the time they get the features out, I'll be locked into a new technology.

Jailbreakers...hackers, whatever you want to call them, have already ported the iPad's iPhoneOS 3.2 over to a Touch, so now you don't even need to buy an iPad. Hehe.

If I can buy a 16 Gb SD card for $40, why does the 32 gb iPad cost $100 more than the 16 Gb version? Are you getting anything other than more memory? If not, this is nothing more than price gouging. They know most people will not want the 16 Gb version, and will be forced to pay a ridiculous amount just for more memory.

Why not make it expandable with SD cards?

Hmmm...I dunno. Pee-Wee seems to like his. Really helps at parties.

Cause its Apple.

Obviously designed for the native people of Pandora.

This one is my favorite.

What I meant by target audience is this.

My wife and kids liked my iPod Touch so much I bought one for my wife. We are both constantly utilizing the devices. Rather than whiling away time watching TV, we while away time with the touches. There are games and utilities galore as well as the music and audio books I utilize it for.

Give the app developers time, and the new format will take off even farther as this thing could absolutely fit the bill as the PC my wife wants in the kitchen, as a utility for teachers in the class room, or as a big ass organizer that will replace some people's planners. There are lots of legitimate uses for the existing touch. Deploying it in a larger format should expand those possibilities. So while I'm skeptical and cynical regarding this release, I can still see that this device has a lot of potential.

Ground Breaking; The device isn't. The format... and what the app developers will do with it. I think that might be enough to make it HUGE. Not just bigger than it already is...I mean a huge commercial success.

I think the point is this: we understand why a device as small as the ipod touch has limitations. We do not understand why a device as large as the ipad has nearly the same limitations. It makes no sense. I mean most of these things it seems would be trivial to add or even a pain to actually not have.

Yes the device has some potential. But it is just foolishness that keeps it from having incredible potential.

The convertible laptop/touchscreen tablet has been around for years. If there was incredible potential in the form factor, everyone would already be toting one around.

As it is, tablets are a niche segment, with a size and form in between a mobile phone and laptop. In the past, the criticism was that tablets were in a weird no-man's land: not as portable as a smartphone yet not as powerful as a laptop. And, the ones that came the closest to getting the functionality/size equation right were not of interest to most consumers because of the high price tag.

Now, if the tablet can be done cheaply (like what was done with the netbook) with the functionality of both a phone and a full-fledged PC, then more people would adopt it.

No ponytail plugs ftl