iPad review - two reviews in one

Tom Dunne

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/technology/personaltech/01pogue.html?pagewanted=1&src=mv

In the above review, David Pogue reviews the iPad from two perspectives - the techie and the Regular Joe.

He says techies will hate it, non-techies will love it.

It goes on sale on Saturday in the US - it will be interesting to see the reaction to it.

Jax Teller

Tom Dunne wrote: »

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/technology/personaltech/01pogue.html?pagewanted=1&src=mv

In the above review, David Pogue reviews the iPad from two perspectives - the techie and the Regular Joe.

He says techies will hate it, non-techies will love it.

It goes on sale on Saturday in the US - it will be interesting to see the reaction to it.

if it's made by Apple and fits in your pocket, then it fits in here!

think you need to change things around here tom

conolan

Every review of iPad mentions the lack of flash, then says that video will be available as html5 etc. These reviewers seem to forget that flash isn't just a video thing. It's for simulations, mini applications, photo galleries etc. Some foolish developers even put navigation and whole websites into flash.
I have doubts whether iPad will be a huge hit, but if it survives Apple are going to have to allow flash.

Red Alert

If you think about it though, most of the really useful stuff that's being written nowadays is done in AJAX. And given that people are already converting videos so that the iPod/iPhone will show them, I doubt Jobs is too worried about it.

I'm very techy, but I think I want one too.

conolan

Think of all those photo galleries, all those music promo sites with flash. iPad will represent less than 1% of pc installed base, no matter how successful (macintosh finds it hard to get beyond 5%). So website owners aren't going to rush to revamp sites.

Lord Nikon

The iPad won't replace anything, more like start a new genre of tech.

It can be used for games, music, internet, movies. Yet it costs more than a run of the mill laptop that can do all these things already, and more.

For people who want their gaming needs met, I'm sure they already have a console or a desent specced PC.

For music, people who like their music will have a nice HiFi at home, or a dock already for their iPod(or equivilant)

Yeah, maybe for casual internet usage, on the go, but it has no keyboard or peripheral output. Laptop has saturated this market. No one replaces a laptop with something that has less features, functionability.

Movies, well, if I'm sitting on my couch at home, i will be watching my movies on the 50" TV.

Sad Professor

The "techies" will piss and moan about the iPad and spend the next year telling themselves and everyone else how they don't want one, but the vast majority of them will get one eventually.

The "non-techies" meanwhile will just live longer from not getting themselves so stressed over the missing features that they probably don't even need but will be added eventually anyway.

Oh and to hell with Flash. I really don't care how essential it is. It's like when Apple stopped including floppy disk drives in the Mac. Everyone complained and said they would never buy an iMac because of it. The iMac was still a huge hit and floppy disk drives became a distant memory soon after.

It's the same with Flash. It's just another antiquated piece of crap technology. Most people will be more than delighted to see the back of it. Jobs knows this and won't back down.

philiporeilly

conolan wrote: »

Think of all those photo galleries, all those music promo sites with flash. iPad will represent less than 1% of pc installed base, no matter how successful (macintosh finds it hard to get beyond 5%). So website owners aren't going to rush to revamp sites.

Think of all those intrusive adverts that I won't be able to view!

Flash is a terrible technology and I welcome any move to open standards. Flash is normally the main cause of browser crashes and hogs memory and processing power.

conolan

philiporeilly wrote: »

...I welcome any move to open standards

Open standards? Apple? OK OK OK It's April fools day, well done POR

nulabert

Every review of iPad mentions the lack of flash, then says that video will be available as html5 etc. These reviewers seem to forget that flash isn't just a video thing. It's for simulations, mini applications, photo galleries etc. Some foolish developers even put navigation and whole websites into flash.
I have doubts whether iPad will be a huge hit, but if it survives Apple are going to have to allow flash.

Is it that you can make apps using flash and then Apple would not have control over web based apps?

Dman001

The fact that ABC, CBS, Netflix and (maybe) Hulu have developed Apps already for the iPad tells me the lack of Flash will not be missed. HTML 5 is the future anyway.

The iPad is a great device, but I've learnt the hard way that buying First Gen is a mistake. The iPad can only get better and cheaper so I'll wait for the 3rd Gen.

padraig_f

I enjoyed Stephen Fry's article though not strictly a review.

conolan

Dman001 wrote: »

The fact that ABC, CBS, Netflix and (maybe) Hulu have developed Apps already for the iPad tells me the lack of Flash will not be missed. HTML 5 is the future anyway.

Those you quote use flash for linear video, which is easily replaced. Flash does so much more with it's own object oriented language that allows powerful interactivity.

Flash will be around for quite a few years, and Apple can't change that.

Red Alert

It's a resource hog and unstable in my experience.

Rsaeire

One of the features I thought would be great on the iPad would be remote control functionality. Up until now I thought it would be quite some time before I heard anything positive on the matter, but Engadget stated that iTunes 9.1 includes a reference to "iPad remote".

Besides using the iPad as a remote control, I wouldn't have much use for it otherwise. While Apple can tout their iBookstore as a great plus, reading a book on an LCD screen will cause eyestrain, given the fact that you're looking into a light during reading, which negates reading books on an iPad completely. I'll invest in an eReader, since it has an e-ink display, if I want an alternative to reading books the old fashioned way.