The Truth Behind Apple's iPad

It's a console.

Apple's iPad, which launched today to much fanfare, is simply an enabling platform. Those who have the iPhone or iPod Touch, know what it's like, for the most part, to use the iPad.

*media.bestofmicro.com/,4-3-237315-3.jpg

Sure, the iPad's got a much larger screen, and a faster processor, and even 3G, but it's just a bigger iPod Touch.

The killer application for the iPhone, was in fact, its ability to fit right into your pocket. Can you see yourself grabbing an iPad while you dash out your front door? Not me. It's big. And I already have my notebook, which also happens to be a MacBook Pro. Sure, call me an Apple fanboy, I don't care. My main desktop is in fact, a custom built PC. But even someone like me who has an Apple product, I can't vouch for the iPad.

The most critical point about the iPad, is the fact that it can't multi-task. Like the iPod Touch and the iPhone, it can only run one application at any given time. Despite having a powerful CPU on the inside, the iPad is crippled because of its operating system, the same operating system behind the iPhone. Fundamentally, if you already have a notebook and an iPhone, the iPad will have a difficult time finding a place in your daily routine.

Let's all say it together now: no multi-tasking? What the bleep?

The truth.

The iPad is a console, in every sense of the word. The real money maker for Apple, is the App Store, iBook store, and iTunes store. The iPad will capture the audiences that the iPhone/iPod Touch wasn't, and then some. It'll also capture the core Apple audience too. I've talked to a few real Apple fans today, and even they difficulty wrapping their heads around the iPad.

The iPad is a closed system. You can't do anything you want to it. Apps must be from the App Store. Like an SNES, or a PS3, software must be sanctioned. And like consoles, only one game can be played at any given time. And Like those consoles makers, the money is in the software (for consoles, it was the license to make software).

The iTunes store, the App store, and now the iBook store. Even if Apple sold each iPad for $50, it would make back its losses in a very short time period.

Truth be told, the magic should have been in the software. Given that the iPad is a tablet, we can understand that it doesn't have a keyboard. But not to be able to let its owner run more than one app is a miserable thing. The OS could have been so much more for the iPad. What the iPad should have shipped with, was OS X, with a tablet designed UI--not a tablet, with the iPhone OS.

Like a console though, it almost doesn't matter. It's all about getting people onto the App Store and making small payments, but a lot of small payments. One closed system, many software purchases. And because of the iPhone's already enormous popularity, it's not hard to convince just even those users, to hop on the iPad.

No doubt, there will be some instances where the iPad can deliver some unique uses. For many mainstream users who either just chat, email, or browse, the iPad may be OK. But for power users who love their software and want to get things done, there are alternatives.

Did I mention you can at least chat while playing games on current generation consoles?

*www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-ipad-ipod-iphone-console,9525.html

A

I am quite underwhelmed, perhaps the hype around this-killer and that-killer was too much to handle. It seems more like iphone goes supersize.
Seems like it will not replace any other device (unless someone is fine with a large screen for a phone... but there too it does not have an SMS app yet!) which is a pity with already too many devices one needs.

Adobe Slams Apple for iPad's Lack of Flash

Adobe says that the iPad, without Flash, will miss out on the majority of web games and video.

Apple may tout the iPad as the best web browsing experience, but what about Flash? Love it or hate it, you can barely go through a handful of clicks before running into an Adobe-flash powered element.

Flash has been an important part of the web, and it'll be something that iPad won't have out of the box when it ships in late March. While the omission of Flash was excusable on the iPod Touch and iPhone, competing devices today run Flash, which makes the iPad omission even more glaring.

Adobe's Adrian Ludwig, the company's Flash Platform Product Marketing Group Manager, wrote in a blog post:

It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple's DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers. And without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.

If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate, or JibJab -- not to mention the millions of other sites on the web -- I'll be out of luck.

Adobe and more than 50 of our partners in the Open Screen Project are working to enable developers and content publishers to deliver to any device, so that consumers have open access to their favorite interactive media, content, and applications across platform, regardless of the device that people choose to use.

*www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-ipad-adobe-flash-fail,9531.html

The most critical point about the iPad, is the fact that it can't multi-task.

does it mean one can't listen to music while doing something like browsing ?

cute.bandar said:
does it mean one can't listen to music while doing something like browsing ?

No you can listen to music while browsing.
What he meant was you cannot run two apps at same time as in Symbian phones.
But you have two jailbreak apps Backgrounder and Kirikae, the combo of these enables multitasking to an extent. And the interface is quite similar to symbian, like holding the menu in symbian phones shows open apps list to switch b/w open apps, right.
Those two apps do the same to Apple iPhone and iPod touch by holding power button or home button( can be customized in settings ). Here's how I multitask in my iPod touch
*img651.imageshack.us/img651/2194/img0116.png

listening to music while browsing sounds like multi-tasking to me. but i haven't used any nice phone like iphone or symbian.

Android based Tablets will be out by the end of this year.

And iPad sucks, because of no multitasking. iPhone OS is fine for the iPhone, but for the iPad we need something better and more 'open'.

I beg to differ,How can everyone decide for yourself without even looking at it Physically and without even using it. People said the same with iPhone it hasn't got this it hasn't got that blah blah blah. But those who have owned it or used it will tell you how their perceptions changed before and after using it.
So let iPad hit the market,let people use it and then decide whether it is crap or not.
For those who are soo worried about multitasking,I guess i've cleared it in my previous post, though it is for iPhone/iPod touch for the time being, it should be available once iPad jailbreak happens.
So people,let iPad hit the market first!!!!!!!!!

tbh, for a Tablet, one needs multitasking. I'll really like to have an IRC client running in the back ground and simultaneously browsing + listening to music.

iPad is nothing but an oversize iPod touch as of now.

tbh, for a Tablet, one needs multitasking

I agree with you on that and I've shown you the workarounds too

I'll really like to have an IRC client running in the back ground and simultaneously browsing + listening to music.

Of-course you can do that even on a non-jailbroken iPhone, Just run your IRC client app with push notification in the background. And listening to music while browsing is ofcourse enabled by default

What else ?? :))

iPad is nothing but an oversize iPod touch as of now

That's what I'm Thinking too,but in a positive way. Now I can do the same thing on a bigger screen and faster too with that proccy. Ask any iPhone or iPod touch user what it feels like using that interface and numerous functional Apps with an added bigger screen functionality and for the rest of them they'll love it once they interact with it.
Considering the price of basic iPad @ 23K, I would go for it happily keeping in mind that I spent 20K on my iPod and for just a 3K more I'm getting a bigger screen,an IPS one that too with a fast processor. What else can I ask for?? I don't expect a desktop replacement functionality na or even a laptop functionality for 23K.

@All
I hate people whining about products which they never saw physically or used them,not just iPad, any other product.
Stop giving blind comments. Just because some reviews said its a fail. Everyone started following suit,whining about what it doesn't have blah blah blah.
wait for the product,use it and if you still feel the same then it's ok, But don't just make blind comments.

R

Visit this link about iPad, really funny.......
iPad Made Me Poop Bricks

For 17k, I can buy a Netbook which will also let me do 10x more things.

ico said:
For 17k, I can buy a Netbook which will also let me do 10x more things.

Vice-versa dude

the very same netbook can't do what iPad does.

R

*3.bp.blogspot.com/_0X1ggm5ZqsA/S2NNCycGiBI/AAAAAAAADLs/Qrq9KQ4TCkY/s400/IPadnano.png

@ its doesn't hav a camera

@ cant use two apps simultaneously

iphone+Macbook = iPad.

sriharsha_madineni said:
Vice-versa dude the very same netbook can't do what iPad does.

tbh, nor I hate Apple, nor the iPhone, I'm a proud owner of a Mac mini, but a Netbook can do more things than the iPad.

netbook can do a lot more than iPad, i presume.

@ its doesn't hav a camera

Agreed

@ cant use two apps simultaneously

Look a few post above

iphone+Macbook = iPad

I don't think so :))

This discussion is going no-where,this would be my last post here :))

i jus said my perspective.

jus relax man, y dis is gonna be ur last post???

S

if he answered here, it would no longer be his last post, would it? ;-)

BTW, IMHO, Apple's products are not meant for everyone... Every product it has released has some glaring omission of features but an amazing sense of simplicity... Which is why there are vehement fanboys of the product as well as a set of people who can never see the Apple way... (Personally, I probably belong to the latter group of people)...

Arun

I wish, only after some days of launching, somebody should jailbreak it, or figure out some way to install Linux on iPad.

How that sounds?

---------- Post added at 10:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:53 PM ----------

I wish, only after some days of launching, somebody should jailbreak it, or figure out some way to install Linux on iPad.

How that sounds?

I wish, only after some days of launching, somebody should jailbreak it, or figure out some way to install Linux on iPad.

Why will someone invest 17k ? just to install linux ?? :shock:

Like it or not, it's going to change the way people use computers. Mark my words. If it doesn't come true, I'll whizz on my hands.

Disclaimer - No offense meant to anyone

Just think of playing games like crysis ?? Will it change the way a avid gamer uses his computer ??

^ I think the launch of iPhone really changed the way I use my computer.

Quad Core said:
netbook can do a lot more than iPad, i presume.

Its the same thing again. Do you want features just to add up to the feature "count" that your device provides ? Or it is okay to have little less number of features, but whatever features are provided are out-of-this-world and irreplicable ?

For eg: Try running a HD video on netbook. Try reading books/playing games on it.

For the amount of money Apple charges for the products as per me they just do not justify the value they offer. Extreme less customization options, locked out hardware, mandate software requirements, difficult to use controllers. Good products --- but placed incorrectly, but still lap it up. Apple should be commended more for great marketing than product design.

This is the iPAD:
*img19.imageshack.us/img19/7936/ipadvsstone.jpg

^^^

goobimama said:
Like it or not, it's going to change the way people use computers. Mark my words. If it doesn't come true, I'll whizz on my hands.

I'll keep this quote for future reference

@liverpool_fan: If my prediction does come true, I'm gonna pee on your hands.

Awright. I'm out. See you digit boys in a few.

goobimama said:
Like it or not, it's going to change the way people use computers. Mark my words. If it doesn't come true, I'll whizz on my hands.

goobimama said:
@liverpool_fan: If my prediction does come true, I'm gonna pee on your hands.

ico said:
^ I think the launch of iPhone really changed the way I use my computer.

This.

My Take about iPad would be

+ive: Can give a breakthrough to all gaming experience. Dude i was amazed when these EA guys has played NFS in it

PSP and other portable gaming device gona be dead man.

-ive: Only thing i felt missing is it should have a cam with a ichat. Though we can attach externally but an inbuilt would have been great.

Also want to say to those guys who are saying that this is inferior to tablets, let me ask you guys did apple told this is a tablet PC? Its basically ebook reader with advance functionality which an Amazon Kindlly don't have

Buy ya i certainly feel that I am still not sure what are the customer Apple exactly will market this for? Because i feel i wont buy this because i have a iPhone where as my Dad is so impressed that he told he will buy the day it gets launched. He likes reading and told it will be great thing to have as an entertainment; sitting in his car returning from work..

So a bit confused about apples marketing. Let see.

the.kaushik said:
PSP and other portable gaming device gona be dead man.

Gaming is surely great on the iPod touch/iPhone, but this won't happen actually.
People who buy handheld consoles purely for gaming will continue to buy them as nothing beats 'real buttons' and aren't they smaller? I mean, you can put the PSP in your pocket.

PSP is less than one third of iPad's price and has way better gaming graphics (compareing to iPod touch).

iPad is great for those people, who just want a bigger iPod touch. Nothing else. iPad is a luxury product anyways.

goobimama said:
@liverpool_fan: If my prediction does come true, I'm gonna pee on your hands.

Awright. I'm out. See you digit boys in a few.

We'll see about zat.

goobimama said:
@liverpool_fan: If my prediction does come true, I'm gonna pee on your hands.

Awright. I'm out. See you digit boys in a few.

I'll j0in u t00. we'll b0th pee on him together :-x

and b3ware of 0ur lethhal pee sprray

Only Apple's concept/innovation is appreciable and not the product at present. It may not be success but surely will open a new path for newer products with improvised design - I mean with additional features and much more slim.

I am looking for a slim reader but again not just a reader. It should be a versatile gadget with most features pumped into it.

Everyone goes for "ULTIMATE" edition and not for "STARTER" edition.

You know what I mean.

@ all irrational apple fanboys, 'APPLE IPAD IS AWESOME. EVEN A 8 BILLION SUPER COMPUTER WILL NOT STAND A CHANCE BEFORE THIS'

@all other people,

My opinion about Ipad is...

Apple could have made more powerful proccy and implemented MAC OS along with USB, CAM in this thing.. then it could have been a revolutionary product in the field of Tablet Computing.

Or It could have reduced it's size and cost and could have introduced this mess as..Iphone 2.0 which could have been equally great.

Now what is it?

A tablet PC? -No!

A phone? -Hell no!

A PMP? -God knows!

A ebook reader? -We can think about that.

A gaming Device? - Sure 1GHZ proccy will add to the juice. But what about the multi touch which will suck most of the processor's juice! This is where Implementation of hard buttons will pay off as they will ease the processor's load.

A web browser? -OMG! where is the Adobe Flash support?

And considering that apple will always charge premium amount because of the extra care they are taking in build quality..and looking at the price of the ipad with that perspective, I don't think that there will be a fast GFX processor either. Which will make it a bare bone thing when it comes to eye candy in games.

Sure guys at apple can make everything look great. But I think this is not another trend setting things from apple like Macintosh, Ipod, Iphone.

We will have to wait and see how this thing turns out.

^^^ Agree with you but why the hell are you sticking with Flash? I am still not dead without flash in my iPhone and i never missed it EXCEPT FARMVILLE and so i donot really care now because i guess you have heard about HTML 5? If not open youtube in safari and see.. its so lite.

And if you are talking about multitouch going to eat up speed for gaming that my suggestion HOLD ON YOUR HORSE. Did you ever played NFS or Assassin's Creed or any good graphics game in a iPhone 3GS or at least iPhone 3G. Dude they have engineered it to make it comfortable.

---------- Post added at 12:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:40 AM ----------

Apple Juice said:
I'll j0in u t00. we'll b0th pee on him together and b3ware of 0ur lethhal pee sprray

LOL

the.kaushik said:
^^^ Agree with you but why the hell are you sticking with Flash? I am still not dead without flash in my iPhone and i never missed it EXCEPT FARMVILLE and so i donot really care now because i guess you have heard about HTML 5? If not open youtube in safari and see.. its so lite.

And if you are talking about multitouch going to eat up speed for gaming that my suggestion HOLD ON YOUR HORSE. Did you ever played NFS or Assassin's Creed or any good graphics game in a iPhone 3GS or at least iPhone 3G. Dude they have engineered it to make it comfortable.

Easy... Easy... I played many of the games on my Friend's Ipod touch they were great. Nooone is complaining about that.

The question Arises.. here 1024*768 resolution to be rendered. And much more touch senseros to be processed.And what have we got? Just a good proccy! And I didn't said that it is going to suck in Ipad. I just said.. We can't expect Eye Candy by keeping 1GHZ processor in mind.

And what was the safari you are referring? In Iphone or PC? If in PC, then Safari Supports Flash. If in Iphone.. sorry, I don't have one.

Ok I couldn't stick to my word :))

and here I am posting in this thread again :chucks:

vamsi_krishna said:
Easy... Easy... I played many of the games on my Friend's Ipod touch they were great. Nooone is complaining about that.

The question Arises.. here 1024*768 resolution to be rendered. And much more touch senseros to be processed.And what have we got? Just a good proccy! And I didn't said that it is going to suck in Ipad. I just said.. We can't expect Eye Candy by keeping 1GHZ processor in mind.

And what was the safari you are referring? In Iphone or PC? If in PC, then Safari Supports Flash. If in iPhone.. sorry, I don't have one.

Vamsi when my 533MHZ 128MB DRAM iPod touch can run the same game at 480x320,that shouldn't be a problem for 1GHz 512MB DRAM iPad @ 1024x768 and I guess no game as of now is using more that three/four inputs simultaneously. Even if you are like extremely ambidextrous and if you can find an app which uses that many inputs,you wouldn't use more than 10 fingers or 10 multi inputs simultaneously right!!!!!
Regarding safari on iPhone,why don't you try it in your friend's iPod touch,Both are one and the same when it comes to browsing.

^ No Wifi in my house or his

And another Thing is.. The GFX processor is embedded in the Apple A4. Considering the size of the chip and amount of ventilation it is having, I am sure that a Eye candy Game will be frying Ipad.

And another thingy.. No need to banish yourself from this thread.. It is the responsbility of you to correct us if we are telling something wrong('IF WE'

).

vamsi_krishna said:
^ No Wifi in my house or his

And another Thing is.. The GFX processor is embedded in the Apple A4. Considering the size of the chip and amount of ventilation it is having, I am sure that a Eye candy Game will be frying Ipad.

And another thingy.. No need to banish yourself from this thread.. It is the responsbility of you to correct us if we are telling something wrong('IF WE' ).

Noooo Ofcourse it might get hotter,but I don't think it would fry iPad :grin:

,
even iPod touch gets hot if you play any eye candy game for a few hours,Mine's running good even after a year of extensive use,almost round the clock by me and my bro,still no sign of frying ;-)

, Considering that, No need to worry about frying

Soory to say that Ipod Touch uses PowerVR MBX Lite, PowerVR SGX depending on the model. But there is no dedicated GFX solution for Ipad. That is what I am concerned about.

vamsi_krishna said:
Soory to say that Ipod Touch uses PowerVR MBX Lite, PowerVR SGX depending on the model. But there is no dedicated GFX solution for Ipad. That is what I am concerned about.

I was talking about the ventilation on both devices and regarding the GPU on A4,it's integrated into it just like Qualcomm's Snapdragon and Nvidia Tegra2, So...... are all devices that run on a snapdragon or tegra would fry toooooo??????

SanpDragon is majorly used for small scale devices like..Nexus One, HD2, etc... and not for tablets which will be running on 1024*768 Resolution with a multi touch screen.

When it comes to Tegra, It is far more superior chip to A4. As the Display Subsystem in Tegra is simply Superb.

So, what I am telling is, The major Drawback of Ipad will be it's processor itself. It could have been a great thing if they have included a dedicated graphics solution.

^^^^ Dude you are doing assumptions after assumptions.. Nice.. but I guess Steve Jobs has done his homework so cool down.

Sorry for bumping this thread,Now that iPad is released and the sales figures are out, wanted to see what happened to predictions/perceptions etc etc :))

1Million iPads sold in less than a month of release
*www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-...mona-lisa-as-global-sales-start-update2-.html

---------- Post added at 08:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:33 AM ----------

vamsi_krishna said:
SanpDragon is majorly used for small scale devices like..Nexus One, HD2, etc... and not for tablets which will be running on 1024*768 Resolution with a multi touch screen.

When it comes to Tegra, It is far more superior chip to A4. As the Display Subsystem in Tegra is simply Superb.

So, what I am telling is, The major Drawback of Ipad will be it's processor itself. It could have been a great thing if they have included a dedicated graphics solution.

vamsi I think your predictions have been cleared now.

iPad does have a GPU, the PowerVR SGX535 and snapdragons, hummingbird are not just for small scale devices, these processors have much more capability that we expected. Most of them are even capable of handling 1080P videos

Still remains a bigger iPod touch.

ico said:
Still remains a bigger iPod touch.

+1

to be precise 4 ipods

related stuff
*walyou.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/apple-iboard-imat-design-gadget.jpg

^^^^^
LOL :mrgreen:

well Jobs Mood just got a major setback over the iPad. heres the news:

Apple's Steve Jobs might have found that Big Media does not like being told what to do. Steve issued a few orders to the big content companies to toe the line on his plan to shut down Abobe's Flash.

However according to Apple Insider rather than do what they were told, the Media Companies have told him to sod off. Apparently they don't want to waste money converting their vast multimedia libraries from Adobe's Flash just to make Jobs happy. Time Warner and NBC Universal, told Apple they won't retool their extensive video libraries to accommodate the iPad. They apparently have come up with the logic that such a reformatting would be expensive and not worth it because Flash dominates the Web.

To make matters worse for Jobs they appear not to be too bothered about using his iPad toy. They are betting on a new fleet of iPad-like devices promised by Dell and HP, which they expect will run Flash and therefore not require any changes to their existing libraries of web content. Google TV, which is expected to promote Flash as a media distribution technology, although not to mobile users.

@ kanjar - very funny

A friend of mine returned from US recently and brought along an iPad. Used for a few mins. Played Shift. Gaming is good on it. Surfed the web on it, surfing is nice too. Also used an app called Pianola and had fun...

But then the iPod Touch can also do this lol. Plus the fact that it can't multi-task without jailbreaking is a big meh.

TBH, I had rather pay 20k and get a decent netbook rather than waste 40k (what my friend paid for it in the US) on this. In 40k, I can get a netbook + iPod Touch and it will be nearly the same

.

I mean I don't wanna argue with all the Apple guys around here. You can count me illiterate and ignore my posts.

---------- Post added at 08:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 PM ----------

Edit :- the lack of Flash in the browser is also a big -ve point.

haha it would be AWESOME if Google pushes WebM in such a manner that it becomes successor of Flash such that Apple's backing up of H.264 goes down the water and Jobs ends up with egg on his face.

No Flash. No HTML video. iPad boo hoo :))

Google, Please let this happen