conundrum Do I get an Ipad now

[benalexe]

I feel like I am in such a conundrum. I am a huge apple fan. I love all of their products. I have an itouch 1st generation and a few macs. No phone because I get one from work (Blackberry).

I love the cool factor of the ipad and was really planning on the 3g so I would not have to carry my macbook pro when I travel. My kids keep telling me but dad you won't be able to video chat with us when you travel for business.

In the meantime I see that the iphone now next gen will have a camera which means that the next gen ipad should also have one too. In (not that I think I would get anything but apple) I am reading that android will have a pad and there will be many others out there. Maybe cheaper and less locked down.

Still I am caught up in the hype, I think it is really cool and will help me to spend less time on the computer and more time on the couch. Easier to travel with at the airport etc.

So you see a Conundrum that is also $650! Can't decided if I should get one now or...wait until generation 2. (Probably about a year away).

I am curious to know if anyone else has the same debate and how you rationalized it or passed on it.

 

[gwynne]

Apple products have high resale. Buy now, ebay later or sell/pass on to friend or relative.

 

[noah82]

You know you want it!!

 

[BOSS10L]

I just got done synching my 32GB iPad. I don't think I'll need the 3G version, but like gwynne said; if I find myself wanting one, I'm likely to get most (if not all) of my money back, or I can relegate the wifi one to the wife.

 

[wrxdrunkie]

I would get one. If you have some sort of hotspot for work I would not get the 3g, if you do not have a wifi hotspot on you I would get the 3g.

Either way you should get an ipad asap

 

[benalexe]

Apple products have high resale. Buy now, ebay later or sell/pass on to friend or relative.

That is what i would do if I got it.

and Yes Noah I do want it but will probably be a little mad at myself for spending the $ as I am trying to be more fiscally responsible these days and less impulsive

 

[antiprotest]

Buy the iPad now. Buy the iPhone later. Then, if a new iPad comes out with a camera, buy that too.

 

[nStyle]

The 'pad is a good product now. There is always something going to come out better down the line, it is inevitable.

If you feel like you would prefer Android, or need a camera for sure, I wouldn't jump the gun personally, but it is your decision.

 

[PCClone]

Have you gone to the store and used it? I was 100 percent going to buy and then I went to Best Buy today to try it out. After holding it for 15 minutes, My arm, neck and back ached. Smaller than I was expecting, even though I knew the measurements. I won't be buying one now..

 

[gwynne]

It's not really made to be held aloft in one hand (not that I'm trying to talk you out of a valid opinion). Once I stopped trying to operate it like a smartphone it got much more comfortable.

 

[Sleazy E]

buy it now and sell it next year when the 2nd one comes out. you are obviously gonna get one so prolonging it is just less time playing with your new iPad.

 

[benalexe]

Everyone else here do you love it? I mean really love it?

 

[tunerX]

Buy the iPad now. Buy the iPhone later. Then, if a new iPad comes out with a camera, buy that too.

That is my plan.

 

[harpy]

I'm in the same boat.

I've been waiting for this kind of device for decades, ever since Chewbacca's son, Lumpy, pulled out his little portable device in the Star Wars Christmas Special in 1978 I've been wanting something like this. When the Star Trek the Next Generation came out with the data pads it just sealed the concept, so when it was released I spent 24 hours almost going through the shakes trying to hold off on buying it.

Why? The screen is still too small for me. Ideally I'd like the screen to be the same size as a US sheet of paper, 8.5x11 inches. I want virtual paper to scale in a form factor that is near effortless to handle.

No digitizer. I know Steve Jobs hates styluses, but I wouldn't be using it for regular interface use, instead it would be for taking notes and drawing. Right now I have a gateway tablet computer that is fully "Wacom" enabled and it's fantastic being able to draw right on the screen with incredible depth and precision with high end stylus pens. The only problem with my gateway is that it is heavy and runs hot. You just can't grab it, position it as you like and then draw. So I'd like the ease of use form factor of the iPad, but with more (I know I can't get everything) of the functionality of Wacom tablets.

Also the 256mb of RAM really makes me pause. I know that there have to be trade offs in trying to get consistent performance in such a slim form factor, but it seems as if RAM would be an area that wouldn't need to be skimmed on. The costs between 256 and 1 Gig of RAM at this point should be negligible.

Toss in the lack of a true file system and the closed ecosystem and it all becomes a bit hard to justify spending at least $500. If it was $300 I'd probably be typing this out on an iPad right now, but $500 for myself shoots it into an economic zone that is harder to just see how it goes.

All of the other tablets are still basically vaporware at this point. The HP Slate is probably the closest to being released, but I could never take that seriously as the screen is even smaller than the iPad, has that awful 16:9 dimensions (I doubt I'd ever watch anything on any handheld device) and isn't making the tradeoff of using a more lean OS. Having used a windows tablet for several years I can attest that it isn't the environment for touch interface.

If I had a timescale on when the Notion Ink Adam or Gemini was coming out then I might be able to plug my ears and put a blindfold on long enough for me to wait till they are released, but I'm not sure I can cope with just waiting while I could do (some) of the things I'd like to accomplish with an iPad.

I am being worn down, I don't think I have much strength left to resist. Every time I lay down in bed, lean back on the couch, or sit down on the toilet I think "I wish I had an iPad right now." That's a lot of laying, leaning and sitting going on and spending $500 now seems to be more of a way of curing a sickness than spending money on a luxury device.

 

[Crackbone]

Everyone else here do you love it? I mean really love it?

I've been pretty much using it religiously since i received it. I love it, my better half loves it. It nailed precisely what I was looking for.

I'd have a hard time being without an iPad now.

 

[barkomatic]

I'm in the same boat.

I've been waiting for this kind of device for decades, ever since Chewbacca's son, Lumpy, pulled out his little portable device in the Star Wars Christmas Special in 1978 I've been wanting something like this. When the Star Trek the Next Generation came out with the data pads it just sealed the concept, so when it was released I spent 24 hours almost going through the shakes trying to hold off on buying it.

Why? The screen is still too small for me. Ideally I'd like the screen to be the same size as a US sheet of paper, 8.5x11 inches. I want virtual paper to scale in a form factor that is near effortless to handle.

No digitizer. I know Steve Jobs hates styluses, but I wouldn't be using it for regular interface use, instead it would be for taking notes and drawing. Right now I have a gateway tablet computer that is fully "Wacom" enabled and it's fantastic being able to draw right on the screen with incredible depth and precision with high end stylus pens. The only problem with my gateway is that it is heavy and runs hot. You just can't grab it, position it as you like and then draw. So I'd like the ease of use form factor of the iPad, but with more (I know I can't get everything) of the functionality of Wacom tablets.

Also the 256mb of RAM really makes me pause. I know that there have to be trade offs in trying to get consistent performance in such a slim form factor, but it seems as if RAM would be an area that wouldn't need to be skimmed on. The costs between 256 and 1 Gig of RAM at this point should be negligible.

Toss in the lack of a true file system and the closed ecosystem and it all becomes a bit hard to justify spending at least $500. If it was $300 I'd probably be typing this out on an iPad right now, but $500 for myself shoots it into an economic zone that is harder to just see how it goes.

All of the other tablets are still basically vaporware at this point. The HP Slate is probably the closest to being released, but I could never take that seriously as the screen is even smaller than the iPad, has that awful 16:9 dimensions (I doubt I'd ever watch anything on any handheld device) and isn't making the tradeoff of using a more lean OS. Having used a windows tablet for several years I can attest that it isn't the environment for touch interface.

If I had a timescale on when the Notion Ink Adam or Gemini was coming out then I might be able to plug my ears and put a blindfold on long enough for me to wait till they are released, but I'm not sure I can cope with just waiting while I could do (some) of the things I'd like to accomplish with an iPad.

I am being worn down, I don't think I have much strength left to resist. Every time I lay down in bed, lean back on the couch, or sit down on the toilet I think "I wish I had an iPad right now." That's a lot of laying, leaning and sitting going on and spending $500 now seems to be more of a way of curing a sickness than spending money on a luxury device.

You may be looking too closely at the specs of the iPad. Sure, they matter--but one of Apple's strengths is taking existing, non cutting edge technology and combining it in a way that no one else can to create a totally unique and useful product. A small amount of RAM might matter very much on another device, but since Apple tailors the software and everything else about the iPad to seamlessly work -- it matters less.

It looks as if we are going to have an avalanche of tablets coming out in the next year and many of them will be hurriedly crammed with impressive sounding features and hardware made by third parties but they will likely flop. The only one I hold out hope for is the Google Pad.

 

[benalexe]

I think the Google Pad could be really cool but also as I said in my original post, if you look over the past few days you see that apple is coming out with an iphone with front facing camera. It only seems obvious that they will also have an ipad with it.

Do you guys think that apple would upgrade the ipad before it is out a year?

 

[harpy]

Do you guys think that apple would upgrade the ipad before it is out a year?

I'd be surprised if a v2 iPad came out in less than a years time. There isn't really a great deal of incentive for Apple to do that. The competition seems to be about six months or more behind Apple and so they wouldn't really be feeling the pressure until a least a year from now.

I'd also be surprised if come the fall there wasn't a price break on the iPad. It'll be the holiday shopping season and if they can drop the price down a bit then it'll be in reach as a great product for all the grandparents out in the world that never could really understand how to use these computer contraptions.

They'll also eventually just phase out the wifi only device, so between phasing out the wifi, lowering the price and the fall OS upgrade they have a lot of room to maneuver in the marketplace before they'd have to release an entirely new product. Add in market dominance, which they have and continue to grow at the moment with these tablet devices, and it just doesn't seem likely that we'd see a hardware upgrade for at least a year or more.

 

[Sleazy E]

Everyone else here do you love it? I mean really love it?

Addicted to it actually. I feel like a crack user and the iPad is my crack pipe.

 

[malanius]

Everyone else here do you love it? I mean really love it?

Yes, I really do. It serves my purposes as a great couch computer and also a great note taking tablet to work. And Harpy, you can still buy a stylus for the Ipad just like with the iphone. I bought a Pogo stylus and it works amazingly well, I actually use it to hand write notes in meetings on my ipad and it actually looks good.

 

[harpy]

Yes, I really do. It serves my purposes as a great couch computer and also a great note taking tablet to work. And Harpy, you can still buy a stylus for the Ipad just like with the iphone. I bought a Pogo stylus and it works amazingly well, I actually use it to hand write notes in meetings on my ipad and it actually looks good.

Yeah, the pogo is one of the many work arounds that I can live with. I haven't had a chance to try it out, but I'd suspect that it would be kind of like using a crayon compared to well crafted brush in terms of control. It's doable, but I'm pretty sure it'll be no match compared to my current setup.

Overall, there are a lot of things that I can live with if I got an iPad, but my fear is that I'll be regretting spending all of that money for all of the hoops to jump through and workarounds that I'll need to do so it can kind of match what I can do on just a regular computer.

I'm quite happy that the iPad has been released, as Apple was the company that has the kind of vision and resources to carve out a new layer in the kinds of devices we use. I guess I just wish I could jump forward in time five years for when these devices will have matured and all the power and utility will be wrapped up in the form factor that I've been longing for.

 

[malanius]

I'd suspect that it would be kind of like using a crayon compared to well crafted brush in terms of control.

Interesting comparison, and pretty true, but with a little bit of practice I've found I actually have pretty decent control. Like I said I've been using it to hand write notes and it actually looks pretty close to my handwriting (which admittedly is pretty bad already). Now I wouldn't try making a work of art with it, though some people might be able to, but writing is quite nice. I can see where you're coming from though, especially on jumping ahead 5 years. I can only imagine what these devices will be like then, amazing I'm sure.