Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPad just a big iPod Touch?

sfmountainbiker said:
It will take a year for all the amazing apps to be developed and marketed that differentiate the two products.
Click to expand...
Why a year? If the demos given at the keynote were created only 2-weeks in advance, and the SDK is available to everyone *now*, I'd say that there are going to be some amazing iPad apps available when this thing actually launches in March.

Then Rev B/C will come out and better specs and new camera/chat abilities that will spur new apps and sales.
Click to expand...
I don't understand the ergonomics of using a camera to video chat. Are you going to literally hold the iPad at face level for the entire conversation? I mean, with it in your lap, a camera from that angle would be useless for video chatting.
 
aristobrat said:
Why a year? If the demos given at the keynote were created only 2-weeks in advance, and the SDK is available to everyone *now*, I'd say that there are going to be some amazing iPad apps available when this thing actually launches in March.


I don't understand the ergonomics of using a camera to video chat. Are you going to literally hold the iPad at face level for the entire conversation? I mean, with it in your lap, a camera from that angle would be useless for video chatting.
Click to expand...

Your description gave me a mental picture of legions of iPadders looking like the stars of the Blair Witch Project!
 
Yes, it's a big iPod Touch (with a mic and a faster CPU, etc.)

Why? Apple figures that a lot of people didn't buy an iPod Touch because the display is too small. Either these people need reading glasses for tiny displays, or they really want to see more full-sized pages rather than postage stamp images. That's millions of potential customers for an iPod Touch with a non-tiny display.
 
firewood said:
Yes, it's a big iPod Touch (with a mic and a faster CPU, etc.)

Why? Apple figures that a lot of people didn't buy an iPod Touch because the display is too small. Either these people need reading glasses for tiny displays, or they really want to see more full-sized pages rather than postage stamp images. That's millions of potential customers for an iPod Touch with a non-tiny display.
Click to expand...

For perspective, I'm 62 and wear 2.5x reading glasses when I do serious reading on my Touch and it's GREAT. For casual up-close work, I wear 1.25 or 1.5X reading glassess and it's all GOOD. :)
 
Gruber has a nice take on the device.

I would say that redefining mobile computing is exactly what happened. It is surprisingly, delightfully, iPhone-esque in many ways. But if you use it for just a few minutes, it becomes obvious that the iPad is not a big stretched-out iPhone, but rather that the iPhone is a shrunken stripped-down version of the iPad. The iPad is what they’ve been building toward all along.

The iWork apps are amazing. Totally usable. Totally new UI for office apps. Maybe the best comparison is the Calendar app. It doesn’t look anything like the iPhone Calendar app.

In terms of, say, style and UI grammar, yes, it’s the same vibe as the iPhone. But in terms of scope and ambition, it’s a far bigger thing.
Click to expand...
 
The iPad is more like a big iPhone, which in my mind, is awesome lol. Take a computer screen vs. a 52" HDTV. Do you ever say, so this HDTV is just like a big computer screen?

The size allows for greater functionality. iPad will succeed.
 
I have a very minimally read blog (I write it to get things off my mind and for a few friends to read). Yesterday, I wrote my feeling about the iPad. Apparently, the world agreed with me. I got a record (for me) number of hits in one day to my blog (over 100) and I've since blogged about those stats... you gotta see some of the searches that got me those hits:

http://markuhde.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-am-not-alone.html

Basically, the iPad appeals to a very limited audience.
 
markie said:
I have a very minimally read blog (I write it to get things off my mind and for a few friends to read). Yesterday, I wrote my feeling about the iPad. Apparently, the world agreed with me. I got a record (for me) number of hits in one day to my blog (over 100) and I've since blogged about those stats... you gotta see some of the searches that got me those hits:

http://markuhde.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-am-not-alone.html

Basically, the iPad appeals to a very limited audience.
Click to expand...
dude, you had like 20 hits from those searches. regardless, search referral is irrelevant. they searched and found an article about why the ipad is pointless. that's what they were looking for so thats what they found. Just like someone searching 'iPad is awesome' would never run into your site. Thats what those searches don't refer to your website.

Anyways, just like the iPod, the iPad is a gadget. They are both equally gadgets. If you say the iPad is pointless, you may as well say the iPod is pointless. It isn't meant to cure cancer or do anything tremendously life changing. Its an electronic gadget and trust me, it will sell, the iPod touch did, and this will, especially at this price.
 
When people think of a tablet, they think of what's been out for years. A touch screen version of a computer. What people don't understand as this isn't an ordinary Mac computer with a finder, USB ports, ethernet ports, etc. It's a completely different type of technology that no one has ever produced. The closest produced is the iPhone/iPod touch.

There is a reason there is no USB ports. There is a reason there is no ethernet ports. There is a reason its not running Mac OS X. It is NOT a computer. It is not a MacBook touch. It is an iPad.

If people stopped expecting a COMPUTER and realized that its a different type of device than simply a touch screen mac, maybe they'd appreciate it more.
 
SimonMW said:
Which is bad in what way?
Click to expand...
A big iPod Touch is great, of course. I prefer to think of the iPod Touch as a crippled pocket version of the iPad, rather than the other way around.

I don't think people are attacking the concept of a giant iPod Touch as such, though. What they're attacking is the limited effort it took on Apple's part, combined with the fact that it took forever. They already had the iPhone OS. They already had multitouch. The original iPhone is two and a half years old. How long can it seriously take to make it larger, and why is it an amazing engineering feat on the part of a company that's notorious for their obsession with making things smaller?
 
That is exactly what me and my friends were talking about! We found the whole concept of the iPad completely worthless. If you wanted something small and portable to surf the web, play games, watch videos, the iPhone or iPod touch is sufficient for us. If we needed something with a bigger screen, we'd bring our laptops instead.

Maybe if it came with Leopard, I might think it's more of use. But with the iPhone OS, it's basically a big iPhone/iPod touch to us.
 
cathyy said:
If you wanted something small and portable to surf the web, play games, watch videos, the iPhone or iPod touch is sufficient for us.
Click to expand...
Right, but there's a difference between sufficient and optimal. Your laptop can do all those things, but it wasn't really designed with those things in mind. It's a compromise, it's a general purpose computer and the basic design was the same before web browsers even existed. The iPad was built around those tasks - the tasks existed before the iPad did.
 
Effectively the iPad is just a big iPod Touch. But is someone said to you a few months ago 'hey you can have an iPod touch with a 10inch screen and a full size keyboard.' would you not say 'hell yeh!'?
 
matthuds said:
Effectively the iPad is just a big iPod Touch. But is someone said to you a few months ago 'hey you can have an iPod touch with a 10inch screen and a full size keyboard.' would you not say 'hell yeh!'?
Click to expand...

Wow, digging up old threads much???
 
Some things that make the iPad different:

iWork Suite: not available on iPhone or iPod touch, but AMAZING. In fact, I like it more than the Mac version I have. Its touch interface is amazing, especially on Keynote, but works better than you'd think for all of them. With the keyboard dock, Pages is just as productive as a computer. And in some ways, it all just works better and faster than on my mac, because touching everything seems to be more efficient than clicking everywhere.

iBooks: not on iPhone either (at least yet, but even when it is, iPad still blows it out of the water). Some people will/have bought iPads to use mainly as fancy kindles, and the interface (and massive bookstore) work great

new apps: there are lots of apps only available on iPad because they just wouldn't be productive or worth it to have on iPhone. And there are of course the original 200,000 apps that you can get, many with specific iPad versions. With the much larger screen, you're actually able to use multi-touch in tons of instances (whereas on iPhone, if you've got fat fingers, good luck...)

Music, Safari, Mail, Notes, Photos, etc. ALL BETTER than iPhone's "mini" versions. These new ones are much more intuitive, and have some really cool features. I would still buy the iPad even if there were no 3rd party apps.

As said earlier, the size of the screen really makes everything so much cooler and better. The 3G model doesn't even require an annoying AT&T contract, you just pay month to month. I can't wait until I can afford one...

Hope this helps!
 
You can say this about anything.



A Honda Civic is a Ferrari with a smaller engine.

A 2,000 square foot house is a 10,000 square foot house with less square feet.

10 dollars is 1 dollar except it's worth 9 more dollars.
 
stewart715 said:
The iPad is more like a big iPhone
Click to expand...
Why? Its not a phone. It is a large iTouch.

which in my mind, is awesome lol. Take a computer screen vs. a 52" HDTV. Do you ever say, so this HDTV is just like a big computer screen?

The size allows for greater functionality. iPad will succeed.
Click to expand...

I agree with the rest, except its more a comparison between a small and large TV.
 
I was skeptical of the iPad when it launched, and I thought it was just a big iPod touch.

Then, launch day came, tried one at the store, and that was enough to change my opinion.

It's such a great device, and even though the user interface is the same as the iphone/ipod, the screen size, the battery life, how fast it is, and how portable (compared to a macbook pro, or any laptop), was enough to win me over :D
 
I thought the same thing until I want to the Apple store and used one and the specialist showed me what all it is capable of doing. All the first party default apps are different and work differently than their mobile counterparts and the 3rd party apps that are designed for the iPad are simply amazing. I replaced my MacBook with an iPad and I do not regret it at all. It's an awesome device and has A LOT of potential once 4.0 is released for it!
 
Anyone who thinks the iPad is "just a big ipod touch" can't have spent any time using one. It's an absolute bloody joy !
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back