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Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:13 pm
by GORDON
They'll never stop sucking if no one is willing to not reward their suckiness.
I will not reward it.
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 9:41 am
by TPRJones
Jailbreak it ASAP.
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 9:54 am
by TheCatt
So far it's kinda interesting.
The main things here really are 1) It's lightweight 2) it's a touch-screen 3) the apps.
Android/Windows apps are certainly hindered by the fact that there are already SO many ipod/iphone/ipad apps that are designed for this form factor (or a similar one). And so many Apple people have $, that people are making apps for them.
So far it's kinda cool, but nothing killer. I tested out a lot of apps, and they were easy enough to use. I mostly did free ones.
There's a piano app that does 2 octaves worth of notes (white and black keys) and supports chords, so that was pretty cool. There are some decent drawing apps. I played some games, which we OK. Scaling up iPhone apps kinda sucks ass, so it's nice to see the apps that are designed for the iPad itself.
I bought 2 Dr. Seuss interactive books. They were $3 each, and have the illustrations from the books (Cat in the Hat, and ABC book), and can read to the child, or pronounce words that the child clicks on. The child can also touch objects, and it will say what they are.
I also loaded on all of her songs, and made YouTube and her music easy to get to. We'll see how she does with it. The music navigation is a little complex, but not overly so.
Tonight I'm going to do 30 minutes or so with her and see how it works.
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 4:50 pm
by Leisher
Tosh did it first.
Also, the kid just did it for fame. That's not "cool".
When the Wii came out and nobody could get one, the guy who went into Best Buy, got one, and then smashed it in the parking lot in front of the line of people extending outside the store waiting to buy one...that was cool.
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 6:26 pm
by Cakedaddy
No JAILBREAK, not break it in jail! Jail breaking is something you do to unlock an apple devices potential. As in, the iphone/ipod touch can do all kinds of things, but apple disables the funtionality at the factory and with updates. A jail broken iphone/touch can:
Run multiple apps at the same time
Full bluetooth support (transfer data/files via bluetooth. By default, the ONLY thing you can do is use a bluetooth headset/speaker)
Change your background
Change the icons (instead of the compass looking icon for Safari, you can have Snoopy wearing a santa claus hat)
Have a control panel popup over the app you are currently running that allows you to change brightness, and a bunch of other settings on the fly
The list goes on. The iphone/touch are really cool devices that can do most of the things users want them too. Apple just turns those features off for you.
And if you jail break your iphone/touch and then apply an apple update, the update punishes you and bricks your device. Dead. No recovery. Buy a new one asshole.
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 7:35 pm
by TheCatt
I ran into some issues getting it to synch the stuff I wanted for my daughter, but I eventually figured it out.
Used handbrake to convert the videos from XVID to whatever format the Apple thingy likes. But still haven't quite figured out how to watch them on the iPad.
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 7:37 pm
by TheCatt
Played with it with my daughter for 20 minutes, doing a spelling game, a touch drawing game, and the cat in the hat book.
She loved the spelling game, which involves spelling words by dropping letters into slots for a given word. She got the touch interface pretty immediately. Drawing game was fun for her, and cat in the hat started well, but then she just wanted to keep flipping pages.
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 8:18 pm
by Cakedaddy
Did you buy it for her? Or did you buy it for you, but she can use it?
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 9:07 pm
by TheCatt
Cakedaddy wrote:Did you buy it for her? Or did you buy it for you, but she can use it?
I think I bought it for the whole family. Like I was just doing the NYTimes crossword, and gave it to my wife to help me finish it. And earlier I was playing checkers on it. And, since it has a 10 hours battery life, I'm hoping we can use it to watch movies on an upcoming plane trip.
The web browsing on it is pretty great. The pinch to zoom, etc, are all really fast. Typing on it is really easy as well.
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 3:17 am
by Cakedaddy
Does is have a stand? As in, set it on the table and it sits upright for movie viewing?
My wife's netbook is 80% movie watching and 18% surfing and 2% games.
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 7:37 am
by TheCatt
You can buy a stand, and people rave on the Netflix, if you use that. We don't currently have a stand.
I was going to wait to see a) what we needed based on use and b) what 3rd parties came out with cheaper stuff than the Apple accessories.
Belkin has a stand that is multi-positional, and closes flat for storage/movement, iirc.
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 7:37 am
by TheCatt
GORDON wrote:They'll never stop sucking if no one is willing to not reward their suckiness.
I will not reward it.
I don't know if you mean Adobe or Apple.
Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 10:33 am
by TheCatt
So far my favorite apps are the NYTimes crossword and a Sudoku app, both of which work REALLY well at this size.
The web browsing is MUCH faster than I had expected. In fact, it feels snappier than my laptop. In landscape mode, it works really well, with the width being appropriate for almost all web pages. The only downside is having to scroll up and down more than normal web pages, but it's still really fast.
I got some drawing and alphabet apps for the kid. So we'll try those out later and see. I also converted some of her TV shows using handbrake (which is super, super easy to use) to watch on the iPad.
I wouldn't say that this device is worth the $650 we paid without reservation, but it's definitely worth... something... $300-450 is what I would say right now. I think it'll have more value as a device we travel with, so we'll see on our next trip.
Oh, and the screen is gorgeous. Like the fancy Apple monitors, and the higher-end Dell monitors, it uses in plane switching (IPS), so it's pretty much as pretty as those are.
I did a little bit of book reading on it. I like the Nook (B&N's eReader) better due to the eInk, but it works pretty well.
Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 10:03 pm
by TheCatt
Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 1:24 pm
by WSGrundy
New Ipad 2 commercial on Conan. For some reason it won't let me embed it.
http://teamcoco.com/content....ew-ipad
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 6:41 pm
by TheCatt
TWC just introduced an app that lets you watch cable TV on the iPad (only about 30 channels available), honestly it's pretty freaking good. It shows you a list of channels, what is on, and what is on next.
You click a channel, and within5 seconds, you are watching it. The iPad isn't HD (1024x600? something like that), but it appears to be an HD feed, so it isn't pixelated.
Kinda neat for personal TV watching.
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 8:05 pm
by GORDON
But only works on your LAN, which basically just makes it another small TV in your house, which isn't what people typically want with mobile television.
From what I read.
I personally would have no use for that. I already have a TV in my house everywhere I want a TV.
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 9:05 pm
by TheCatt
Yes, it only works at your house at present. They are working on expanding that, from what I have read.
We only have 2 TVs in our house. So in my office, for example, I have no TV, so this could be a semi-TV. Or while pooping. Or while eating breakfast. Or while kids watch something on the real TV.
I would like having ESPN and local channels on it though.
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:16 am
by Leisher
Ordered an iPad2 on launch day for R&D at work (tablets are a hot topic here lately), and have yet to receive it (14-21 day delivery window).
Now I just saw this article about the iPad3.
If I was an Apple cultist and work wasn't paying for this, I'd be pissed.
I think Apple and other manufacturers doing the same thing are pushing their luck with their consumer base. They're going to end up alienating them and pushing them to competitors. Or worse, making them realize how unnecessary their updates and/or their products are in their lives.
Annual software updates are common and understandable. Look at the Madden franchise on consoles and PCs. Each year brings updated rosters, a new graphics engine or tweaked graphics, some new features, additions to gameplay, enhanced AI, etc.
However, you know what doesn't come out annually? New consoles. Hardware just doesn't need to be upgraded that often.
So what does Apple bring to the table with annual hardware updates? In the case of the iPhone 4, terrible reception.
They already update the OS on their iPhones and iPads constantly throughout the year, so why does anyone need the updated model?
From this article which lists 5 reasons NOT to buy an iPad2 if you already have an iPad:
Sure, the shiny new iPad 2 is more compact, faster, and adds cameras, but besides that, there's not much more in the way of upgrades.
So it's a little faster, a little smaller, and has cameras. That's worth the $800+ price tag? Meanwhile, the iPad price has dropped to $300.
Did I mention the iPhone is also $800 or so dollars?
That's $1600 give or take that Apple wants its cultists to shell out each year. That's before any accessories, apps, music, movies, etc. too.
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:09 pm
by GORDON
TheCatt wrote:TWC just introduced an app that lets you watch cable TV on the iPad (only about 30 channels available), honestly it's pretty freaking good. It shows you a list of channels, what is on, and what is on next.
You click a channel, and within5 seconds, you are watching it. The iPad isn't HD (1024x600? something like that), but it appears to be an HD feed, so it isn't pixelated.
Kinda neat for personal TV watching.
The channels are panicking and suing Time Warner.
http://www.itworld.com/tech-so....igation