Feb 02
iPad – Only Apple Could Do This
Like most things coming out of Apple, it doesn’t LOOK like the iPad is for me.
At first glance to me it looks like a touch monitor. At second glance it looks like a laptop where they took half of it away. At third glance, I’m just not sure why I would get one instead of a laptop.
But in any event, I do have to give it up to Apple. I swear – No one can get the hype machine going like they can and really take a mundane product and dress it up to the point where it looks so fresh and so clean clean.
What Is Supposed To Impress Me
To be honest – I’m not sure. Um, you can tilt it sideways and see more of a website at a time I guess. And you do have the gesture stuff built into it too… Hm. I’m really struggling to find more stuff and that’s not because I’m an Apple hater and trying to besmirch the device, quite the contrary. I love technology, and I don’t mind paying for it. But even though I LOVE throwing money away on my toys, I have to have SOME reason to initially purchase it. It’s the same reason I didn’t keep my PS3. The reasons I would buy one (at this point) are Uncharted, God of War III, and MGS4 I guess. I already have a Blu-Ray player, I already have a media extender thanks to my 360, and I don’t know what’s so unique to the system that would warrant me shelling out the cash for it (besides the fact that PS3 don’t red ring).
Look how shiny and modern it looks.
Here’s Where I’m Coming From
First off – I think Apple’s price point of $500 is right on the money for this thing. If it were any more, I’d really be focusing on it not being able to run multiple apps, no physical keyboard and on a Mac OS and wonder why I shouldn’t just get a PC laptop. But at that price with that screen – It seems like it might be the perfect high end impulse buy. Furthermore, I’m tempted to get it just to show off our websites to potential clients and here them say “Oo! Is that one of those iPads?” Then I can reply with, “All the guys at the office really love’em!” (implying that I have an office and that I have employees ha ha).
But the part I just can’t get past is if I’m going to be spending $500 on a mobile device of that sort, a PC just affords me with so many more opportunities to be productive with the device. I can put a FTP client on there, open up some TextPad and Photoshop and I’ll be off to the races. Plus, you know you can always find PC software to download for any situation (including games). But you know what WOULD change my mind? If I could develop for the Mac or iPad USING an iPad. Lord knows I’ve wanted to tinker with iPhone apps for a while now – But not at a $1000 entry price on a new computer. So I dunno. Maybe I’m way off on this one.
What Say You?
February 3rd, 2010 at 3:21 pm
I’m with you on this one. Is it a Kindle in color with WiFi ? Is it an eMac crammed into a touch screen ?
$500 is a good price, but I’m not spending it on this thing UNLESS, like you said, I had a client base to show stuff to.
I grew up on a Mac, the old B&W screen with the smiley face in the monitor when it started up. And if I were a graphic designer or serious video editor, and I wanted an easy way to preview stuff for clients I’d probably get one . . . but I’m not, so I wont.
I am excited to see how people use this thing though.
February 5th, 2010 at 5:57 am
@Ian – Couldn’t agree more, I just don’t “get it”. But I’m betting we probably feel the same because we’re serious computer users.
Though you know what I was thinking? It might be really cool to put these in the wall and make them out to be ridiculously interactive touch screens. (Even though I should probably be figuring out how to do that with Win 7…)