Anyone use the iPad?

Siimply saying we have lost our way.

 

Look around. We're a bunch of dudes chatting on a internet forum, including yourself. How is that any different from using a phone, tablet, email or facebook to communicate? Its not a sign of softness or being less of man, its a sign of being intelligent enough to harness new technology to make communication more immediate and convenient. Decades ago you wanted to speak to someone you had to pick up the phone. A century ago you had to go visit them in person. Same goes for news & updates.. imagine just trying to get race results when there was no cabletv or internet.

Its not losing our way, if anything we are finding our way. Its the continual progression of humans & technology. You either learn to use it, change with it.. or get left behind. And trust, the world will leave you behind. Instead of hating the iPad, iPhone or Steve Jobs. Pick one up and give it a try. Try watching a race on the MotoGP app, try videoconferencing with someone live at a race track, try fixing/upgrading something on your bike in your garage by following along with directions being shown by a youtube video. These devices are capable of all that and so much more.

 

The iPad is an incredible technological achievement no doubt and the gizmo is really helpful for communication/information sharing. The problem I have is that the device appears to represent the crowning acheivement of our time. Its just a lame-ass plastic piece of shit. Where is the real innovation? Even our entertainment is recycled from the past: ex- movies made from old tv shows. Architecture is all the same - retro faux-med-style tuscan crap. Nothing NEW, nothing NOW. The Wright Bros were alive to see a jet fly. What do we get now? A phone with shitty reception and a pos iPad. So what? I'm just not all that impressed.

 

I'm with Beak.
In other news: My checking account will be $600 lighter in the next couple weeks when I buy the wife an iPad.

 

ebay or craigslist... buy one for half

 

My company just got me one. Actually I am on it right one. It is impressive and pretty cool. But I will say that it is not the next coming of Christ. It is a nice tool, but it really isn't that innovative. It is so locked down I couldn't even turn it on until I got iTunes installed on my laptop. I have an Andriod tablet and an HTC desire phone so I got used to the open source way of life. Sure it was buggy at times, but I could do anything I wanted to on it. I can see the draw of the iPad though. To me using it almost feels like Mr. Jobs is just loaning it to me and he is going to tell me what I can and cannot do with it.

 

Small correction in this, the Wright brothers did not see a jet fly they saw an airplane take flight for a few minutes. If you are comparing that to our disclosed capabilities now I'd say don't believe everything your college professor is telling you lol!

 

No, I mean that before they died, a jet flew before their eyes. Just an example of truly flourishing human technology over a relatively short span of time. That being said, I too will probably get an iPad because they are the shit. (But in the scheme of true technological advances for humanity the thing is really a joke.) As excited as everybody is about the iPad, I just wanted to put the whole thing in perspective because I find the whole level of hype surrounding the device slightly troubling. I'm now going to Ebay to look for one...

 

Here's the thing. True 'technological advances' compared to 'consumer products' are MILES apart!

Consumer products are exactly that, what can we make money on! No business in their right mind is going to give you their next latest and greatest gizmo until the market shows they're not really making money on it anymore. So consumer products will never be the latest and greatest in technology.

The REAL technological advances are things in many cases the average consumer will likely never see. The things universities, research facilities and related are working with these days are extremely cool! I knew about nanotechnologies R&D YEARS before most people had even heard of it. Things like the memristor were well flushed out ideas 40 years ago we are just now really getting to the point of making it work.

So to repeat myself, technological advances and consumer products do not and likely will not have anything in common.

 

Not true dude. The space program gave us Tang. and shit.

 

Umm... No it didn't.

 

what about velcro?

 

I have the original iPad. Complete dogshit. It would be awesome if it actually supported flash content but since it doesn't it leaves me so frustrated that I often want to throw it against the wall. Everything else is great but the fact that it doesn't do half the things I need it for. I'd look to Android. Looking at specs and price I'd look towards the cheap ass Asus. That thing has so much for so little $$$

 

So did you go into the iPad without researching it before buying? The Flash issue has never been a secret. Did you look at the apps available? Plenty of reviews on those.

I'm sorry, but I get incredibly annoyed at the bullshit Flash argument when that fact has been out there from the start. As well as how files are transferred onto and off of it and the availability of programs for it. All it took was looking.

 

It was a xmas present. I use it to watch movies and I use it in the kitchen. I would use it for more if it actualy worked. I don't want to have to find and install programs to make a $700 device work. It should work out of the box. It's like saying the new GSXR comes with 5th gear missing. Don't worry you can buy all kinds of aftermarket 5th gears for it. Maybe they will work maybe they wont. I have listened to so many people say there are all kinds of programs that will make flash content work on the iPad but I have never had someone give me a name of one. Yes I need my hand held. Why hasn't Apple made a patch/fix to make their fucking computer actually work with today's internet? It's a joke. The Apple faithful would kneel down and swallow a load if it came from Steve Jobs. I know you're thinking I'm a hater but the fact is that I can look around my house and finds thousands of dollars in Apple products. I just can't figure out how you can make a device for surfing the internet that doesn't work and yet everyone says what a great device it is. It could be...but it's not

 

Today's internet isn't about Flash. 2001's internet was somewhat about flash.

Take a look at google, they just dropped support for any browser than isn't HTML5 capable and you find no flash in their ecosystem, same with facebook (aside from the dumb 3rd party apps like farmville which is being converted to HTML5 anyways), same with any major company/website. The only sites that don't offer HTML5 video are the small ones anyways. EVERY major video platform (Brightcove, the Platform, etc) all offer hybrid players that default to HTML5.

Plus your GSXR analogy is just bad. It's more like you bought a GSXR and was pissed it didn't have reverse, even though everyone in the world already knew it didn't.

 

back to the topic...

I'm looking at replacing my 4 year old Sony Vaio, and I'd like to get a nice lightweight but powerful laptop for my serious work (spreadsheet modeling, business plan docs, partner presentations) and then a decent tablet for times when I don't want to wait to fire up the laptop. I think I've had it with Sony laptops - too pricey and too much bloatware to uninstall after purchase. The Dell stuff looks kinda nice these days, and they keep it clean at POS. I plan to use the tablet to surf the web and do research (what - WERA BBS isn't research???), plus reading (I'm tired of dragging books around but I love to read current business and military sci-fi) and some time wasting stuff while waiting around in airports. I don't do FB or Twitter, but I do check my motorcycle sites and some other business/ news sites multiple times daily. Not sure yet if I really need video chat on the tablet, but I guess it can't hurt in the future.

I'd like to manage/ sync files between my laptop and tablet - is that feasible or do I just go to cloud management? Sounds like Google is getting its hands around an end-to-end solution for cloud/ web computing with its phones, tablets and now its new laptops. Or does something like GoToMyPC do the same thing?

But I'd really love to hear about/ find a program for a tablet that is like MS One Note - a good project management filing system that I've used a bit in the past. I need to have an electronic notepad - to scribble down notes (is there a handwriting app for any tablet?) and file them appropriately, to jot down To Do lists and prioritize them and set due dates and alarms, to create check lists and timetables for projects, and to collect research from both online and offline. Suggestions, anyone?

Oh yeah - I use a Torch Crackberry for my phone/ email/ calendar (AT&T service), and I LOVE the email functionality of RIM/ BB. The phone works well as a phone (despite spotty service), and I have a third party calendar app that I like much better than the standard BB calendar. But it's the email setup that has me hooked on Crackberry, though the screen is too small to websurf (hence the tablet).

I'm a one-man business, so I need to manage this stuff myself (I'm fairly tech savvy, but I don't write code). I'd love to reduce my shoulder bag to just my tablet and a notepad folder (some clients are still old-skool about taking notes) and carry my Torch in my pocket. Then I can work on my laptop at home next to the pool or over at my buddy's office when I gotta get away from the wife and kids.

Given the recent discussion about technology advances - are we there yet where a small business can be run on a laptop, a tablet and a cell phone via wifi? Can a business be successful by putting its data in the cloud, outsourcing non-revenue producing activities (like accounting, etc.), thereby making my time more efficient and more valuable to my clients (and to me!)???

I've read up a lot on the iPad/ iPad2, some on the Motorola Xoom, and I've seen the early Playbook reviews (pretty bad so far). I tried an Android smart phone before getting the Torch, and I hated the fact that it didn't do email as well as a BB (the Swype typing was pretty cool), so I've been hesitant about going to an Android tablet...

Help me Obi-Wan-BBS - you're my only hope! (so far...)

Scott

 

The easiest way to sync up docs between different devices is honestly just to use Google Docs - it's basically MS Office on the web. That way you never have to worry about where it's stored, it's just in the cloud.

As for the tablet, there are a ton of apps that do PM type stuff (burn down charts, project plans, etc) for the iPad, and there may be for the Droid platform as well, I just don't know of any off the top of my head. Right now, you'll find far better apps for the iPad than the android and playbook tablets, but that's just because they're so new. I imagine in the next year, it'll even up quite a bit (as it did with iPhone/Android phone), but there's more money in developing apps for iOS, so they're prolly going to remain better/more plentiful for quite some time.

 

I swear I have come accross a GSXR with reverse at a track day.

 

just ordered an ipad2. Any suggestions for a screen cover and case for it?