Who bought an iPad?

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

mperdue

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2009
Messages
630
Reaction score
2
Just out of curiosity, who bought an iPad and what do you plan to do with it. I bought one to support a couple of app development projects that I'm working on but I've found it to be far more useful than I had thought it would be. This really could be the future of publishing.

Mario
 
I really don't have a need for something as big as my eee and half as functional.
 
I might buy a 3G version, but I want to hear from new owners who take their iPads around with them (how convenient? how fragile? etc). Otherwise, I think they'll be a niche product. Something more convenient to have around the house than a netbook. Just like Jobs demonstrated it (on the couch).
 
I want one that can fit into my pocket. :D

Mark K.

P.S. And if it also could be used as a cell phone, that would be gravy... :p
 
I want one that can fit into my pocket. :D

Mark K.

P.S. And if it also could be used as a cell phone, that would be gravy... :p

If only they made one of those, it would be pretty awesome, right?
 
:cool: ! :cool: ! :cool: !

I hope it's not too expensive. :(

Mark K.

Well, it'll just take it's place at the head of the hierarchy, and the 3G and 3GS will go down in price. So you'll probably see 16gb and 32gb versions go for what the 3GS was offered at launch last year. Don't know that it'll be much different from 3GS, although I have it on good authority that I should wait for the new one instead of the 3GS. All I know is that I'm ready to upgrade from my 1st gen iPhone, and I should get subsidized pricing :)
 
iPhones are useless in the Adirondacks because AT&T has no coverage here. Sorry, Luke Wilson. They have no plans to bring it in anytime soon, either. Too few potential customers for the expense.

Plus, I'm never signing up for a plan ever again. Been up that creek a couple of times. Prepaid is the only way that I go now.

Mark K.
 
Nope my iphone does just fine...lets see how long the Battery life is on the iPad this is one B$#&h i have with the iphone battery life sucks but AT&T is a lot better then Nextel
 
Nope my iphone does just fine...lets see how long the Battery life is on the iPad this is one B$#&h i have with the iphone battery life sucks but AT&T is a lot better then Nextel
Florida has some of the best terrain for cell phone coverage. If I want to go on a plan, my choices here are Verizon, and.................well, just Verizon. Sprint doesn't reach here. T-Mobile doesn't reach here. Boost Mobile doesn't reach here. Virgin Mobile doesn't... well, you get the idea. I have to be satisfied with the commercials for the iPhone, because that has been and will be the only time that I am ever going to see one for the indefinite future. Same with the Palm Pre and the Android phones.

My 1G TracFōne is pretty much the SOTA here.

Mark K.
 
iPhones are useless in the Adirondacks because AT&T has no coverage here. Sorry, Luke Wilson. They have no plans to bring it in anytime soon, either. Too few potential customers for the expense.

Plus, I'm never signing up for a plan ever again. Been up that creek a couple of times. Prepaid is the only way that I go now.

Mark K.


Actually Mark, I get reception here at home (lots of droped calls though) I am fine without giving my Iphone steroids that you very much :D I know my French teacher is (gonna) buy the 3G version and my best friends mom bought the Wi-Fi version
 
My 1G TracFōne is pretty much the SOTA here.

Mark K.

I do miss my TracFone, you would get service almost anywhere and Mark, I bet you wish they turned the CN Tower into a cellphone tower as they originaly intended (not kiddin)
 
I might buy a 3G version, but I want to hear from new owners who take their iPads around with them (how convenient? how fragile? etc). Otherwise, I think they'll be a niche product. Something more convenient to have around the house than a netbook. Just like Jobs demonstrated it (on the couch).

I've decided to wait until the case is available before I start to carry mine around much. It's built well and feels very solid but that is a big piece of glass on the front of it. I'm really impressed with the battery life and the functionality of the device. It's going to be fun to write code for this beast.
 
Nope my iphone does just fine...lets see how long the Battery life is on the iPad this is one B$#&h i have with the iphone battery life sucks but AT&T is a lot better then Nextel

So far, I'm getting 10 to 12 hours under fairly heavy use.
 
I didn't pick one up - I'm perfectly happy with my new iPod Touch and my Macbook. But my game company partner wanted one so bad he could taste it (thankfully, he didn't actually do that when we got it Saturday.) He also got the folding case - they had those as well. He blogs about those things, so he has been following all the buzz and such. He tells me that because of the way the power management is designed in the iPad, Mario's experience is about average - 10-12 hours of heavy usage (movies, downloading, wifi searching, etc. all at the same time) on a single charge.

I understand there is an app that uses the Star Trek Next Generation LCARS interface to make it look like a Next Gen PADD (kind of a natural, I suppose :rolleyes:)

Have fun with yours!
 
I'm waiting to see the Notion Ink Adam which uses the dual core ARM cortex A9 nVidia Tegra 2 SoC and the Pixel Qi LCD. It's to be released this summer with the lowest end model costing $329 (which I'll believe when I see it; remember that the first Asus netbook was supposed to cost only $199). It has a camera that can be swiveled to face forward or to the rear and any angle in between, a multi-touch capacitive LCD, real USB ports that can be used without having to buy dongles (go figure!), an HDMI output and SD slot, a touchpad on its backside, etc.

The Pixel Qi display turns from an LED-backlit color display in indoor or shaded outdoor ambient lighting to a monochrome transreflective display that is ebook-like in bright light where the backlit LCD would wash out (this can be disabled, of course). Battery life is 16 hrs in backlit color LCD mode, 160 hrs in monochrome transreflective mode:

https://gizmodo.com/5471559/notion-ink-adam-tablet-caught-on-video-specs-finalized

To hold me over in the mean time, I bought an IpAD from China for $199.99. ;)
 
Last edited:
When it comes to Apple, you're usually better off waiting until Gen 2, but as an internet device and e-book reader, the I-Pad may be the best one out there.

The I-Pad is very similar to the I-Pod Touch except for size, and in a month, the 3G version will be out and provide always on connectivity. Neither version has a camera and the Wi-Fi version doesn't have cell phone capability, but it's not clear that the G3 version couldn't have cell phone capability (but at present it does not).

The specs are below, and note the similarity between the G3 I-Pad and the G3 I-Phone. You certainly should be able to make Skype calls with the I-Pad via the G3 connection.

https://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/specs.html

https://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

https://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

Apple hardware and software are top-notch, and there are over 100,000 apps, however the computing power of the I-Pad is primative compared with a netbook, and overwhelmed by a notebook, so it won't replace your computer. Apple screens are sharp, so as an e-book reader or media player it will do fine, but with a third new e-book standard, unless there are converters, Kindle and other e-book users may stick with what they have.

Bob
 
I really need a new full-function computer first. This one is really starting to creak. (It's dying the death of a thousand blue screens. :( ) We are trying to save up for a laptop - it will be our first one.

Mark K.
 
Most common iPad complaint I've read thus far:

1. The touch screen is so reflective it "kicks up a vicious glare in a well-lit room and practically doubles as a mirror in full sunlight."

2. The iPad's light sensor "doesn't seem to work at all" — the brightness didn't change when moving from "bright sunlight to a darkened room." (most likely a software fix)

3. Apple forums and its official support site are "jam packed with user complaints" about the iPad's weak WiFi signal, says Alan in Product Reviews. The "positioning of the antenna" seems to be the problem — it's located behind the Apple logo, which is not the "ideal position for the best signal." As it is a hardware issue, this could be a "huge problem" — possibly even triggering Apple's first-ever recall.

4. "It's pretty clear that typing is a secondary function for the iPad," reports Brian Lam in Gizmodo. When the iPad is in "landscape mode," the keyboard is difficult to touch type on without placing it on a "slight angle" — not easy without a kickstand. In "portrait mode," the iPad is too heavy to keep typing up for long. Because its backside is curved, when placed flat on a table, the iPad rocks and rolls when one attempts to type. Of course, you can always buy a bluetooth keyboard for $69.

5. The USB charge cable draws more current than most PC USB ports can supply by the well-published standard spec. Using a USB connection to charge the iPad's battery is also time-consuming affair, says Brennon Slattery in PC World, requiring several hours. Also, too bad for you if you're a Windows user — the iPad won't charge at all from the USB port of a PC. To me, not such a big deal since you can use the AC recharger that comes with the iPad instead.

6. Very slippery and relatively heavy (because of the large battery). Easy to loose hold of and will break hard if dropped only a few feet.

And some issues that were known before purchase:

7. Only one app can run at a time (because it uses the IPhone OS).

8. No standard USB ports (need a dongle from Apple), no SD slot, no HDMI out, no camera, low RAM that can't be expanded.

Finally, hardware wise, it's basically an iPhone with a large screen:

https://gizmodo.com/5510191/deconstructing-the-ipads-a4-chip-its-still-a-giant-iphone

Still, it has the typically slick Apple user interface they come up with for every device they make. If I actually needed one or if it cost $299 instead of $499, I'd buy iPad v2.0 when it's released.
 
Picked one up yesterday for enterprise testing. Don't fool yourself, this is a consumer tool. It does not support Flash or ActiveX which rules a large amount of web content out. I'm right now trying to get Java working on it.

None of our LOB apps work and we are deploying via Citrix. However The lack of native Java support is hindering that.

Of course there is no integration to Active Directory.

Plus, for some stupid reason you can not change the IP hostname which means legacy apps that depend on the host name for application level security and some non-windows DNS servers may have problems.

All that aside, if your needs can be met with the Apple approved applications, it is actually kind of cool.
 
Picked one up yesterday for enterprise testing. Don't fool yourself, this is a consumer tool. It does not support Flash or ActiveX which rules a large amount of web content out. I'm right now trying to get Java working on it.

None of our LOB apps work and we are deploying via Citrix. However The lack of native Java support is hindering that.

Of course there is no integration to Active Directory.

Plus, for some stupid reason you can not change the IP hostname which means legacy apps that depend on the host name for application level security and some non-windows DNS servers may have problems.

All that aside, if your needs can be met with the Apple approved applications, it is actually kind of cool.


I have the feeling they will eventually bring out a corporate model that has all of that support built in. They'd be stupid not to, eventually.
 
Trust me, it would be a stupid buisness move to bring out an apple product with flash support, as "there's an app for that" would become "don't buy the app there's a website for that"
 
Come on people, it was a simple request. Did you buy an iPad and, if yes, what do you plan to use it for? By inference, if your answer is "no" to the first part you really don't need to post. All the Apple bashing and feature bitching isn't needed. I'm genuinely curious about how other people plan to use their iPads.
 
Come on people, it was a simple request. Did you buy an iPad and, if yes, what do you plan to use it for? By inference, if your answer is "no" to the first part you really don't need to post. All the Apple bashing and feature bitching isn't needed. I'm genuinely curious about how other people plan to use their iPads.

I think the info was pretty clear and technically based - after looking at the power users here, I'm going to save the cash for now and wait and see what Gen 2 or even 3 brings for this device. Thanks guys.

Tom
 
I've decided to wait until the case is available before I start to carry mine around much. It's built well and feels very solid but that is a big piece of glass on the front of it. I'm really impressed with the battery life and the functionality of the device. It's going to be fun to write code for this beast.

There was a guy over at Microsoft (atlanta office) with one last night, in a swede/velvet cover, but were you looking for something more substantial? Anyway, it looked pretty neat, a bit heavier than I expected. He couldn't hook up to the net as they weren't giving out guest passwords last night. But it wouldn't have mattered. The one thing we needed to get to the web for, to register for a conference, he wouldn't have been able to do anyway (same as me on my iPhone), as the registration forms were in Flash! :mad: Thanks a lot, Steve Jobs.
 
Now reports are coming in that iPads are overheating when used in, for instance, springtime NYC sunlight:

"Among the first to report that the iPad was overheating when exposed to spring sunlight was PC Magazine editor Zach Honig who Twittered that he had received an error message 'iPad needs to cool down before you can use it', while playing with the device in New York City. He had to put the insubordinate unit in the fridge to cool it back down enough to resume operation. Other publications, such as The Atlantic, cite numerous customers complaining of similar issues."

https://www.dailytech.com/Apples+Ho...i+Not+Working+for+Some+Users/article18075.htm
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top