Apple unveiled (because many haven't already...) their new iPad. It's... a giant iPhone minus the phone.



The keyboard is not included. Basically, it does everything an iphone does. It doesn't have a phone, however. It does have AT&T 3G plans starting at 14.95 a month for 250mb of data, or $29.99 for unlimited data.

They updated some applications and added iWork (a special version) for the iPad, an ereader called iBooks, and some other stuff. It starts at $500 and goes to $700 for 16, 32, 64GB models. it's a bit more expensive for the 3G ones. I like how they call it "revolutionary" when it has nothing new or groundbreaking on it. It doesn't even have a pen to write shit on the screen like existing tablets.

What I liked most about the press conference was watching steve jobs go to a webpage on the iPad and have a large flash icon pop in a white box. Yes, there is still no flash in Safari... for their attempted wireless websurfing device.

Quite honestly, for everything vicious and awful I have to say about Apple, I would love to live in the futureland where these types of devices are not only useful (as they already are), but commonplace (as apple will no-doubt make them). The closer we get to that, the happier I am.

My personal hope is that this device will, as the iPhone did, bring smarter technology into the mainstream. And just as happened after the iPhone, competition will follow at a furious pace, further advancing consumer electronics as a whole. We're now entering the arena of cultural change--hopefully less dominated by Apple, but that's where the facts and I come to blows.

As far as word processing and things goes, remember--this is not a laptop. If they wanted to sell a laptop, they'd sell a fucking laptop. I don't think this is being designed as a productivity device. It's not for businesses or workers--it's for casual applications like stalking facebook and watching movies and whatever other banal, unremarkable shit you wanna do. God knows nobody uses PDAs for anything productive outside of MAYBE using the calendar. Which MAYBE 1 in 10 people use.

the word revolution means fuck all now thanks to cuntlip marketers

I don't think anyone is denying that the iPad has great things. It obviously is riding on the success of the iPhone and iPod touch technologies which is a safe bet that people will know what its strengths are and be informed when they choose to buy it.

When the iPhone was launched, it was called revolutionary, people chuckled, and it turned out to be true. However, that's what pisses me off about the iPad. It's just a big iPhone, which I think is a total waste of potential that a tablet could have. It doesn't make much sense to me to make a larger existing item and not improve a lot of the functions it's meant to fulfill in their "gap" between iPhones and MacBooks. It has a painting application, but no input other than your finger or the keyboard/mouse accessories (no pen?); it has mobile internet, but no flash capability. It has many different applications, but no multitasking between them. It doesn't even have a USB port unless you buy their optional adapters. It plays interpolated iPhone apps. I'm typing on a netbook that has a high definition display, HD video capabilities, a touch screen, wireless internet, 3G, bluetooth, multitouch pad. It can run Mac OSX, Windows, or Linux if I wanted it to. It cost $350. It's killer is that it's not an Apple product.

The iPad can be used to read books. Cool. However, it's LCD. In terms of competing against ereaders, it'll kill your eyes compared to e-ink. The Kindle at least is easy on the eyes and has free 3G service, but people will choose the iPad over the Kindle anyway because it's an Apple product, even if the Kindle design and features are better for many. It seems like Apple is trying to play in many fields with this device but never really perfected the wishes for some of them. Apple is definitely where innovation occurs - I think that's why a lot of initial reactions are sour with this device (as well as 'OMGGGG'). I love that Apple has the balls to take control on how they want to pave the way for technology in the future, but their hype is ridiculous. There are a lot of great technological devices that absolutely demolish the Apple counterparts in performance and compatibility, but they are undersold and under-appreciated. Why? Because Apple has perfected the illusion of superiority in their marketing tactics. I think Apple knew this and skimped on potential for the tablet in order to prolong the life of the product by slowly adding features they knew they needed at the beginning. As more features are added, people will keep buying it mindlessly to acquire them. That's fucked.

Of course Apple fans will eat this shit up and find a way to adapt their lifestyle to the abilities the machine has rather than building machines that adapt to their existing lifestyle. It's amazing to see how Apple has managed to convince so many people that they need Apple more than Apple needs them. They're psychological masterminds, and it's absolutely incredible to see how they pull this off. It's the Apple culture.

Your absolutely right about everything there.


Although I won't be getting one because I have a iPhone 3GS already and an excellent computer, my mum said she would be intrested in getting one if she hadn't got a laptop already, as she finds Windows to complicated and confusing to use, and only uses the laptop for basic functions like checking emails anyway. So I suppose they have a market there for people who can't use Windows, although it's not a big market.

Man, that's been their plan since the fucking iPod. It's fucking disgusting, but at least with this, the technology is finally going mainstream. All we have to do now is wait for the competition to pull up, then finally best it, as happened with the iPhone (see: Droid).

they didn't say shit about vibrating in that video. I'm disappointed.