iPad anyone?

[flavius]

Apple updated the iPhone software development kit on Wednesday to allow internet telephony apps to work on the 3G network. The little-noticed move effectively unlocks the ability for the iPhone — and the upcoming iPad — to be used as web phones.

ICall, a voice-over-Internet Protocol (VOIP) calling company, said the latest revisions in Apple’s iPhone developer agreement and software development kit effectively enable the iPhone to make phone calls over 3G data networks. ICall promptly released an update to its app today, adding the 3G support.

Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/...#ixzz0dyKxtlJd

The iPad will be able to make phone calls. This is not a bad thing. Is Google Voice finally going to appear in the app store?

[Fuzzy]

Does the iPad have a microphone? Valid question.. it seems ot be missing everything else...

[flavius]

It does.

[nick_l]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Does the iPad have a microphone? Valid question.. it seems ot be missing everything else...

It does, but I wonder what the quality of the audio out will be. We know it has a headphone jack, but I wonder if it will support a full iphone headset, with mic, or will be strictly headphones. I also wonder what bluetooth profiles it will support. I cannot imagine even Apple would not allow bluetooth headset pairing (although, to be honest i dont beleve that apple yet supports AVRCP profile (audio video remote control) in their FLAGSHIP music player, the iPod touch).

[davephan]

The I-pad will probably do well. I don't own any Apple products. Apple products usually succeed enough to make money even in this lousy economy, but they still don't have much market share for their computers. Although I wish I bought Apple stock a year ago, because the stock doubled in value over the past year.

Dave

[tmiranda]

My daytime job is a Financial Planner. Just look at Apple's stock over the past few days to see what the market thinks of teh iPad.

[wayner]

The market doesn't know what to make of the iPad - AAPL fell at the beginning of the press conference and then it rallied $10 (or 5%) later that afternoon. Yesterday it fell back 4% to about $200. But the whole tech market was off 2.8% yesterday so it is hard to know if that is an AAPL specific event or not.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by wayner

The market doesn't know what to make of the iPad - AAPL fell at the beginning of the press conference and then it rallied $10 (or 5%) later that afternoon. Yesterday it fell back 4% to about $200. But the whole tech market was off 2.8% yesterday so it is hard to know if that is an AAPL specific event or not.

Yes, that's my point. Nobody knows what to make of the thing yet.

[Polypro]

My favorite flavor of Kool-Aid is grape.

P

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Polypro

My favorite flavor of Kool-Aid is grape.

Just this week... Next week it'll be strawberry...

[stuckless]

Even hitler is disappointed in the ipad....

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Polypro

My favorite flavor of Kool-Aid is grape.

P

I wonder how many people understand how funny this is? SJ = JJ?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I wonder how many people understand how funny this is? SJ = JJ?

Not the ones who SHOULD.

[fidget]

This article may explain who the target for the iPad is:

http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/192799.asp

[stuckless]

That's good article... funny too... but good. So, to summarize.... the ipad is for stupid people. That's not a bad thing... I mean, when i first heard the "for Dummies" books, I was thinking, no one is going to admit that they are a "dummy" and buy it... but I was wrong (it happens).

So, Apple should perhaps re-brand the ipad as, "IPad - For Dummies"... It could work.

I'd have to say, that for the most part, even the apple fanbois will be peeved with that article. I mean, they group osx and windows together (that's an apple no-no, page 21). Then imply that osx is complicated and hard to use (that's a huge no-no, page 1 even, since everyone one knows that osx is already designed to be easy to use).

I find it funny that people talk about the iphone/ipod touch (and now ipad) as being for their grand-mother, because it's easy to use. Have you ever put an ipod touch/iphone in the hands of a non-techy... I have an ipod touch, and I used it for a couple months, and then I went back to nano. I ended up giving to my wife (who has an 80g ipod video). She likes it, but I still have to support her, by having to show her how to do some stuff with it (normally I just google, and find the cryptic response on the apple site). (my wife is actually more technical that most people that I know...)

Just so you know... "old people" are not stupid, and that's why the ipad would appeal to them.... Some people are just intimidated by technology. My kids have been exposed to computers since they were 3... so they are not intimidated by technology... my mother... well that's a different story... and I'm sure, if she ever did get an ipad, then I'd still get the same lame support questions that I get now

[GKusnick]

I don't buy the SUV analogy in that article. The author seems to be saying that people don't want all the power and complexity of SUVs, but are forced to buy them anyway because they don't have a choice. This is of course flagrant nonsense. People buy SUVs for their everyday vehicles because they think they're cool (and apparently don't care how much they have to spend on gas to maintain that level of coolness). So in that sense it's the Apple products that are more like SUVs, and the utilitarian PCs and netbooks that are more like Priuses and Smartcars.

[fidget]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

I don't buy the SUV analogy in that article. The author seems to be saying that people don't want all the power and complexity of SUVs, but are forced to buy them anyway because they don't have a choice. This is of course flagrant nonsense. People buy SUVs for their everyday vehicles because they think they're cool (and apparently don't care how much they have to spend on gas to maintain that level of coolness). So in that sense it's the Apple products that are more like SUVs, and the utilitarian PCs and netbooks that are more like Priuses and Smartcars.

Actually, what he is saying is that most people don't need all of the features of a generic PC. Many people just need basic capabilities. That is why the first question that I ask someone who wants help buying a computer is: "What do you want to do with it?" My wife wanted to get a laptop and her main requirement was a numeric keypad. This eliminated Apple right away. With her folks, it was running Skype, web surfing and email (they really don't do more than that). In their case, it was a low end HP laptop. If the iPad had been released, and I had enough experience with it to tell if it would meet their needs, a camera equipped iPad would have been an option (and would have cost less than the laptop did).

The comparison between the SUV and Prius wasn't from a capability standpoint, but from a complexity. Your netbook has the same OS as the SUV. This is one of the reasons that Windows Mobile devices sucked so bad, they still ran the Windows UI, not because the OS was terrible. If someone doesn't need the complexity of Windows or Mac OS X then why should they have to deal with it?

One of the issues that I am curious to see how they address is access by multiple users. The iPhone and iPodTouch are all single user products, but I don't see the iPad being that way. If I can edit documents and share the iPad with someone else in the family, I don't want to run the risk of someone messing them up. This starts down the slope toward exposing features of the file system to others. If this is meat to be a single user system, it would be really hard for me to recommend it to some people.

Another issue that I see is that it does not eliminate the need to have a PC of some kind. This will need to be synchronized with something that has all of your videos, pictures, music, etc. so it would be hard for me to recommend it as someone's primary computer. Personally, I would much rather have an iPad than a netbook.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

One of the issues that I am curious to see how they address is access by multiple users. The iPhone and iPodTouch are all single user products, but I don't see the iPad being that way. If I can edit documents and share the iPad with someone else in the family, I don't want to run the risk of someone messing them up. This starts down the slope toward exposing features of the file system to others. If this is meat to be a single user system, it would be really hard for me to recommend it to some people.

Don't worry steve has that covered. steve knows that you'll become so enamoured with his computer that you won't dare share it with anyone... you'll go out and rent one for each family member and be very happy that you did... after all you don't want someone else's dirty fingerprints on his pad.... fade to scene of person lovingly holding steve's pad and quietly wispering... "my precious, my precious"....

[wayner]

Originally Posted by stuckless

... my mother... well that's a different story... and I'm sure, if she ever did get an ipad, then I'd still get the same lame support questions that I get now

Sean - I hope your mother doesn't read this forum

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

Sean - I hope your mother doesn't read this forum

Yeah.... I hope so too... (but I haven't set her up with sagetv, yet)