Apple iPad? More like the iDontCare
 

While tech nerds and business folks seem to be overjoyed about the latest Apple toy, it probably won't amount to much. At least not now, not with this first-generation device, not in a crap economy, and not to content producers. It's a consumer toy, like an iPod or iPhone on steroids -- only bigger and more clunky.

Luminous Landscape has a great new "essay" (editorial) on this, at http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/tablet.shtml

People need to start being honest with themselves. We all read in the bathroom. Who wants to take an iPad with them to the toilet? At least the bathroom-library newspapers and magazines eventually make it to the trashcan. As long as humans continue to poop, we'll use paper -- both to read, and to wipe*.

(Maybe Apple should create a special sanity sleeve. Call it the "iCrap".)

This is probably the future, for better or worse:
But I don't find the iPad any more special than a Kindle. :rolleyes:

I'll wait around for holographic paper. (Anybody remember what movie that was in?)
* Or if you know how to use the Demolition Man sea shells, let me know.

And here's a pretty good blog, coming from an educational stance. Like the above photography site, the hype and buzz is being questioned.

Those are some more EXCELLENT points.

Read the full article at http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/27308

I'd like to know what "game" is supposed to be changed. It reminds me of Blu-ray -- a new tech that doesn't really offering anything substantially better over the current supposedly-"obsolete" working tech we use now.

Very nice: :D
from http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/28/i...ex.html?hpt=C2

I've said this elsewhere, but while the device itself looks relatively lame, it would be pretty awesome if it helped standardize affordable unlimited 3G data only plans.

Very true. :cool:

This thing is still getting bad press. ABC basically called it "cool but expensive/useless" yesterday morning. It doesn't do much without Internet access, but the non-wifi access is supposedly $130 per month, and AT&T is the only provider.

Still not available to anybody, that I'm aware of. All "on order" still. Another one of Apple's iDidntPlanThisVeryWell devices.

I'm not anti-Apple, but I am very much anti-craptech.

The 3G data plan is $30/month (and there's no contract or anything tying it into a voice plan), not $130. To me, that's the only potential selling point of this thing (affordable internet everywhere plan), but the device itself too expensive.

Ah, the ABC news segment seems to have made an error. Doing a quick Google check, it seems the 3G version is $130 extra (above the price of the base model), plus a monthly subscription at whatever the AT&T rate is.

Still costly.

Re-revisiting this, I've had more time to use these in various places. There have been many times lately that I have ungodly long PDFs to read -- mostly research papers -- and sitting by the computer is not much fun. Same for laptops, netbooks.

I wish it was not a shiny reflective screen.
Plus I'd want it to read files from thumb drives, rather than emailing myself docs.
And then I wish it was priced about on par with a netbook.
I'd probably buy one for $250-300 to read PDFs (or even the occasional CBZ comic book.)

Not sure what my alternatives are just yet.

All I know is that I loath sitting by a computer for several hours to read a book. Not too fond of printing 100 pages (sometimes in color) that will be put in the trash when I'm done -- too wasteful, too expensive.

Except for the color part, a Nook can read PDFs fine and has an E-Ink screen.