Whiskers

Ahh, hair band rock....It all sounds like crap...

Mockenrue

Since you all love how much I quote other sources. Here are some quotes from X Series Walkman reviews:

PC Mag: "The out-of-box listening experience, frankly, kicks butt when compared with what you get with the iPod"

Gizmodo: "Audio quality is a hallmark of Sony's PMP line, and the X-series does, in fact, sound great."

CNET: "Foremost, audio quality is excellent, even through the packaged earbuds, which themselves are much higher in quality than those included with nearly any other MP3 player (the Touch among them)."

Skimming those reviews just reinforces my point. The categories that Gizmodo judged were: Physical, UI, Web Apps, Desktop Software, and Price. So.... is this a music player or netbook?

Mockenrue

And I'm looking at what's here (in terms of audio fidelity) and saying I don't like it. I have the right to that opinion.

In every other respect, I love the information age: DVRs, HD TV, streaming media, podcasts, etc. If you look at my Zune posts, you'll see that I also love "all-you-can-eat" subscription music. Can't an old guy be a curmudgeon about something?

jupitersolo

Old guy...

Dan Martin

After a day to digest everything that's going on with this iPad release, I think I've figured out who their biggest market is going to be...


...old people


...and they'll sell a ton to them.


I don't mean to use that term in a derogatory manner either, it's the truth. I won't buy one, not because it has an Apple logo on it, it's just with its current set of capabilities and the pricepoint it's at, it doesn't meet any of my needs. Don't put me in the "Apple hater" category either, I wouldn't buy it if the same thing was released by Lenovo or Microsoft directly because it would still have the same limitations.

That being said, the limitations are actually attractions to old people. My mom loves her iPod because when she gets all confused with where she is, she can just press one button and she's back to a screen that's familiar to her and she can start over. She couldn't care less that there's no multitasking... one task is too much for her sometimes.

I haven't bought $1000 worth of newspapers in my life, but my dad gets every newspaper that's circulated in the Toronto area delivered to his house daily, so I wouldn't be surprised if he spends $1000/yr on subscriptions. If he spent the same money on an iPad and the digital subscriptions, he'd be ahead of the game in the second year and would probably enjoy the mobility.

Although he's an executive and pretty tech-savvy, there's not a chance in hell he'd do a presentation with the thing or use anything that iWork has to offer, but I do think he'd like it as strictly a reading device. I don't think he'd even read his email on it because he'd want to reply, and I'm not convinced the keyboard on the iPad is viable for replying to the quantities of emails he gets (and no, the dock keyboard is not an option). If the next version had a slide out tilting keyboard like a giant version of the HTC Touch Pro 2, it would be a home run for his needs.

So in a nutshell: People like me won't buy one because it's not a tablet PC, but my parents will buy one because it's not a tablet PC.

zguy95135

I don't wanna get hated on, but the more I think about it... The more I want one.

I use my touch for web browsing all the time, usually when watching TV or walking around the house, eating breakfast, cleaning, taking a dump (lol) etc. I'd love to have a much bigger screen when I'm sitting on the couch checking emails, facebook, whatever. It would be nice to have a nice screen and sleek device to store all my photography and videos on, plus pictures/video from trips. The screen on the touch is good, but it can be a little on the small side.

Mizouse

Those are some of the reasons I want one.

Anachostic

It's a shame the old people have to get ripped off because they don't know any better. And before someone says "Oh you think they can figure out a PC?!" I will be the first to say no. But there is no escaping technology. You cannot use it without being exposed to it.

So, you buy your grandma an iPad, because it's simple. Then you tell her she needs internet service. Then they install a "router". I use quotes because that's what you have to say to your grandma. Then you have to either configure the router securely and/or configure the iPad correctly.

Then the first time the router locks up, you get a call saying the Internet is broken. Obviously you say "restart the router". The "router", grandma. That box in the closet. Yes, with the lights. And so begins the "simplified internet experience". I use quotes because it doesn't fucking exist.

Dan Martin

I'm lucky enough to have both my grandmas around, and because I love them dearly, I've expressly banned them from ever owning a PC. I could set them up with the most secure machine on the planet and they would still get hooked in on some phising scheme and lose all their money overnight.

My parents are still OK; they're savvy enough to get around, but not gullible enough to get caught doing something stupid.

stogie1020

Must be a GenY thing. My computer is in the study. That's where I go to when I want to be on the computer. I have a netbook, but I don't want to be on it when I am doing other things. I take it with when I need connectivity somewhere besides my study or my work office. I like to separate my "connected" stuff from my "non-connected" stuff.

I am not saying one is right and the other is wrong, it just amazes me how many differences there are between technology generations (people, not the gadgets themselves).

Anachostic

I agree with this. The generation following ours is definitely connected full-time, where ours treats online time as an specific event.

svtmike

So..... a bunch of guys say it sounds great. For shame, accepting that as proof of higher audio fidelity (I'm assuming they made no objective comparisons of the output of the players).

I can and have significantly improved the sound of my iPods with Etymotic earphones. And before those I improved the sound with some Sony earbuds, which pale in comparison to the Etys. So is it the player or the speakers?

I submit that you hit the nail on the head as far as the level wars. The biggest improvement I've ever made has been to replaygain my music before converting it myself to AAC and putting it into iTunes.

CocheseUGA

As someone who works in a hospital with direct contact with the software and hardware that this thing would attempt to replace, it doesn't have a chance.

All of our software is MS-based. All of it. I'm not even sure one could name one single hospital that runs Mac software over MS. Hospitals are going toward more integrated e-solutions, not less.

Beside that, no hospital is going to authorize the increased expense of an iPad over a netbook or laptop. Not when revenue is down, and the government is reclaiming 'lost' Medicare funding like you wouldn't even believe. Payments from (I believe) up to six years ago are up for review, and CMS is raking in some serious cash from RAC. Hospitals are fighting tooth and nail to keep this money, and they aren't being able to do it at a rate of about 95% (95 out of 100 cases get money returned back into the Medicare coffers, IIRC). I don't see Apple subsidizing them at a realistic number for them not to be losing a ton of money, and making the hospitals believe enough in them to change their systems around.

Will docs on their own go out and get these things? Possibly. But they'll be useless when it comes to a patient's EHR. ERs use laptops to record patient data such as insurance and other personal information on a rolling cart, in addition to the PC-based software used for initial triage. Electronic charting is done on Windows-based wall-mounted stations.

We're still running IE5 because some of our software hasn't been updated to run on anything newer. So, let's drop the whole notion of this thing revolutionizing the healthcare industry.

#1 STUNNA

Adobe is going after Apple for not allowing flash on the iPad. They said that they've been trying to get flash on the iPhone ever since it was released but apple will have none of it. Adobe says it's cause Apple doesn't want users playing flash games or watching flash video like hulu cause Apple wants it's users to get it's content from the iTunes/App store. This sounds like anti-trust case to me. What if MS said you can't use another browser besides IE or you can't get your music from any other store besides the Zune Marketplace. So if flash goes to all the other mobile devices except the iPhone I wouldn't be surprised to see Adobe file an antitrust suit in the next year or two.

In other news to demonstrate what a flashless web will look like Adobe pulled no punches as can be seen in the pic below! They actually put this on their site!!!!
pic below:
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image...shporncard.jpg

they've since blacked out the offending pic so I guess technically the punch has been pulled but whatever that shit was funny!

http://theflashblog.com/?p=1703

v6cord2k5

iTrader: (1)

LEGO time!

#1 STUNNA

did you see what the website was is in the lower right corner in the image link I posted?

stogie1020

No Flash = No Flash !!!

srika

no, I missed it

Whiskers

Old people...Oh course....

Rockstar21

iTrader: (1)

so its a big ass version of the iphone... who gives a shit.

doesnt even support flash... the thing is a useless addition to anyone with an iphone or itouch.

and tiny hard drives....

Whiskers

Prepared to be Sarlaaced...

svtmike

Everyone but you.

It has 16GB, 32GB, or 64 GB of flash.

It has no hard drives.

GIBSON6594

The GB specs refer to the ssd drives, not flash support. This doesn't support the flash language.

It's has the option of 3 ssd hard drives, in the sizes you mentioned. 64GB, I might add, is about as big as you can get support for presently. Don't expect anything larger in the new future without paying a LOT of money for that much ssd storage.

svtmike

It does not have SSDs. It just has flash memory. Like an iPod Touch, only larger.

I have a 120GB SSD in my desktop, so 64GB is hardly as big as an SSD can get.

Whiskers

GIBSON6594

The type of memory used is flash memory, but the drives are solid state drives. The point is, Rockstar was talking about the language, not the memory and he was correct. The ipad does not support Flash.

I know 64 isn't the biggest, I said 64 is about as big as you can support for.
We are talking about mobile devices here. You know of any mobile devices that support 120 or larger?

Mizouse

omg seriously??? You didn't get the joke?

Maybe he shouldve used red text for his post?

hdcolumbus

svtmike

This is an SSD.



I guarantee you the iPad does not have the bus, controller, etc. to support one of these. It's just got a bunch of flash memory chips on the board:



Granted an SSD has flash chips inside it, but SSD is not synonymous with flash.

srika

see avatar

Mizouse

by our resident apple hater.

jupitersolo

Haven't seen it yet, have you?

GIBSON6594

I think we may just be arguing semantics.

Let's just say, it doesn't support the Flash Language and supports a decent amount of non-moving parts storage.

srika

GIBSON6594

To whom are you speaking?

Mizouse

You.

GIBSON6594

I don't see a joke anywhere. Well maybe one, but I won't post it now

Mizouse

Well what I got out of it was

the guy said it has no flash. But svtmike said it does have flash, flash memory that is.


But based on his responses maybe I read it differently than what he intended

stogie1020

This would actually constitute a quad core processor that was able to complete four different things at once. WAY more powerful than an iPad.

hdcolumbus