iPad anyone?

[Le Pirate]

I would of been all over it, if it had ran OS X. I really wanted one until the unveiling when they showed a giant iphone.


I'll be holding on to my money (but not holding my breath), until a fully functional tablet comes.

[ab]

This technique does not work; that playlist with a text-only PDF in it that I created as you described above simply gives the error "No Music".

But that's because the iPod application doesn't do text.  It'll look inside a PDF and play audio therein, I'm guessing, but not text.

HOWEVER, there are plenty of ways to read PDFs on iPad.  Here are 4 that I'm aware of and have actually used:

1) Buy GoodReader for $0.99.  Cheap, easy.  It's optimized for reading large PDF files, and is well reviewed, and includes a WiFi sync feature sorta like Air Sharing, that I found easy to use.  Docs look great.

2) Buy Air Sharing for $9.99.  It's got a less optimized PDF viewer, but still works pretty well, is a generic WiFi/http replacement for a USB thumb drive, and displays lots of other formats besides, including video.

3) Buy Comic Zeal for $7.99.  It'll display PDFs, as well as CBZ and CBR comic archives.

4) Batch convert your PDFs to EPUB format using the free calibre, and drop thsee EPUBs into the iPad's iBooks reader.

And, here are more options that I've not used, but that are available right now:

A) PDF Reader Pro Edition for iPad, $3.99

B) PDF Word Excel File Viewer, $0.99

C) iAnnotate PDF, $6.99

D) GoDocs, $3.99

E) Readdle Docs for iPad, $4.99

Thanks Trenner for the detailed answer.  It's good to know there are other options to look into.

[ducatiz]

Now Ducatiz......enlighten us please.

The WePad is a Droid-powered one-up of the iPad.

Things the iPad lacks:
-USB ports
-IEEE ports
-built in Camera (but they will sell you an external one)
-Memory card slots

Other "features":
-Closed development system -- how do you transfer content to the device?  Download only or sync.  You have a USB data key?  forget it.
-No choice of wireless provider, they are tying it directly to the 3g providers.
-No multitasking except iwth specific Apple-provided apps.  (don't believe me, check it out yourself)

WePad:
-Multitasking of all apps.
-Has a GSM SIM slot, use any GSM provider.
-USB (2)
-SD slots
-larger display (10.5 vs 9.7")

Obviously you have limitations, the Droid apps are smaller in number than the iPad/iPhone apps, but Droid is becoming more and more popular.  Memory/storage options are similar except the Droid has an SD slot that you can toss in a card for system or storage (partition it on the fly)..

[herm]

not much of a surprise; I don't think they've laid an egg since before the original Imac came out.

really?
i dont think apple tv has been a huge success, has it?

[trenner]

really?
i dont think apple tv has been a huge success, has it?

Indeed, it has been largely unsuccessful.  I've got one, and i find it deeply annoying that it won't play a broad variety of video formats.  To address that, I've resorted to hacking it to play video via XBMC and Boxee.  This solves the format issue, but introduces stability problems.  I'm always having to reboot the thing to get it to play properly.  As an interface to the iTunes movie and TV store, it's fine, but as a tool for the power-user it bites.

This is an interesting observation more broadly, valid also for the iPhone and iPad.  The target customer for these devices is not the power-user, not the tech elite who are comfortable with terms like DHCP and DNS, or who can tell you the relative merits of USB 3.0 versus IEEE 1394 S3200, or who know their way around a compiler, or who can build their own gaming rig.

The things that irritate these digerati about iPhone and iPad and Apple TV are the very things that make those products so appealing to the actual target customer.  Apple believes that user experience, simplicity and elegance, trumps features and reconfigurability and raw power.  So these products are intentionally aimed at doing certain things extremely well, at the cost of completely omitting other features.  Its the old tradeoff of power versus ease of use.

For those outside the technological priesthood, Apple's choice of where this balance should lie translates into wild and grateful acceptance.  No one else can make so much tech so easy for them to use.

For those in the priesthood, those willing and able to deal with more complexity to gain more flexibility and power, Apple's choice is less well received.  What Grandma calls perfect, a .NET programmer calls annoyingly restrictive.

[hbliam]

For those in the priesthood, those willing and able to deal with more complexity to gain more flexibility and power, Apple's choice is less well received.  What Grandma calls perfect, a .NET programmer calls annoyingly restrictive.

Is that what nerds are referring to themselves as now?    

[ryandalling]

What Grandma calls perfect, a .NET programmer calls annoyingly restrictive.

Although, my Grandma still wants it to run an OS and have a camera. Seems like its a conduit to run preboxed products. Almost like a cartrige based gaming console. "Apps" are the plug in... and nothing else matters. Great for some... not so much for others.

[Monster Dave]

^ agreed - good for some not for others.

It's essentially a giant smart phone.

I pad disection and explanation:

http://www.tested.com/ipad-autopsy-video-we-take-apart-an-ipad/47-24/

[Popeye the Sailor]

No no no.

http://jalopnik.com/5509766/worlds-first-ipad-in-car

[trenner]

Is that ("those in the technological priesthood") what nerds are referring to themselves as now?    

Wish I had coined the term, but it dates back at least to Alvin Weinberg's (former head of Oak Ridge National Laboratory) writings in Science magazine about nuclear waste in 1972.

http://tinyurl.com/ykwrqlo

I first learned the term in Neal Stephenson's 1992 book Snow Crash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash

It's not necessarily describing a good thing.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed064p1
http://skepticalphoenix.blogspot.com/2010/01/ipad-crazy-like-fox.html

[muskrat]

http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/index.html

It's a tool for on-the-fly transcoding and streaming video, for example from your home Mac to your iPhone.  That means that I can have a terabyte or more of movies and TV shows on my desktop computer at home, all of varying formats (mp4, m4v, mov, avi, wmv, asf, mpg, mpeg, mkv, 3gp, dmf, divx, flv) and resolutions (including up to 1080p), and watch any of those files anywhere on my iPhone.

no kidding?  I downloaded the tool but now you need to coach me to use my Iphone to hack my computer and watch those files.

[muskrat]

I went by the store and came away with less than favorable impressions.  No USB, can't use as hard drive unless unlocked, only content from Itunes, 3G through ATT which sucks the life out of my Iphone - can only imagine the Ipad, expensive as hell for a 64g version and a host of other little items.  Frankly for my money the Ibook is TONS better and only $100 or so dollars off.  This to me is an over inflated Ipod, which I expected, but at an unreasonable cost and locked to ATT whose 3g network simply sucks. 

I'm fine with my Imac but the rest of their toys will need to be for others....at least until the price and features are reasonable.

[ducatiz]

I went by the store and came away with less than favorable impressions.  No USB, can't use as hard drive unless unlocked, only content from Itunes, 3G through ATT which sucks the life out of my Iphone - can only imagine the Ipad, expensive as hell for a 64g version and a host of other little items.  Frankly for my money the Ibook is TONS better and only $100 or so dollars off.  This to me is an over inflated Ipod, which I expected, but at an unreasonable cost and locked to ATT whose 3g network simply sucks. 

I'm fine with my Imac but the rest of their toys will need to be for others....at least until the price and features are reasonable.

Check out the WePad, your criticisms are all spot-on for why the WePad exists!

[herm]

saw one at best buy today (while researching a replacement for my point and shoot)

meh...

[ROBsS4R]

I picked one up Saturday afternoon. I have not touched my laptop since.

I would be surprised going forward if my laptop sees 10% usage.

No its not some miracle device but for what I do with my laptop is a great replacement.

Its a great step in the right direction. I think the future is going to be tablets and cloud computing