The Apple Ipad Had Landed

[mali]

^Sounds reasonable to me. I bet on 7" devices in 2010. We've already seen some on CES. 7" is a good compromise and can function as surf device, PMP and ebook reader. You won't compare 7" tablets to laptops.

 

[quote]

Says it all, in my opinion .

 

[Ravnos]

Has anyone here seen the tablet MSI announced yesterday? In one go they basically addressed the complaints about the iPad with their Android tablet. I'd personally prefer Maemo on something like that, but honestly, it's close enough. I agree with the people that don't want a full desktop on something like this, it's kind of weird to use in the form factor, but Apple failed so hard. I've wanted a reasonably priced tablet of around that size for a while now, but all the crippling Apple did to it poisoned it for me, just like they did with the iPhone. It's "wait and see" for the MSI tablet for now, since there's not a ton of info out about it yet, but if it fixes what I hate about the iPad, I'm all over it.




*cough*cough* I'm guessing the MSI tablet ships before the Pandora, too.

 

[mali]

WTF..
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/01/28/michael-dell-shows-off-the-mini-5-confirms-us-arrival/

$1098

 

[Exophase]

WTF..
http://www.crunchgea...rms-us-arrival/

$1098

I guess Dell felt threatened by Apple's high prices and had to outdo them substantially.

EDIT: Someone's comment there:

"Actually, that price is complete BS. Thats how much the prototypes that were available on the Shangai black market cost. Clearly, the author should check his sources."

 

[mali]

"Actually, that price is complete BS. Thats how much the prototypes that were available on the Shangai black market cost. Clearly, the author should check his sources."

Phew!
I thought manufacturers went nuts.

 

[mali]

We had an off topic discussion in an other thread, where 10h of web surfing were claimed on the iPad. I just saw this article which implies 10h of ebook reading.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/29/steve-jobs-compares-ipad-battery-life-to-kindles-youre-not-g/
Combined with the leaked info from a betatester I read on Netbooknews.de, who claimed 2-3h web surfing and _very_ long ebook reading time, edit: reread that utter nonsense, but still I come to the conclusion, that 10h web surfing might be a hoax. I can't wait to read some actual reviews.

 

[Exophase]

You mean, ten hours using WiFi and taxing the CPU are not comparable to ten hours of reading a still slowly changing still images?

 

[danielliu88888]

ebook reading can't be that taxing

 

[Chip]

Despite all the hoopla at CES and Apple's three-ring wankfest on Wednesday, this is not the year of the tablet. Yes, everybody and their brother is making one, but hardly anybody will be buying one. It's not that nobody wants a 7"-11" tablet device, it's that nobody needs one. Everybody needs a phone, and everybody needs a laptop, but no matter how cool you think they look, nobody needs a device that is halfway between the two. Five years ago when the economy was booming, Apple probably could have sold tons of $500 gewgaws that nobody needed. Today, not so much. Unless the economy picks up in a big way really soon, they're going to have to get it down under the $199 "toy" threshold. Right now, only the most hardcore fanboy can justify a $500 device that does less than the $99 iphone or $299 netbook they already have.

And just so nobody thinks I'm only dumping on Apple, that goes for all the other useless tablets in the works. I don't care who you are - if you want to sell a tablet, it either needs to be really cheap, or it needs to replace something expensive. The only two "tablets" I've seen that even have a chance are the Lenovo U1 (replace a laptop) and the Dell mini5/slate (replace a cell phone). Sadly, both are likely to be too expensive to be popular even with their extra functionality.

 

[mali]

You mean, ten hours using WiFi and taxing the CPU are not comparable to ten hours of reading a still slowly changing still images?

Yeah, the PR guys and optimistic spec sheets do their thing right now. I can't wait till someone rips it to shreds. Steve Jobs said in that vid, that the screen takes the most juice, if I understand correctly. Spoken English is hard to understand sometimes. In my book Wifi comes next when discussing power consumption. A tear down could reveal the battery capacity. I doubt that Apple would release that info freely.

Despite all the hoopla at CES and Apple's three-ring wankfest on Wednesday, this is not the year of the tablet. Yes, everybody and their brother is making one, but hardly anybody will be buying one. It's not that nobody wants a 7"-11" tablet device, it's that nobody needs one. Everybody needs a phone, and everybody needs a laptop, but no matter how cool you think they look, nobody needs a device that is halfway between the two. Five years ago when the economy was booming, Apple probably could have sold tons of $500 gewgaws that nobody needed. Today, not so much. Unless the economy picks up in a big way really soon, they're going to have to get it down under the $199 "toy" threshold. Right now, only the most hardcore fanboy can justify a $500 device that does less than the $99 iphone or $299 netbook they already have.

My guess is that Apple primarily wanted an ebook reader, because they saw at the example of the Kindle, that you can make money with it. They just were too lazy to create a real solution and maybe even feared, that an ebook-only device would flop because of missing content and features. Scaling up an iPhone was the easiest way to deal with the situation, because they can just double-pixel iPhone apps now.

 

[Chip]

Wifi comes next when discussing power consumption.

Actually, the 3G radio comes next. In fact, it may rival the display in power consumption. Not everybody will buy cell-enabled versions, but the potential usefulness of this thing drops off considerably without it. Expect the battery life to be half (or less) when browsing over a cell network.

My guess is that Apple primarily wanted an ebook reader, because they saw at the example of the Kindle, that you can make money with it.

I'm sure the e-reader aspect was a consideration too, but nobody needs an e-reader either. OK, so you could replace a Kindle with an ipad, but how many people do you know that have a Kindle in the first place? I don't know anybody in real life with one. Amazon won't release their sales numbers, but even after three revisions and a year on the market, they're certainly not huge. Both the Kindle and the ipad are still just expensive toys that few can justify purchasing.

 

[mali]

Yes, I too think that ebook readers aren't that great sellers yet, but for Apple it's something that doesn't cannibalize from other products in their portfolio and the most important thing is, that they can push new content now. Content is the key for Apple to make money. Now they are able to sell ebooks. You can see at the rather nicely designed ebook application with that page turning animation nonsense, that the ebook function plays a big role in the thinking regarding the iPad.

 

[craigix]

Desktop and laptop space: ARM doesn't stand a chance. People will still insist on running the same software, games will continue to be x86 binary-only.

Had a meeting with one of the big part suppliers and they are telling me that all the big players are working on ARM laptops/netbooks which run the google OS, but rather like the iPad I think they won't release until they are fast enough.

I suspect apple tried the iPad with an A8 and didn't get the results they wanted so delayed and went for an A9.

The same will probably happen with these ARM lapbooks or whatever they will end up calling them, you will only see them when they find an ARM soc with the grunt they want. I think the price and battery life combined with the Google name will wrestle some people away from the old x86 lockdown.

We will probably see a lot of them at Christmas.

 

[mali]

The problem with ARM vs. x86 is that the advantages of ARM play a less important role the larger a device gets and the more power is needed. On larger, laptop-like computers the periphery consumes more power than the CPU and when you need more grunt you consume more power too. ARM chips are great when idling, compared to x86, but under load the advantage decreases.

I don't see laptop-like ARM devices take off in the near future. I really see ARM dominating in small devices like phones, tablets and smartbooks and I'm sure that we need a transition process to non-windows usage first.

Despite all problems I see a promising future as a companion system for ARM SoCs. Put them in monitors, TV sets, settop boxes, laptop screens, cars, whatever. ARM might not take away marketshare by _replacing_ x86 in laptops/PCs, but it might take away _usage_ from laptops/PCs. Do you need an additional PC, if you can already surf with your TV directly, or via ARM nettop for $150? That TV/nettop won't have the grunt to play Crysis, but it can surf the web and you turn your laptop on less often.

ARM phones are used for casual media consumption and web surfing these days, so the process of taking away usage from x86 is permanetly happening. Introduce small and cheap tablets like Archos 5/7 and more usage is taken away from x86. You won't see an ARM revolution, but you see a fast _evolution_.

 

[lulzfish]

Stop referring to processing power as 'grunt', it's weird.
It's the sound you make when taking a shit.
Edit: P-P-P-PAGETOPPER

 

[mali]

.

 

[quote]

what a fag

 

[emil10001]

<snip>

I see that and raise you a Warf:
.

Edit: On topic, I'm much less excited about the appearance of the iPad as I am about Norton Ink's Adam. It looks like it's much more powerful than the iPad (Tegera SoC, claims to be able to do 3 1080p streams at once), has expandable memory, android, and a Pixel Qi screen, allowing it to function much better as an ebook reader. Not that I'm in the market for yet another device, but if I were, I think that I would rather plunk down the cash for the Adam.

The Adam would also be able to replace my cell phone, which the iPad could not do. Not quite sure what pocket it would fit into though...

 

[mali]

^Wow, I somehow missed that Adam
Pixel Qi? Awesome! $320? I doubt it, but here is hoping.