My iPad 2 (definitely not a sales pitch)

[Prometheus Bound]

Digested read: My iPad 2
by Gary Rosenzweig

...Try to think of it as a glamorous backup hard drive.

...This makes your iPad just like an iPhone. Except you can't make any calls or send any texts.

...you can do almost everything you can do on a laptop. Only a great deal slower, as the keyboard is extremely annoying.

...Apple will also sell you a separate keyboard that you can then attach to your iPad. Though at that point you may find yourself wondering why you didn't buy a laptop.

...If you are unsure how to operate the camera or access your photos, then check the instructions for your iPhone or laptop.

...An app is something you can download from iTunes and enables you to waste hours of your time pretending to do something really constructive, such as shopping.

...Most apps you download you will only use once.

...By the time you work this out (where to find your app), you will probably have downloaded the same app three times.

...the most annoying thing about your iPad 2, though....goes to its refusal to run Flash player, which means you will be unable to access content from thousands of websites.

...So there you have it. Well done for buying an iPad 2, an executive toy that is an unfortunate hybrid of an oversized iPod and a rubbish laptop. But don't let that worry you, because as long as you continue to suffer cognitive dissonance by insisting it's the best piece of technology ever invented, everyone will keep on buying them. And no one need know that you basically stopped using yours after a week.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/25/digested-read-ipad-gary-rosenzweig

[hlthe2b]

1. LOL... I think this guy has never used an ipod or iphone...

My personal qualifier: I don't have an ipad and am fully content with my 11 inch laptop. But geebus, this guy's ignorance on the issue is pretty intense. He states that he doesn't know how to find his apps so that he downloads them three or more times? Huh? I think he needed his 8 year old neighbor to give him a hand.


I really hate when those past their fourth decade of life (which includes me) start proudly acting like absolute Luddites. :shrug:

[TheWraith]

6. Yeah, this is a case of somebody not having a clue, and then blaming the device.

I don't own an iPad, or a tablet of any kind, but frankly this is just sillyness. He's too clueless to know how to operate the thing, and too proud to admit that fact, so he acts like it's the fault of the device for somehow being terrible.

[QC]

2. I love my iPad, but, and this is a big but, I mainly use it to read ebooks.

That, admittedly, makes it a very pricey ebook reader, considering how cheap a Nook is right now, or a Kindle.

It is also nice for web surfing, though, as this writer points out, writing anything is slow and tedious with the on-screen keyboard (and adding a keyboard would defeat the purpose of having a tablet, wouldn't it?)

I would never use it to do something like write or grade papers--just too much hassle. And yes, the Flash thing is annoying, and a fine example of the authoritarian attitude Apple has always taken toward its customers: "You will use the programs we say you can use, kiddo!"

All in all, though, I think the iPad is a great little gadget, and I say that as someone who has always been very skeptical of Apple products and found the whole iCult thing off-putting.

[Tesha]

3. This guy needs to Google "vertical (market) applications".

That's one of the places where the iPad is kicking
everyone else's ass.

Tesha

[The Straight Story]

4. And that is why it will keep kicking ass

Vertical apps are big business and there is more there (so far) than with any other tablets. The ipads would be great for ambulance drivers for example (used to work for an ambulance company and am betting they are in the process already of getting rid of the expense tough books for the ipad or similar tablet).

[Apollo11]

5. Why buy one?

Right now I am sitting on the couch with the same Sony Vaio laptop PC I have been using for a full 8 years.

It still works great. I can angle the screen so it's right in front of my eyes. The full-size physical qwerty keyboard means I can type faster than I can talk ...

The touchpad is amazingly fast way to navigate windows and the web. And I can choose between left click and right click. Something that no touch screen or Apple product will let me do!

It has 2 USB ports. I can play and watch DVDs. Watch The Daily Show and Colbert Report online. And I can burn my own CDs!

No built-in camera but if I want to take a picture I can always use my Sony Cybershot camera (12 megapixels). So small and light I can take it with me on hiking trips.

[Atman]

7. Left click/right click? Hello, 1995 is calling...it wants its bullshit back.

Right-clicking, contextual menus, etc...the mouse issues were solved eons ago. I can buy a $5 pc mouse from the grocery store and it will work...both buttons.

[Nye Bevan]

8. He forgot to mention that it doesn't take 10 minutes to boot

and you don't need to constantly run scans for viruses and spyware.

[elfin]

9. But, but but ---- a neighbor and a relative have one

and let me use it -- and I now really, really, REALLY want one, even though I have a MacBook Pro and have been Apple since 1982.

[AldebTX]

10. And a M$ Laptop

is SOOOOO much more intuitive. <sarcasm>

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. Damn. I almost forgot it doesn't do Flash. My kid is begging for an iPad for Xmas.

(She kicks ass in school -- she deserves it.) I'll have to remind her of that. The thing she does the most on the Web is play on those Flash kiddy-games sites.

Samsung Galaxy? (I hear they're less lazy with Android updates than Motorola.)

[Fleshdancer]

12. I love love love my galaxy

It updates regularly, supports flash, it's the size of an e-reader (not too big or too small) and I'm still shocked at how incredible the camera is. I call people with it using my skype account and it's also my GPS. I'm so attached to this thing that I almost feel naked without it.

[jonthebru]

13. there is an app for that,

Swifter it is called.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

15. don't know how lazy Motorola is with updates

...but I do know that they finally released Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) for my Atrix. Waiting for the Honeycomb OS might be a good thing, for those in the market for a tablet but having the luxury of time.

[jonthebru]

14. i really really like my iPad2..

I use it daily Apple has created an amazing market fornthese and their other devices. Battery life, intuative GUI, solid hardware. Great stuff.
I own 4 PC computers and an android phone so I am no "fanboy".