I hope I didn’t buy a $1000 calculator with WiFi

Eric says:

05:53am | 03/06/10

You can read blogs instead, for free! A few of my favourites:

http://www.the-spearhead.com/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/

http://www.thepunch.com.au/

TheRealDave says:

08:20am | 03/06/10

To be fair…I don’t think they are that good as a calculator either…..it only gives answers that the Messiah Steve approves of….

Craig Lambie says:

09:08am | 03/06/10

Julia,
You did buy a big calculator yes…. as you obviously haven’t done any real research into what you can do with a PC.  The one thing I found with the Ipad is the internet is no longer the internet…as usual, Apple stuffed it up so you have to pay for bits of it (good for journalists) but annoying for consumers of information.
You can download books from anywhere if you get a BeBeook e-reader instead of kindle btw.  You just need a Credit Card / friend with one in the US/ UK.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t a service being offered by some American with a little bit of nous to do this already.  Like the Prozy servers to access OS television you can appear in another country fairly easily on the internet. 
What I am basically saying is you shouldn’t need an “App” to do something, the internet has plenty of websites, which is all an “app” is… it stands for Application.  Well websites are “web apps” mostly these days, so you should be able to access any “app” you want so long as it is on the Web… and well I read the punch, The Age and The Australian on the web without any issues everyday… I never needed another $1000 device to look at the web… I have a laptop, desktop and mobile phone, and I can surf the net on my TV too….. why I ask would anyone need another device?

Mr Pastry says:

10:30am | 03/06/10

I wonder what the eco footprint comparison between ipads and books is.  But we are not worried about that sort of thing any more its rather boring when you got some retail electronics to sell

Joe says:

10:33am | 03/06/10

I saw the Australian iPad ap advertised in the Australian but can’t see anything that it does that you can’t do in a web browser now. All I can see that it does is suck in ‘cool’ people to pay a small fee to get some of their news in a locked in app on their ‘cool’ iPad.

I can’t see how creating an entire application with limited functionality on one new gadget will save newspapers.

Last year I looked at getting the Australian online but it actually cost MORE than the delivered version. Since then I gave up and setup Google reader to deliver the news feeds I realy want. Maybe the Australian missed the opportunity to say hey view our website without ads for $3 per month…

SmithPbuh says:

01:07pm | 03/06/10

Julia, I will not bore you with technical details why iPad is far from perfect. It certainly can be and will be improved. Perhaps not iPad per se, but this style of device will make it to mainstream usage the same as smart phones have in last few years. Apple is not an inventor here, they just produced a device which has typical Apple style, good marketing behind it and “shop” infrastructure.

For majority of us similar devices will flood the market over next few years. Some may not be as stylish but will do more or more precisely, will allow you to freely do whatever you want with them unlike Apple restrictive licensing.

iPad, same as iPhone has a very important role to play: it promotes new technology, which make our endless desire for information, communication and entertainment just that much easier and that much closer. And for that it can only be commended.

Greg says:

05:06pm | 03/06/10

I don’t understand the point of the iPad or especially the point of newspaper apps on it. The iPad hardly does anything that a smart phone can’t and the only benefit I can see is if you’re blind and want a bigger screen than a smart phone.
I don’t understand why you’d pay $4.99 a month for newspaper apps when you can get the same thing for free with RSS and a web browser, either on your phone or on a computer. I can definitely see why the newspaper companies like them.

Sam Chowder says:

05:45pm | 03/06/10

Sounds like a badly named incontinence leakage pad

facepalm says:

05:46pm | 03/06/10

“I hope I didn’t buy a $1000 calculator with WiFi”

I daresay you didn’t even manage to do that. I’m willing to bet that the trusty TI-83 that saw me through high school & uni is more useful. If the cheap-as-chips Chinese knockoff (the iPed) had slightly better hardware I’d consider getting that, simply as a **** you to all the zombie Apple consumers out there.

Nexus says:

04:51am | 04/06/10

The ipad is just another variation on one theme - human machine interaction, but the issue with Apple is that it is a closed system. The real value will come from the introduction of other similar devices that are open (like the LG device running Win 7 for instance http://www.cnet.com.au/lg-pumps-out-windows-7-tablet-339303615.htm?feed=rss&omnRef=NULL) and can run different operating systems, browsers, etc. I can see how an ipad type device would be useful in a number environments like health for instance as the device offers flexible and it is easier to keep clean as opposed to a keyboard.

Jessica says:

05:15pm | 04/06/10

Wow. Comparing television with the iPad. Wow.

The iPad is not like television, it is the new spangled one that comes with a remote. Do you remember the day that came out? Neither. Neither do my parents. If you complain about lack of features, why don’t you make one? Or be realistic and realise like with the iPhone (which originally did not have a video camera or the ability to sms, and had many more setting that were removed because users would break them). Believe it or not many people do make their own applications, do you wonder why you never see them? Because they have to go through many, many complicated loop holes to have them approved, as well as paying for software and licencing.

The iPad is called a revolution, and only the exclusive have them, have you thought that maybe that is the main revolution? Everyone has them. Everyone loves them. Before you love them so much, maybe think, wait until you are sure it’s the best. All I know is that it’s a constraint. Apple controls it’s “patents” such as the pinch to zoom so much that it will be the only company left. Throughout history the best ideas generally aren’t the first ones, they are the combination of the best.

The screen tablet industry will never improve with apple in charge. At least there are those making it easy to jailbreak. I hope you enjoy your woman’s day app, yellow pages and such and I’ll take my iPhone with it’s playstation, gameboy emulator, I can even change the background, and the ring tone to my little sister singing. I don’t know why these were such dangers for apple to have for their mobile, and I look forward to a competitor coming out with a better screen tablet.

Kathy says:

08:56am | 05/06/10

The Stanza app gives you lots of through Fictionwise. Definitely the widest source of in-app books.

Bob says:

07:58am | 07/06/10

Julia, you do know the iPad will run any existing iPhone app too? So your quest for White Pages and Yellow Pages apps really doesn’t need to be that long. And for those who complain that you can’t make phone calls on it, well, you can: Skype has long supported making calls over WiFi, while the new version allows calling from anywhere over 3G network - and its rates to Australian phones are better than Australian telcos.