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

Julia Thornton

by Julia Thornton

03 Jun 05:40am

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Filed under: Apple, Entertainment, Ipad, Media, Technology

35 comments

In an old episode of MASH, the doctors are talking about missing television, in particular missing watching Milton Berle at night with their wives. Charles, arch conservative who likes old wine and even older music, says television is a passing phase.

Nothing to see here…

Winchester wasn’t the only one who poo-poohed the arrival of a new medium of entertainment, nor was he the last.

Well, its de ja vu all over again. There’s a new gadget on the market, the doubters and sceptics are doing their thing and technological evangelists are doing theirs.

The only problem is the doubters and sceptics are in the publishing and media industries.

Since the Kindle was released in the States last year, I’ve read three separate articles from News Limited employees saying that newsprint will live on. People won’t give up the newspaper.

They are half right. Some people won’t give up the newspaper, and for that I am grateful. I am not my father’s home computer help desk. But no one will take up newspapers if they can find a more convenient medium to find news.

Enter the IPad.

The IPad is a great machine. Music, videos, books, newspapers and more apps than you can tap a screen at. I can’t decide if my current favourite is the giant calculator or the one where I tap a contact and up pop the directions to their address and a satellite map to guide me there.

I’m not sure it will save the Australian newspaper industry completely, but it will go a long way to keeping more people in jobs for longer, because it is the only way to get genuine paid content to one reader at a time.

Despite Rupert Murdoch telling his Australian employees to find a way to get paid content, only one Australian newspaper has created an application ready for 28 May. Disappointingly, they didn’t include the crosswords.

My local metro newspaper hasn’t developed an app, nor have the magazines I like to buy. I hear they’re coming. But some religions will tell you that about Christ.

No cooking sites are ready to go as applications – so we’re stuck with American cooking sites, which are fine if you understand imperial and want to eat deep fried marshmellows, but not so good if you’re looking for something from Delicious or The Australian Woman’s Weekly.

There isn’t even an app for White Pages or Yellow Pages. Surprising because Yellow Pages could make money both from advertising and subscription.

Books are equally as disappointing.

Borders, very cleverly, was ready. But stupidly mixed all their erotica into the category of general fiction. It’s the equivalent of putting the X-rated movies right next to Disney.

The books I’d like to read via the Kindle aren’t available here in Australia due to licensing or release dates or something. I don’t really care why, I just know that the only books I’ve been able to buy and read are the incredibly confusing books by Steig Larsson or the classics – Pride and Prejudice must be the tablet reader equivalent of Culture Club on ‘80s compilation albums.

I would love to buy all the books I lent to people but never got back. I’d never lose them again if they were on my IPad.

I’d love to have a magazine like The Bulletin (now defunct, thanks to PBL) as ‘a waiting room’ filler.

I’d love to have my local newspaper delivered to my Ipad, complete with local entertainment information and a crossword.

I’m still the only person I know with an IPad. I feel a bit pretentious bringing it out in public when I make an appointment or look something up. So asking the Australian publishing industry to please invest in apps so I have something to read is a bit selfish.

I promise: if you build it, they will come.

Most commented

431Australia, you have nothing to fear but fear itself
390There's no one Thomson won't burn to save his skin
336Animal experiments won't cure me from cancer
313Thomson didn't answer the question everyone is asking
266Who murdered the Arts degree?
246A big day for Thomson, who thus far is guilty of nothing...
231South Australia. It's the middle bottom bit.
231Craig Thomson speaks. Meanwhile, in Australia...

35 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Daddio D says:

      06:11am | 03/06/10

      I hate to disappoint you Julia but you’re fears are rightly founded. Your expensive iPad is a simple calculator. All computers understand only two numbers - 1 and 0 (if zero is a number even!) See? Even computers are stupid and make misculinacations, producing errors unless the right information is fed into it. Ask any Govt budget projectionist. Or me.

      Reply

    • Andrew says:

      04:27pm | 03/06/10

      I was told by my wife this morning to not look so ignorant to point out the exact same thing!! Good to know I am not the only one who can see the iPad for what it is.

    • Ziggy says:

      06:30am | 03/06/10

      Excellent summary.It’s always about the content never the whizz bang technology.
      But the content will come - this is a great idea and far better than having to lug a lap top about. If only you could use to make and receive phone calls!
      If you want the books just go to US websites - no problems there.

      Reply

    • Isabel says:

      08:00am | 03/06/10

      Problems when attempting to purchase books for an e-reader are that many books are not available to Australian residents. For Amazon or Waterstones a US or UK address is needed which will match the address on the credit card used to purchase. This is due to a ‘win’ by Australian publishers and authors who felt the need for protection.
      Those books which are free are usually out of copyright and any avid reader has probably already read those of interest.
      Though being reduced (?) to reading other material may be a good thing - I am currently working my way through “the Golden Sayings of Epictetus” on my Sony e-reader which, at the moment, has only 324 books at my disposal.

    • Steve says:

      08:14am | 03/06/10

      @Isabel there are thousands of cheap ebooks available on the internet (not just the public domain stuff) you just got to know where to look. Ebooks will go the same way as music downloads and there is not a thing Conroy can do about it.

    • bella starkey says:

      09:24am | 03/06/10

      Isabel,

      Most books are available on e-reader in australia, unless the publishing rights for the ANZ territory are held by an australian publisher. The reason why these books aren’t avaible yet is because there hasn’t been a retail outlet, or a comercially available reader in this country until now.

      As the red group get Kobo up and running and iBooks starts up here then you will be able to buy any book you wish for an ereader.

      Most publishers are looking at releasing thier top back list titles and all new releases from this month in the ePub format.

    • Isabel says:

      11:40am | 03/06/10

      So much for my budget! Have just opened up an account with Borders and looking to replace with ebooks all those which weight in my motorhome forced me to give to good causes!
      Bell and Steve - Thanks for advice (I think!)

    • Andrew says:

      07:44am | 03/06/10

      Using an ipad in public. Does that make you an Iposer?

      Reply

    • iMe says:

      10:59am | 03/06/10

      maybe an Iw@nk3r - or an I-diot -
      idon’t know

    • chris says:

      06:29pm | 05/06/10

      Flash back a decade or two to hear the same thing being said about cellphones. Get a grip.

    • 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….

      Reply

    • 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?

      Reply

    • Bah humbug says:

      09:10am | 03/06/10

      That’s all very well but - like many a Punch article before it - the basic premise is flawed.

      Yep.  No Flash, no SD etc card slot, no camera, no 3G in base models, no Skype, and no replaceable battery.

      So what *does* it have? Yep, you guessed right - what it does have is known problems with WiFi connection.

      I’ll keep my thousand bucks, thanks, for something useful.

      Reply

    • coldsnacks says:

      01:57pm | 03/06/10

      Give it a few months, all the other computing companies will have a similar tablet out, which can do more…likely running the Google Android OS.

    • Sam Chowder says:

      10:25am | 03/06/10

      I’m holding out for the 3D ipad.

      Reply

    • Ziggy says:

      03:04pm | 03/06/10

      But without the glasses!

    • Bob H says:

      11:14pm | 03/06/10

      Autostereoscopic screen - does not need glasses.  Already availabke on some TVs and Laptops

    • 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

      Reply

    • 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…

      Reply

    • Nitzpicker says:

      10:54am | 03/06/10

      I have worked in IT for a while, the only thing i will say is, look at apples history.
      Microsoft is Mother Theresa compared to apple.

      Reply

    • Isabel says:

      02:23pm | 03/06/10

      Thank you for putting my feeling into words. I have felt that way ever since faced with the choice of my first computer : Commodore 64, Apple ? and Tandy 1.

    • 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.

      Reply

    • Grendel says:

      02:13pm | 03/06/10

      You can read over 170 Australian newspapers on the iPad using the PressReader app.

      Reply

    • joe says:

      05:34pm | 03/06/10

      I can read EVERY website on the internet with my Web Browser. And my web browser runs on different computers like windows and linux for even more choice and no lockin.

    • Dave Sag says:

      04:47pm | 03/06/10

      I’ve been using my iPad now for almost a week and I love it. The book reader is nice and there are hundreds of free old books so at the very least you can brush up on the classics.  Skype works fine and I have been able to make calls no-worries.  Don’t care about Flash, an SD card slot or camera, I have an iPhone, and a camera grin  I love Air Video tho.  Now I can watch shows from my TV box downstairs wherever in the world I am. I’ve not had any issues with wifi on my iPad.

      I bought OmniGraffle and all the iWork apps and so far found them to be limited but they work and work well.  Good enough to draft letters and draw up sketches etc while on the plane anyway.  The maps app is sweet; much nicer to use than on the phone.  I got a 3G one and so far have chewed through under 100mb in a week so I think I should be safe on my 1GB plan.

      The web browser is wonderful.  facebook works very well and my own company’s website and carbon calculators and such (see http://www.carbonplanet.com ) work perfectly on the iPad.  Hooray! Even The Punch’s website looks awesome, and comments show up (there seems to be a bug on iPhone’s web browser that means that The Punch’s comments don’t display on the iPhone)

      I used my iPad on and off all day Sunday, twittering, youtube, vimeo, facebook, streaming video to it, editing files from my shared DropBox, playing that race car game and more and after 12 hours had used around 50% of my battery.  That is seriously awesome.

      I’ve grabbed the free WSJ app, the Financial Times, the BBC News app and a few others but can’t bring myself to pay money for The Australian. 

      The email app is amazing too.  It’s almost my preferred email client now. The keyboard is fine for ad-hoc typing.

      It’s early days yet for the iPad and what excited me about it is how far this can grow as a platform.  For all the knockers and nay sayers, just try one and see just how awesome it feels.  My next door neighbour went from “What’s the point of it,” to “I want one,” within about 30 seconds of actually using one.

      So don’t believe the hype; the iPad is kick-ass.

      Reply

    • TheRealDave says:

      05:48pm | 03/06/10

      Awesome, so your $1000 iPad does what my Smart Phone does already, nice wink

    • Sarah says:

      10:31am | 04/06/10

      RealDave, the Ipad does what the Iphone does too, but unless you look at it through an Ipad you cannot complain.  Those apps on a smaller smaller look twice as good and are more functional on the Ipad.  The feeling I am getting is that many people are bagging it without actually looking, using it or talking to people who have it.  I do not have one, but am making sure to talk to the people that did and there are a few I know, and no it is not just a Giant calculator.  They have many uses for it and have no complaints about the books.  I am sure you wrote this with a bit of cheekiness for effect and are not really the clueless person to focus on the same things that yes all the smart phones can do, even reading a book..  Let the buyer beware and find a use for a product before actually handing over the cash

    • 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.

      Reply

    • Sam Chowder says:

      05:45pm | 03/06/10

      Sounds like a badly named incontinence leakage pad

      Reply

    • 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.

      Reply

    • 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.

      Reply

    • 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.

      Reply

    • Kathy says:

      08:56am | 05/06/10

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

      Reply

    • 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.

      Reply
 
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