Apple Tablet: iPad

[haven]

Wi-Fi positioning system

It turns out that there _is_ a way to triangulate your position using WiFi. A company called Skyhook Wireless has created a worldwide database of known Wi-Fi access points and their locations. Skyhook licenses the technology to Apple for use in the iPad and iPod Touch.

This method can work well in an urban environment that has lots of WiFi networks that can be detected by the iPad. It doesn't work in a location that has just a couple of WiFi networks nearby, or a rural setting that lacks WiFi networks altogether.

The iPad WiFi and iPod Touch can take advantage of the WiFi-triangulated location to show your approximate location on a street map, to help you find others in your social network, and to help you find nearby merchants (what Chinese restaurants are within walking distance) and other location-specific assets (where's the subway entrance?).

 

[haven]

iPad delivery day plus one

OK, the iPad Wi-Fi model has now been in the hands of hundreds of thousands of people for 24 hours. Many have posted their reactions and first impressions. Here's a summary of the reviews I've read.

praised by almost everyone
-- beautiful color display
-- responsive touch screen
-- 10-12 hours of battery life
-- overall appearance

positive reactions mentioned by many
-- onscreen keyboard better than expected
.. position the iPad either flat or slightly inclined to type with both hands
-- e-book reading more comfortable than expected
.. Kindle may still be better, but iPad is good enough
-- built-in speaker sounds good enough for personal viewing of movies
-- iPad case from Apple has stand, makes typing easier, good for use as photo viewer

negative reactions from several reviewers
-- heavy to hold in one hand for long periods (24 oz vs Kindle 10 oz)
-- one finger hunt and peck typing is awkward while holding iPad in other hand
-- limited selection in iBookstore (this will improve with time)
-- no simple, uniform way to print (3rd party solutions coming)

durability issues
-- PC World magazine's tests showed screen damage after 3 drops from desk height to a carpeted surface. One drop onto pavement shattered the glass screen cover.
-- The cover over the screen is highly scratch resistant. But the back of the iPad is easily scratched by keys and other sharp objects.

Now on to the issues:

The notion that the iPad could substitute for a laptop was discussed. The iPad is based on an operating system designed for a mobile phone. A different model for organizing information is used.

For example, there are no drives, folders and windows. Documents are displayed in a single group using the iPod Cover Flow model, and you have to sort through them manually to find the one you're looking for.

It's difficult to move information between applications. You have to use iTunes to transfer documents over USB to a desktop. No iTunes, no transfer. (At last, a reason why your office computer has to have music software!)

Even when you transfer your document, it probably will need translation to work properly on the desktop machine. For example, Apple's Pages word processing program on the iPad produces documents in a format that's different than Pages on the iMac. These extra steps affect productivity.

The iPad can't load multiple 3rd party applications. So forget about having a Twitter app or web browser open in the background while you read your email.

The iPad has no support for Flash graphics, so many web pages don't display properly. This is critical for sites sharing videos, so several companies (Youtube and Hulu included) have announced they are working on iPad-specific versions. Netflix announced software for the iPad and iPhone that lets you view rented movies. But there are millions of web sites that include Flash elements, and they won't display properly on the iPad.

My conclusion: These shortcomings provide a big opportunity for other companies to bring tablet computers to the market. A tablet running Google Android or Palm webOS would support multitasking, use a familiar nested folder model for file organization, and support Flash. Applications could be made to interoperate with desktop standards.

But will it matter to Apple that other machines work better for business? My guess is that the iPad will be wildly popular anyway.

Chip Haven

 

[haven]

Several omissions in the iPad hardware have been noted.

There is no web cam, so no video chat.

There is no slot for a flash memory card, so you can't easily transfer photos from a digital camera to the iPad. No memory card slot also limits file transfers to other computers.

And the iPad can't recharge from USB ports on most computers. It works with some recent Apple computers, but not PCs because the iPad needs 10W of power. USB generally does not provide this much juice.

While you can link a keyboard to the iPad via Bluetooth, you can't link a wireless mouse. You have to touch the screen to point and click.

These hardware limitations are likely to be addressed by Apple in later revisions to the iPad. Third party devices also will leap to the rescue in some cases. And new tablets from Apple's competitors may address these issues.

 

[Root Moose]

The iPhone uses the Infinieon Hammerhead PMB2525 GPS chip, it's a real GPS receiver. The 'assisted' part is mostly to reduce time-to-first-fix by leveraging the GPS receivers on cell towers. So instead of 20 or 30 seconds to get a fix an A-GPS receiver can generally get accuracy to a few meters in a second or two from cold start.

I'm guessing also to help wrt when satellites are just not avaialble via line of sight. Think downtown Manhattan.

 

[Root Moose]

The big thing with the iPad wrt the competition...

The competition can be excellent but I still won't care. Why? Because some other device will be outside of my compute "ecosystem". At this stage of life I'm not interested in trying to get things to work. And for the record I'm a technically savvy guy: been a professional system admin for decades on Windows, UNIX/Linux/Solaris, etc.

I just don't care about the competition. I expect the huge uptake that you'll see with regard to the iPad is mostly a reflection of this attitude and/or people that don't know enough to pursue competitive products.

I'm not terribly interested in having a pocketable technical workstation. I am interested in having easy, unfettered access to my media on the iTunes server that serves the house and being able to browse the web for casual surfing. If I can browse the web and compose a few documents on the same device then perfect. It fills my needs. When I sit down to write code, design something in CAD or otherwise perform technical work it is an "event" where I clear my desk and sit at the big Mac to do the work. Otherwise I'm sitting in a casual chair with a MBP on my lap. Talk about fishing with a sawed off thermonuclear device.

There are lots of valid complaints about the iPad as currently delivered. None of them would keep me from ordering one though. That said, I'm waiting for the next revision because the price point is higher than I'm comfortable with for being an early adopter (philosophically speaking).

$0.02

 

[Scott Brady]

So far, so good here

 

[dzzz]

In the tech specs it says that the wifi+3g model has assisted gps.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

Yes, but those won't be available for several weeks. I would not purchase an ipad without gps. The gps on the iphone is very good.

As far as an external gps antenna, the ipad has bluetooth. Will it connect to a bluetooth gps device? Will the iphone connect to bluetooth gps? I expect if it works on the iphone it will work on the ipad.

Apple's bluetooth keyboard likely works with the ipad.

 

[dzzz]

I think here the big question is:

Do we have a large screen in car gps device here? What are the storeable maps like?

I would pay $600 for just a big touch screen gps.

 

[Root Moose]

There are iTouch apps that use the GPS to display topos and street routing. They seem to work well enough.

The issue with using a iTouch/iPad in a vehicle is the multitasking aspect. Since third party apps are not allowed to multitask this could be bothersome depending on how you intend to use the unit. If you are content with your GPS app on the iTouch/iPad being front and center and the only app running then you might be able to get by with the device today.

Supposedly iPhone OS v4.0 will allow multitasking of third party apps. This is likely when I'll buy in.

 

[haven]

Right, I want to discuss the next iPhone in a different thread.

 

[Scott Brady]

So far, my biggest complaint is that I feel like it will slide out of my hand at any moment. It is so thin and slick.

Keyboard is fine, no issues there

 

[haven]

Apple announced that more than 300,000 iPads were sold on the first day, including the pre-orders. Apple also said users downloaded more than one million applications and 250,000 e-books from its iBookstore that day.

Apple supplied developers of iPad applications with a software simulator to use before the iPad went on sale. Now that developers have their hands on the real thing, they are finding that the simulator was not perfect. In particular, games have to be tweaked to work correctly with the screen and the motion detectors of the iPad. So iPad owners may want to wait for a few days before purchasing new games.

Seeing the success of the iPad launch, stock analysts are raising their sales predictions for the year. Numbers range from 4.5 to 7 million worldwide. Almost half of the sales price of an iPad is gross profit for Apple, so analysts are raising their targets for Apple stock to $275 to $280 a share. (AAPL stock is about $235 a share this morning, before the stock exchange opens.)

 

[haven]

For customers in USA, delivery of the iPad with 3G modem and GPS capability starts in late April. You can order the iPad 3G today. The price is $130 more than an iPad with Wi-Fi only.

AT&T is offering unlimited data service for the iPad for $30 a month, with no contract required. This compares favorably with other contracts for 3G data service. For example, Verizon offers a data plan for the Palm Pixi Plus phone for $30 a month. The Pixi can be configured to serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot for the iPad. But the service is limited to 5 GB of downloads per month. The Pixi also works as a phone, of course.

Hotspot WiFi service is available from Verizon or Sprint using the Novatel MiFi for $60 a month, but again, it's limited to 5 GB a month. If you start viewing video content on the iPad, that 5 GB allowance won't last long.

3G speed is so 2009! I expect smart phones, laptops and devices like the iPad to start offering 4G data capability by the end of 2010. On a good day, 3G offers 1 megabit service. 4G, which theoretically offers speeds up to 100 megabits per second, will provide a 5 megabit download in real life.

Sprint has 4G service available in more than 30 cities today. Verizon Wireless says 1/3 of its network will be converted to 4G by December, 2010, and 2/3 of the network converted a year after that. AT&T and T-Mobile plan roll-outs of 4G service in 2011.

As always, it's not clear how much interoperability you can expect from 4G hardware. Sprint is using WiMax, so its gear won't work with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, which are using LTE technology. And it's not clear if AT&T's LTE will be the same as Verizon's.

 

[doc holiday]

No idea if this has been posted before but i thought id share!

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/85205-ipad-tacoma-o.html

 

[Superu]

No idea if this has been posted before but i thought id share!

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/85205-ipad-tacoma-o.html

That is one slick setup. :ylsmoke: