iPad

ArcaneSpringboard · Jan 27, 2010

$499 for the 16GB WiFi version?

SOLD.

I can see tons of these around gaming tables very soon.

weem · Jan 27, 2010

For sure.

Watched streaming video of the announcement - looks great. I might have to grab one

Piratecat · Jan 27, 2010

There are going to be great for gaming; I can see a battlemap app where you put your figurines right on top of the ipad, and just move the map when the PCs move.

dvorak · Jan 27, 2010

/yawn

I remember buying this really cool (at the time) phone due in part to new digital services (majority of phones back then were analogue). Today it just sits in a drawer collecting dust along with the charger, a pager and whatever "must have" devices back in the day. Sometime later I (hopefully) came to my senses and stopped feeding from the trough.

While I appreciate consumerism/capitalism, will it really impact my life if I get one or not. I already have a cellular phone (provided free from the carrier), I already have a laptop (160 GB HDD, 1 GB RAM, DVD/RW, WiFi, used for 1/10 the original price), I have a digital camera (ever sucking up batteries), an iPod yadda yadda yadda. These items have done me a world of good (truthfully) but do I really need one more thing.

Yes yes this <insert gadget here> can save your life. But did one save those other 150,000 unfortunate humans or a few years back when the tsunami struck?

When these devices use a universal charger, the company has a policy to recycle their old products for new ones and humans don't feel tethered to objects then I just might take notice.

Jeff Wilder · Jan 27, 2010

If this thing doesn't multitask, I think Apple may have found something their customers won't swallow.

Tale · Jan 27, 2010

Piratecat said:
There are going to be great for gaming; I can see a battlemap app where you put your figurines right on top of the ipad, and just move the map when the PCs move.

That's about the only use for it I can see myself having. And it's just neat enough a use to warrant a consideration if I have the spare cashes.

Piratecat · Jan 27, 2010

This strikes me as nifty but not essential, but I'll note that my iphone is my favorite piece of technology I've ever owned. If the ipad ends up doing what my laptop does only significantly better - consume written and cinematic media, write, play games - then I'll probably end up owning one. Being useful for RPGs will just be icing. I'll note that I'm one of those people who get the paper delivered every day, to the tune of about $50 a month. I hate news aggregation sites, and like reading the actual paper too much to have gone to the online version of the Globe. If I could get the online version on something like a tablet, I'd reconsider that position - which means some savings.

I have the suspicion that the second and third iterations will be significant improvements, though; I will probably be waiting a year or so. Multitasking and a front facing camera top my "it should have this" list.

If I can design and test iphone/ipad apps on this, instead of a full Mac, then I'll probably get one sooner.

ArcaneSpringboard · Jan 27, 2010

Well, here's the thing. I wanted a device I could easily hold in my hand that would allow me to read books, pdfs, surf the web, and use for D&D. I don't currently have an e-book reader and I don't have a laptop. (Well I do, but the wife is hogging that playing Evony. <g>)

Now you might say that a netbook could do that...and it certainly would. But I don't have one of those yet. For a bit more, I can now use the stuff I've got for my iPhone, easily use the same media I have for that. The netbook wouldn't work very well for reading books/pdfs...I hate trying to do it on the laptop, but would love to do so with the iPhone. It's just that the screen is too small.

This is pretty much what I need.

Scribble · Jan 27, 2010

It can run your iphone apps... but BIGGER!

Count me as not so impressed.

I'll be excited when the non apple touch pads come out that are... you know... real touch pad computers, and not just a big ipod touch.

kenmarable · Jan 27, 2010

ArcaneSpringboard said:
Well, here's the thing. I wanted a device I could easily hold in my hand that would allow me to read books, pdfs, surf the web, and use for D&D. I don't currently have an e-book reader and I don't have a laptop. (Well I do, but the wife is hogging that playing Evony. <g>)

Now you might say that a netbook could do that...and it certainly would. But I don't have one of those yet. For a bit more, I can now use the stuff I've got for my iPhone, easily use the same media I have for that. The netbook wouldn't work very well for reading books/pdfs...I hate trying to do it on the laptop, but would love to do so with the iPhone. It's just that the screen is too small.

This is pretty much what I need.

Same here. Considering I don't have an iphone, netbook, e-reader, or even laptop (wife has taken over mine as well, though, but more for Facebook), this is exactly something I would love.

I recently restarted grad school and reading journal articles and textbooks on my ipod touch is convenient in the "I have the books anywhere", but seriously inconvenient in the "I'm reading a 2 column scanned journal article on something smaller than my hand".

Include the gaming possibilities, and I am sold... once I can spare the money to get one, of course. Or like Piratecat maybe wait until version 2 because Apple has a tradition of great improvements in version 2 of their products (and version 3's tend to be yawners). It's the old toss up between buying a low end version 1 I can afford now, or saving for a year and buying a high end version 2.

Plus I can't wait until publishers wise up and realize "e-book" doesn't have to mean a PDF (or whatever printbook-wannabe format each uses). The NY Times having embedded video in the news article is small step in that direction.