iPad

[Scribble]

If you grab the HP touchpad, you can also install the DDI stuff...

 

[Janx]

Looks nice, and I think it has a lot of potential. I was surprised that it is just going to run on the current iPhone OS. I honestly expected they would release a new OS that would include the issing multitasking capability. It is possible that is not far away, but it seems crazy to release the iPad without adding this to it.

I was talking with a friend last night about the iPad, and were discussing a way to make this a worthwhile investment as an e-reader: create an app that allows you to aggregate pages from multiple e-books you own into a single folder. Think about it for gaming: a folder with the relevant pages for your PCs powers, skills, spells etc. all together rather than opening four or five different books to reference each one as needed. It would also be nice for students while studying or gathering materials for research.

I don't see your page aggregation as being much different than managing bookmarks to important pages, which nearly all e-book software has in varying implementations.

I do agree that multi-tasking/task swapping would be extremely valuable. I'm not surprised that Apple used the same OS, that was actually smart from a development standpoint. It wouldn't take much for them to add task-swapping and enable it only for the iPad (though there's some value on the smaller devices). For the most part, humans don't need multi-tasking as much as task-swapping anyway. At that point, a task manager/task bar feature would let the user flip to "loaded" tasks, and when they switch, it would save the app-state to "disk" and load in the next one. We'd then need functionality to "exit" and app as the Home button currently does that. the key to it would be making it smooth. But given the current model of clicking Home to exit the app to pick another app and load it to navigate to the spot we needed to be to paste something, and then repeating that process when we want to go back...

One thing I'm surprised WotC did was do DDI as a download. It should have been a web-based application. Nothing to install. Thus it can run on nearly any client with a modern browser. As a developer, I avoid client-side applications. Browser-based is the way to go for most situations. Especially anything accessing a database (which DDI would need to do).

 

[coyote6]

If the Character Creator, Monster Builder, et al, were web-based, you could only use them with a live Internet connection; which you might not always have when you want to use those tools, or those sites might be blocked. Users also wouldn't be able to use the tools unless they had a current DDI subscription, which is less useful for the end-user -- it might be better for WotC (more people keep active subscriptions), but it could be worse (fewer people bother to use the tools at all, given the expense).

 

[grizzo]

No Flash support.

 

[Relique du Madde]

OMG! IPad!! THE FUTURE IS NOW!!! PCS need catching up!!!!!!!!!1111

No wait....

Tablet PCS already exist and some currently run on WINDOWS 7. iPad would have been a real game changer it is ran on OS whatever (and not the iPhone/iPod version)and had a huge hard drive. SIGH If it wasn't for Apple trying to take down Amazon it would quickly became a one trick pony. Luckily, KINDLE has a API so KINDLE readers can be placed onto EVERY tablet computer.

 

[kenmarable]

If the Character Creator, Monster Builder, et al, were web-based, you could only use them with a live Internet connection; which you might not always have when you want to use those tools, or those sites might be blocked. Users also wouldn't be able to use the tools unless they had a current DDI subscription, which is less useful for the end-user -- it might be better for WotC (more people keep active subscriptions), but it could be worse (fewer people bother to use the tools at all, given the expense).

If the Character Creator, Monster Builder, et al, were stand-alone software, you could only use them on the macines you have them installed on; which you might not always be at when you want to use those tools, or you might not have permission to even install them on the machine you want to use.

There's certainly pros and cons of both sides, even for the users.

As for the access on expired subscriptions, if WotC wanted, it would be easy to implement in the web-app as well. Just tie the data to certain release sets, and users only get access to releases sets of a certain date and earlier. It's just another field on the WHERE clause.

 

[pukunui]

I have the suspicion that the second and third iterations will be significant improvements, though; I will probably be waiting a year or so.

This. Both the iPhone and iPod touch had significant changes and improvements between iterations. I see no reason why the iPad won't get changed and improved once or twice as well. As nifty as it might be, I too am going to wait and see what they do with it next year or the year after.

 

[jaerdaph]

iPad?

iPad, huh?

[This space RESERVED for the feminine hygiene product joke I will eventually come up with...]

 

[Zaukrie]

Underwhelmed, but i'm sure V2 will be sweet.

No camera - can't use it as my skype video phone like I wanted, or play games that rely on my movement....

No USB (w/o some kine of thingy you have to pay more for)

$499 is for 16GB, what is that? That's not a music library, let alone games, videos, books.....it's not really $499.

Old fashioned aspect ratio.

No multi tasking

No GPS (does the version with the crappy AT&T service come with GPS?)

I had more, but I'm tired of typing the list on so man websites.....

 

[jaerdaph]

iPad - no wait, I got a joke!

Okay okay okay....

What's an iPad?

What somebody from New England listens to music on while driving in their cahhhr or working in the yahhhd!