iPad

[Charwoman Gene]

I wish more things were done in the 1 : root 2 ratio as per the A-series paper used in Europe and elsewhere. That would be the ideal compromise between movie aspect ratio and paper aspect ratio for me

The iPad uses an A4 chip is that good enough?

 

[Nai_Calus]

The iPad uses an A4 chip is that good enough?

Your avatar made my reaction for me.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

So after grabbing everyone's hype as strongly as they did, Mac wheels out a clunkier iPhone that doesn't fit in your pocket, and can't do as much as the actual iPhone.

Huh.

Incidentally, I'm one of the people who still doesn't own an iPhone, because they're insanely overhyped and overpricey ;p

Honestly Apple, when Pee-wee Herman is taunting you...?

Pee-wee Gets An iPad! from Pee-wee Herman and Eric Appel - Video

 

[tylerthehobo]

A few good ideas, to be sure, but I'm not sold. The iPad won't make reading PDFs any easier at the gaming table than a 10" net book - if anything things will still be shrunken down too much. Had they made the thing as big as apple's tablet-style laptops oh 5 years ago, this would be a slam dunk of a device. But at the size of a large iPhone, I really don't see this changing things all that much. Regarding laying the iPad flat and putting minis on it, in practicality being able to use a real - much larger - actual battlemat seems to be more useful for combat in rooms wider than 5 squares by 7 squares or so... (and if you're playing 3rd or 4th edition d&d, those scenarios will be rare at best...)

No native support for a camera or SD card for PDF's... That's kind of the piece that seals it for me. I like the idea of integrating technology with gaming - heck, that's the point of my blog - but this device seems like style over substance for me, as it relates to my hobby.

 

[Ant]

Having been down the whole, "But technology will make our gaming so much better!" path I've now gone full circle and found that nothing beats a nice 2B pencil and some scratch paper.

 

[dmccoy1693]

As a publisher, allow me to chime in. My verdict on the iPad, though I personally am not going to own one in the near future, I will be making products for it. Why? Because that is where the future is. Every major book publisher is on board and they are offering college text books for it. A healthy majority of college students are going to be very familiar with iBooks and will feel it completely natural to read books on such a product. So yes, my material will be available on the iBook store, and not all of it will be in PDF format.

And no, not everyone will own an iPad, but many will own some kind of device to read books on. I'm sure Dell and all the other computer companies are ramping up tablet prototypes and will be rushing production for something similar. But they will prominently feature an ebook reader. So why not be on those as well.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Having been down the whole, "But technology will make our gaming so much better!" path I've now gone full circle and found that nothing beats a nice 2B pencil and some scratch paper.

Glad I'm not the only neo-luddite

2B or not 2B. That is the question, indeed.

 

[Nai_Calus]

It annoys me for my RL game that I have to sit there with a laptop because I don't have a printer to print off my CB-generated character sheet.

...And I use a pencil and a small pad of sketch paper to track my HP, conditions and powers used. XD

I've never had interest in eBooks of any kind, I have to admit. I don't like reading PDFs. I just got a Blackberry and Amazon's like 'zong we will has kindle app for blackberry soon sign up and we'll email you when!' and my reaction is 'so?' (Although I wouldn't sob in despair if someone made some 4e apps for BB. iPhone was totally out of the budget and I frankly like the BB better, even if it has a smaller non-touch screen and doesn't have a zong compass. I like having actual keys to click. Call me old-fashioned.)

 

[nedjer]

Oops! Out of step again, as the press put the iPad in it's place. Except they're thinking of it as a hardware spec, not a convergence device. For those with an interest I blogged about what the iPad can deliver to gaming (in general) last night. Check it out and tell me I'm wrong

 

[Gilwen]

the main thing that kills this for me as a product in general and specifically for education and RPG usage is that it doesn't have a stylus, there is no way or software to take handwritten notes. This was hugely important to me as a student to be able to quickly and on the fly jot down ideas, notes, diagrams, and not to mention annotation of files. Same thing with RPG's.
I don't really use my current tablet at the game anymore (not enough space and it jsut didn't feel right) but i use it for game development quite heavily. I use onenote to organize my games and print out what I need at the table.

Other main reasons why, while exicted about the product, I probalby won't buy one is that it using the iphone OS. I am locked into that platform and app store. This device also ties me into iTunes which I do not like at all. Also no word processing support (at least that I know of; please correct if I am wrong) except for iWorks. I also don't like the cost of the data plan (this is an issue with all data plans. They are way overpriced) but it is awesome you can go month to month with no contract. With about 5 tweaks and full support for common business office software this product would be quite useful to the business/education world and could open up those market's to apple.

It will be interesting to see how the iPad works out for apple since it's not quite a laptop (even netbooks offer more flexibility on some fronts) and way more than an ebook reader (no matter what they say this is not a direct compeitor to Kindle or Nook). By the end of the second day after the announcement apple's stock had dropped 10%. Quite different from what normally happens after their announcements.

Gil