So Who Bought An Ipad? And What Are Your Thoughts?

[Beer Baron]

guilty. to be honest I haven't followed the lead up to the ipad release at all. but the day after release I was at a store with the gf, had a little play with one and they had one left in stock so we impulse bought one.

first impression is that it's a pretty basic piece of gear but it does offer pretty good stuff for the money. I was about to buy a kindle ebook reader but since the ipad has a kindle app and ibook app and a borders app it's a much more versatile ebook reader in that respect. of course there are lots of awesome apps too and having N wifi means it gets good net speed on the couch with my N router at home.

so who else has one and what are your top apps?

[funkymonkey]

I've had one since the US release, through work (developing apps/ebooks for Penguin, we're one of the Apple partners for books n stuff). It's so painful having one in my hands and not being able to jailbreak it (legalities of work n stuff). Also up until it was launched in Australia I wasn't allowed to take it out of the office as per our agreement with Apple.

Apps... I actually like the mail and photo apps, as they're so well designed and intuitive. Borders app sucks balls. So far I haven't been that impressed by any apps as such as they're all just blown up versions of their iPhone counterparts, although Wired and Time mag's "apps" are really awesome. Can't comment on games cos I'm not allowed to install them on the one I've got (*grumble*).

Yet to buy one for personal use though. Holding out to see if I'll be buying an iPhone 4G after its reveal in a few days. If I decide to go with an Android phone over the iPhone 4G, I'll just hold out for a HP/MSI/Asus tablet later this year.

[mad082]

my brother in law bought one on the release day. was planning on waiting for the 2nd gen one (hoping it would have a camera, etc) but he got myer gift vouchers as a wedding present from his work and they were walking through myer and they were doing a demo on it and next thing they were walking out with an ipad. they just got the wifi one and not the 3g one. they seem to like it, but they are both apple nuts. they both have an iphone, and they have a mac laptop.

[Beer Baron]

I actually hate apple stuff. well maybe hate is too strong a word but I've never really been a fan. I did get an iphone 3g when it came out and then upgraded to the 3gs when it came out (it's what the 3g should have been originally). I just bought the iphone as I thought at the time they were the best phone around with good gps, good web browser (albiet without flash), good email app, and of course lots of good apps.

but yeah the ipad is basically a big iphone but people say that like it's a bad thing. there's nothing wrong with it being a big iphone. it's easy to use and whilst not the most powerful device out there as a basic e-reader, email and web browser and app running tablet it's pretty cool.

so come on, hit me with the good apps....

[mad082]

i agree with not liking apple stuff. i don't really like the phones. have had a play with them and while they are ok, they aren't anything super special. when i came to getting a new phone i would've only got an iphone ifit had been free on my plan (which it wasn't). there were very few phones available that i liked. i ended up with a motorola dext (runs android). didn't know much about the phone as it had only been out for a few days here. even the people at the shop didn't really know much about it. they'd only had them in for a few days (i was the second person to get one from that store), and i was able to get it on one of the new optus social plans where i get unlimited facebook and youtube (as well as myspace and twitter but i don't use them) and $500mb of data for $49 a month, which is what i was paying before, however i don't get as many free calls as i did, but i never even went close to using all of them anywhere.

but i have gone off topic a bit. to me the ipad is yet another product that has no real reason to have, other than the fact that we are getting more and more lazy and we want more and more stuff. it's basically a laptop made more simple. or an iphone made bigger, LOL

[funkymonkey]

baroneh... apps to definitely get:

Air Display (stream video over your network so you don't have to convert divX's of TV shows and movies)

Sketchbook Pro (drawing app)

Wired magazine (online tech mag, if you're into that)

iTeleport (VNC so you can remote control your PC/mac)

games:

Need for Speed Shift

Plants vs Zombies HD

Fiedrunners for iPad

[Beer Baron]

add angry birds HD to that list. must have for ipad or iphone.

will try the others.

the marvel comics app looks awesome too.

[bozodos]

meh no multitasking, limited room for exapansion and usability. The media hype bullshit has been sickening, thanks to that, every dick will buy an Ipad vs something that's actually useful.

I don't see any compelling reason to get one over a small notebook or netbook even, given that both of those is hugely more versatile.

But then where there are hipsters and "tech-savvy" (read noobs) there will be Apple sales.

We will be getting an evaluation one in at work soon, none of us are particularly looking forward to it. We have enough headaches with Imacs, Macbooks and Iphones as it is!

[Marcus89]

meh no multitasking, limited room for exapansion and usability. The media hype bullshit has been sickening, thanks to that, every dick will buy an Ipad vs something that's actually useful.

I don't see any compelling reason to get one over a small notebook or netbook even, given that both of those is hugely more versatile.

But then where there are hipsters and "tech-savvy" (read noobs) there will be Apple sales.

We will be getting an evaluation one in at work soon, none of us are particularly looking forward to it. We have enough headaches with Imacs, Macbooks and Iphones as it is!

See I agree completely that there are heaps better products available generally for the same or lower price but the thing with apple products is they do seem to just work as they need to. Except of course when the battery goes to shit or one of many other problems associated with apple shit happens.

[mad082]

See I agree completely that there are heaps better products available generally for the same or lower price but the thing with apple products is they do seem to just work as they need to. Except of course when the battery goes to shit or one of many other problems associated with apple shit happens.

that made me laugh so much. apple used to have this reputation of never having issues. now that reputation has gone to shit thanks to the iphone (and possibly the ipod but i don't really know much about them), and i'm guessing that the ipad will do the same thing.

[bozodos]

We use Apple products in a corporate environment, and they are WOEFUL compared to their Windows counterparts, with the exception of the Iphone. I keep hearing from various staff members how easy to use they are blah blah blah, but it dosen't take genuis to get around Windows 7!

I find the close ended nature of the Ipad to be the biggest problem with it; it's not really a replacement for your phone or your laptop, so what use is it? there's no killer app even as yet. I blame the spin doctors at Apple for the "excitement" over it.

[mad082]

We use Apple products in a corporate environment, and they are WOEFUL compared to their Windows counterparts, with the exception of the Iphone. I keep hearing from various staff members how easy to use they are blah blah blah, but it dosen't take genuis to get around Windows 7!

I find the close ended nature of the Ipad to be the biggest problem with it; it's not really a replacement for your phone or your laptop, so what use is it? there's no killer app even as yet. I blame the spin doctors at Apple for the "excitement" over it.

i wouldn't. apple fanboys were jerking off over the ipad from the moment it's name was mentioned, even before they knew the first thing about it. if you just say "iphone 4g" in front of these guys they will just about cream their pants.

you familiar with the lisa lionheart episode of the simpsons where they make a doll to compete with malibu stacy and then all the girls end up buying the malibu stacy dolls just because they come with a new hat? well that is pretty much the apple/apple fanboy relationship.

[funkymonkey]

I find the close ended nature of the Ipad to be the biggest problem with it; it's not really a replacement for your phone or your laptop, so what use is it? there's no killer app even as yet. I blame the spin doctors at Apple for the "excitement" over it.

we're rolling out all our sales and publicity staff with 3G ipads (with enterprise apps that aren't available on the regular appstore) to push products and give presentations. Also they can better manage their email on the road, plug it in and have it sync up with our main systems all without having to deal with the intricacies of it.

Also something we've come to realise... executives like shiny objects.. really, an app that I made which shows sales figures on an iPad sold more of the product than a regular excel spreadsheet and graph on a lappy.

[bozodos]

Yeah it's mostly our execs who are popping boners over the Ipad and are leaning on us to get one for evaluation. We have the a similar system already set up with the Iphones we have for staff (enterprise app, email syncing etc).

Most of them have Dell E4300 laptops anyway which are tiny!

[Beer Baron]

ok, I found an app I like the look of. it's the F1 2010 timing app. it looks awesome with live timing for all the races plus you can re-watch any previous session (for instance if your broadcast is delayed you can start the timing when it suits you). it has all the sector time splits, shows who's doing fastest sectors, fastest laps etc. and shows all the cars track positions too. it looks awesome and the reviews are great too but the downside is it's $40 and is only valid for 2010 (you have to re-buy in 2011 etc). I would buy it no question if we were at round 1 or 2 but since we are about half way through the year you'd think they could drop the price to say $20 or $25?

does anyone on here have it or even better anyone have a free alternative that is any good?

[funkymonkey]

they don't have an annual in-app renewal feature? weak.

[jazzrocking123]

I have not purchased ipad yet. But some applications I found very demanding. Like gaming, Taskaa nd the most demanding is TD Ameritrade.

[funkymonkey]

well whoever just bought an iPad got shafted, they just announced at WWDC that they're gonna be shipping newer models supporting Facetime, which requires a forward facing camera. Which the current models don't have

[lingeringsoul]

i f**king hate itune.............actually I hate apple for not supporting normal avi files

I can't be fked spending a whole month converting all my movies so its easier to copy....seriously.....itune sucks like shit.............sucks worse than shit

[Atomnaya]

Its probably not a huge step in tech, uses same OS as iphone, same sort of hardware etc, and like most apple products its all gimmick and marketing. No real world use for except to read ebooks maybe.