Technology Apple confirms Jan. 27 media event to show off 'latest creation'

[S O F I]

I think Flash support is necessary, too. You can't view all websites without Flash.

In the end, I think this first-gen (important to note it's first-gen and what that means when it comes to Apple), iPad has good things about it. It's very easy to use and it has a proper place in niche areas. Basically, there are uses for it. I like how the screen adjusts no matter where you turn it (forgot technical term, accelerometer?) so it's real easy to show people stuff wherever they're located around you. I like how you can use word processing, imaging, etc. But again, it's just a slight extension of what an iPhone can do because it's a bigger screen and more powerful. It's as if Apple is trying to carve a market between e-book readers and tablets.

 

[Casey]

#iTampon is the highest trending topic on Twitter right now, LOL

 

[Casey]

...and the jokes keep rolling

Apple's iPad announcement earlier this afternoon prompted a score of WTFing across the internet, prompting many to ask, "Are there any women on Apple's marketing team?" Answer: Apparently not. (Period.)

From Twitter (for what it's worth, #iTampon is apparently the number three trending topic on the site.):

tjakabon: "It surfs the web AND stops the bleeding."

Gelatobaby: And you can use the giant QWERTY keyboard to get your period on the #iPad!

CarolBlymire: Is #apple making an iPad for light-flow days? Just wondering...

Trish1981: iPad? Really? All I can say is, I'm sticking with Always, bitches.

tremendousnews: So I can say "That chick is on her iPad" and not be called a pig? Thank you Apple.

melissapierce: iPad has changed "the conversation" from how we use tech in context to how we use tech as Kotex. (who named this thing?)

TwittsMcGee: I haven't heard this many period jokes since I was forced to watch The View last month. #iPad

kathycacace: Okay, just one more. The iPad: protecting your data from embarrassing incidents.

Johnpapa: "64 gig iPad will forever be known as the heavy flow model."

From the comments section of "Period Pieces":

lady_justice: Did the prototype come with a belt?

Lymed: Does the Period Tracker app come free?

fauxfruit: If I order this, will my boyfriend and I have to worry if it comes late?

andBegorrah: If you and your friends all buy one, will they sync up?

boston_nj: Meh. I'll wait until they come out with the iDivaCup

morninggloria: Don't wear white jeans while using an iPad, and especially don't use an iPad in front of your crush. You're a teen magazine embarrassing moment waiting to happen.

ms negative the easy-going unicorn: someone needs to make a 'mysterious blue liquid stain on white' wallpaper for this.

LilSpitfire: Later in the year they will be releasing the companion tablet pen, the Ipon.

Vesuvius At Home (I believe in peace, bitch): But what if the cute boys see me shopping for one? What if my dad has to take me??

NellMood: It's so beautiful when an electronics company finally becomes a woman...

Cinnamoncanuck: @NellMood: Aunt Flo will be so happy! Reply

soykatrina: Eh, I prefer the CVS brand. A few bucks less but does the same thing...

vlvtjones: So will iffy Wifi coverage be called iSpotting?

morninggloria: Can I get a scented iPad for when my data feels not-so-fresh?

Mary McCarthyite: Everyone, just try to Stay(free) calm and Poise(d). It's Always nice to see a new product on the market. I Depend on Apple to come up with great ideas. Maybe we're taking this out of Kotex.

Lymed: Somebody give the iPad a Red Bull, because it ain't no good without wings.

andBegorrah: Are you there, God? It's me, Marketing.

NellMood: iPads are for 8th graders. I'm waiting for the iTampon, because I prefer to do all my interneting from inside my vagina.

BicSharpie: Hopefully it will help people deal with the 24-hour news cycle.

 

[S. Fourteen]

by the way Casey - Prince's Vikings song = truly epic fail. and the reason why Minnesota lost the NFC championship. Thanks Prince.

 

[Casey]

by the way Casey - Prince's Vikings song = truly epic fail. and the reason why Minnesota lost the NFC championship. Thanks Prince.

Oh man, you don't have to tell me that again.

That song was truly horrendous. I listened live to the premiere on Robyne Robinson's Fox news at 9 in MPLS and my anticipation deflated like a popped balloon within the first 3 seconds. That shit sounded like a hymn. Almost all of us clowned the fuck out of it over at the Prince forums, prior to this Apple fail, that was the fail of the year, and I'm not surprised that people said it sounded like what gets sung at the Jehovah's Witness halls.

I don't know if you mentioned that to try and have a dig at me, but it's not working because I completely agree.

It's all good though. I have over 2000 Prince songs in my digital music collection, and including this one, there's probably less than 10 that are basically unlistenable, which is a pretty fucking good ratio. And it's not like he's "lost it" because last years LOTUSFLOW3R album was dope as fuck. Just a little misguided on this whole football "fight song" thing.

 

[masta247]

I think Flash support is necessary, too. You can't view all websites without Flash.

Well, I guess it was meant to strike Youtube since it belongs to Google. You can't watch youtube videos without flash but you can't also fully browse most other sites. It's not like Apple fanboys would care much and from the start this device was not meant for people who have any idea about technology.
Even my mobile phone browser supports flash though so it's not a problem to implement it.

Basically, there are uses for it. I like how the screen adjusts no matter where you turn it

It would be strange if it didn't have it. Most mobile devices these days have it.

I like how you can use word processing

I don't think it'll be any useful here.

It's as if Apple is trying to carve a market between e-book readers and tablets.

I guess so. It's just an enhanced e-book reader.

No SD slot makes you pay for a bigger capacity device (100$ for 16gb more lmao). If it had one nobody would buy bigger versions as you could just use a SD card instead. A 32gb SD costs about 50$ and gets cheaper with every week.

No USB so it's harder to jailbreak and use a usb flash memory for the reason stated above. A 64gb flash drive costs less than 40$ right now.
There are also 128gb flash drives which are more expensive but also get cheaper all the time.
It's also a "great" strategy as you have to buy more expensive data plans to transfer your files over the net.

Everything it doesn't have is not there to limit its users and make them pay more for something silly you could have for cheap otherwise. It's pissing me off but I can already see people buying this. More than 60% people saying that it's a piece of shit means 40% idiots who will rush to buy this. It's sad.

 

[S. Fourteen]

Well, I guess it was meant to strike Youtube since it belongs to Google. You can't watch youtube videos without flash but you can't also fully browse most other sites. It's not like Apple fanboys would care much and from the start this device was not meant for people who have any idea about technology.
Even my mobile phone browser supports flash though so it's not a problem to implement it.

lol YouTube loads fine in the app. So does flash video from PornHub. The only thing I miss are advertisements or those annoying sites that just take up bandwidth.

It's meant to strike Adobe and its shitty format. Apple wishes to push standards other than Flash. That is all.

 

[S O F I]

Well, I guess it was meant to strike Youtube since it belongs to Google.

That makes no sense because Apple has supported Youtube and Googlemaps from day one. Although Apple is threatened by Google and competes on many levels, Apple has no problem with Youtube and Google Maps apps so what you said holds no water. But I don't know why Apple is so hesitant to support Flash. There must be something we don't know.

It would be strange if it didn't have it. Most mobile devices these days have it.

Yes.

I don't think it'll be any useful here.

There are uses for word processing, what the fuck do you mean? It's writing/editing/publishing on the go with a bigger screen and faster processor to make it easier and faster for you to do. You can install a $10 app that uses all Office programs on your smartphone but it's still not easy to update Excel spreadsheets (balance sheets, income statements, etc) on a small-screen device. This bigger screen makes it easier to do so.

I guess so. It's just an enhanced e-book reader.

Yeah that's the feel I'm getting.

No SD slot makes you pay for a bigger capacity device (100$ for 16gb more lmao). If it had one nobody would buy bigger versions as you could just use a SD card instead. A 32gb SD costs about 50$ and gets cheaper with every week.

Yeah, this is what Apple has done for a long time.

No USB so it's harder to jailbreak and use a usb flash memory for the reason stated above. A 64gb flash drive costs less than 40$ right now.
There are also 128gb flash drives which are more expensive but also get cheaper all the time.
It's also a "great" strategy as you have to buy more expensive data plans to transfer your files over the net.

It's about dollar bills baby.

Everything it doesn't have is not there to limit its users and make them pay more for something silly you could have for cheap otherwise.

Well, one blogger on either techcrunch, wired, or gizmodo pointed out. With this device, Apple limits you even more to what they have to offer than previously. For a USB, you need an adapter. To connect to TV, need an adapter, etc. Apple has always done this and it does suck. I can see the benefits but I can see why consumers get mad.

 

[S O F I]

It's meant to strike Adobe and its shitty format. Apple wishes to push standards other than Flash. That is all.

Elaborate.

 

[Casey]

Apple don't have the ability to push standards "other than Flash".

HTML5 will replace Flash, but not for at least 18 months, and when it does, it'll be because of Google - when they decide to make YouTube fully HTML5 (they're demo-ing at the moment).

Right now, Flash is necessary, especially for a larger screen device. You can get away with not having it on a smartphone but that's it.

 

[S. Fourteen]

No SD slot makes you pay for a bigger capacity device (100$ for 16gb more lmao). If it had one nobody would buy bigger versions as you could just use a SD card instead. A 32gb SD costs about 50$ and gets cheaper with every week.

How about something like cloud computing? I always think its silly how some people just have to have 500GB plus songs in their pockets. My, iPhone, for one have never reached its 16GB max. capacity and I've never used a SD card for my iPhone.

No USB so it's harder to jailbreak and use a usb flash memory for the reason stated above.

Okay, how is this thing any different from jailbreaking an iPhone when in fact its running iPhone OS?

Your take on the data plan thing is a bit out of touch there also.

 

[S. Fourteen]

Right now, Flash is necessary, especially for a larger screen device. You can get away with not having it on a smartphone but that's it.

Oh yes you can. They are called apps.

 

[Casey]

How about something like cloud computing? I always think its silly how some people just have to have 500GB plus songs in their pockets. My, iPhone, for one have never reached its 16GB max. capacity and I've never used a SD card for my iPhone.

But (acquisition of LaLa aside) Apple haven't made any moves towards cloud computing. It's not their style - they focus on proprietary, closed hardware.

Google are the kings of cloud computing, and this is obvious from something like Google Chrome OS, which is an OS that is 99% based around the whole concept of cloud computing. I already have everything from my Gmail, GCal, Google Docs (with new uploading/storage of any file), Google Wave collaborative documents, images (Picasa Web) in the cloud.

Cloud computing is absolutely the future but the fact of the matter is that Apple (and Microsoft for that matter) are at LEAST 2/3 years behind Google in this field.

 

[S. Fourteen]

^ Try the $1 billion investment into a data center in NC, USA.

Don't worry though, Casey. The Apple data center is not as big as the Google one.

 

[masta247]

I always think its silly how some people just have to have 500GB plus songs in their pockets. My, iPhone, for one have never reached its 16GB max. capacity and I've never used a SD card for my iPhone.

Because you can't use SD cards

Then why the heck does your favorite company charge 100$ for 16gb more storage space and it even releases a 64gig version? You pay much more just for more storage and my point was that it would be much, much cheaper to have even less internal storage space and just buy yourself one decent SD card. The point is that they don't want to give you that option. They'd rather take a few times more of your cash just to give you some more storage. The same strategy they use with Iphones. You'd have a cheap iphone with 8gb and buy yourself a 32gb sd card but no! They want to make you pay like 50% of phone's value more just to have 8gb more.

Okay, how is this thing any different from jailbreaking an iPhone when in fact its running iPhone OS?

I somehow think that the first thing they improved was its security. It's always way easier to access any device through its USB port. Anyway I think that lack of USB is there to prevent its users from transferring any data and using Flash drives.

Your take on the data plan thing is a bit out of touch there also.

Why? I'm pretty sure that's one of the reasons they negotiated a decent data deal.
There probably won't' even be a single easier way to transfer your data from this device to your PC for example.

That makes no sense because Apple has supported Youtube and Googlemaps from day one. Although Apple is threatened by Google and competes on many levels, Apple has no problem with Youtube and Google Maps apps so what you said holds no water. But I don't know why Apple is so hesitant to support Flash. There must be something we don't know.

That was just a wild guess. I have no idea why they would not support flash then. I really like flash and think that it's one of the most successful formats. It offers really a lot.

There are uses for word processing, what the fuck do you mean? It's writing/editing/publishing on the go with a bigger screen and faster processor to make it easier and faster for you to do. You can install a $10 app that uses all Office programs on your smartphone but it's still not easy to update Excel spreadsheets (balance sheets, income statements, etc) on a small-screen device. This bigger screen makes it easier to do so.

My point was that it would be probably one of the most annoying things ever to use word processing on this. I mean it's even sort of annoying to do that work on a netbook which has a small but physical keyboard but it's probably a million times more comfortable than this.

 

[S O F I]

My point was that it would be probably one of the most annoying things ever to use word processing on this. I mean it's even sort of annoying to do that work on a netbook which has a small but physical keyboard but it's probably a million times more comfortable than this.

The way it was described, it seems that it will be really intuitive to do everything with your fingers - from adjusting columns, to creating tables and spreadsheets, etc.

 

[S. Fourteen]

This thing will be jailbroken a week before its release. loll

My 3G network usage for last month on the iPhone - 2MB. WiFi anyone?

I transfer files (DRM mp3, PDFs, Word, Excel) from my iPhone to any computer on the same WiFi. There's an app for that.

 

[S O F I]

Salty, what do you think of this device overall? Is it something you plan to purchase, and if so, why?

 

[masta247]

The way it was described, it seems that it will be really intuitive to do everything with your fingers - from adjusting columns, to creating tables and spreadsheets, etc.

We'll see. This device was described as super revolutionary before so.. yeah.
Personally I can't picture writing a word document on a touch screen. It would be cooler if you could write like on a casual tablet - with a stylus. Unfortunately it has a capacitive touchscreen which means it'll be impossible.

 

[S O F I]

^lol, writing on a tablet with a stylus is not practical at all. The technology failed.


For me, one of the things I would consider is carrying it. What I like about smart-phones is that I can carry them in my pocket. But with this thing, it's too thin/light to warrant a backpack, and too big to put into a piece of clothing.

But one thing that hasn't been mentioned in this thread is that supposedly it has a 10 hour battery life and that you can watch like 5-6 feature films before it dies. That would be a lifesaver on airplane flights for the weak among us who can't read books for 10 hours.