Here is my unbiased opinion:

Although I use both the iPod and a Mac Box, and love it, I honestly cannot find any use for iPad.

My brother-in-low bought two of them (iPods1), one for himself and one for his wife, and I got to use it for a month or so... I tried, I really tried... with so much hype and my new preference for Apple devices, I really wanted to make it work. But I couldn't. I could not use it as a phone.. do-oh. I could not replace my laptop (can't run my software on it), can't use it as a book reader (eyes hurt and battery dies too soon), and could not even use it as a decent netbook.

My main gripes were:
1. No extensions... like USB, sim card, ANYTHING!!!! Argh! I guess this was the worst. Can you even install DropBox on it?
2. Did not find a way to print from it (thus - useless as a netbook.)
3. No real multitasking.
4. I don't mind proprietary software or paying for everything I use (pretty much do it anyways), but it just did not have the software I needed.
... and many many more.

Pretty much the only use I had from it was watching a movie every now and then (something I don't really need, the TV takes too much of my time as it is) and an occasional Google Map lookup (something I little TomTom can do much better at a fraction of the price.) Even my brother sold one of his and the other is gathering dust in the corner.

Did anything change in iPod2?

Anyhow... my best meant advice is to save some more and actually get the 11 inch MacBook Air. Now - this is a sweet device, filling in most of the holes of iPad, at least where my needs are concerned. Maybe iApd3... but I honestly lost faith in the whole concept since the time I had to play with iPad1. It was crap, pure and simple. And I don't see that much improvement in what I read about iPad2. Might be good for some, but not for me. Just like McDonalds might be gourmet food for some and they argue about it for hours... but not for me.

No offense. Just my 2c.

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- Bantari
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WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!

You can install Dropbox. Almost every reading app and productivity app syncs via Dropbox (each app pulls its files from Dropbox, stores them locally, sends them back up--not sure how the Dropbox API works).

Oddly it seems to cap your local storage at 1GB, and doesn't offer an easy way to locally store everything (even if you have less than 1GB in Dropbox)--it seems like it will cache files you read recently, but not do that prior to you looking at them? I'm not 100% sure about that, because I don't use the Dropbox app much--I use other apps that exploit Dropbox as a service.

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Occupy Babel!

It was tongue in cheek. I think that sort of spec comparison is less important than it's made out to be. The very rare person may need 64GB--in which case, they should get the tablet that has it! Otherwise, who cares?

P.S. It's $700 for a 64GB wifi iPad. $100 for each storage bump (which is ridiculous). $130 bump for 3G.

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Occupy Babel!

Yeah, I suspected that your post was meant in good humor, hyperpape. However, storage capacity can really be a deciding factor in these things, so I decided to respond on a more serious note. (I used to think certain capacities were a lot, but... when I quickly filled my first 14GB drive so many years ago, I realized that no finite limit will ever be enough... and now I have two 2TB and one 1TB external, all at a "healthy" fill level, so I may need to be upgrading again soon)

Well, side by side, the Wifi-only version of the Motorola Xoom beats the iPad 2 hardware in several ways: twice the RAM, higher resolution, slightly larger physical screen, ports, card reader, for essentially the same price. The HTC Flyer, which costs slightly more, trumps the hardware similarly (and has dual 1.5 Ghz CPUs). But I find tablets in general rather costly and "overpriced".

I had planned to get an Android-based tablet, but then switched to an iPad because of the software, and the software alone, in spite of the downsides associated with the iPad (no Flash, no ports, no card reader). SmartGo Kifu alone makes up for the disadvantages because that is what I want the tablet for the most (as a Go study tool). SmartBooks sealed the deal, though I expect this to be available for Android eventually as well. Tablet-wise, the iPad app store looks a lot more impressive to me than the Android market for tablet-designed apps.

Also, commercial game makers embrace the iPad. When I saw Final Fantasy 1-3 for the iPad, I jumped in joy. (I especially love FF2, but most gamers will not agree with me on this. ) There is just a lot more stuff I want to waste time on than I can find for the alternate tablets. My employer also recently produced an iPad client for one of our online products, so there is tax-relavent, justifiable reason! (But we are currently working on some Flash-based projects, which are more relevant for my actual work, although the workaround for that is that I just keep my netbook around, and no, jailbreaking isn't something on my list).

I also wanted a mobile media device that goes beyond what I can do with my Sandisk Sansa, though any tablet would meet my needs here. Then again, the Apple bookstore has some titles that I couldn't get anywhere else, it seems, so that's another plus.

If I have one major concern, it's multitasking, but I'll see how that goes. Maybe it'll come in handy that my first two computers didn't have multitasking capabilities either, but ... yeah, it'll take some getting used to, and realizing that I don't get an iPad as a laptop/PC replacement, but as a niche filler for tasks where a netbook or laptop is too bulky or simply unnecessary, or doesn't have the battery life. I know that I don't "need" an iPad, or any tablet, and that it is mostly a geeky, emotional "want, must have, new toyyyyy!" sort of thing. But unlike some other geeky things I spent money on, this may actually be one that I get plenty of use out of. And being an iSheep is a new experience and completely out of character for me, so, it should be fun!

I had not seen the Asus Transformer - looks pretty sweet.



1. Agreed. Transferring files is a huge pain compared to copying something to/from a usb stick. Many apps can access Dropbox, Google Docs, and the like, but some apps support some but not others. So unless you use one app, or all the apps you use happen to support one service (e.g. Dropbox), then you'll be loading your documents to different places (though sometimes you can choose to open a file in another app, but it is an extra step).

2. I have an "AirPrint" enabled printer and printing is amazingly easily. Any iPod, iPhone, or iPad with the latest iOS will automatically find the printer. Unfortunately, there are few printers that support this. Other printing methods are basically work-arounds.

3. This is true, but the fake multi-tasking suits my needs okay.