Wednesday, April 14, 2010

iPad, to buy or not to buy?

By now everyone probably has talked about or heard a conversation about the iPad. Despite the horrible name the iPad is actually a pretty innovative product, but that does not mean that everyone should rush out and buy one. Though the iPad certainly does a lot well Apple did not create the perfect tablet. One of the biggest omissions is flash support, though according to Mr. Jobs Adobe is lazy and anyways HTML5 will be the new web standard for video, at least that’s the message Apple delivered. But there are other issues with the iPad as well, despite Apple's criticism of netbooks the iPad is not the best productivity tool. There is no physical keyboard, you can buy a keyboard accessory from Apple for $69, or stick with the 85% virtual keyboard. Of course the iPad runs Apple’s mobile version of OS X, the same as the iPhone OS, and therefore third party apps have to go through the same review process as iPhone apps. Currently there is no office app for the iPad so productivity users will need to rely on iWorks. Of the two iWork apps, each is $10, my favorite is Keynote, and theoretically this could work well for doing presentations on the go.

So would I recommend purchasing an iPad, maybe. Really, the iPad is primarily an entertainment device that just happens to do email, web surfing, and even lets you read books, interestingly Amazon has released a Kindle app for the iPad. So, if you want one device that fits all, music player, web browser, email, and eBook reader then the iPad is probably a good choice. If you need something for composing long emails, taking notes, editing a Power Point presentation, or you want to play Farmville then you should probably stick with a netbook, like the HP mini 311 or something from ASUS. One more thing, if Apple slashed the price to $299, then I’d go out and buy one, sadly Apple wants us to shell out $500.

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2 comments:

  1. Andrew TodhunterApril 19, 2010 at 8:46 PM

    Hi Jason,

    This reply will be in response to your entire blog thus far. First off, let me say that I notice and very much appreciate how the format and clarity of the blog improves over time, evidence that you have indeed noted my request for greater clarity and took steps in that direction--being able to respond to direction is critical, in my view, and compensates for the fact that your blog has a few typos and incorrect words, and that you seem to have missed an entry for the week of the 3/30 class. With the exception of those small errors, your writing is clear and conversational, which works well in the blog setting. Nice, informative response to the iPad. In the remainder of your blog entries, please be slightly more rigorous in the control of small errors, and make sure all weeks are accounted for.

    Best,

    Andrew

    ReplyDelete
  2. JDApril 20, 2010 at 8:48 AM

    Hi Andrew, thanks for the feedback. I actually meant to publish the iPad post on another blog, but fortunately the iPad is relevant to COMS 320 so it worked out.

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