[geeks] iPad - a 'Miss' for me I'm afraid

[hike]

The Apple Bluetooth Keyboard can be used with the iPad (according to the Ars
Technica running commentary and, IIRC, the Apple web-ste).  No word about
Apple's bluetooth mice.

It will run the Kindle reader for the iPhone/iTouch.

Apple.com said that it will read .pdf files and mentioned Preview and Adobe
but did not indicate which pdf reader, if any, is included.

I can about 1GB of technical books with me.  Not much space on a PC hard
drive but about 40K pages.  If the .pdf reader is as good as Preview, I
would be very interested in using it.

It has speakers, a microphone and a headphone output.  If this is accurate
and the use of iPhone apps is accurate, Skype is a very usable option.

We use go-to-meeting regularly.  It would be nice to access this programs.

The iPad will fit into my smallest book bag nicely.  If the actual product
is as good as the demo, I will buy one.




On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 4:46 PM, Jonathan Patschke <jp at celestrion.net>wrote:

> On Wed, 27 Jan 2010, Mark Benson wrote:
>
>  So it looks really nice, and it's not a bad price either, but... nope
>> sorry.
>>
>
> I can't figure out if it's trying to be giant iPhone that won't fit in
> your pocket and won't function as a phone, or if it's trying to be a small
> Mac that doesn't have a keyboard and won't run Mac applications.
>
> If it ran Mac OS with some sort of Front-row-like interface to all the
> media and web stuff, that would be useful.  Imagine sitting on a flight
> with a tablet you could affix the seat in front of you at eye-level, with
> a bluetooth or USB keyboard sitting on your lap.  Even if the performance
> is crap, you can get Real Work[0] done without the discomfort of using a
> laptop in coach.
>
>
>  Oh and it's a netbook size device with a 1GB ARM CPU and it likely won't
>> multitask[2]... GET REAL!
>>
>
> Ever seen ARM at 1GHz?  ARM Cortex isn't a toy; it's a very swift CPU.
> This device[1] seems to echo back to the first PowerPC Macs: Insanely
> great hardware, pity about the system software.
>
>
> [0] Yeah, there's the keyboard-dock thing, but I still can't run MS
>    Office, XCode, or Mathematica on the silly thing.  It's probably a
>    even pain just to get Vim on there.
> [1] And the name!  AUGH!  Nevermind that there are several dialects of
>    English where short-A and short-O are indistinct. I can't wait to see
>    the following ad copy: "Macs, iPads.  Now available at the Apple
>    Store."
> [2] NMF
> --
> Jonathan Patschke  ) "Science is what we understand well enough to explain
> Elgin, TX         (   to a computer.  Art is everything else we do."
> USA                )                                    --Dr. Donald Knuth
>
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