Don’t you worry about the iPad lacking an SD card slot and USB port. Apple has you covered with adapters! How nice of Lord Jobs. Instead of building in two industry standards, users are forced to buy extra items with their new iPad. It’s not like the these standards are large and would take away from the oh-so-important design.
But it really is ridiculous that the iPad doesn’t have an SD card slot built-in. USB port, fine. Apple is sticking with its massive dock connector, but an SD card slot — or microSD card slot — would actually open the iPad to some niche markets.
Just think about photographers. The SD card slot would allow them to quickly and efficiently preview their shots on a large screen. The USB port would even allow them to control some DSLRs directly from the iPad with the right app. But nope, can’t do it without an adapter. Even then, they would only be able to use one at a time because of the single dock connector.
So it seems that the iPad is designed to milk every last penny out of buyers. You see, having a flush-mounted SD card slot would allow consumers to get away with buying the 16GB model and increasing the storage themselves. That’s clearly not in Apple’s financial favor, but it’s not like anyone expected Apple to look out for the buyer anyway. This is a dealbreaker for me.
The big ass bezel around the screen is kinda Sony’s My First Tablet computer too.
The bezel is probably a design choice. Think about it. A multi-touch screen. Your grabbing this thing probably with your thumb over the top on any giving side of this screen. With no bezel your more prone to get extraneous touching and the screen may mistake that for actual input. Apple’s all about design, you’d think they’d miss that?
edit: “giving”, should be “given”.
Yes we’ve heard about this blasphemies over and over again.. hopefully they’ll stop now… The funniest thing is the one blurted out the the CEO of mahalo.. saying, the iPad will be insane like “wii” gee.. what a predicament!
Details: http://bit.ly/apple-tablet-details-and-history
Well if you’re going to edit yourself, you should also note that you meant to say “You’re grabbing”…
Normally I wouldn’t take the time to pick on something like that, but it’s a great segue for me to point out my top iPhone OS “dealbreaker” (besides lack of true multitasking): the helpful auto-correct consistently changes “its” to “it’s” without a confirming popup, even though “it’s” and “its” don’t even have the same meaning! Duck you, Apple (and if you’ve used auto-correct on the iPhone, you know what that really means)
His point is that it looks ugly and I agree. Surely there would have been a way to make it workable without the bezel.
Apple does that to make few more bucks from the useless sht you need to buy like this
Yes, they missed the boat with usb, sd card slot and flash. The cheap plastic Apple adapters you need to purchase for nearly every Apple product are no-go. By Cheap Plastic, I mean Cheap Plastic.
I’ve had to replace every single one I’ve ever bought from Apple after a year or so. I’ve bought them for displays, projectors and so forth. They are thin-skinned, hard plastic (the kind that cracks). They are ugly awkward and white for about 6 months.
They were a perfect match for the ibook and haven’t changed since. You think if they were rubberized (like every other adapter Apple doesn’t sell) they would not need to be replaced. Or even a color that matches any of their current products. At $20 to $30 apiece they will serve no better purpose than to make PC users laugh at you.
I have been an Apple user since before Macintosh and this is one of the worst ways I have ever seen apple milk it’s customer base.
Let me add I do not have an iPhone. I have been waiting for the sd card slot to come to them. The Nexus One has beaten them to it. Actually, my motorola from 5 years ago beat them to it.
-my 3 cents,
funny how my Apple stock plummeted the day Steve introduced the iPad. Coincidence? I’m still down about $20.00 a share. I just hope an Apple designer will read this.
That’s your opinion. I’m perfectly happy the way it is. You see, I live in the 21st century and there’s something called WiFi that will allow me to transfer my data without a USB cable to lose. Heck, even cameras are WiFi these days.
As for the share price dropping, the entire market dropped, but the drop appears to be at least partly because people are doing what you’re doing it – judging it against unrealistic hype that bloggers generated rather than looking at it as its own product.
Joe: Wifi is dead slow in comparison to USB or SD cards. try downloading 4 GB of video or photos on WiFi and see how you get old waiting for that to happen. Wifi is for internet usage; period. Cameras with Wifi are for children, not proper photography. Wifi cannot replace proper data transfer and won’t be able to for another 8 years if Moore’s law is correct.
Why the hell would you want to regularly transfer 4GB of video from/to an iPad?
For initially putting all you media on it, sync from your Mac. For everything else, there’s dropbox.
not the matter of transferring 4GB of files. It’s the inability to copy any files from flash drives out in the world.
Going from work, to friends house, and traveling. I don’t have time to sit down properly and migrate things over the WiFi or dock it to a Mac.
If this thing is supposed to become the new portable craze. At least add an USB port to allow flash drives and SD card readers instead of buying a dongle that I’ll eventually lose in my bag or pocket.
steeroys reply is typical of a product fail defender, when asked about transfering a reasonable 4gb of media back and forth, the obvious and only defense Apple fanbois can offer is “why would you ever want to do that?”
But this only underscores Jobs’ brilliance, what other company can cultivate such an obedient herd of consumers who happily buy into Apples expensive, feature poor product line. Jobs has earned every penny with his marketting genius and Android comparatively could lose out on Apple scale profits by giving customers a good deal for their spending dollar.
How is your stock now Craig!?!?
>>>funny how my Apple stock plummeted the day Steve introduced the iPad.
what stock site were you checking cause it actually went up.. checked it lately? c’mon split!
There needs to be a usb for me to buy sure u can ftp to it or make a shared folder for me but my wife cant do all that so im stuck doing yaahh apple
the “big ass bezel” is so you have somewhere to hold it without touching the screen.
As far as the author’s opinion that the dock connector is “massive”, it seems pretty small for something that carries power input and output, data I/O, audio I/O, video I/O, and control I/O for dock accessories. You can’t do that over USB with 4 pins. (well, you can, but you have to just send data and let the client do all the work.)
i am a little pissed about the SD thing, though.
Chill! This is a game-changer device. Celebrate it! See the vault as half full. You will get over what you perceive as shortcomings. Besides, I am sure His Jobsness will included the two ports in the next generation – which you will have to buy just to keep up with the Jones’.
Sorry, but the iPad has more than a few drawbacks and is totally unacceptable. While Apple makes sleek products it is absolutely loathsome in how it treats its customers. It is in a neck-to-neck fight with Sony, and I think they even beat Microsoft on the loathsome front.
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ipad
Right, the iPad just came out. Of course there will be some debate about design and accesories. I personally dont want one until the ports have been added but thats no reason to bash them. Give them time to catch up to the consumers demands. Perhaps it was an oversight, perhaps not, but they will add them once they realize that more people will be interested to buy. Have cheer children! All good things to those who wait!
This is what happens when something new comes out they design it with the basics. The next iPad will probably have more options like a usb port and maybe the next will have a sd card. Eventually it will come with 120gb and more options that would make it closer to a notebook. Greed is the main characteristics of these people, they do not care about the customer at all. All they care about is making money and where there stock price is at not the people who they know will buy their products because people just have to have it. I wish that people would boycot it and not buy it at all and that these issues are addressed regarding the lack of services and addons that it should have. Does it even have flash? The iPhone 3gs still does not have flash which is sad seeing that all most every website needs flash to play videos on it. I love my iPhone and I will buy an iPad only if dev team or someone comes up with a jailbreak for it. I jailbroke my iPhone and there are some people who frown on this but I don’t care because apple takes advantage of people by doing these business practices of not including things on it when it can easily be added and they make accessories to make people pay more money for something that should have been included. Steve Jobs is an asshole and this iPad is nothing but an oversized iPhone or iTouch with only a few differences which because of jailbreaking we have had these wonderful new additions they have added before Steve Jobs allowed us to use them. Why can’t you customize all your background pages on the iPhone 3gs or have flash? Money and the iPad which has been ready for probably a couple of years and they decided to release it now. I would bet a lot on that and I would bet that they have the next big thing ready now only to release it a couple of years down the road. Greedy assholes. I can only hope that someone comes out with what they have already planned first and show them up. If someone would come up with something better than their products you will see that the price an service will blow apple out. I hope that it has everything that they plan on releasing at a price that will shock everyone. Greedy greedy greedy. Thank you jailbreak creators keep going and the jailbreak is safe and even though you cant downgrade you firmware on itunes anymore because they are control freaks, there is a way to do it. LOL. What ever you do Steve Jobs to stop the jailbreakers they will eventually find a hack. Greedy greedy assholes. Down with apple.
I laugh at these posts because so many people hate on things that don’t suite them. I guess all the people who bought the iPad are dumb because they spent money on something that doesn’t have a usb port or SD slot. How dare they sell out of the iPad! How dare people buy these things without boycotting it for a camera or usb or SD slot!
Come on… if you don’t want it then don’t buy it. Simple! Is that reason to tell the world how bad a product is that you don’t even own just because it does not have a peripheral that YOU want in it?
In some sense, yes you’re right. But mostly people are upset because Apple “knew” what the current techie market needed and didn’t care to offer those things in their newest product.
But they still have the audacity to call it “the game changer”.
USB, SD slot, Camera… These are not the next generation necessities needed to be invented. They are already out there in masses and they are dime a dozen so they don’t change the bottom line of cost.
People begin to see what lies behind the so called user friendly, customer oriented BS. When people realize how the actual corporate mentality works.
Like buying a beautiful car with the exception;
- If you want to fill up your tank, regular gas pump doesn’t work for your car and you have to buy an additional gadget to fill up your car.
- You want to listen music? Only option is to add a Sirius or XM radio for an additional fee. This latest miracle car doesn’t come with an ordinary FM Radio + CD Player.
- You need to fill air to your tires. Well you need another gadget to do that too…
and so on.
That’s why people getting pissy. Too many people are ready and willing to pay a few hundred $ more if iPad had a camera, usb, SD card slot, flash support, etc.
I was ready to spend up to a $1000 for a single portable device that I can do most of my stuff on the go.
But if I still have to carry my phone, my Macbook and my camera everywhere I go then why I need the iPad?
Where’s the advantage of this “game changer”?
I know you will look “cool” to some.
It’s like walking around with a cute puppy. Even though as a dog he/she will be useless, still, you’ll get all the attention until Apple announces the next (updated & upgraded) version.
Well, enjoy…
I agree! Quit complaining people! The iPad has been out a month and 1 million of them have sold! wow…
This was a frantic last minute add-on. So it wasnt incorporated into the tablet.
Sorry, Apple and “frantic last minute add-on” don’t go hand in hand… try again fanboi.
APPLE SUCKS!
WINDOWS 7 FOR THE W!N
lol. what a moron! go have fun with your bugs and crashes. (from an ex-win user, now apple user and computer engineer)
go learn something about computers. Computers aren’t just the games you play on win (the main thing people say about mac vs win… oh and my games? buh uh)
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The AMEN was to the PC guy, not the dumb mac guy. The mac guy probably goes to kANSAS!!!!!!!
dude – millions of software and computer engineers use windows. what a moronic fanboy you are? I don’t know what kind of engineer you are – one who has biases and is willing to ridicule anyone else who goes against them. i can go on and on but probably you still won’t understand – in short you are an educated illiterate.
LMFAO! I hadnt noticed how much love I was receiving on this thread. I dont just game on pc’s I live on pc’s. I maintain and support over 5000 clients I work for a school district and we support MAC’s, PC’s, Printers, copiers you name it I’ve done it. Networks, Servers, the list goes on. Unlike your belief I dont live at home with mommy and daddy paying for my stuff. Grown man home owner and I will say it’s all thanks to my knowledge and expertise on PC’s. Have a nice day and yes I still strongly believe that APPLE SUCK!
After 17 years of being a hard core PC user, a few months ago I purchased a new Mac Book Pro. I will never buy a PC again. Because Apple makes the hardware and the software they are able to do some remarkable things. I love the gestures on the mouse pad. Since it recognizes how many fingers are on the pad you can program in 10′s of thousands of gestures to your customization (with a third party freeware).
I also love the way you install and uninstall programs. Drag the software you want to install to the app folder. Done. to uninstall, drag it to the trash. Done. No registry etc…
Pressing the space bar on any file opens a preview without opening the underlying app. AMAZING. pdf, mp3, word, excel, just about anything. I don’t even know how it works, it just does.
The screen is among the brightest crispest screen I have ever seen. I’m at work now on my HP laptop and the screen at the brightest setting doesn’t even come close to my Mac Book.
These are just a few things that I love about my decision to buy a Mac.
So when you say the PC is better, what specifically? It didn’t take long for me to become a convert!
Oh, and FYI, I’m a certified MCSE, and work in networking. Mostly VMWare and CISCO stuff.
Computer science != Apple
Web Servers != Apple
Apple == overpriced
Apple == non-upradable toys
Apple == tyranny
@Jay
Computer Science == Unix, Mac, Windows, Linux, Sun
Web Servers == Unix, Mac, Windows, Linux, Sun
You get what you pay for and my Mac is very upgradable… I use both Mac and Windows… I have upgraded both mechines just fine. Oh and I built my Windows PC and spent just about the same amount of money on the parts as I did for my Mac PC.
@ Nick, “You get what you pay for…” ummmm ok if you’re willing to pay an inflated price sure go ahead and do that. Everyone knows you pay extra on SOFTWARE when it comes to Apple products, hence why the Ipad is relatively expensive, oh and a joke.
You clearly have never had Apple as a client before
All i need to say is,” I Blue screened windows 7 Home edition in less than 30 min. Just getting a device driver loaded.”
After 20 years of reboots and blue-screens, flaky ass software and VISTA!? on my computers and my Clients, I went to Apple. I will NEVER use windows again though I do still have to support it HA HA. Only thing I have to do for Apple users is show them how to get there data off their old Windows system and on to there NEW Apple.
MCSE/MCT , ETC. I.E. things ill never pay to update again
Proud convert to the Cult of MAC
HAHAHA! you must suck at using computers if you have THAT many problems and under 30 minutes. no wonder you went to mac. its the pc for idiots who need everything done for them.
i do mass work and only came into BIG problems about once a year. easily fixable tho.
Is this how I am going to be able to get my DVD rips on there? :-(
you have the option of transferring your media through iTunes (mp3s, video, apps on the 16-64gb hd) and have the option to output at 480p.
why would you ever need a usb and simply attach a thumbdrive with bluray rips, ridiculous?!
Read the article again and you’ll see why.
480p on a 768px display… yeah, that’ll look gorgeous stretched unevenly to 1.7x size.
Sure beats the JooJoo though, eh comrades?
nope, the joojoo has an SD slot
+1 for Lolz
+1 for Lolz
This is a stupid post. Apple obviously has a history of deleting ports and it is *never* in order to milk customers for adapters.
You don’t get a post with rational thought. It is the same conversation as “no floppy” or “no ADB.” My Air has one USB. Big deal. The compromise is fine with me…
The apple apologists must be around the corner. Why worry about functionality when the hipsters and wannabes will buy this anyway?
There is nothing new or revolutionary about this device, it’s just a very large ipod (not even iphone since you can’t call with it).
I mean, on all that space and those cheap bastards couldn’t put in stereo speakers?
applogists?
Ha, jesus christ… now I’ve heard it all. The iPad sucks because it doesn’t have…. stereo speakers.
Were you expecting a lot of separation and left-to-right action in the 7 inches of distance between two speakers sitting on thebottom? And good sound quality?
WTF is wrong with you people.
Actually… The Nintendo DS does unbelievably amazing stereo with just 4-5 inches of separation…
There are a few reasons for this:
1) Apple wants more people to buy the higher capacity versions, that obviously give Apple higher profit margins… being able to buy a cheap SD card and add an additional 8 or 16GB of storage makes the “higher end” models are obsolete.
2) To avoid a situation similar to the Android… If Apps get stored on a removable SD card, and you take it out, the apps disappear… if you put it in someone elses, its likely going to be very easy to copy over paid apps.
This helps to ensure Apple gets more control over its users, encouraging more expensive purchases and helping to obsolete the device faster to users can purchase our next greatest version out in a year.
I’m ok with funding a great company like Apple and Google.
“Apple wants more people to buy the higher capacity versions”
Doesn’t every vendor of hardware? Thanks elucidating the key issue Captain Obvious.
“If Apps get stored on a removable SD card, and you take it out, the apps disappear…”
Ahem, did you even read before posting–they are providing a plugin module that will hold a card so your theory is easily shown to be hot air. Nice try–read first next time.
But the kind of people who would try to copy apps so they would be free would probably not go out and buy a 25 dollar adapter.
Apple hates anything “physical”.
- Apple used to sell mouse with only one button.
- Apple did not have “eject” button for close to 10 years for the Floppy or the CD player
- The original Mac has no expansion capabilities when every other computer have expandable memory slots
- iPhone came out at a time when every other smart phone has a keyboard.
Apple spends all its energy on simplifying the user experience. It does not know how to make a product “more expandable”. The company is focused on consumers, not professionals.
>>Apple hates anything “physical”. <<
Why all the bloody white dangling adapters to mimic something that most computers hide on the sides of their hardware unseen until needed?
If you ask me, Apple is making this thing bulkier and more "physical" in the same of simplifying.
They are constantly making new adapter types for each new device instead of sticking with a standard. To me, this hasn't simplified my life when for example a battery charger that worked on my iphone 2G wouldn't work on the 3Gs because appled decided to F' around with their adapater specs once again. And we all remember the screw up with the 1/8th inch earphone jack on the original 2G forcing us to either shave off the plastic of "standard" headphones to let us use them or spend $60 on official "Apple Certifiably Long Enough to fit in this non-standard 1/8th inch jack. I mean who the fk made that decision and who finally decided it was stupid? Steve and Steve?
See, I’ve been around apple stuff for a LONG time. They was AWAYS about “reinventing the wheel” or NIH (not invented here). They don’t like industry standards and want total control. They decide, not you on what features to have. No matter how popular or standard a feature is, Steve Jobs will have the final say.
Apple’s history is rich having a fsck you attitude. The ipad is the pinnacle of this sideways, gone full retard way of thinking. With Steve Jobs at the helm, Apple will never see the light past %5 of market share. Mac users don’t care anyway as they have bootcamp and pirated WINx to keep them happy with the “Apple User Experience” to keep them buying.
To me, Apple success will last only as long as there are suckers tricked to play and stay in their sandbox. Apple is GREAT at the marketing mindfsck to insure they will always be consumers to buy there overpriced, underwhelming boutiqueware.
Its very easy to prevent app-swapping if that was really a worry; See the Nintendo Wii and WiiWare/VC game downloads.
You cant easily swap them between systems, cracking the whole system and running your own emulator is actually far easier.
Merely having something stored on an SD card dosnt make it swapable if they have tied it to the system.
Matt Burns is a massive dock connector
Probably. I hate that guy.
“would actually open the iPad to some niche markets.”
the obvious thing to say is it would open the “larger iphone” to piracy
Heh, don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll have cracked apps very soon after its release…
If you live in idk, Tanzania, and you wan’t your iPad, you’ll get it. And people like that know how to crack stuff…
LMAO so what´s better than a netbook right now? for around 500 bucks you get an Asus with atom 330 dual core, 12.1 inches screen, it includes keyboard, USB ports, built in webcam, massive storage compatibility, no touch screen but Apple failed big time to address a market that potentially would be huuuuge for them.
I´m an uber Apple fan (all my computer gear is Apple) but I already have an Ipod touch… I don´t need an overgrown version of the same device.
I’m really sorry Apple is forcing you to buy something you don’t need or want.
agreed. Poor guy.
EXACTLY! I have been craving an Apple netbook for so long and gave up when some talking head from Apple said the company would never create one because it would be useless. Well, it’s not useless to someone who needs to access documents while away from home and check email and do personal stuff without using your work computer and potentially getting into trouble. So I bought a used Asus netbook for $116 on Ebay. Because it’s Windows-based, the thing is slooooooooooooooow as molasses, but it’s at least getting the job done that I need it to do and it gives me a few USB ports to boot. I would give anything for an Apple netbook with OSX and I think this Ipad could’ve been a good substitute if they would have included the USB’s and somehow incorporated a disc drive in it. I may end up getting the $499 version just as a backup to my MacBook so I don’t have to deal too much with the slowness and crashing of my old Dell.
LOL its not slow because its windows you idiot. its slow because its got a crappy atom processor in it. besides you can just put osx on it anyway. nub.
I don’t think this is bad. Instead of being locked into one type of port, you can get a connector for whatever format you use. No big deal.
You mean, instead of just having all the ports necessary available all at once? I don’t see how that could be more convenient.
Try opening the iPad… I don’t think you’ll find a place to put a toothpick, especially 5 more ports. I’m sure they didn’t forget about the USB port, it’s just they had to sacrifice something to make this thing…
Don’t worry, the Canon 7D has Bluetooth. All upcoming DSLR’s will have.
transferring RAW photos w/ bluetooth? slowww
The Future is “WiFi Direct”
Yet another way for apple to rip us off. Tis the reason i refuse to buy anything apple, they hate the consumer and dont stick with standards
Yes. Apple keeps coming out with all these products just to bilk us poor, stupid customers out of money, instead of sticking with the standards.
If they had stuck to the standard (DOS) years ago, we could have had WFW 3.11 on our macs!
Thats a very very poor straw man argument.
Nothing on this devices super-seeds standards.
Apple’s port does not negate the need for usb.
Matt, your post lacks merits. The pro photographers (the one that really need to see their photos “on the run” through external monitor) would use calibrated $2-3,000 monitors to get _quality_ of the photo (colors, brightness, etc), rather than simple having abality to view their photo on a bigger screen (than camera).
I don’t see anyone using this as a main photography editing station but rather something to use in the field rather than the camera’s 2-inch screen.
Unless you shoot mainly in the studio you do not really have much choice when you are a field photographer. Unless you want to lug around your calibrated Eizo monitor which is not practical.
The majority of the recent laptops have TN screen which is not really ideal for viewing the color accuracy of your shots. The iPad has a IPS screen which is a potentially (take note I said “potentially”) a much better choice due to the merits of the screen technology alone. Possibly a tool will be developed to calibrate the iPad’s screen.
You would never carry a calibrated monitor around, they are sensitive to warm, cold, movement, it’d lose its calibration very quickly, so that argument is completely pointless.
I am a photographer and was never very interested in this product from a professional point of view, even before (as mentioned above) it became apparent there is no way for me to connect my cameras.
Carrying a calibrated monitor is absurd, they are sensitive to warm, cold, movement, it’d lose its calibration very quickly.
I want to get my images into Photoshop straight away, I want to be able to do everything I’d do in my studio which was never going to happen with this. I’ll stick to my macbook air for when I’m out and about.
I think it’s a shame about the missing usb, for your average user who is on holiday, wants to link up their digital camera etc and see there snaps, this could have been a great product.
Exactly – buy a laptop not an iPad! Top of the line ones are ~ the same price!
“Exactly – buy a laptop not an iPad! Top of the line ones are ~ the same price!”
If you think a top of the line laptop is about the same price as an iPad, you’re truly delusional.
Although I suspect that you know it’s not true and you’re just lying.
Wait, the connectors are back? They went away for the iPhone and iPod Touch (after they didn’t work for the classic ipods), now they’re back? Can we use these on iPod Touches now? I’m a photographer and that is precisely what I want to use this for, but if I can do it on a Touch, then to hell with the iPad!
Apple presentation is over. WE, designers, funders and producers of JooJoo can sleep well and get ready for a massive buy-out coming any minute!
Would be nice if we ever get the same deals on ipod touches (30$ for unlimited data) haha this will rock skype!
I am a video producer. I had high hopes for this. Imagine if I could mount this on my camera, use it as a monitor, and record backup at the same time. But… Its an iphone. Bummer
Wait to be able to use SD cards with the iPad? There’s an Adapter for that…
Apple should just kill their stupid dock connector entirely and replace it with one (or two?) micro USB connectors – also in the iPhone. They are capable of doing the same.. the iPhone Accessory framework stuff did never really take off… so nothing preventing them from changing from DOCK to micro USB… and it would even save space.
The reason there’s a full dock connector is to provide signals beyond straight serial data, such as video, audio, and controls. If that were to all be transmitted via USB, then all of the support hardware (A/V cables, microphones, etc) would require substantially more guts to do the D/A conversion or video conversion (and likely use more power).
Also, it’d have to be two connectors, USB is dedicated host/client based, so one connector would be dedicated to connecting to a host PC, and the other would be dedicated to connecting to clients. To add to that, I dont think there’s a “mini” USB format for hosts (have you ever seen a mini-USB connector on a computer?), so it’d have to be a big ugly standard connector.
Miniusb is the same as usb, you can have passive adapters both ways, so the fact you dont see it on big PC’s is simply down to it being more standard, nothing to do with host/client.
As for replaceing the dock, your correct more conversion is needed, but not much.
Webcams on PC’s stream video ver usb just fine, and an iPhone has more power then a typical webcam.
The other option would be just to have a miniusb and a small a/v phono connector next to it. Put them in a row and they would basically act like a dock while also supporting standards at the same time.
They do that so that you have to shell out extra cash while at the same time harming the environment with extra packaging. I forgot to mention that al gore sits on the board, I thought he was for the environment. I’m seeing a new microsoft emerging, but these guys are the worse of the worse, never again will I buy an apple product.
Apple does not support DivX or any AVI formats.
Piece of junk!!!
Can’t even replace the battery.
Junk
junker
junky!
AVI is a video file *container*, not a codec. It would be impossible for them to support AVI at large. that would only confuse people as to why some AVI files work and others don’t.
As for the battery thing… You probably haven’t owned a device with a non-removable battery. You hate the idea, but you haven’t given it a shot. It’s really not so bad. They utilize the internal space much more efficiently if it doesn’t have to be removable.
And by the time the battery needs an honest replacement, the device will probably be outdated anyway.
“AVI is a video file *container*, not a codec. It would be impossible for them to support AVI at large. that would only confuse people as to why some AVI files work and others don’t” Um, not to be a troll but lots of stuff supports .avi and just about anything that’s wrapped inside it. Boxee for one… Seems apple should have a handle on this by now.
Thing is, some people like to keep devices for more then two years, and a phone battery easily wears down within that time.
Apple might love for everyone to not be able to use their phones after that time, but built in obsolence on that tiny timescale is *terrible*. As consumers we shouldn’t accept artificial lifespans on our products.
“outdated” does not make something useless.
And it really is nothing to do with space efficiency. If You look at do-it-yourself videos for replacing the iPhone battary theres plenty of room for some contacts and making the case slideable/screwable…dosnt really take any more space at all.
Perhaps the built in obsolesce you are talking about specifically is the iPhone battery? iPhone battery can be replaced at any Apple store. If you want to get it cheaper there are third parties offering battery replacement for iPhones. A week ago I just replaced the battery of my first gen firewire iPod and I’m still using it. Works perfectly. Plan to us it until it can’t be used anymore.
Um yeah I’ll stick to my old Windows Mobile or even better, my new HTC Hero, where I can install whatever I want, do whatever I want, connect it to anything I want and carry around an extra battery if I needed.
Let’s not forget I get a ‘true’ web experience on both too (can view Flash and non-mobile versions of sites)
Oh and I almost forgot, both came with a factory SD slot and USB connector!
Not supported? I can watch beautifully DivX, AVI, and a plethora of others on my Mac with Perian’s quicktime components:
http://perian.org/#detail
Guessing there is no adapter for multitasking :-P Without that the iPad is still a fail. I would bite if they added that one simple thing.
I’m glad there’s no SD card slot. I wish they didn’t have them in the new laptops. Not everyone uses SD Cards. In fact, both of my cameras (DSLR) do not, they use CF Cards. I think including a USB port would’ve been nice.
I’d happily give up both connectors for an included camera for chat and double the internal storage.
What about syncing over WiFi. Why hasn’t this been enabled yet?
As a pro photographer who works out in the field daily, I would not buy this simply because there is no USB. I don’t care if it has an adapter. There’s just too many different situations we live with to explain why something this big with such little capability is bad. Now if that adapter works on a Touch, it’s a whole new ballgame. Touch for light weight storage, backup, and quick checking (zoom in for right focus, sensor spots, stuck pixels etc) then upload to a real computer for editing!
I have to agree with you. A number of moons ago (well, quite a lot, actually!) I bought a Palm Tungsten just because it could take the SD card from my Kodak SLRn Pro (remember those?) and then I could have a decent sized preview on a nice screen.
Today, for me, USB rocks. I don’t actually care about slots. Just give me USB, and I can make it work.
This reminds me of the doomsday cults who spend frantic days waiting for the mothership to arrive. They sell all their earthly possesions, do the purification bath, converge on the designated spot atop the hill in their white robes…
then the mothership doesn’t show up, and the cult leader, one S. Jobs, absconds with their money and young daughters.
Now that this iPad nonsense is all over, can TC/CG now please offer more balanced reporting of the many new tablet/slate computers out there? You know, the ones with multitasking, USB ports, webcams and the like?
You can start with the HP Slate, that gorgeous piece of hardware perfection.
Perfect opportunity for someone to make an adapter.
Jesus, are you people that stupid?
Ah, poo. Apple learning from Sony of the 1980s/90s. Don’t include standard ports and/or adapters and make you pay through the *UNPRINTABLE* for all those loose items you then have to carry in your bag. But if you loose, you’re screwed.
Massive lost opp, and whoever launches a similarly sized Android slate is going to profit from Apple’s choices. IE, tablet marketshare: Others: 95% Apple: 5%
more money for belkin! dock sd readers, combo sd/usb ports, dock connector splitters. That is if apple allows it. you’ll probably have to “jailbreak” your ipad just to use usb for something other than iphoto. HA
Support standards to help customers? Nah, we don’t need to do that, the Apple fanbois will buy our stuff anyway. Sell them crap that doesn’t do what they want, and they will just come back for more.
The important thing is to be “cool”.
Slots are pointless with WiFi and syncing … not everyone enjoys carrying around tiny slivers of magnetized plastic … what’s next, the ipad should load UMD’s? Come join the WIRELESS revolution … BTW, the Nexus phone has a Sd slot but because of piracy fears, the tradeoff is only 200 MB for apps (how many apps is that 9?) so, you’re saying you rather have a slot for a flimsy piece of plastic over 64 GB of useable storage?
Yes.
Come join the rest of us that started out with a 2GB device and eventually replaced that SD card with SDHC at 16GB! I’ll guarantee you that a device with a slot will retain its value over time much better, too, when you go to sell it and get the next thing.
>>Slots are pointless with WiFi and syncing … not everyone enjoys carrying around tiny slivers of magnetized plastic<<
Yeah, try wi-fi-ing 40 gigs of photos. Call me in two months when you're done.
Oh that's right. The iPad doesn't have a 160 drive like my netbook so I couldn't even put all those photos on the iPad. Ah well.
Not only that, if you’re not on an unlimited data plan, I’d love to see your bill after transferring all that – oh wait you’re limited to one plan correct?
>>and syncing<<
And that's the other thing. Syncing with iTunes is NOT syncing unless you store your original photos in some weird iTunes directory. What you end up with is one set of your original stuff in the original folder, a created folder that itunes creates to mimic the data (and for photos, scale down and compress) and then the 3rd which is stored on the actual device. What a joke.
But this is because Apple is scared to let us truly sync real folders outside of their controlled environment.
Try syncing that 3 gig folder with all your TIF and PSD files you use to mock up websites for work. Yeah… nice try. Funny that I can do that two ways with a netbook… stick in an SD card. Stick in a USB thumbdrive. Pick up the netbook and bring it with you and work in photoshop directly.
I love my 3Gs. But This iPad is a dud.
Well, given you can already buy 32GB SDHC memory cards, if this product last even a year the lack of a slot would have outdated it capacity wise.
So, umm, yes, Slotts please.
And usb.
If a Nexus phone can fit both a standard SDHC card slot and a usb too, I dont see why Apple doesn’t have room for it.
As for wireless…its great. But usb’s and sd slots are about adding *functionality*
As well as backwards compatibility to devices without wifi.
Office 2010 + Windows 7
Better together. Coming soon to a HP Slate near you.
No SD port or other memory standard slots? Forget it.. that’s also a deal breaker for me. Lets hope someone makes something better.
While I have a few electronic devices that use SD cards, none of my digital cameras uses one. They either have CompactFlash cards, Memory Sticks, or xD cards so I wouldn’t miss the missing SD slot.
The vast majority of cameras use SD. Memory Stick is Sony only, xD was Fuji/Olympus but even they now use SD or SD/xD dual slot. Fair enough a lot of Pro DSLR use CF but how much of the total user base of cameras does that account for? Not a lot. In fact some newer Pro DSLR have dual CF/SD slots where you can assign one card to write RAW and the other to write JPEG. Fact is the vast majority of cameras used by Joe Public have SD and its a failing that Apple havent bothered to build this tiny slot in.
Milk every last penny, are you kidding me? Sure, it was probably a mistake to not include an SD Card slot, but most of the industry was expecting the Tablet to cost twice as much as it did. Give them a break, at least they didn’t scam first time buyers like the ($600) iPhone. I see this as an improvement for Apple.
…Because an SD slot or USB port costs a lot to implement in a device that already has that proprietary port that already acts like a USB port, right?
That’s because it’s not a tablet, it’s an oversized iPhone with no phone lol
Adapters sold separately.
So are the touch screen drivers, but for a low low price of $59.95 it can be yours!
I’m sure some new gadgets will come up that will allow us to connect by USB and not have to buy a higher storage model.
Wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment. Additionally, the lack of a front-facing webcam for video conferencing is just utterly disgraceful.
Quick! Someone call a wwwhaaa..whaaaaambulance!
will the iPad display .pdf or .cbr files?
ipad bahhahahahahahahahah!
epic fail!
Steve Ballmer lol’d at the iPad.
Steve Ballmer laughs out loud at every new Apple product. He laughed at the iPod, the iPhone, MacBook Pros, and now the iPad. I hope he keeps on laughing.
Just as a matter of interest, Apple stock closed at around $9.50 on the day the iPod was introduced. It’s now around $200. Microsoft stock closed at around $24 on that same day. It’s still under $30. So you see, it’s Steve Jobs who get the last laugh.
Looking at the specs, what it’s capable of and how it’s best used – doesn’t this feel like it should have come out about two years ago?
Excellent point. THIS should have been out two years ago and then Apple, knowing everyone wants smaller and smaller gadgets, come out with the iphone today. Seriously, that would have made more sense. The iPad is like devolution it seems to me. At least from a tech standpoint.
It could been better if you can actually write/draw on ipad, this will skip the typing process and make it much easier
the iphone sells very, very well, so apple being genius innovators make their ipad a giant iphone!! how revolutionary.this could only appeal to apple fanboys.
did anybody notice, that it is only possible to place your ipad UPRIGHT in the dock? so it is not possible to watch a movie widescreen, while mounted on the dock, or do I get something wrong?
I think there’s another little stand (thats not the keyboard dock) that lets you stand it in landscape. What worries me more is the ‘ability’ to playback HD video on a 4:3 1024×768 screen. Its has to scale down the video AND add black bars for widescreen. I personally wouldnt use it for movies. 1280×800 would have been a far more appropriate resolution for movies dont you think?
1) No USB
2) No Camera
3) No SD/MMC/MS
4) No free dock keyboard/cover
5) No Flash support
6) No multi-processing
7) Expensive ($200 might be good price)
Waste of money and time. Intelligent marketing by stuffing old products in blown up product. Worst keynote ever scene from Apple, boring all through out.
1) No jet pack
2) No nuclear fusion reactor
3) No invisibility cloak
4) No x-ray vision
5) No laser guided missiles
6) No Holi-deck
7) and no am/fm radio! (that’s the real deal breaker)
i’m going to buy a crap dell now!
Yeah great argument – and when those things come standard on everything else out there, don’t expect to find them in you Apple fashion accessories!
Could not agree more (even though I never had an intention of buying one). This explains exactly why I don’t like it. Thanks-
so are you say you and sherry and brother and sister and husband and wife? i guess that would explain it.
This obviously is no computer, w/o multitasking and stylus input this is unusable in business meetings or the like.
But also as a gadget it is severely limited, mostly due to lack of “openness”.
This _will_ sell to those who “just” want to surf, read (expensive) books and magazines, and play games. It will make Kindle DX redundant, and create a (not so big) new niche. I personally do not need it.
In a day and age when electronic devices are offering more and more. Apple sticks to less and less. Which then leaves the intelligent ones out there to just crack the case of this thing they call the iPad and break out the old soldering iron, dremel tool and some cheap peripheral parts from Newegg.com and make this thing the way lord jobs should have made it in the first place!!
They say it’s healthy to always keep your brain active and you’ll live a longer, prosperous life. Thank you Mr. Jobs for forcing us to be more inventive than you and your kronies!!! I happen to like my microSD card slot on my iPhone 3GS……it makes life better and easier!! And I do agree with poster about AVI and DivX/XviD files, the more files a device can handle, the better. Get your heads outta your butts Apple and listen to the consumers!!!!! They are talking to you!!!!
Make one with WiFi, then one with WiFi + 3GS and sell them both with expansion slots/ports and charge whatever price they demand…..trust me, people will pay the price for versatility……6 models!!!! And just think, they say computers and electronics are just about obsolete at time of purchase, and stevey boy wants to manufacture 6 different models??? Jobs really is a wasteful jerk isn’t he??? And Jobs, if your listening!!! Get off your high horse and take on flash!!! 90% of websites use flash!!! It ain’t going away Jobs!!!!!!!!!!