I get the iPad3 craze

[jpgray]

What I don't get is why emotions run so high either way on the subject. You can't do much of anything useful with an iPad, but then there are millions who don't do much of anything useful with their personal computers. If you're only going to consume content with a personal computer, you won't miss the capabilities the iPad lacks, and will appreciate that axing those capabilities streamlines the experience of consumption. Those who want to do something specific the iPad can't do will see it as useless and find it unimaginable that anyone would ever buy one.

Odds are many iPad buyers have devices on hand that can do all the tablet can and more, or consume content at much higher fidelity, but it costs them too many pains to switch between devices, lack the content while on the go, or to miss out on the latest when others have it and are speaking of it constantly.

Millions more people lay out similar sums for similar fads and conveniences than will ever buy an iPad, so I don't really see how battle lines would ever get drawn in this specific case. Marketing and hype are obnoxious, and Apple gets a lot of free press on top of their advertising, maybe?

[Atman]

1. Actually, Adobe is coming out with a version of Photoshop for iPad.

That alone could make the iPad worth having for a lot of people.

[TroglodyteScholar]

28. If it WORKS it could make an iPad worth having...

However, I'll bet you a dollar that it's a disaster.

[Atman]

29. Or, it will cost $1200.

I've seen previews. It looks pretty cool...all touch-based. You can draw right on the tablet. We'll see, but I do get your point.

[Snake Alchemist]

34. But a lot of people on DU say that 500$ or 1200$ really isn't that much. nt

[randr]

2. Marketing?

People blasted Windows when they would introduce a new operating system complaining that they should not have to pay again and again for improvements.
Apple essentially does the same and people can't wait to buy the new product.
Am I missing something?

[we can do it]

3. What makes you think you can't do anything useful with an iPad?

OWEN CAIN depends on a respirator and struggles to make even the slightest movements — he has had a debilitating motor-neuron disease since infancy.

Owen, 7, does not have the strength to maneuver a computer mouse, but when a nurse propped her boyfriend’s iPad within reach in June, he did something his mother had never seen before.

He aimed his left pointer finger at an icon on the screen, touched it — just barely — and opened the application Gravitarium, which plays music as users create landscapes of stars on the screen. Over the years, Owen’s parents had tried several computerized communications contraptions to give him an escape from his disability, but the iPad was the first that worked on the first try.

“We have spent all this time keeping him alive, and now we owe him more than that,” said his mother, Ellen Goldstein, a vice president at the Times Square Alliance business association. “I see his ability to communicate and to learn as a big part of that challenge — not all of it, but a big part of it. And so, that’s my responsibility.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/nyregion/31owen.htmlhttp://mashable.com/2011/07/25/ipads-disabilities/

http://atmac.org/round-up-ipad-user-stories

http://www.disabled-world.com/assistivedevices/apps/verbally.php

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. It's so dumb to say iPads are not useful.

iPads have literally revolutionized education, especially for kids with disabilities.

[mucifer]

14. yes I have seen it with my little patients and music

[jpgray]

18. Interactive consumption of content, yes?

I don't believe I argued content consumption was useless - I have no doubt an iPad could be useful in the context you describe. After generations of education software, however, revolutionize gets my skeptic's hackles up.

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. Do you work with disabled kids?

[Gman]

4. The iPad suits my wife perfectly

She consumes content and that's all. OTOH, I need MS Outlook, Excel and Word. I don't need an iPad.

[jpgray]

6. That sums it up, I think

No one needs to make an argument that the iPad is awesomely suited for writing novels or in-depth photo processing, etc. in some quest to prove it is useful - just because someone wants a computer for consuming content doesn't mean they've paid $400 for a pet rock. Consuming content is a perfectly legitimate use.

[onehandle]

5. It's not a craze or a fad. And Apple is a mainstream product.

Some can't accept that Apple is in the vast majority of American homes.

I never say that an iPad is better than a regular computer (although it's killing the netbook market). But it's much more accessible and understandable to a wider range of people.

They should hand them out in old folks homes. Schools are adapting them at an incredible rate.

Let the haters, hate.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. You can't do much of anything useful with an iPad??

Wow. I can't disagree more with that statement.

[Pholus]

42. What a reasonable sounding response. This from the SAME poster who said:

Quote: "Who's mad? I'm ROFLing that someone could compare that piece of shit with an iPad!"

Funny what a difference a day makes in terms of trying to forget the past...

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. I got an IPad I, and I guess doing research

Writing news paper articles, sending photos of the Minority Leader of the House to go with it, and writing a short story or two is not useful...who knew?

Yes Virginia, quite a bit of content is actually produced on IPads.

No, I am NOT upgrading...but to say you can't do anything useful is ignorant at best.

[jpgray]

16. I don't see a tablet's design as particularly suited to word processing

Certainly a desire for something to type on would be a strange reason to buy an iPad.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. First blue tooth works well

And the combo of that and external keyboard is lighter than a NetBook. Yes, when doing backpack journalism every damn ounce counts.

Second, there are times I *use* the on board keyboard, like now, when my hands are incapable of typing, well, like now.

[Inspired]

11. Tell this to my co-workers.

Bringing iPads to meetings for taking notes is all the rage. Silly me with my legal pad and pen.

[dawg]

38. My technology is superior to yours.

Mine has built-in editing functionality.

[Ian David]

13. Hitler never had an iPad. n/t

[Enrique]

15. it's people's anti-hype defenses going up

it's people feeling they're being sold something, and saying "i don't want it."

[JVS]

19. They help create jobs for suicidal people in China.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. So does Microsoft, in the same plant in fact.

[HopeHoops]

24. Yep. They put nets outside the windows to catch suicidal workers.

That's pretty damn sad.

[tkmorris]

25. Do you happen to know what Microsoft produces there?

[nadinbrzezinski]

35. The XBox if memory serves

They also use Foxxcon for mice and keyboards.

Dell buys boards, HP as well. Samsung, iirc is the one that does not source to Chinese factories. That province is a major technology hub.

[we can do it]

22. Keep beating that dead horse

[raouldukelives]

32. Agreed. Calling attention to human rights abuses is so passe.

I find things are much simpler when I don't consider the ramifications of my actions or investments.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. I hope your computer is at least 15 years old.

Yes, think where things are produced, but to think it's only one company is ignorant at best.

[raouldukelives]

40. Sadly only 12 years. nt

[HopeHoops]

23. It's inevitable. The laptop has almost replaced the desktop (except for servers).

As soon as all external devices use something better than Blue Tooth, and they figure out how to make a touch screen feel like a keyboard, the tablets will displace the laptop. HDMI has almost replaced VGA, but damn near every computer has a VGA port that's also considered the primary boot screen. Floppy drives? I've got a 3 1/2" USB drive that works just fine, but what about my 5 1/4" floppies? (I keep machines with 5 1/4" drives active for that purpose). I've got a few with built in ZIP drives. Remember those? 100K on a disk. Serial ports? Parallel ports? No such luck. At least the Ethernet port still accepts the same connection. There are a lot of deficiencies with tablets, but the same was true of laptops when they came out. I still have one of the original IBM ThinkPads with the nipple in the keyboard. I loved using that machine (and no, not because it sounds rude).

I tend to be a late adapter to such things, mostly to let the "IT'S SHINY" morons spend the big money and cry about their problems. After things have stabilized, I look at it and decide if I'm interested.

[Odin2005]

26. Some brand loyalties are suprising cult-like.

Back in the 90s it was Nintendo vs. Sega. As a kid I was a Nintendo cultist and hated the Sega Genisis just because it was made by Sega.

Now Nintendo OWNS Sega, LOL!!!

[Snake Alchemist]

33. Actually a lot of Sega's bones are in the Xbox. nt

[sendero]

27. It's mostly about any other status-based product..

... people think they can buy the trappings of prosperity and the illusion of hipness.

[Atman]

30. *Yawn*

Or maybe people actually like the product and find it useful? Imagine that! Haters just seem to think it's hip to hate.

[sendero]

41. People who dump..

.. one version for one that is infinitesimally better the week it is released fit my description perfectly. It has nothing to do with "finding it useful".

[Honeycombe8]

31. I won't get one, but I see its use in some situations. It is very lightweight....

not just in jobs it does, but in actual weight. So it travels well.

Examples: I was at a farmers market. The seller had an Ipad he was carrying, to use for charge cards. He had to plug a device into it to run the card through, but then a screen comes up that is the charge page, and the customer signed the Ipad screen. The device he'd plugged into it would then print a receipt. A laptop would do all that, but would've been too cumbersome, what with a cover to lift, and the added weight.

Another example: I have a friend who loves her Ipad. She took it to a vacation cabin with her, mainly for checking her emails and playing a few games, and having access to Internet. It was lightweight, easy to carry around with her. But it's easier to read the screen than her Iphone.

Other than that, I don't see its purpose, but maybe I'm missing some of its attributes, since I don't have one (and don't want one). I use my laptop mainly at home, and it has all the features I would use. I've taken it to work with me, but it is a tad heavy & cumbersome. I carry it in a rolling padded laptop carry case. If I travelled a lot and just needed email, internet, and games, I'd consider a tablet (used, I guess...I'd never pay almost $1k for a gadget like that).

[cherokeeprogressive]

37. Yay!!!!!

[NoNeed4Attention]

39. The Asus Transformer Infinity is going to be a much better tablet than the new iPad.

It'll have a Tegra 3 quad-core 1.6 GHz processor with a 12-core GPU (the new iPad only has a dual-core CPU with a quad-core GPU) and it'll run for half the price of an iPad.