Taccy has just posted an imaginary iPad conversation on 247 which might cause some discussion. For an alternative view, check back on Monday for a ‘huge’ iPad review from Trevor.
“Hello sir, can I help you?”
“I’m looking for a netbook, You know, a cheap PC to chuck in my bag and use on the train”
“Is there any particular make that you want?”
“Not really, It’s only for portability – I’m just looking for the best value”
“Have you thought about an iPad. I think that this is just what you are looking for. It has an excellent screen”
“Is it cheaper than a netbook?”
“No”
“Does it run excel?”
“No”
“Does it run any of MSoffice?”
“No, but it can play movies really well. Look at this game – you can drive around as if you were racing whilst drunk”
“OK. Can I buy another battery for it for emergencies?”
“No”
“Can I run multiple applications?”
“No”
“Can I access the Internet with it?”
“Absolutely!”
“With flash?
“No”
“Does it have a keyboard?”
“No”
“I came in for a cheap netbook. Why would I want an iPad?”
“Ah now sir – wait till you see this.I know it’s a bit more expensive than a standard netbook, and has some limitations, but if you spend a bit more -you can buy this clamcase and make it look just like a netbook!”
“Does it run excel?”
“No”—
HP Slate?
I think most of these reasons are just cheap shots. There are workarounds for every issue listed there.
Apart from not having the option of buying an iPad yet, I bought a netbook. I did play with an iPad a couple of weeks ago, it was nice. But I needed a small laptop, not a big iTouch.
Yes, all a bit predictable really
I’ve had an iPad for about 4 weeks now. It’s really not comparable to a netbook. It’s completely different, but you will find lots of uses for it. Everyone in our family vies for it. My husband reads the news on it in the morning (so he doesn’t have to sit at the computer). He uses it for finding, saving, and cooking recipes. My daughter watches YouTube videos, and my son plays games (they’re kids, afterall). I use it to check on our app sales, email, twitter, facebook, lots of things I’d do at the computer, but I am no longer tethered. I found a cool star program, so I can bring it outside to figure out where the constellations are. I also found a sketch program that has some Photoshop/GIMP qualities. I’ve loaded it up with Scrabble/Chess/Checkers etc. and we’re going to bring it on our train trip this summer–won’t need to pack any games. I’ve watched episodes of Jamie’s Food Revolution on it that had already scrolled off Tivo. My husband has even VNC’d into his computer and worked on some app coding when he woke up in the middle of the night. Last night we had some thunderstorms roll thru and we checked the weather radar. I haven’t tried any ‘office-like’ stuff yet, but it hasn’t come up yet.
So, if you need a netbook, get a netbook. But an iPad is really cool (more than I even expected), so you’ll probably end up with both.
Shaun, guess what? This argument will end up just like your gripes about the iPhone when it came out. When you finally get around to using it, you’ll realize that it is a lot more useable and fun than you think, and that your preconceptions about how useful netbooks are vs iPads are flawed.
And in a couple months, you’ll be using and looking forward to using the iPad more than your netbook.
I can’t wait to read that column.
“Shaun, guess what? This argument will end up just like your gripes about the iPhone when it came out.”
Those were not my comments… I haven’t used one for an extended period of time so can’t judge yet. No apology neccessary:)
Maybe I should have clarified a bit. I have nothing against the iPad, it’s great. I wish my netbook had that kinda battery life. It’s just that I regularly plug in a USB printer, hard drive, modem etc. I do enough to need the whole computer experience, but not enough to need a huge powerful laptop. A cheap netbook kinda did the job.
Shaun said “Those were not my comments…”
No they were mine, (and ‘comments’ implies more analysis then the text warrants). I was actually poking fun at the Clamcase, which is why the comments are made against that article.
You have to admit that it’s funny that the Apple evangalist army use acres of pixels claiming how fab the ipad is, compared to a netbook, and yet you can spend even more money buying a case for it so that it looks like a netbook, making it just as large and negating the features that differentiate it.
I really like it when you start these arguments Shaun. I love the way that what I thought was throwaway humour gets comments of being ‘predictable’ and there are ‘workarounds’ to flaws in the ipad. Flaws (such as lack of multitasking) which the same audience levelled at Palm as evidence of how they were a backward company and had lost the plot and reasons for not buying another palm device.
I would agree that the Clamcase kind of defeats the purpose, but some iPad users I’m sure will love it.
Humour implies something that is actually funny Taccy. The rest of your comment is bizarre and implies some rather odd personal grudge against Apple. Apple fans may be guilty of many things but I’m fairly certain being hyper critical of Palm and their devices is certainly not one of them.
“I really like it when you start these arguments Shaun.”
Well, not quite sure I started it, but I do like to cover all views on the site. And yes I thought what you wrote was quite amusing.
As an example, Justine’s will be on the front page tomorrow which is positive about the iPad.
“Price is what you pay, value is what you get.” – Warren Buffett
“Hello sir, can I help you?”
“I’m looking for a netbook, You know, a cheap PC to chuck in my bag and use on the train”
“Is there any particular make that you want?”
“Not really, It’s only for portability – I’m just looking for the best value”
“Have you thought about an iPad. I think that this is just what you are looking for. It has an excellent screen”
“Is it cheaper than a netbook?”
“No, but it’s much thinner, lighter, has a far better screen – as I said – much longer battery life, and is really fast. It turns on instantly, never crashes and doesn’t have any viruses. Oh, and the build quality is just outstanding.
“Does it run excel?”
“No, but you can view, open and edit Excel files by downloading an inexpensive application called Documents To Go from the App Store. Apple also has a very inexpensive suite of productivity applications called iWork which is great for spreadsheets, word processing and producing slides.
“Does it run any of MSoffice?”
“No, but there are several apps that will work with MS Office files, like the Documents To Go app I mentioned just a moment ago. There’s another called QuickOffice, and, of course, the iWork suite.”
“OK. Can I buy another battery for it for emergencies?”
“What kind of emergency are you thinking of? The battery lasts for more than 10 hours, and will remain on standby for up to a month”
“Wow! That sounds amazing. Can I run multiple applications?”
“Yes, there a thousands of applications in the App Store”
“No, that’s not what I meant. Can I run multiple applications at the same time.”
“Yes, but at the moment it’s limited to the built-in applications. However, Apple has announced an update that enables multitasking for all applications without impacting battery life and performance, though switching between applications is already lightning fast. How does that sound?”
“That sounds quite good. Can I access the Internet with it?”
“Absolutely! It’s great being able to zoom around webpages with just your fingers.”
“With flash?
“God, No! Most of the big names in online video are moving to the simpler and more efficient H.264 codec which performs really well on mobile devices like these. Seriously, videos on YouTube and Vimeo load almost instantaneously, and an awful lot of people have made apps specifically for the iPad to deliver video content. Besides, I understand that H.264 will be the only codec supported in IE9 and that Microsoft is throwing its weight fully behind the HTML5 which will render old plug-ins like Flash obsolete. I guess Flash may linger on for a while, though.”
“Does it have a keyboard?”
“Yes, it comes with a great onscreen keyboard which most people say is really easy to type on. Get this: the keyboard actually changes depending upon what you’re doing. Incredible! But you can also buy a keyboard dock or use a Bluetooth keyboard for extended typing, should you feel it’s necessary.
“I came in for a cheap netbook. Why would I want an iPad?”
“Why wouldn’t you? On top of all the above, it’s perfectly designed for reading ebooks, has iTunes and iPod functionality built right in, including easy access to thousands of commercial-free movies, movie rentals, TV shows and video podcasts – many of which are in HD. Then there’s the App Store, which has tons of applications to suit just about every need and a truckload of fantastic games. You’ll love it, your kids will love it, and so will your wife. It’s so much less cumbersome than a netbook for that kind of thing, and so much more fun.
“Well, I’m still not interested in all that guff. Just give me a cheap netbook, a copy of MS Office and oodles of Flash and I’ll be happy.”
“Ok. Right this way. I think I might have just what you’re looking for. It’s a Toshiba, one of the better quality netbooks and which doesn’t have as many build-quality and performance issues as some of the cheaper models. It’s just over a pound heavier than the iPad and almost three times as thick, and the screen isn’t as good, but it does have a couple of USB ports and a low-grade webcam. Then you’ll need a copy of MS Office and some kind of Internet security/anti-virus protection – there are trial copies installed for both. You can upgrade to the full versions for about 50 quid each, but the Internet security protection needs renewing each year.”
“Oh. Can I play games on it?”
“Well, there are some flash games that work okay. Just be careful not to have any other applications running in the background as that can slow things down and kill the battery.”
“Oh, I see. Well, I’m not really bothered about games…”
“That’s good. Are you sure I can’t tempt you with an iPad? It’s only 30 quid more than the Toshiba.”
“No, I’m fine. American Express?”
“That’ll do nicely.”
I’m a little late here, but the issue of battery is also worthy of comment. There are many small and inexpensive batteries that plug into the cable port for iPhones/iPod touches. They’re being made for the iPads as well.
With the advent of cloud apps like google docs, the slate computer segment is about to take off. We have one netbook in my house, but it may be our last.