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[adamsappel]

The keynote is up at apple.com. No podcast version yet.

Is it...magical?

[iPeter]

I don't see magical yet. Jonathan Ive claims it's magical because, "it exceeds your ability to understand how it works." With the exception of iWork, I don't see anything that could even really be called new about the iPad when compared to the iPod Touch. From my consumer standpoint it seems more magical that they can do all they can do with the iPod Touch because it's smaller. I've been raised by the media who tells me that with regard to technology, it's making things smaller that's the tricky business.

I was talking to one of my students this afternoon and I told him that the iPad seems like a good start. Apple has made a big iPod Touch, now let's see what they can do to make it invaluable to consumers. It needs wireless syncing, a video camera, some sort of chat application, Flash, multitasking, wireless printing, and what I'd love to see is some sort of killer education app. But whatever it is, Apple needs something that's going to make me stop calling it a big iPod Touch so that it establishes its own name and credibility.

[iPeter]

If you saw my picture in the Buying a Mac thread, you know I'm a big fan of portrait mode...



These monitors run in 1050x1680 and most web content fits left to right without needing to scroll. The iPad is only 768x1024 when in portrait mode. I wonder if holding it in that orientation will require a lot of left-right finger swipes (like with the iPhone, but not as bad). Obviously you can flip it to landscape mode if you need a wider screen, but...

Man, I gotta stop thinking about the iPad. My wife already said I can't get one.

[Bryan]

Your mistake was in the asking.  Just do it.

[Xx Jester 76 xX]

Your mistake was in the asking.  Just do it.

It's easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission...   

[scobeto]

iTears.

iSee what you did there.

Very clever, sir. Made me chortle.

And I may need on of those iPads!

[Beer Monkey]

I'm tremendously disappointed.  I was hoping for some news regarding the lala.com aquisition.  I'm starting to think Apple just bought lala to bury them and prevent them from letting people to use portable devices to listen to music that they "buy" (for under a buck an album) cloud/streaming rights to.

[Bryan]

I don't think they have had enough time to get everything together on that front.  I still expect to see Apple offering a streaming subscription service for music and video in the future.  The reluctance by Netflix to support mobile devices will help Apple get there.

[Beer Monkey]

Pardon my ignorance, but am I going to be able to view all my regular websites for free on the iPad like I do on my notebook, stuff like my favorite newspapers, hulu, Netflix.  Will there be a normal web browser with flash support?

[fetterdave]

Yes to everything except the Flash support.

[Bryan]

No iPhone/iPad support from Netflix for the time being

[Beer Monkey]

There's apparently a debate at the NYT over pricing of the iPad edition of the paper.  The print guys want it to cost $30 per month, the online guys want $10.  The Kindle edition is $14.

This tells me that the NYT is going to block their paper from being readable on the iPad browser.

No iPad for me.  I need a more open platform than that.  I'm looking forward to checking out the Android tablets, since Google isn't about monetizing the entire internet like Apple is.  An Android table will certainly have Flash and Google won't block the release of apps like browsers that trick sites into believing they are a regular PC browsers (like Dolphin on my phone).

[vortech]

It does not tell you that; it tells you that NYT announced that they are going behind a pay wall in 2011.  Seriously.  It runs Safari.  It's a web browser.  The NYT made an application.  It's neither insidious nor targeted at the iPad nor Apple's doing. 

[Beer Monkey]

It does not tell you that; it tells you that NYT announced that they are going behind a pay wall in 2011.  Seriously.  It runs Safari.  It's a web browser.  The NYT made an application.  It's neither insidious nor targeted at the iPad nor Apple's doing. 

The paywall thing in 2011 is old news.  Though I suppose they could make the iPad app free until 2011.  They couldn't possibly be planning on selling a subscription app for iPad for over half a year while at the same time you can read the NYT for free on the iPad browser, could they?  Then again, the NYT seems like a pretty screwed up company, so you never know.

One site I subscribe to tried to get me to pay a special 'mobile' fee to use it on my Android browser, they detect the browser and platform and block access.  Then I downloaded the free Dolphin, which is quite happy to pretend to be a regular PC browser. 

[iPeter]

Sorry to bring the lowest common denominator view here, but what's so awesome about the NYT? Doesn't RSS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, Yahoo!, Google, Bing, etc, provide enough news throughout the day? I've tried its famous crossword puzzle a number of times, but the one from USA Today is more my level.