In comments Steve O’ is placing bets as to whether I’ll be buying an iPad. Sad to say, if any Dog-catchers are staking out the Briargate Apple Store in hopes of throwing a net over me, they’ll be disappointed.
I’m pretty much in agreement with former Apple marketing guy Guy Kawasaki, who told The New York Times: “The first 5 million will be sold in a heartbeat. But let’s see: You can’t make a phone call with it, you can’t take a picture with it, and you have to buy content that before now you were not willing to pay for. That seems tough to me.”
Well said. I think the iPad is a nifty little toy with a wealth of possibilities, but in its infancy it’s clearly more about consumption than creation, and I already feel a tad overwhelmed by the wonders of the digital world, thanks all the same.
If I were to spring for some new technology in the iPad’s price range, I might go for a netbook Hackintosh, if only to drive myself further around the bend with technical problems. A guy can write and edit on the run with one of those.
Meanwhile, the NYT is live-blogging today’s iPad mania. That’s about as close to one as I intend to get. For now, anyway.
• Late update: Jesus, Apple’s marketing department must love the media foofaraw over the company’s every product release. Every major daily and most of the minors sent the troops out to cover today’s iPad feeding frenzy. Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, told the NYT that he estimates Apple will spend $77 million promoting the iPad. Uh, why, exactly? Why buy what everyone’s giving away?
Mad Blog Media 
The iPad looks like a fun toy, but it doesn’t really appear to break any new ground that I can use. With a Windows 7 os running an i7 tower and a 25″ HD 1080p monitor, that’s plenty of what I need to run Photoshop for digital photography class,a lap top for the road trips, and a Crackberry to keep touch with the world, I think I’m teched enough for now. The icing on the cake, though, is a new DSLR I will be getting this Thursday for next semester’s Digital Photo II class. So, if Velo News needs any photo contributions for the Midwest racing scene, I’m your man and I’m equipped (to take pictures.)
Happy Easter to all and don’t choke on a left-over ham sandwich, ala Mama Cass, That would ruin someones day!
I think I’ll wait for the iPad model that also makes coffee. Oh, it’s gotta be good coffee!!!
Boz, you should drop Steve Frothingham a note — sfrothingham (at) competitorgroup (dot) com. He’s the web editor at VeloNews.com and is always on the prowl for content.
And yeah, if the iPad made great coffee (or microbrew) I might be standing in line with the rest of the iTards. But I need to run Photoshop — a full version, ’cause I use it to color cartoons for print publication — plus Word and Excel. And I don’t see the iPad doing that anytime soon. Last I heard, Microsoft had no plans to tailor its Office suite to the iPad.
So when I hit the road, I take along the iPhone, a digital camera or two, drawing tools and one of my gazillion laptops. It’s usually the 12-inch 1.5GHz G4 PowerBook, but if I have a cartoon deadline it’s Old Faithful, my trusty G3 500MHz “Pismo” PowerBook, which has a copy of Photoshop 4 from 1996 or thereabouts (hey, it still works).
This doesn’t mean I’m a big fan of Adobe and Microsoft. In point of fact, I dislike almost everything about their bloated software — except for the fact that it helps me pay the bills around the DogHaus.
Patrick, thanks for the contact info, that should come in handy. I agree, Microsoft is the only game in town, sometimes. They have a hold on a lot of the online applications we use in school. Some of my fellow students were all in their places with sun-shinny faces and found they couldn’t do their algebra and keyboarding classes in there iBooks. They sure do work slick for all the artsy stuff, as you well know.
Thanks again for the lead. I’ll put it to good use.
Hey, Boz,
Which DSLR are you getting? I almost went that route, then bought the Canon PowerShot S90 instead, reasoning that I could stuff it in a pocket like my old PowerShot SD600. It takes a nice pic, but I haven’t begun to discover all of its ins and outs. I took it to Arizona but hardly used it — I spent all my time riding and bullshitting with people.
I bought a Rebel T1I which is still smarter than I am. But for everyday kicking around, the little Olympus 765 is still great because as Patrick says, it has portability (and if I drop it, we don’t break the bank). Has a very fast lens for a little digital camera, 10x optical zoom, and 4 megapixels maximum. We got that in ’04 or ’05 and it still meets most of my needs.
I have the original Digital Rebel, which I pull out for the better quality shots i need. But a Canon 590 is easy to throw into my pocket and go.
Speaking of content, the Big Texan is going to be in Madison WI August 29th to open the 2nd Ride The Drive event. From the WSJ:”Trek Time Trials will be held from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. for professional and amateur cyclists to race each other for the best time, then Trek-sponsored Armstrong will open the second Ride the Drive event for the community from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.”
As Joe would say, this is a big f**king deal in this puddle. The bike haters are already up in arms about closing a couple streets on a Sunday afternoon. What will they say when 30,000 chamois-sniffers descend on Madtown, instead of the 13,000 or so like last year? Oh well, it’s a hell of a lot of fun, street theatre, good eats, bands, and probably a little beer involved.
Considering that it is Madison, I think the bike-haters better lay low that day. Sounds like fun.
Why is it with Apple stuff, the only choice seems to be love it or hate it? I don’t love or hate jazz, mustard, Vonnegut, or snow days … sometimes I like them, sometimes I don’t. But when it comes to Apple products, you’re either a fanboy or hater … no in between.
I’m going to split the diff on Kawasaki’s prediction. They’ll sell five mill practically overnight. Then it will slow to a trickle. But trickle it will continue, because folks will figure out what to do with them, and they will use them for that purpose, and if “folks” doesn’t include anyone in particular, then that person shouldn’t lose any sleep over it.
IBM didn’t see the need for normal people to have a computer in their home. Bill Gates thought the internet was a fad. Most people (non Mac-addicts) thought the iPhone was over-rated and over-priced. (But 90 days after it came out, iPhones accounted for 5% of all smart phones but over 50% of all smart phone web traffic.)
The iPad is no different. Probably won’t find one in every home. But they will sell a lot, and they will inspire a zillion clones.
By the way, seems most complaints about it are coming from content producers. All of the Apple top dogs have been quite clear, this is designed for consumers, not producers. I liked the quip, you can’t make dishes with a dishwasher, but you don’t hear folks complaining about that and people are still buying dishwashers.
Steve,
Yeah, it’s weird — the competing cults (Apple fanboys and Apple haters) both leave me shaking my head. It’s like watching the Prods and ring-kissers going after it back in Eire. “Like, WTF, dudes?”
As I’ve told many a colleague, if someone would lay an iPad on me I’d take it in a heartbeat, just to fiddle with it. I was late to the iPod and came to appreciate it for limited use (sleepy-time and wind-trainer music). Ditto the iPhone (intuitive menu system, decent camera, boondock e-mail/website connectivity).
But I think the iPad — like the iPod and iPhone — is very much a work in progress, and early adoption seems pointless when upgrades and price cuts are so obviously on the horizon. Let the true believers drive the early sales and think how much easier it will be to spring for one of those nifty folding cases and a keyboard-slash-dock when the price for the iPad v2.0 comes down a tad while its usefulness rises by a similar amount.
Oh, shit, honey, hide the credit card. I detect a whim in my future.
I might be in the same boat, or a different boat in the same bay. I will get an iPad … in about two years, when the base model has 64 gigs and costs $199.
Heard another round of mac-bashing this morning, and I’m convinced no one in the business world ever took a logic class, had to do geometry proofs, or remembers the basics of developing a coherent argument. Some guy was screaming that the iPad is part of Jobs’ take-over-the-world strategy by limiting who can do what on the internet. Funny … but no one complains that you can’t create your own programs with your TV, or publish music with your radio. Hell, my refrigerator won’t buy me food, it just stores it and keeps it cold. And that stupid valve on my bike tube only receives air, it won’t suck it in for me.
Meanwhile, Apple is just laughing all the way to the bank … because these folks will walk in to the store, check out the iPad, realize it’s limitations … and buy a new MacBook. Cha-ching!
I do love the iPad for education. Give it to a kid to take to class, in lieu of a hundred text books. Make teachers produce their curriculum from open sources, picking and choosing the right stuff for their classes. Will make both students and teachers work harder. (Teachers already work hard, but they need to work smarter.)