What bemused you today?

[Hinfrance]

 . . or more than one thing at a time, or view any website that uses flash or java, and loads of other things. Like remembering stuff - 16gb standard. It's a joke.

Yet another serious case of style over substance for the fanbois.

The Register reckons it'll be so popular they'll bring out a pocket sized version optimised for voice with a cheap camera and call it iPhone or something.

[Jonathan]

Yeah it's hard to understand how Apple could make just so many stupid decisions.  I bet they don't reckon to sell more than about a dozen.

As Matthew Lynn, a Bloomberg news columnist, said in a article shortly after the original iPhone's introduction:

"Apple will sell a few to its fans, but the iPhone won't make a long-term mark on the industry."

How right he was.

/sarcasm

Like it or not the iPad just changed the game.

Goodbye Kindle.  Goodbye Sony reader (whose name I never found out).  Goodbye any netbook costing over £300.  Goodbye portable DVD players.  Goodbye printed portfolios for any people in the creative industry.  Goodbye (to a terrifying extent) lots of printed magazines and even books.

[greypoint]

OK - I don't even own a mobile phone let alone an iphone, but someone I work with has one and I can see what a neat bit of equipment it is for those who like that sort of thing.  But the ipad just does'nt look right somehow - too big for a pocket and it sort of looks hard to hold and an odd concept physically - why not just a small netbook - they even sell an optional keyboard. No USB?
Perhaps it'e a case of waiting for the mk 2 version.
Oh well - something else to keep your entire life on and wait for it to be nicked

[magicrhodes]

Search The Onion's view on it plus their view on "the new stupid piece of dump that Sony make"

[Hinfrance]

I'm clearly not in the demographic for this - I don't even have a mobile 'phone, I simply have no use for one.

Jonathan they will sell them by the bucketload, no doubt. They're very pretty and very easy to use (so I have read). It's not goodbye kindle any more than kindle was goodbye books, it's just something else to spend money on to do the same things you already quite happily do another way. It hasn't changed the game any more than the iPhone did (despite what you might think the other mobile manufacturers still outsell Apple by an order of magnitude).

Personally I think you'd have to be a pretty serious fashion victim to spend, well let's be honest, £800 plus for one that is more than a pretty toy, when you can buy a decently specified laptop for half the money.

That said, I guarantee that my best friend will have already bought one . . he does get so defensive about his arsenal of Apple devices.  

Forgot to mention it also about the 10th tablet device to have been announced this year, but Apple are nothing if not superb marketeers.

[magicrhodes]

I like tech stuff but with the way society is going you are unlikely to be mugged for your paperback... but sat there with a Kindle or iSlate etc???

[Forseti]

but Apple are nothing if not superb marketeers.

Yes you've got to hand it to Apple and in particular Steve Jobs, between them they could sell snow to the Eskimos.   They've successfully managed to convince millions of people that life just wouldn't be the same without being seen with one of their devices and that they actually need them. Businesses by the tens of thousands would collapse overnight or at the minimum that business would be lost if they were not able to have internet access whilst on the move, a mobile phone to keep them in 24/7 contact and and and. It certainly makes one wonder how life was before all these gadgets hit our streets. Of course most of it is down to the 'fan boy' attitude and that one is somehow less of a person without owning, and most importantly, being seen with an Apple device. Well done Steve Jobs but don't count on me as being one of the gullible.  

This is worth a read: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8486701.stm

[Oldboy]

My Asus R2H ultra mobile is the same as the Ipad but with USB connectors, and I've had that for nearly two years. 

[Jonathan]

My Asus R2H ultra mobile is the same as the Ipad but with USB connectors, and I've had that for nearly two years. 

No it's not.  Because Apple didn't make it

It's not goodbye kindle any more than kindle was goodbye books

OK.  So I can buy a Kindle for $489* and glory in its 16 shades of grey to read books.  Or spend an extra 10 bucks and get a device that lets me read books.  Watch movies.  Look at photos.  Work on speadsheets (say what?).  Play games.  Use Google maps.  Run thousands of 3rd party apps.  Back up my photos.  Edit my photos.  Impress the girls.  Surf the web.  Read the New York Times (yeah that looked like a pretty poor app...).  Play music and generally show off how cool I am.

I can't imagine the Kindle being on sale in its current form in 58 days.


----
* Due to a frankly bizarre piece of marketing Amazon only sell Kindles in the US.  They will allow you to import one though you must pay shipping, VAT and handling fees.  And several of the features don't work.

[Hinfrance]

I think Jonathan you may have misunderstood the meaning of 'cool' 

[Graham]

      Reminds me of a recent Mitchell & Webb sketch about the new "i-Reckon" ....it uploads random thoughts and ideas direct to your brain and saves you having to think yourself!
                        Now I could find a use for one of those.
                                       Graham.

[Oldboy]

      Reminds me of a recent Mitchell & Webb sketch about the new "i-Reckon" ....it uploads random thoughts and ideas direct to your brain and saves you having to think yourself!
                        Now I could find a use for one of those.
                                       Graham.

Yes, but you have to use the backdoor to plug it in! 

[Nemesis]

Why do Applephiles think that 'cool' is a useful function or feature 
Still, I've just been online to register my interest for an i-dontwantone

[Oldboy]

Why do Applephiles think that 'cool' is a useful function or feature 

With an OP like Apple's got it needs to be flash to sell it! 

[Jonathan]

Why do Applephiles think that 'cool' is a useful function or feature 

Why does practically no other manufacturer believe it is?

Story from computing several years ago....a company had rebranded and colour coded everything.  Accounts were green (carpet, chairs etc), sales blue etc.  They contacted their computer vendor and asked for computers with colour coded cases since anything else would look silly.  The vendor thought this was hilarious and sent them a box of poster paints.  That's how they lost a multi million pound client......

Think about this one for a minute.  At Mr Damen Lovegrove's shopping emporium I can buy a leather portfolio made by Plastic Sandwich (http://www.lovegroveconsulting.com/10x8_portfolios.aspx).  They are beyond gorgeous.  For a 10X8 portfolio + case and embossing I can expect to pay about £250 plus top quality printing and delivery.  Let's say £300.  Photographers are flocking to buy them because when clients handle them they go "wow".

Or they could buy an iPad for a "little" more (I suspect UK price will be £349 but a straight conversion puts it at £249).  Build 20 different folios for different clients, shuffle them around and have hundreds of pics to talk about if things go well (a folio generally holds about 20 and that's a good number to pitch with).

Sure I could do all of that today on an Asus netbook costing £249.  But I'm just as likely to do that as I am to hand them some inkjets in a plastic bag.