A Dependable iPad | Hacker News Reader

A Dependable iPad

randsinrepose.com

27 pointsfilament24 comments

Anecdotally, I loved my iPad and used it daily until I got an 11-inch Macbook Air. Now it sits on a shelf for a month at a time without being used. I don't even really understand the appeal any more, I'm positive that most of my daily tasks like web browsing and email are much faster on a full laptop (efficient tab-based web browsing is a huge win) with only a very marginal decrease in portability.

Maybe this is just a power-user thing, though?

+1. My Air is definitely my mobile go-to mobile move. Wondering if all the iPad love is from folks who don't get the Air form factor.

My sentiments exactly.

A different POV: I have a 2 year kid and I feel like the macbook air's screen wouldn't stand a single pull from his fingers. The ipad in its case? he can walk on it, throw it, it won't matter.

Before the little monster gets to sleep, any form of computing is limited to the ipad.

Same thing -- I got a 13" MBA and now basically only use my iPad for Instapaper, as a backlit Kindle, and in the bathroom or on very tiny aircraft. I'll still probably get an iPad with retina display, though. Part of my problem with the iPad is that I really love the keyboard as an input device, part is the screen resolution of the MBA13, and part is tabbed browsing that actually works/doesn't crash.

Some people really like the iPad, though -- my girlfriend also has an MBA 13 (2010) and an iPad, and uses the iPad almost to the exclusion of all other computers, for basically all tasks. Not sure why.

Maybe this is just a power-user thing, though?

I don't even think it's a power user thing. I think it's just a you thing. I'm a power user and although I did slow down using my iPad when I got my 11" Air, I didn't stop at all. It's still an hours-daily device for me. Mostly for Words With Friends, Twitter, and web browsing; the laptop's for writing code, making music and video, and most email. I also find the iPad superior for outlining, and if I'm doing a presentation without any live coding, Keynote on the iPad wins on convenience. It's also very handy to have two displays while hacking at a coffee shop, for the same reason it's handy to have two monitors on your desk.

It's even possible that for me buying an Apple TV bit into my iPad use more than buying an Air did. Not sure about that one, though.

Touch is a more intuitive/appealing/fun interface for many, particularly non-technical users.

> The use case for the iPad’s camera is FaceTime, and for me and I’m likely in the minority here, FaceTime is a classic You-Gotta-See-This-Once feature. You demo it once and never use it again. The line I draw for the cameras is “it can’t be crap.”

Am I the only one that uses FaceTime on a regular basis?

I have family scattered all around the world and pretty much every call I get from them comes in as FaceTime. Most of my family has iPhones and it just works for them. The audio quality is great and it's so much better than a normal phone call. Does everyone else use Skype? Are your family members comfortable with using that?

I would love a very high definition front facing camera on the iPad 3 to compliment a possible retina display. I think that would make it a very compelling video conferencing device.

Yes, I think vastly more people use Skype for this use case.

Also, Skype has more features. I often like to use Skype and share URLs, files, text messages. And the bugging thing about FaceTime is that you have to quit the App to go into messages to do that in iPad. Not with Skype. This usually means a dropped call.

I think there are a few problems with FaceTime.

First, there's a bit of a trend toward somewhat less interactive conversation. If text messages are rising in popularity as phone calls wane, it would also make sense that FaceTime wouldn't be the most popular. Plus, with FaceTime, you might not want to use it on a saturday at noon when you're still disheveled in your pyjamas.

Second, it only works with other Apple stuff right now. AT&T announced that they wanted to push for a video calling standard. I hope that the industry really coalesces. That will probably mean Google adopting FaceTime for Android handsets and Google Talk/Google+. Even if I have an iPhone, only one other member of my family has an Apple device. Many of my friends have PCs and Android handsets. That limits how important it can become for many people.

That said, my friend's grandmother loves it. She's too old to travel, but can see her grandchildren 4,000 miles away with it. It's really special for her.

Still, it will remain a bit more of a niche product since there isn't broad compatibility and, at least right now, there might be a stigma to using it when one doesn't feel put together.

Actually, Google Talk on Android already has a video chat feature that's great because: 1) It works over 3G 2) It works with anyone else on Google Talk who's online, regardless of what device they're on

All you have to do is open Google Talk (I have it running all the time anyway) and tap the camera button next to someone's contact.

I frequently use it to chat with my girlfriend or to show her something on the go, and it doesn't matter if she's on her Galaxy Nexus or her MBP at home.

FaceTime is of limited use for me because both sides have to be on wifi. I can never just reach for it first and expect them to answer, it's usually a phone call that migrates to FaceTime. It's still a bit annoying

However, I really appreciate how easy it works across the Apple ecosystem now that I have a toddler and live very far away from family. The grandparents love it (setting up Skype would be something they'd never do on their own).

As for video calling non-family? It's never even come up as a possibility.

Traveling over the last few months I've been shocked by the numbers of people using iPads as their primary camera when sightseeing, especially in China.

I use it all the time with the people I know who have it.

That said, my positive experience with FaceTime has actually induced me to also start using Skype, so that I can reach more people.

Same here; I think this is classic "I don't use this feature, therefore nobody uses this feature."

I probably use FaceTime 1-2 hours a day every day.

It's pretty amazing that Apple is bucking the trend by releasing the iPad and iPhone once a year despite the rest of the industry releasing new models every month or two.

There's nothing more frustrating than shopping for an android product knowing that it'll be out shined in a few weeks and out dated in a few months.

Edit: this is coming from someone that owns 3 android phones and an android tablet and zero ios devices (at the moment).

I don't really understand this point. That should be true even if you buy an iPhone. If there are better/more powerful/higher resolution phones out there 2 months later, that will be true when compared to the iPhone as well. This is just competition in a high-growth market.

So yeah, that doesn't make sense to me, unless you want to pretend that once you get into the Apple ecosystem, there is nothing better out there until Apple releases the next version of the device.

I guess I look at the iPad/iphone/ipod touches more like consoles than computers, where I look at android more as computers.

When you have a console, you want that eco system and hardware to last longer than it takes to develop the next gnu or cpu. Android updates on every single new advancement in mobile tech, which I find completely overwhelming.

It's very obvious that the carriers get overwhelmed because they have significant trouble updating their devices that are over a year old.

>out dated in a few months

This is actually the problem, I don't mind it getting "out shined" I'm not buying it to look/feel cool/for bragging rights - but I expect new software/OS to work on my "old" hardware, at least for some amortization period that's proportional to the price of the device.

I want an iPad with high resolution input. I want Wacom-tablet quality input. Steve Jobs' paint-by-numbers level of quality is a pile of suck. I have tried every beautiful stylus and drawing app out there, they all suck compared to a Wacom tablet. Which is a shame. Because not putting the pen on the drawing is soul-crushing. I have several 0.3 mm Pentel pencils that remain my mainstay for drawing and math. I will not name the model, as they occasionally come up on eBay and last time I tipped my hand on another work-a-day model, the eBay prices shot up 400% and have stayed there for a year.

I want a MacBook with 4G. I would change carriers in a heartbeat to get that. In fact, our contracts are up, we're month to month, primed, waiting, for exactly that.

I have no idea why the post is called "a dependable iPad". If the "old" model is good enough that you don't need to buy the new one every year, didn't that just prove it's dependability?

It looks like he's complaining about something, I just can't tell what. Maybe the next iPad should fly, teleport and make coffee so that everyone wants to update?

Sent from my iPad 1

I never understand why people feel the need to spend time trying to advertise what they want out of and Apple product. The company doesn't care what the customer wants. They simply make things that sell and discontinue those that don't. The iPad 3 will probably outsell 1 and 2 combined, and they know this already. And they know that as long as they keep making improvements to iOS, every other platform/manufacturer is simply copying them and are one or two generations behind with no insight as to where Apple is headed.

Also, one would be surprised at the number of people out there taking pictures with an iPad. It looks weird but you'll get used to it eventually.

Its a blog article. I think he is just expressing himself. If Apple and iPad happen to be highly valued keywords, then so be it.

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