Well, here goes, following the first stupid purchase of my psp go (which, is actually not all THAT bad); I'm going to consider buying something that A LOT of people are skeptic about. Yeah, the company that makes stuff that is so restricted that it's as if you were putting a huge clamp on your balls; apple's ipad.

Why am i considering it? Well it seems like a semi portable device that can really get some internet/media entertainment on the go; by which i mean sitting on your couch or when you're in your class room. Most people would say, "hey i got a netbook, why the hell would i get an ipad to do the stuff i can do on it?"; if you ask me, i have tried to take a netbook and operate it with cradling + one hand and it's very hard. The point of the ipad (from what i can see) wasn't exactly to replace your netbook, rather it was to enable you get down some information and enjoy your media on the go with a good battery life.

That's the most important thing really, battery life; any netbook wee've seen on the market barely scrimps past 10+ hours, though there are a few; they are still somewhat pricey and still are what they are: a netbook =/= tablet. I have never seen an actual netbook being used easily with the operator standing up; for how small it is, that thing still needs to be settled down on a table to be used properly. That's where I'm going to go with this next, the tablet form factor of the ipad is hands down probably the most handiest way to navigate a web page and media; don't get me wrong, flash is a big loss for the ipad, but i have NEVER ran into a moment where i went "I wish i had flash" when i was on my iphone. In fact, i was somewhat happy because all the flash ad's were disabled so i didn't accidentally click one and go to some annoying page.

I know that the ipad does have iwork, but to be a little critical with this commentary, any productivity is really just going to suck with the ipad. With a tablet, you usually think; "Oh yeah i can use my pen and jot down notes like as if it was paper!" This, also, was a pretty good selling point for me until i recognized, IT'S APPLE, the device can only take input from a finger. Though I'm assuming you can walk around some of these limitations, the whole "tablet for a student" thing just won't work out the way you want it to.

What I'm wanting to use the ipad for is watching videos, reading manga (hurr durr, i like anime), browsing the internet when I'm too lazy to walk and move around with my mouse, and mostly all the other internet guzzling stuff i do from time to time. I think that ipad is not really for getting information down, but to consume it. Virtual textbooks, The internet, etc are all such examples of sources that the ipad can visit and utilize to give you information on a "to go" basis, and which, is a really good thing because I've always wanted some type of virtual textbook instead of lugging my stuff around. The whole onscreen keyboard, iwork, and all the productivity apps are the things that you use when you need to use them, which is when a netbook isn't readily available to you, for what it's worth, the ipad IMO is a great way to retrieve and enjoy information.

What do you guys think? (sorry for my convuluted rant, i know, it's unorganized)

Also, i am aware of other tablets on the market, but i trust apple more than some random third-party; unfortunately I'm not the type to run with the little guy, that's like when i bought my psp go >_>.

(This post was last modified: 24/05/2010 12:28 PM by Tetris999.)