Apple iPad first hands-on! (update: video!)
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted January 27th 2010 4:48PM
posted January 27th 2010 4:48PM
- It's not light. It feels pretty weighty in your hand.
- The screen is stunning, and it's 1024 x 768. Feels just like a huge iPhone in your hands.
- The speed of the CPU is something to be marveled at. It is blazingly fast from what we can tell. Webpages loaded up super fast, and scrolling was without a hiccup. Moving into and out of apps was a breeze. Everything flew.
- There's no multitasking at all. It's a real disappointment. All this power and very little you can do with it at once. No multitasking means no streaming Pandora when you're working in Pages... you can figure it out. It's a real setback for this device.
- The ebook implementation is about as close as you can get to reading without a stack of bound paper in your hand. The visual stuff really helps flesh out the experience. It may be just for show, but it counts here.
- No camera. None, nada. Zip. No video conferencing here folks. Hell, it doesn't have an SMS app!
- It's running iPhone OS 3.2.
- The keyboard is good, not great. Not quite as responsive as it looked in the demos.
- No Flash confirmed. So Hulu is out for you, folks!
@mjamestorch And if you were going to type a good amount on it wouldn't you rather have a REAL keyboard? and not have to buy another overpriced accessory?
@niZmo When is HTML5 going to be here? Any idea on a release date on that?
And, can it really replace Flash and Silverlight? It is going to offer all the same animation, audio, video, and coding capabilities?
If so - why in the world do you think it will be any less of a resource hog than Flash? Throw a bunch of bitmaps on the screen and animate them around and things are going to slow down. It is called "rich media".
@zbi
Way too much bezel. And the spacing of the app icons (far apart) is UGGGGGGLYYYYYY! There is no way Apple's design team has thought about this for too long. Oddly, I had been under the impression that team Jobs had been playing with the tablet idea for decades.
@(Unverified) If you want a desktop or laptop like you said you have many options. But for does that want a Tablet this is the best one so far.
@OwenV IdeaPad U1 looks like the winner here. If they can get it out and priced right.
Only thing that make the iPad a winner as well is: iTunes.
Looks like Apple is throwing the whole company into iTunes.
@xCrunk Obviously you're not a book reader.
@devitus It seems we were ipad-rolled? "After nearly a decade of rumors and speculation, Apple's finally unveiled the iPad. It's a half-inch thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds, with a 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display, and it's running a custom 1GHz Apple "A4" chip developed by the P.A. Semi team, with a 10-hour battery life and a month of standby. It'll come in 16, 32, and 64GB sizes, and it's got the expected connectivity:" It appears though with this hands-on that it isn't that marvelous?. Details to munch: http://bit.ly/apple-tablet-details-and-history
@Steve2000
I Wish. This thing is useless. Price it under 99.99 and with max memory and all included..... then we can talk....
@djalal
I hereby give this gadget the nickname 'iPhad'.
@MayorBloomberg Really?
@Karuto "Multitasking can always be added, the advent of HTML5 will remove the need for flash"
Well it doesn't have it now so I won't but it now. It doesn't have multitasking because either the OS or the processor can't handle it. That won't change.
Does anyone else think that it should be subsidized by Always or Stayfree? Choose your iPAD in any color bezel except red!
@niZmo The entire point of the Mac/Iphone ecosystem is based around three words:
IT JUST WORKS.
That's it. You buy it, you start using it immediately. No bloatware to uninstall, no antivirus updates to run, no OS updates and security fixes to download. Just get it and go.
If users now have to start jailbreaking and voiding their warranty (yes, I know jailbreaks are reversible, but apple's marketing targets people who specifically don't want to worry about things like 'restoring to stock firmware' and never want to know what an '.ips file is. If you lose that market by encouraging jailbreaking, that apple won'tsurvive, since it'll then essentially provide what everybody else does, but at higher prices, lower specs and lower out-of-the-box functionality.
@LAY Not really, if you think about it, having the screen extend all the way to the edge just wouldn't work on a touch screen. There are no other touch screen tablets that work that way are there?
@darkazure
Got one, good choice.
@Don G Did you say 'optional blu-ray burner'? lol.
@devitus
no flash is a sad,
no multitasking is even worse. i mean what no pandora while reading, or typing.
no front facing camera for social networking, or workgroup meetings.
just sad in general
@tdogdfw So you think this is the first apple fail device. Ever heard of the Apple TV? Do you actually know anyone who has one of those things?
@broli
Giant Ipod..x]
@zbi
If the bezel was meant to be gripped, and Apple are so AWESOME at designing useful hardware, why is it glossy black? Why not rubbery? To make sure your hands sweat? To make sure you get the thing looking grubby? To force you to buy a case?
@blenderman345
Of course it is seems super fast - no flash - no multitasking...?
@zbi
You need something to hold on to. Since it's a touch screen, you can't hang on there, and it's too big to cradle like an iPhone. So, wide bezel.
@darkazure The HD2 is far better than this, its a phone, quadband, has flash, wide screen, multitasking at least , I would go for that instead, Has a cam
Is this the iPad DEMO you are talking about?
http://bit.ly/ipaddemo
@tdogdfw
Why is anyone surprised? Isn't this the usual Apple game? Release 1.0 product with very limited features and sell a few million of it purely based on hype and fanboyism; a year later, release a major update with just enough much-needed functionalities (carefully leaving out many desired features) that should have been there in 1.0 to begin with and sell a few more million units; a year later, add a couple more features, slap a 'S' label on it (or something along those lines) and call it the greatest leap forward; and so on and on...
@OwenV
FYI on Apple's website:
1. Actual size and weight vary by configuration and manufacturing process. (**HUH?!**)
2. Testing conducted by Apple in January 2010 using preproduction iPad units and software performing each of the following tasks: video playback, audio playback, and Internet browsing using Wi-Fi. Battery life depends on device settings, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPad units; actual results may vary. (** So it IS 10hrs in "Apple" time **)
3. 3G data plan sold separately. (** Really, 499 is misleading, you're going to want 3G, so it's 600 **)
@Nexus: Maybe you missed the memo. Flash is over, Apple & Google killed it, HTML 5 FTW!
@devitus I just don't understand why everyone has to compare iPad with "tablet" PC or netbook? If you do think so, you are way behind Steve Jobs and his team. I see this has great potential market in beating Kindle and streaming video. iPod re-shaped the whole music industry, this one is gonna change people's reading and watching habits.
@TheSeanWilson Yea Flash 10.1 is coming for Android and NOT for iPhone OS ohhhh excuse me iOS
10 Reasons iPad is a Huge FAIL:
1. No Multitasking!!
2. No USB!!
3. No Camera (front or back)
4. No Expandable memory or SD card reader!!
5. iPhone OS and not MAC OS X
6. No Adobe Flash
7. No widescreen Display
8. Virtual Keyboard required both hands and all fingers free!!
9. No Display port /DVI/HDMI
10. No digitizer
@niZmo
http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2009/12/11/apple-iphone-users-suffer-stockholm-syndrome-apparently/
@Chizzed
You've just about summed it up there...this is pretty disappointing, though I can't say I was completely shocked. Apple need to give certain advantages to each of their products, in order to create and keep a market for each. Trouble is the more similar devices they create for similar markets, the more glaring and inexplicable (in terms of consumer expectations) the omissions they have to make become. This is probably the reason the Nano got a camera, whilst the Touch didn't; because otherwise it would encroach too much on the iPhones territory. Likewise give the iPad big storage, multi-tasking and increased functionality in the telephony department (SMS/Calling), and it would likely bother Macbook and iPhone sales in some way. However if they don't, will it sell well, I know I won't be getting one now my fears have been confirmed. Hopefully they will at least enable flash and multi-tasking at some point as that processor is certainly up to the task.
@devitus
Will you people shut up about flash not being a problem. HTML5 is not going to be adopted the second it is released, hell it still hasn't reached the W3C Candidate Recommendation stage (not until 2012). In the meantime Flash should have been included. Every netbook sold has access to Flash the iMaxiPad should be held to the same standards that we have at the present time. No excuses.
@zbi
It is indeed a lot of bezel, but if it wasn't there, the meaty part of a person's hand under the thumb would muck up the corner, and create spurious inputs on the screen.
@drew57 http://digital.venturebeat.com/2010/01/27/no-flash-apple-ipad/
No Adobe Flash !!! Apple SUK!!!
I was willing to buy this until I heard this.
@Graham Best Apparently they are coming out with an iPad Mini that will have phone and camera integration sometime around 2007. I can't wait.
@niZmo
HTML 5? How many years are users going to wait before that finally arrives.
@Nexus I'd give flash, as a video playback format, maybe 12 more months before it's basically abandoned. HTML5-based video players seem to be the trend (Google, Vimeo). I'm assuming the iPad will have no problem supporting HTML5 video. Then again, maybe I'm wrong.
@djalal Actually, I think the Newton did the job better, for its day, than this thing. The Newton was multitasking in 1995! It didn't need an onscreen keyboard! It did email, Web browsing...I even saw someone do video on the thing. In 1995.
Gaaah. If this thing develops an ecosystem it'll eventually be somewhat useful anyway, but in and of itself...I think not.
@zbi as much as im NOT gonna buy it, the thickness of the bezel is so you can hold it and not accidentally press the touch screen.
@OwenV of course!!!!, netbooks have things that anybody want!! like webcam, multitasking, safari with flash, the ability to browse the hard disk and save files wherever we want, massive hard disk, usb ports, the ability to PRINT!!!!, and much more things
So netboks are rubish hehehehe
@devitus The iPad is lame! I had higher (realistic) expectations for this device but it fell short. At least a crappy netbook can multi-task and access Hulu. What a waste of hype! Just one question....how was this revolutionary? Not being a Apple hater, because I own more than enough of their products, but this device is nothing but a blown up version of my iPhone. I truly think the only people that are gonna get this are people that don't own a touch/iPhone, or Apple fanboys that want to show off their new product in Starbucks /Airports/Any public place. This is just a preview of the let down that wil be the 4th gen iPhone. I think SJ spoke too soon when he praised this aluminum pos!
@broli
I think Apple did the right thing here, pitching this as a casual device to pick up and do common things comfortably, without having to go and sit at a computer or have a hot chunky laptop on your lap!
Especially with the flurry of PC tablet computers that have hit the market in the last few months (trying to beat Apple to the punch) those companies kinda look silly now because they are all competing with each other and with other devices like laptops etc.
This will sit nicely on my coffee table which will allow me to have a quick glance at the net from the couch with little effort.
When the parents come round, I can hand it to them to look through the latest photo's of the kids.
I can give one to my Dad to get him on-line, so he can surf the net and use email finally with a simple device, without him having to know a load of stuff about computers that he doesn't need to know.
I know people that spend double the price of the iPad on Harmony remotes for example, I predict some slick universal remote software to come out.
That's just some reasons why I think this will be useful, I mean its going to cost around £300, peanuts!
At that price bracket, you could quantify the device for just one of those applications like the universal remote idea. The kindle ebook reader is around £250 I think!
I think people need to get some perspective on where Apple pitched this device before they start complaining it doesn't have laptop type features, that's not where Apple wanted it to contend, which makes complete sense because everyone would then be complaining, "I can't replace my laptop with this without a proper keyboard...blah...blah".
@xCrunk weak..
@darkazure
+1
@LAY Good grief, IF THERE'S NO BEZEL THERE'S NO PLACE TO PUT YOUR FINGERS WHILE HOLDING THE THING. Which is kinda important in a completely touch-driven device like this.
Use your brains, people.
@devitus 1.5 pounds (.68 kg) Wi-Fi model;
1.6 pounds (.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model
@darkazure :) yep i am! got one and im happy with it
@Chizzed
I don't know how this product will pan out in sales but it does seem that the comments on the IPad is based on knocking it for the sake of knocking it. All this talk about a lack of a camera, physical keyboard, bezel size is nit picking, Does it really need all those features for the market Apple is intending to pitch the product towards?. Mind you the name IPad is boring. They should of brought back the Newton name.
@devitus
more importantly, WILL IT BLEND?
@Nexus Flash is on its way out. Thats why Vimeo and youtube are going to HTML5. HTML5 will be the future. I think Apple sees that and flash is so processor heavy.
Also you know what only geeks and so forth want multitasking. And you know it might come that way for gen 2. I think the ebook part of this could be huge. The kindle has done pretty well for Amazon and i like that Apple chose an open format. But the possibilities are endless just think sure books are black and white now but soon companies could make a digital book that included videos and so much more.
My idea was for textbooks. You could have a textbook that say for science you were learning how to make something in chemistry. rather then reading a formula you could see someone doing it in front of you and you could see history videos in history books.
Rather then read about a new press from history you can watch is as though you are there.