Tuyen's Blog

Posts for Tag: apple tablet

I really want to need the iPad

So the announcement came a couple of days ago and everyone is deciding (or has already) whether to get the new Apple iPad in March/April. Let me start by saying I really like the device. Looks slick, great screen, great UI, and the few apps that were demo'd look really good. Let's not forget the price of $499 which blew me away - very affordable given what the device does. Imagine all the eBook readers, portable DVD players, digital picture frames, etc. that already cost between $100-$300. Those devices are pretty much screwed.

As part of Steve Jobs' demo, he talked about a third class of product between the iPhone and a laptop. He said this new class needed to do a few things much better than either of the other two. To some extent, I agree with him that the iPad does do certain things better - photos and eBooks in particular. But I guess they don't do them better enough for me to buy yet another device. I split my time between two indispensable devices - my laptop (Macbook 13") and my phone (iPhone 3GS). If I were to lose either one of these, my productivity is pretty much shot. However, a tablet computer just hasn't made itself indispensable to me just yet.

So if not adding a new device, what about replacing one? Well, the iPad can't replace my phone because it's too big and can't make phone calls (VOIP, maybe?). As far as my laptop goes, I don't really do much on it besides email, web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets, occasional presentations, image manipulation, and some light HTML. I guess the iPad can handle all of those save for the image manipulation (is there an app for that? basically Photoshop light) and HTML (also, an app for that? Dreamweaver light?). But the biggest thing that I need is to be able to access a file system where I can create folders, move files around, etc. Without that it's impossible for me to replicate my day to day job on the pad. I toyed with the idea of getting this for my mom or wife because they don't do much besides email and web browsing but both like to watch videos online and without Flash support, they'd still be using their desktops half of the time.

All in all, I'd love to buy this. If I had all the money in the world I'd buy two. I'd also buy a 60" Kuro Elite, Tesla Sedan, and NetJets fractional. All of which fall into the "nice to have but not needed" category.

Apple Tablet ... my thoughts

A while back, I wrote a post about Apple's rumored netbook with touchscreen. I said it would be much cooler if it was just a straight up tablet like out of Star Trek: TNG. It looks like I was right. More news today comes out that the tablet may actually come in multiple sizes. Also, very cool.
 
Now here's my new prediction. There's been reports that the new Apple Tablet will be a multimedia device capable of playing music (with some new album content) and also HD video. But what I think the new wrinkle will be is that the device will replace the Apple TV which hasn't been making much headway in our hearts and minds. All the tablet would really need is just an HDMI out port to hook up to your TV. BAM! You have a portable video/music device that you can plug into any output source (TV, stereo, etc). I won't use it for that purpose (got my sweet rig already) but I could definitely see it being a great kids in the back seat device or being able to watch your library of content in bed. My wife already transcodes shows to the iPhone I gave her to watch before bedtime. Just think if all she had to do was just stream it via her shared iTunes library on the desktop...