Why are people making such a big deal about the new iPad? It's a new Apple product omg it's awesome!??! I am sitting here watching Attack of the Show and Hardwick is sucking its dick because "it will change gaming". Really, Chris? People are going to get it for gaming? Last I checked, Need for Speed wasn't exactly breaking any new ground. Steve Jobs says "it's the best web browsing experience you've ever had." Really, Steve? It's a better web browsing experience than one on a computer with a faster connection? What am I missing? Flash? Am I missing Flash? Oh wait, the iPad is missing Flash.

Obviously, I'm not an Apple fanboi so perhaps my outlook is a bit jaded, but come on. If the "selling points" of the iPad involve shit that you can do on a laptop, and a laptop does it better already, then why not just get a laptop? Color me confused.

It's an enormous ipod touch. Congrats apple, you've engineered the ipod that won't fit in your pocket. They can keep it.

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Count me in the "I don't get the excitement" crowd.

More of an iPhone that won't fit in your pocket, but yeah.

Kind of uninteresting until you realize that Apple also announced an iBook service. So it's a Kindle/Nook competitor, that also happens to have a 1 GHz processor, all the iPhone apps, 3G connectivity (for another hundred bucks or so, and still with AT&T as the sole provider, bleh), and an external keyboard dock to make it function like a cheap laptop.

For twice the price of a Kindle.

/shrug

how is it more of an iphone?

it's an ipod touch with office apps.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Just gonna take a stab in the dark and say the Apple version of the iBook service will be worse than the Kindle and/or the Nook. Will you be able to upload your own eBooks or will you have to pay for every single eBook you want to add? I'm going to guess the latter.

and 3G service? But yeah you're right, it's not really a phone unless you feel like using Skype all the time.

meh. the 3g ones will finish the job the iphone started of destroying AT&T's data network, especially with plans as cheap as apple has negotiated ;p

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Yeah I was wondering about that. I'd heard the Iphones were having all sorts of network problems because the 3g was getting inundated.

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What I don't get is the excitement over the 3G plan.

I have an iPhone 3GS. I pay $30 each month for unlimited Internet access on my phone. I'm locked into a contract for two years.

Why should I pay the same amount if I'm not under contract? I like the $15/month for 250 MB idea, but the unlimited plan is no bargain at all.

Sounds to me like just one more reason why AT&T isn't offering tethering on the iPhone. That'd actually make sense. Just about any 3G usage I'd be doing on an iPad would be usage that would otherwise be done on my phone. Being able to tether the two over Bluetooth (or Wi-Fi) would be a huge selling point.

But I actually like the iPad and think it could end up being a game-changer (not that I'd do any serious gaming on it). 90% of what I use my other computers for -- web surfing, email, productivity -- I'd be able to do on the iPad, in possibly a more comfortable and more natural way.

And I don't see any reason to spring for more than the base model. On an 802.11n connection at home, I can stream whatever I want to the device. And if I'm taking it with me somewhere, like a presentation or vacation, 16GB is usually plenty of space for what I need, especially if I have my phone anyway.

Yeah but the misnomer is "unlimited" in that billing.

$15/mo for 250mb, or $30/mo for 5gb (what at&t really means by unlimited)

The same is true for your iphone, if you do more than 5gb of data, then they won't be very happy with you.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I can't believe they made the decision to not have multitasking. Do they seriously think most people don't do 2 things at once on their netbooks/laptops? If it would allow my wife to listen to Slacker while she surfs the web we would probably get one. As it is it looks like I will hope the Archos 7IT works well and is at a good pricepoint come March.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was all an internal "Early Adopter Model" that Apple has in place where they purposely make the item less than ideal and then come out with the iPhad 2.0 (intentional typo) 9 months later so the early adopters again fork out the cash for the new one with all of the missing bells and whistles now included.

I'd be pretty impressed if I start pulling 5GB of data on my iPhone. If I'm streaming movies on a Pad, I could see that happening, with high usage. Would be nice if they'd make the $15/mo. plan available for the phone.

I really wanted one when I heard the concept, but the reality is underwhelming.

The big key is no Flash in the browser. If you want to replace my computer, I'm willing and wanting, but if I can't watch video, which is all Flash-based, it's a huge deal-killer.

Well, that's the kicker...

Youtube isn't going to be flash based at all within the next six months.

With HTML5 giving native video support without plugins, most browsers won't need flash to view video anymore.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

6 months, eh?

/holds breath

Youtube won't be off of Flash in 6 months. Besides, you can view Youtube videos on an iphone now. What you can't view are videos on CNN or any other source that are all Flash-based.

Maybe not six months, but definitely by the end of the year.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Yeah I am with everyone else. I don't get the whole bandwagon OMG ITS IPAD fan base. Got to love that branding it can sell water to a drowning person.

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Best quote ever. I almost needed a new keyboard.

Apple has officially run out of ideas.

Nah Vana. They won't switch away from Flash. You'd be surprised how many people still use IE 6.0.

And it's time that web developers stop supporting them. Period.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Not really feasible to ignore huge percentages of your audiences to play with a new toy.

Not to mention, redevelop the infrastructure they use to post content.

We'll definitely start to see more HTML5 support for movies on sites, but it'll take time to dump Flash completely for movies. With Flash's market penetration levels, HTML5 has a long way to go to make business sense.

The infrastructure to post content hasn't change for youtube, simply the method of delivery has. They chose two years ago to use h264 for their videos, which is supported inside HTML5.

All they need to do is forward IE6 users to a chrome download link, and the world will be happy.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

The world would be happy to use Chrome? Wrong again.

Chrome is a lot better now that it actually has extensions, including adblock ;p

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Right. But you're not going to incentivize content companies to dump a widely supported format in favor of a browser that has effective ad blocking.

The conversation is a non-starter. Flash isn't going anywhere for a long time.

I dunno, Apple seems intent on killing it, since they won't let Adobe anywhere near the iPhone/iPad

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Flash is more then just video as Steve Jobs himself showed during the presentation by visiting mutiple flash sites, seriously what was he thinking when the huge ass projector wall behind him had the Missing Plug-in icon?

No USB, no media card support, no HD Video Out, no Multitasking, Input will be shit because if you try to put it down and type in landscape it wobbles since the back is rounded and even if it was flat it's still a giant awkward iTouch keyboard, and the biggest problem for me is the closed computing everything you download has to be approved by Apple.

It has many other problems but Steve said something along the lines of it should do something better and be inbetween the phone and laptop but what does it do better then the iTouch? Why do we need/want this? It's running iTouch OS 3.2, why did he shit on netbooks when it doesn't even compare to the productivity that can be done on one. Newer netbooks with the ION1 or ION2 don't have HD playback problems and some of them even have a good ratio not the 4:3 on the iPad. They have equivalent battery life and can also be held with one hand with better user input(keyboard).

I was one of those people ready to buy one of these things but once I saw it was my iTouch on a bigger screen I said no thanks. I wanted a tablet that was closer to my laptop not closer to my already limited phone.

Well said!

Yeah I completely agree. I was hoping it would be more like a regular laptop with the ipad form factor. Willing to sacrifice some things, but not everything they are asking you to sacrifice.

But it's changing gaming.

A better question Neesha is why the fuck are you watching Attack of the Show, much less G4, at all? Bring back the god damned Screen Savers.

There's not a whole lot to choose from at 6pm. And Olivia is hot.

To Med's point - I guess I can't figure out their target audience. If you want a fully functional computer - this isn't it. If you want quick and portable... this isn't quite it either. I guess we'll see.

Even if the software is not where it should be, if the battery life is anywhere near what they are reporting.... that alone is a huge breakthrough for the weight and the profile (color touch screen).

Still wouldnt buy one yet, but this is typical Apple... they want to show off how cool they are before they have something REALLY worth showing the world.

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If someone hacks it, I'll buy it. Until then, it's going to be about as game changing as the PS3 was when released.

2nd or 3rd gen will probably be very nice, but I avoid 1st gen Apple products like plague.

Yep. My Macbook is a BEAST however. That's me on the left.

I would rather have a good netbook.

I have the Ipad Mini (Ipod touch) and playing a FPS with their crappy controls is suck.

I guess it might be cool for CIV or something, but anything where "responsiveness" is important, it just isn't going to get the job done.

Reminds me of mario kart on my wii. Sure, it is fun to play with the remote, but if you are SERIOUS about winning, you gotta use something with a cord.

I do like my Ipad Mini, and if the original Ipad was a bit cheaper - say 199-299 ish, I would probably pick one up for the couch.

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Yeah, I'd like to play a game like Civ on this, but otherwise I can't see its utility as a gaming device. The DS is enough of a chore to play games on, I can't imagine making the touchscreen bigger being a game-changer.

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huh... I beat every race at the hardest level without ever using a cord...

I'm pretty sure he means win online versus other players.

That's like saying people in Modern Warfare 2 can't be SERIOUS if they use a wireless controller on the Xbox/PS 3. Just ignore it.