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What Apple is doing is downright unconstitutional! Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin held extensive discussions on the general subject of closed versus open software development environments one long weekend at Monticello. Any constitutional scholar worth his or her salt could easily find support for what I say in a close reading of the constitution, provided a sufficient amout of claret is on hand.

Bretspot wrote:

Has anyone in this thread ever used (for any length of time) an iPhone or iPad? I've been using an iPhone and 95% of the people I know who use one cannot imagine anything else being better.

The closed "ecosystem" of apples apps make it incredibly difficult for any other hardware/software platform to ever take over. The fact that Apples system is closed means that developers can *Actually* make money for a change instead of everyone stealing software... (Honestly how much software do you buy vs "borrow"? There are also what.. 100,000+ Apps on iTunes vs Androids maybe 10,000... Piratically anything you are looking for they have.. hence the saying "There's an app for that". I dont know exactly where I was going with other than to say, I dont forsee anything beating out apple anytime soon...

Yes, My wife and I purchased an ipad for a road trip a few weeks back. At first she was irked that it didn't come with an user manual but soon she found out that she didn't need one (you can view it online) because the device is incredibly intuitive. The ipad is not a PC and should not be considered as a replacement for a laptop. However, the battery life is excellent and the ability to pick it up, turn it on, get net info within a few seconds makes it a preferred device. We got the 3G version and found that wifi when on the road was too much of a hassle so we were making reservations etc. while driving. We got a leather case and it is very portable.
My eyesight is not the best and the zoom function is the cats meow. The google earth and maps apps on this device is stellar.
I think the transition to this device after being on PCs/Macs for years is awkward and I am sure many apps will try to bridge the gap down the road. It is too bad that this device does not have two cameras and the ability to be a phone or skype device with video but maybe in the future.

ricinro wrote:

Yes, My wife and I purchased an ipad for a road trip a few weeks back. At first she was irked that it didn't come with an user manual but soon she found out that she didn't need one (you can view it online) because the device is incredibly intuitive. The ipad is not a PC and should not be considered as a replacement for a laptop. However, the battery life is excellent and the ability to pick it up, turn it on, get net info within a few seconds makes it a preferred device. We got the 3G version and found that wifi when on the road was too much of a hassle so we were making reservations etc. while driving. We got a leather case and it is very portable.
My eyesight is not the best and the zoom function is the cats meow. The google earth and maps apps on this device is stellar.
I think the transition to this device after being on PCs/Macs for years is awkward and I am sure many apps will try to bridge the gap down the road. It is too bad that this device does not have two cameras and the ability to be a phone or skype device with video but maybe in the future.

One of my co-workers got one at the beginning of the summer, and I looked at it for a few minutes- I have never been a MAC person, but his iPad was pretty sweet! Very tempting purchase...well, if I had a spare $700;-)

Bretspot wrote:

Has anyone in this thread ever used (for any length of time) an iPhone or iPad? I've been using an iPhone and 95% of the people I know who use one cannot imagine anything else being better.

Really? But improvement is so simple: just remove the Apple logo from the iPad ...

Don't count out MS too soon. They have a track record of coming from behind and winning and usually it can be traced back to the excellent development tools and huge number of developers writing for their platforms. The new Windows Phone 7 will probably be out in October. It will have use the NVidia Tegra 2 processor (same as NotionInk Adam). Apples embarassingly bad tools and closed architecture will eventually relegate them back to being a sucessful niche player where they've always been.

There will be a response from MS in tablets and phone very soon.

Let's see. MS has totally lost the battle in smartphones with its WinCE/Mobile, against Apple iPhone, despite the superiority (really ?) of the MS devtools.
Tegra2 is a nice machine but nothing would prevent Apple to make evolutions of its iPad with the same or even more powerful devices, by nVidia or anyone else.

Windows Phone 7 sure ain't WinCE/Mobile. The tight connection to XBox alone will sell quite a few phones for MS.

In 10 years our smart phones might be everyone's primary computer. Do you really think MS won't be competitive?

Last edited Fri, 27 Aug 2010, 11:41am by firestream99

Time will tell.
History tells that MS has already lost the battle on smart phones, but surely they have the money and the power to give another try.

Samsung, HTC, and Asus will remain on Apple's heels. oiim is the small stock play for efficient portable devices, especially if you think apple is going to continue depending on them for the iphone and ipad. Only 3.3 times bigger market cap than ZMC with 25 times as many employees. They are similar in the sense that marketing, engineering, and especially intellectual property are the cores of both. Buying oiim will help support 25 times as many people doing work for the here and now that's changing the world ... small smart devices. They've approved a buyback of 10% of their outstanding shares.

There is a lot of competition coming for the iPad. Most notably from the company the helped design it.

SurfaceInk CEO Eric Bauswell told the Times on Thursday that they parted ways after SurfaceInk recently unveiled a 12.1-inch, Linux-based tablet--a potential rival to Apple's iPad. Bauswell said that Apple viewed the product as a threat.

Here is the full article.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20014881-17.h...

Trouble with Linux is the compatability issues with software. I like Ubuntu for instance, but I won't run it on my main PC, or a tablet for that matter.

Now a win 7 tablet would be more interesting to me than an ipad. Until the new 7 inch ipads come out and they enable iphone tethering to them.

Doug,

I'm going to wait and see who wins out.

-cmm