iSlate

[ORAC]

Mac vs PC: iSlate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTsQAFqRbo8) :cool:

To be revealed for real tonight.

[Sprogget]

If you were offered a car where you couldn't open the bonnet, and it was twice the price of the next competitor and upgrades were hard to come by and if you complained about anything, they sent someone round to offer you your money back on condition you signed a contract agreeing not to tell anyone, but it had a real pretty body kit and fancy wheels, you'd still buy it?

Not me. I don't get the obsession with Apple.

[rgbrock1]

It's all about quality Sprogget: quality. Apple products are light years apart from the mass-market offerings of other vendors. And so very highly intuitive.

Couldn't open the bonnet? (I'll assume a bonnet is a car's hood?) That's not quite the way it is anymore with Apple's computer operating system aka, OS X. It's Unix based and with the terminal open and the command line available there is nothing you can't do in tinkering with said OS.

[Sprogget]

Actually, I meant the battery, which you certainly can't change on the iphone, itouch or ipod.

I still don't see it. Massively overpriced feature poor and restrictively made is your Iphone to my jaded eyes.

[SpringHeeledJack]

Let's hope that the iSlate is as 'fantastic' as all and sundry are expecting it to be. I should imagine that it'll need a good scratch-proof screen, seeing as how it will be unprotected and the main user interface....

I love Apple's computing products, as many have said very intuitive and user friendly imho. I'm not a 'tinker(rer)' of computers, but have had my 7 year old laptop upgraded in most things (done by a fellow ppruner no less), so it is possible to do. PC-ing allows the user to customise with few limits and without only having certain choices.

Perhaps i've been very lucky, but i've had few problems outside of my own computing naiivity. As to the iPod/iPhone, well they might have thought out the sealing of the batteries in general terms. Sealing of anything, that might need to be accessed at a future date to be repaired/replaced is storing up trouble for the morrow. Bath side panels tiled over blocking access to taps/pipes/shower being the bug-bear of my life :}



SHJ

[Sprogget]

I am a tinkerer, maybe that's my problem.:)

When I go away on business, I carry a spare battery for my phone, so that I can charge one while the other is in use. This way, my phone works all the time. If I were an Apple customer, I'd have to have two Iphones. Maybe that Steve Jobs is brighter than me after all...

[ab33t]

Lets wait and see , I have never got the apple thing . I only use an Ipod because it had the largest storage so in an emergency I could use it as a hard drive as well .

[innuendo]

Sproggett,
You don't need to buy another phone, buy an external power pack,much cheaper, have a look
Amazon.com: iphone power packs (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=iphone+power+packs&x=17&y=15)

[Keef]

The external power pack approach is fine for those times when you know you will be away from a source of recharging for a while.

But when the iPod/iPhone battery dies of old age, as they tend to do after two years or so, it's different. You have three options: throw it away and buy a new one (nice for Apple if the customer's happy to do that), pay whatever they ask to replace the battery (it isn't cheap), or try to do it yourself after buying a "special battery replacement kit".

Every other electronic device I've had allowed the battery to be removed and replaced - some very easily. Apple: not at all easy.

It's a pesky nuisance, because apart from that (and the early lousy reliability of the iPod), the product is excellent. Apple have a strange attitude to customers!

[rgbrock1]

In case you've been living in a cave (!!!) Apple has just released the long-awaited tablet computer which they have named iPad. With a starting price of $499 (wow!!!).
Apple's web site has all the details.

[Tower Ranger]

I can`t see that price making it to my part of the world, an Iphone here costs $800!

[innuendo]

Keef,

Apple have a strange attitude to customers!

Sometimes I think they believe that they know what you should like, even if you don't.
Even so, I use Apple stuff. :hmm:

[rgbrock1]

Keef:

Lousy reliability of the iPod????? I've owned every iPod since they appeared on the scene. And have yet to witness one become unreliable. Knock wood, but of all the iPods I've owned, or still own, none of them have ever given me one iota of grief. :ok:

[Keef]

I reckon you've had US-made iPods then.

My daughter bought one (top of the range model, about three-four years ago). It died after a few weeks and they refused to replace it. It was "repair or nothing". After some more weeks, it came back "fixed" and lasted another few weeks before it died again. Same process. Some weeks after that, she got it back again and it lasted ten months. She moved on from the iPod experience.

I bought one. A week later, it stopped working. I got the same "send it in and we'll repair it". I got stroppy (remembering daughter's experience) and insisted I didn't want this dud one repaired - Apple could send me a new one or my money back. After some discussion of the Sale of Goods Act and my good solicitor friend, they replaced it.

It works, but once in a while refuses to start and I have to do the "press buttons and switches in coded sequence" thing.

All of those were made in China. No idea if that's the difference.

[rgbrock1]

Keef:

I know most of my iPods were made in China as well. For example: I bought an iPod Touch for my wife's 50th last November and using Fedex's web site was able to track the package from its origin in China (Shinuan, or something like that) straight to our front door. I guess the Chinese do the engraving on the back as well!

Perhaps it was simply a matter of a luck of the draw for you? I have many friends, acquaintances and family members who own iPods, or iPhones, and no one has ever complained about reliability. My daughter - 8 years old - has an iPod Nano which Santa brought her for Christmas. She is rather rough, and at times extremely rought, with it but it keeps on tickin'.

[bnt]

Apple - iPad - The best way to experience the web, email, and photos (http://www.apple.com/ipad/#video)

I will refrain from further comment until I get my hands on one.

[IO540]

An interesting product for aviation - approach plate display, and being LCD it could run a moving map too.

1024x768 = just about OK.

Drawbacks: only Apple authorised applications. Not 80x86 processor so cannot run Jeppview, even under an emulator (that's any good performance wise).

The only reason it will sell is because the tablet market went "vertical" some years ago, with almost everything going really thick and heavy, and not really stylish/portable. A 1/2" thick slate like the Ipad could have been made in 2003 but nobody did. Now Apple have, but they have locked it away from more specialised markets like ours because almost nobody is going to port their applications to it. Jepp certainly won't.

[empacher48]

I think I'll wait and see what the HP slate is like before I decide. At least it runs Windows, so you can run any windows app or program on it. Following the rumour mills it does have a USB ports and a webcam..

The downside is it runs windows - but I'd rather have something running a full blown OS rather than just a scaled up smartphone.

[crewmeal]

Am I missing something here? having sen lots of photos, how does this ipad stand up? or do you walk around with it 'cradled' in your left arm (a bit like sky news readers with their tablets) Is it designed purely for one handed use? Do you lie it flat on a surface then bang away at the keyboard? I'm intrigued.

[Skittles]

It's an awful piece of kit frankly.

- No camera
- No USB drive
- No multi-tasking
- No flash support
- 64gb memory maximum with no ability to increase it.
- Only 1 GHz processor

If you want to type with it, you can't lie it down on it's back because it wobbles badly (the back isn't flat). To solve this problem they will be releasing a keyboard attachment. I thought this thing was meant to be portable?

For $500/600 (price of the 16gb Ipad with no 3G) I could buy a netbook and put Snow Leopard on it. 2GHz processor, 250gb hard drive, 2GB RAM, Camera, 3G, USB ports, HD screen, as much multi-tasking as I like, and a fully editable system which can support windows 7.

Unless Apple release a huge update in the future it's not even worth your time thinking about.

[IO540]

The non-flat back would be bad for pilots' use as an EFB.

No USB is plain stupid.

I think I'll wait and see what the HP slate is like before I decide. At least it runs Windows, so you can run any windows app or program on it. Following the rumour mills it does have a USB ports and a webcam..

The downside is it runs windows - but I'd rather have something running a full blown OS rather than just a scaled up smartphone.

I agree, and actually winXP is very reliable. The only downside is the boot-up time. One can use Hibernation but then all the garbage from apps' memory leaks etc gets carried forward.

IMHO, a lot of people in China are going to build an "Ipad" now and some of them are bound to be 80x86 computers. If somebody builds a slate using current high end laptop technology, they can make it 10mm thick, quite low power, and it will be great for EFB use (and all the other daily stuff - except functions that really do need a keyboard).

[bnt]

Not only will the HP Slate run Windows, there's a strong possibility it will run Linux too.

Apple - iPad - The best way to experience the web, email, and photos (http://www.apple.com/ipad/#video)
After you see that Apple video, I recommend seeing this video: The iPad is a Comedy Gold Mine - CollegeHumor video (http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1928558)

[IO540]

Not only will the HP Slate run Windows, there's a strong possibility it will run Linux too.

If it runs windoze, it must be 80x86 so it must run Linux, etc.

The gotchas are in the drivers for "strange" hardware e.g. you may find it hard to find a driver for some 3G radio, for the touchpad, etc. But anyone downgrading a flash new laptop from Vista to XP has the same issue.