iPad - Who is going to get one?

[fishoholic]

My friend has one and I was using the internet on it when I was at his house. Much easier for me to use then an ipod. Quite enjoyed looking up stuff on it, may get one someday.

[Parker]

I'm not sure it will be a great improvement over my Comadore Vic-20, my tape drive continues to work just fine.

[Borderjumper]

Got one....love it!

[bill_e]

where are you sposed to put this half a laptop ??in you back pocket ..i think its way overpriced and did i mention its half a laptop for the same price... .

[mike31154]

Had a quick look at one at FS a week or so ago and was surprised at how small it is. Didn't play around with it since a youngster was fooling with the only one on display that was functional. Having looked at the specs, I'm not very enthused and don't see the need for one in my household. The hardware I have is dated and I need to upgrade, but it won't be to one of these. The only thing I like about it is the flash hard drive. Hopefully PC & Notebook makers are taking notice of this. I'm wondering why it's taking so long for new, larger hardware to adopt solid state/flash hard drives? I've been holding off upgrading my stuff awaiting something decent and affordable with a solid state drive. I can't believe we're actually still using spinning magnetic discs and blue ray technology when manufacturers of flash memory are able to cram Gigs onto a postage stamp sized footprint!

Same goes for X-Box & Playstation, hard drives! Come on now, I can remember back in the day when video games came on a solid state cartridge that was plugged into the console, no moving parts! As far as I'm concerned X-Box & Play Station are a step backwards with spinning drives, both magnetic & optical.

So, until I see something more to my liking, I'll be plugging away on my Compaq Presario Notebook that's close to 7 years old now and occasionally I'll fire up the PC with 800 Mhz processor & 13 Gig hardrive to keep Windows XP up to date.

However, on the phone side of things, my contract expired in January and the battery in the Nokia isn't holding a charge that well anymore.... so maybe an older version of an iPhone is in the cards. Might be able to get a steal of a deal with a one or two year contract...

[Zoaelite]

Mike I know what you mean with the spinning parts, XBOX 360 has to have to most horrific design out there. The thing practically eats CD's, between 3 of my buddies and myself we have gone through atleast 4 Halo 3's, 2 NHL 09, 1 NHL 10, 1 Gears of War and 1 Madden NFL 10.

Not to mention 2 out of the 4 of us have experienced RROD. It would seem that my money is becoming more and more expendable to these companies, just another reason I won't touch the 360 again.

[4lti7ude]

Originally Posted by mike31154

Same goes for X-Box & Playstation, hard drives! Come on now, I can remember back in the day when video games came on a solid state cartridge that was plugged into the console, no moving parts! As far as I'm concerned X-Box & Play Station are a step backwards with spinning drives, both magnetic & optical.

So, until I see something more to my liking, I'll be plugging away on my Compaq Presario Notebook that's close to 7 years old now and occasionally I'll fire up the PC with 800 Mhz processor & 13 Gig hardrive to keep Windows XP up to date.

Console systems can go the route of Flash drive video games, but they cant just scrap a 5 Year program now and change to flash drives.
Maybe the PS4 will have that, but now the world of online downloading games is becoming bigger because of less chances of stealing video games.

As technology advances, so does the technology to steal this.
So while were having a war with the decision of buying a PS3 or Xbox360 the companies are having a war with the decision of how there going to keep their profit from the last year. Their full job isnt to entertain you, but to make money.

You really cant be impressed with the iPad if your looking for a real computer to do hardcore computer things.
Its way to hard to fit more cores into slimmer packages like that, but somewhere in Japan some guys making a new core in his basement. (Itll be out in a bit with the upgraded iPad)
It may seem that your simple compaq still keeps you happy, but with such limited power you limit yourself to what you can do on your compaq.
If you cant push your computer you have currently to do even a fraction of what the computers can do now... Then its time to switch.
Computers can do sooo much more now, from Wireless controlling of entertainment centers, to security for your house!

Wasting time with slow load times is a thing of the past.
Widows XP isnt even considered a windows much anymore. You'll be much more happy with a newer computer that can open 5 Tabs at once without freeezing. It sounds like you dont use your compaq for much tho, which WOULD make the iPad a good choice for you.

Its very limited in upgrades of hardware but the iPad is mainly a netbook which im guessing you use your Compaq for? The iPad is your old desktop upgraded and ready to move around with you. Unless your Adobeing stuff or doing 3D max (Something Ram intensified) The iPad is a good replacement of a desktop computer.

[mike31154]

The Compaq is pretty much my main use hardware ATM. I had my gaming phases and spending too much time at the computer days like I'm sure many others have. I think I have that out of my system now and refuse to jump on the upgrade bandwagon for the sake of marketing and lining pockets of already bloated companies. I like to think I'm tech savvy enough to make the right decision of when to buy, but then again, the 42" LCD TV I treated myself to a few years ago is already a dinosaur. Came with a single DVI input for picture and my Shaw digital cable box has HDMI output, so I had to buy an adapter cable and later an HDMI switchbox for multiple HDMI sources. Now I see most computers come with HDMI outputs and new TVs have multiple HDMI in connections. And of course there are the new 3D televisions.... These days I prefer to spend my fixed income on other, more outdoorsy things like saving up for those winter backcountry ski trips and keeping my motorbikes on the road.

Yep, the Compaq takes forever to boot up and is pretty slow, but I have more time than money for computer hardware upgrades at this time. It does what I need to do, especially typing text into these boxes on the forum. I'll leave the heavy duty 3D computing stuff to others for the time being.


zoaElite, I hear you about the spinning media, although my daughter has an Xbox and she hasn't had any trouble with the hard drive or optical drive. I never liked CDs, DVDs etc. More single use, throw away crap to fill our landfills. The burning software was and is a pain to deal with and more often than not you end up with corrupt discs, and the RW ones? holy cow, another nightmare. I'll take a floppy disc over optical media for useability, except that they obviously don't hold anywhere near sufficient data. And that's my whole point, where are the solid state drives bloated companies? Let's go! Kudos to iPad for at least making an attempt in that regard.