Apple Ipad

[wingFeather]

I'm waiting for the maxiPad - wider screen!

[initial_jc]

:lmao

[SanJuNi]

Oh, and to naysayers of the touch keyboard, it works excellent for taking notes, much faster than hand writing them.

Shorthand notes win every time. I can handwrite notes faster than on any keyboard, real or touchscreen. I would strongly disagree with the above comment. But, if you're going to use the iPad for typing, get to an Apple store and try out a demo model. Judge for yourself.

If shorthand style notes work for you, that's great, but I don't learn as well unless I write it out fully. We all have different learning styles. This saves me from my poor handwriting, when I start writing fast trying to keep up with notes, there are times when I can't even read my own handwriting.

You say you can write faster than you type, that's great, I can't, not legibly. Also if I need to share notes with a classmate, I don't have to worry about them constantly asking me "what's that say?" Because they can't read my writing.

One complaint so far, not with the iPad itself, but with Pages. I type in landscape mode, much easier, but in Pages, the toolbar that has underline, italics, tab, etc, etc, auto-hides. A lot of people are complaining about it, so hopefully they address it in the next update.

[initial_jc]

i read on engadget that the slate which runs windows something is rather slow due to FLASH.

whose bought one so far?

[dre1507]

I've never really been a person to compare functionality as in my world functionality is: "yo, will that thing let me surf the internet when im on break at work, and have no money to enjoy my time eating? Can it do it at desktop/laptop speed? Faster?" For some reason the layout/interface of Apple desktops/laptops confuse the mess out of me, so that is why i stay away from them. One day when i have the time i will try to learn them like i have learned the in's and out's of PC. However, i for one, am a strong "I"-anything lover. I do think there are better things out there, but i just like the thin, "slab" (how i describe it) design of the "I" line-up.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Shorthand notes win every time. I can handwrite notes faster than on any keyboard, real or touchscreen.

I would wager you're in the extreme minority there. I type far, FAR faster than I write by hand.

As for touchscreen keyboards, they do suck. But there are two things that can make them almost not suck: haptic feedback and multitouch. iPad supports the latter, but not the former. Haptic feedback is achieved through vibration. Many smartphone touchscreens support it. When you touch a key, the phone vibrates very briefly. With haptic feedback, you don't have to watch your fingers as you type to be sure you're actually pressing keys, which means you can type faster and more consistently.
Multitouch is supported by the iPad's keyboard, and it also helps with speed and consistency. Without multitouch, pressing two keys at the same time causes the software to choose a point in the middle of the two touch points, so you essentially can't type fast at all, as you have to keep only one finger on the keyboard at a time or you just confuse the hell out of the input software.

[nissangirl74]

I wish I had time to read. I would love to have one. Hell, the Kindle would suit my purposes. If I had had one of these when I was younger, my dad would have saved himself a thousand trips to the bookstore.

[MinisterofDOOM]

My problem with any e-book reader is that I already OWN a whole buttload of books. I don't want to have to buy them over again just to use them on my e-reader...be it a kindle or an ipad or whatever. And, even more critically, I own books that are out of print and CAN'T be re-purchased in digital form, whether I want to pay for them again or not. As soon as they come up with a way for me to transfer my existing purchases to e-book format, I'm all for it. Until then, there's no appeal. I realize that that's a legal nightmare, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a real problem with the format.

This is the same problem Sony has faced with their unfathomably moronic PSP Go, which is a version of the PSP that doesn't have a disc slot for the PROPRIETARY PSP DISCS used for PSP games. So if you already own a bunch of PSP games, too bad. You have to re-purchase them all digitally. Sony initially promised to offer a way to convert disc purchases to digital, but later changed their minds for licensing reasons.

My point is that digital content purchases are incredibly unappealing at the moment. And until copyright and licensing laws join us in the 21st century, that's not going to change. The ONLY appeal digital books have over physical ones is portability...and that's not enough to make up for all the downsides.

There's a tech race to build the best e-book reader hardware, when what we should REALLY be working on improving is e-book CONTENT.

[AppleBonker]

I would wager you're in the extreme minority there. I type far, FAR faster than I write by hand.

Not a chance. Think of how many people hunt and peck. There's no way they type faster than write. How many wpm are you guys typing? Handwriting is far easier to use symbols and shorthand than typing. As long as no one else needs to read my notes, I'm good.

I don't want to have to buy them over again just to use them on my e-reader

I would certainly agree that this is a huge problem. Though, a lot of my concern was for magazines, which I generally don't go back and reread tens of times. Also, my collection of books I read repeatedly is somewhat small, so there were a limited number of titles I actually re-purchased. I guess I could've pirated them, but I decided to pay the small some of money and save my time.

[Red coupe]

Not a chance. Think of how many people hunt and peck. There's no way they type faster than write. How many wpm are you guys typing? Handwriting is far easier to use symbols and shorthand than typing. As long as no one else needs to read my notes, I'm good.

Anyone who works on a computer even semi often will type way faster then they write. I know I do...

I would certainly agree that this is a huge problem. Though, a lot of my concern was for magazines, which I generally don't go back and reread tens of times. Also, my collection of books I read repeatedly is somewhat small, so there were a limited number of titles I actually re-purchased. I guess I could've pirated them, but I decided to pay the small some of money and save my time.

I would honestly say this is not a huge problem at all.
1st and least important... How many times you reading that book? Most people I know read books once or MAYBE twice, then kind of pass them along or collect them.
But beyond that, you lose nothing here, and the PSP comparison is terrible. Books are completely different, in that no matter what you have to carry them to use them. Say I have 5 books already, and I want 5 more.... If I want to take these books with me I have to carry 10 books.
Now say I have my old 5 real books, and I want 5 more... but I have an ebook reader. Now I carry 6 things, and I am already ahead of the game. The fact that you can't put your old books on it may be unfortunate, but its not a draw back to the device, because you were always going to have to carry those books regardless. They were all always their own individual stand alone item. You lose no functionality over what you currently have, and you don't have any redundancy or extra items you have to carry.

[AppleBonker]

We'll have to agree to disagree. In college, I used all sorts of symbols to make notes easier to take. Those symbols don't exist on a computer keyboard.

Anyway, the point was that I would put typing on a normal keyboard or hand writing over typing on the iPad (even if it had haptic feedback). I wouldn't use a touchscreen to type out anything of length. If you know that's what you need, a netbook or laptop would make much better purchases.

[initial_jc]

I would like to an app for windows mac and ipad that could record lectures and create time-stamps (audio chapters) so you wouldn't have to scan the whole audio lecture