Apple iPad (1GHz, 64GB)

[leaftye]

<img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/49393.jpg" />

Look familiar?

[heavyharmonies]

A cup full of FAIL.

I'm looking for a slate/hybrid, but the iPod Touch's bigger brother isn't the answer.

No multitasking.
No flash support.
No SD card or USB support.

No way.

The Lenovo S10-3t mentioned above looks interesting, but I think I'm holding out for the Lenovo Ideapad U1 coming Q3 2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5DYuVN6nuY


More in-depth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H13FyFOgX9Q


Or I could just go find an old HP TC1100 from 2003...

[ShadowJester]

I'd actually wait and see what HP will bring to the table regarding their slates -- the work that they showed off at CES this year looks promising. It'd be nice to see slates see a resurgence, but ultimately they need an interface that still does what a GP machine will do but be easily accessible for touch/stylus.

Windows 7 isn't a bad design for touch, though. Just a few niggling little things that need to be looked at.

[Kyle Porter]

Windows 7 isn't a bad design for touch, though. Just a few niggling little things that need to be looked at.

I expect their will be UI tweaks done by most small slate vendors to accommodate for this. I'm not expecting a major UI overhaul, just something small.

[nathanbarlow]

A cup full of FAIL.

I'm looking for a slate/hybrid, but the iPod Touch's bigger brother isn't the answer.

No multitasking.
No flash support.
No SD card or USB support.

No way.

Not to mention that there is no provision for stylus (even if you bought a third party one, it wont work), which is pretty much a must if you want to do drawing or notetaking (main use for having a tablet - unless your just buying it to have a cool finger touchable screen, which is what Apple is banking on)

And there is no full OS - would have been a killer device if it had OSX or a tuned version of OSX. Instead they put the iphone/itouch OS on it.

FAIL indeed

[Shogmaster]

Not to mention that there is no provision for stylus (even if you bought a third party one, it wont work), which is pretty much a must if you want to do drawing or notetaking (main use for having a tablet - unless your just buying it to have a cool finger touchable screen, which is what Apple is banking on)

Pogo Stylus will work on the iPad. No where near a real EMR pen, but it's something...

[adriandd]

How about less obsession about the specs and some more imagination?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pMZzQpiJ9c

Tech just isn't at the point to produce a slim, light, cool, full color Cintiq (with a processor to do high res work). 5 years, maybe? In the meantime...

[Bael]

How about less obsession about the specs and some more imagination?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pMZzQpiJ9c

Tech just isn't at the point to produce a slim, light, cool, full color Cintiq (with a processor to do high res work). 5 years, maybe? In the meantime...

It's not there for a full-size mobile Cintiq, no, but a stylus could have easily been put into the iPad. It wasn't a problem with the tech not being there, or it being too expensive, or too much of a battery drain - it's simply that Steve Jobs doesn't like pen input. He's taking his products in the exact opposite direction.

Finger-painting with brushes just doesn't cut it for me - a precision tip and pressure sensitivity are a must for any serious illustration work. Thats not to say you can't create a masterpiece using just your fingertip - just that it's not an attractive prospect. I've rubbed my finger raw on iPhone games, and I can only imagine the damage I'd incur with Brushes and the iPad.

Personally, while I love my iPhone, I was totally unimpressed and am not even entertaining the idea of buying an iPad. In fact, out of all my Apple-fiend friends I only know one person who is still considering getting one - and now that he's had a couple days to think it over even he is wavering. A Wacom-style digitizer could have very well swayed several of us into the 'will buy' crowd.

[Shogmaster]

How about less obsession about the specs and some more imagination?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pMZzQpiJ9c

Tech just isn't at the point to produce a slim, light, cool, full color Cintiq (with a processor to do high res work). 5 years, maybe? In the meantime...

In five years? What are you talking about? We've had that for years now. Even my old R25 with 3GB of RAM let me do 4000*3000 images no problem in Painter & Photoshop!

[adriandd]

True. And it's also heavy, loud, and hot relative to what Apple is offering.

Tablet PCs have not found their place among creative communities like the Cintiq or even the iPhone, and there's a reason for that.

I believe it'll be 5 years or so before we can get the 'photoshop' power into something with the dimensions of the iPad. (+ pressure sensitivity)

The U1 tablet sounds great spec-wise, sure...it's also linux-based, sluggish, and going to be $1000+ with a resistive touchscreen. No thanks.