This has turned out to be an interesting debate. I have read through all the responses and I feel that no matter what Steve or Apple did it will not fit everyone. So I am going to try to understand and learn a few things.
I am not sure and maybe some one can give me an example of why the ipad needs HDMI output. Maybe it is just me but the ipad is not a player like that. I have, as most people do, either a good DVD or Blur Ray player with a 1080i TV for that. I could not think of an example of when I would say let download a movie to the ipad and watch it on TV. There is a flood of them out there. The macbooks don't have HDMI.
Flash. I understand the flash issue, but I think that there is something going to happen in the near further with flash. The new HDML 5 and h.264 might change all that. I heard Steve in an interview that "adobe is lazy." I think that he is maybe working on something else and this might be a platform for that. What little web surfing I do on my iphone has not bothered me that it does not have flash. Youtube worked around it and I think more will soon.
Camera. I have taken video and pictures with my iphone and its great. I can't see myself holding up an ipad and taking pictures. As for video conference how many out there have used their mac books for that? I was a PC user for ever and my brother was a Mac guy. Ford vs Chevy etc. I got tired of the virus and spam problems that I went and got the iMac. I love it. We used ichat for a while and it was ok but seeing his wife in her robe in the background was just not right. I don't see people sitting at starbucks or Barns and Noble doing video chat with a macbook, PC laptop or a netbook ever. Maybe you will be able to attach a camera later and use a app for it.
SD Reader. From watching the keynote it has that. He sated that you can download pictures from you camera or SD card to the ipad. If that is the case you should be able to go from the ipad to the SD card as well. What are some examples of people needing the SD card reader for, other than downloading pictures. Just wondering?
kbregnar wrote:
"Swing and a miss. This definitely disappoints me. I was thinking it would have a lot more features than it does. It none of the mobility features I completely depend on with my iPhone and has not nearly the same capability I can get from a netbook that is running a full version of Win7 for much less money."
Other than a phone the ipad does just about everything the iphone does now. As for the netbook with windows having full capability, if that is what people were expecting than why build it. The netbooks are not selling. If they were so great and do flash, HDMI, multi-tasking SD reading, than why are you not buying them. There are a lot of them out there on the market now. Steve knows that they have not sold and if the ipad as made to be like them than why have the macbook. Build a netbook like that and you don't need the macbook. Not smart marking. Just my thought...
As for the light duty photo editing. There are apps out there that do some of that. They are limited by the iphone size. But there will be a new creative rush of apps coming out to use the speed and ability of the ipad.
Multi-tasking. Well I have my iMac set up with a second monitor because I love to do many things at once, I have the room and the CPU for it. On the iphone I can play most of the app games I have while I listen to music. I can surf the web, read a book, look on google. So I guess I am missing something, what type of multi-tasking are you trying to do and how do you do it on such a small screen. I know people love to multi task I see them drive and text all the time.
Sorry for the long winded response but I was not able to answer all of them one at a time. I enjoy this forum I am learning a lot here.