Do people expect too much?

[Seadog]

I do my research when I buy a product and do not get too carried away with more is better. When my iPod shuffle died while on a ski trip, I had two choices that met my criteria, the Nano and first iPod Touch. My BIL had the Touch, but I was not ready to spend more money to get a product that was bulkier than I needed for listening to tunes, and was too small to really enjoy viewing the screen. So I bought a basic Nano, which has served me well until recently. I knew then that I wanted something bigger. When they announced the iPad, I reviewed the specs and pre-ordered a 3G. It has been all that I expected and more.

Of course there are those who come from the PC world and other venues that do not understand what they mean by the Cult of Mac. What I call READC; Reliabilty, Ease of use, Advanced, Durable, and Consumer orientated. For example, one of the main goals for Apple in building the iPhone and iPad was battery life. Many tablets have bragged about their processors and RAM. Apple has been keeping only 512Mb of RAM, despite the many competitors using 1Gb or above. What is not talked about, is that Apple makes 512Mb work better than 1Gb by improvements in the software. That is why the iPhone 4S has the same RAM as the iPhone 4, 3GS. And yet, the iPad2 is faster on iOS5 than iOS4 due to tweaks on the software.

This is one of the reasons why the iPad is such a success. They do more work to minimalize the hardware to essentials needs. One way to maintain battery life is to make sure that there are no programs or devices that can suck battery life or give a less than decent performance. It is a pity that we have so many people that cannot accept the limitations of technology or the law of satifying a maximum number at a minimum variance.

 

[soullessbunny]

Prior to purchasing my ipad 8 weeks ago, I had my desktop PC and two laptops. I've now given away my two laptops and my PC gets turned on for about 10 minutes to day to sync my ipad, or on the odd occasion when I need to rip a CD to my ipod. The ipad is so much more user-friendly and functional than a laptop. It's not bulky or heavy, the battery life is amazing in that I don't have to charge it every day, I don't have to worry about turning it on and off, and its ALWAYS connected to the internet (no annoying dongles!) It's replaced my paper appointment diary, my notebook, my digital pen and my kindle that I carried around in my handbag at work. I can honestly say it has greatly exceeded my expectations, every day I learn something else that just makes it completely indispensable. I really dont know how I managed without it until now.

 

[jsh1120]

I purchased my iPad over a year ago knowing most of the shortcomings but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't like to see them fixed. The only reliable research, in my opinion, is to actually use the device for a few weeks. It would be nice to be able to borrow one for that long but in reality most of us discover some disappointments after buying the device concerned.

For the record, these are the things that disappoint me:-

No general purpose USB and SD card slots.
No access to the file system.
No Flash, only because it means some web sites won't work properly.
No Java Plug Ins, for tha same reason.
No general video out (known as video mirroring on the iPad).

Does the iPad replace my computer? It comes close but probably never will even if the above are fixed. Possibly a MacBook Air would do that that altough I do have one important application that only runs on Windows.

Those are my "disappointments" as well, though I knew going in those limitations were there. The first surprise disappointment I encountered was a rather subtle one. I purchased the iPad as a "family" device; something my seven year old, my wife, and I could share. I quickly discovered a problem. Unlike a PC I couldn't create separate "accounts" for each of us with the apps appropriate for each person. When I realized that I also realized just how "personal" the iPad is expected to be. I wouldn't expect to share my phone with someone else but I did expect to share the iPad. Not a deal breaker, of course. My daughter has her own screen that contains her apps. And because an app can appear on only one screen (thanks, iPad) my daughter and I have to negotiate the placement of Angry Birds.

 

[info]

The iPad is a hundred times better than I ever dreamed it would be... and I knew that it was going to be good.

 

[Seadog]

We have been bombarded with news articles about how much a disappointment the iPhone 4S was. They wanted an iPad 5 without understanding the way Apple rolls out its products. Right now we are being bombarded with the issues of how servers are crashing and people are having delays getting signed up by the carriers because there is twice as much demand than any previous iPhone release, despite the fact that there are now three carriers offerng the iPhone. So it seems apparent that the only constant in life, is that complaints get more attention than contentment. Duh!!!!!

 

[Gabriel1]

So it seems apparent that the only constant in life, is that complaints get more attention than contentment. Duh!!!!!

Ain't that the truth!

It'll never change, it's natural for people to complain.....you should hear me at work!

 

[ian russell]

I expected it to replace my laptop; in this respect I was disappointed; I will definitely buy another laptop, it's essential for my business and my interests - sophisticated software, plug in capabilities, easy interactive programmes, file management and stuff - these things frustrate me with iPad.

I do like the iPad though, as a simple mobile device, for browsing and reading mostly, but I'd have to be flush to justify its price next time.

 

[Milliebert]

I expected it to replace my laptop; in this respect I was disappointed; I will definitely buy another laptop, it's essential for my business and my interests - sophisticated software, plug in capabilities, easy interactive programmes, file management and stuff - these things frustrate me with iPad.

I do like the iPad though, as a simple mobile device, for browsing and reading mostly, but I'd have to be flush to justify its price next time.

I guess I was quite lucky, I don't need to do anything complicated, just write. And browse the net, and post on forums! I'm not into photo editing and stuff. I went to the store a few times to play with the iPads, and got lots of advice about whether it would replace my laptop or not. It doesn't replace it, and I didn't expect it to, but I find I only put the laptop on to synch now. I was at the point where I needed a new laptop when I bought this... My laptop was dying, needed reformatting etc., so I did all that and now it works great as a back up device for the iPad!

I'm going to save for a MacBook now though. iPad has been my introduction into the world of Apple and I love it!

 

[Gabriel1]

I guess I was quite lucky, I don't need to do anything complicated, just write. And browse the net, and post on forums! I'm not into photo editing and stuff. I went to the store a few times to play with the iPads, and got lots of advice about whether it would replace my laptop or not. It doesn't replace it, and I didn't expect it to, but I find I only put the laptop on to synch now. I was at the point where I needed a new laptop when I bought this... My laptop was dying, needed reformatting etc., so I did all that and now it works great as a back up device for the iPad!

I'm going to save for a MacBook now though. iPad has been my introduction into the world of Apple and I love it!

Hmm, sounds like another convert ready for Appleforums.net


The Archangel

 

[Milliebert]

Hmm, sounds like another convert ready for Appleforums.net


The Archangel

Ha ha... I am far more productive on here. The amount of time I spent on my Windows piece of crap downloading, uninstalling, redownloading, deleting temporary Internet files, going into the registry to find corrupt files... And then talking my mother through it on the phone with her laptop... Nightmare! This, I just switch on and play, and occasionally clear the caché. I love it. Like they say... Once you've had Mac, you never go back!!

 

[Gabriel1]

Tell me about it, my MacBook Air is just the same, instant on and ready to go.


The Archangel

 

[Seadog]

When Apple tried to emulate Microsoft in the 90's, their market share dropped to 5%. The latest reports showed that Apple's share of the computer market is now over 12%. With the number of PCs being built by so many manufacturers, having such a large part of the market says a lot about how much people are learning to like the Mac way.

 

[Sundancekid]

My ipad 2 has replaced my notebook for my daily net browsing, emailing, fb, ym and the like, including some light duty msword, excell or powerpoint work. Nifty as it might be, people should not expect for the ipad to replace the notebook pc for works such as heavy duty spreadsheet, photo/video editing or other task that requires tons of hd space and/or computing power (more than what ipad 2 can provide). Would i however ditch my ipad in favor of the notebook pc? Not in a million years! My ipad serves a specific purpose that the notebook cant... Plus its just cool to own one

 

[pcdebb]

Hmm, sounds like another convert ready for Appleforums.net

The Archangel

Hey thanks for the tip, I've converted lol

My iPad replaced my laptop. That wasn't the plan but after getting my first iPad I realized the laptop wasn't being used for almost weeks at a time. Plus it was cumbersome for me to setup a laptop when I'm out and about at starbucks when I can just whip this out of my purse. I use my desktop when I'm home for bigger tasks (photo editing for example) but carry this around for everything else. I do find that I'm finding more things to do on it, and for that reason I just ordered a wi-drive for extra storage (I'm aware of the seagate alternative but don't need that much yet)

Sent from my white iPad 2 using iPF

 

[s2mikey]

People do probably expect too much. That's the case with any popular, cool device though. For me, it has replaced the laptops around the house for most tasks but there will always be some things that need to be done on the laptop. Printing is an area where the iPad is a little behind. It should wirelessly handle ANY modern, popular printer without any hassle but this just isn't the case. The single speaker could be a little better. I tell ya what though, other than those two things it's a darned useful device!

Portability is where the iPad KILLS laptops. It isn't even close. Carrying around a laptop after carrying around the iPad is like lugging an end table around. Yuk! This is huge for many people since portability these days is more important than ever.

So, I'd say the IPad has taken over my computing usage for a good 80% of what I do. Not too shabby