iPad....iSad...

Was hoping for a new GAME CONSOLE with built in iTUNES....;-( 
 
APPLE ONLY YOU CAN DISAPPOINTMENT ME THIS MUCH......no I take that back..Your number 2.

I see what you did there.

I'm sure you weren't seriously expecting an Apple game console...but still, iPad sounds kinda lame. I thought iSlate was better.

They announced it already?

I'm baffled... sort of blown away with how little I care about it so far. I'm not seeing any advantages over using a laptop. In fact, there are many, many disadvantages. Even if they start talking about gaming soon, I'm really not interested.
 
I'm also waiting to hear the price tag on this thing. That'll be the big decider.

The problem is that, so far, everything they're talking about is marketing the device towards the casual market. The youtube browsers. The facebook crowd. Just seeing some movies, but... what advantage is there to watch movies on a tablet over a TV, a Laptop, or mobile phone?

" @AndrewB: I guess the only advantage would be that the device is lighter then most Laptops and Larger than All Mobile Phones and that you can Take it with you unlike TVs..  I Wonder How much the HP Slate will cost compared to the iPad???   "

what are u talking about?

Fuck the iTablet and FUCK Apple in the gaming industry. They barely belong in the computer business, nonetheless trying to get into the game industry.

" what are u talking about? "

It seems pretty retarded, to trade this in for a laptop which is what they are hoping people will do while on the go.  We have to wait and see how much it costs.  But damn, Apple needs to shut the fuck up about gaming.  No other phone company talks about it though they can all play tetris.  The only reason games are even mentioned is because they are downloaded a lot.  Because they are free or cheap.

After reading the little write up on engadget this device seems pretty useless and just seems like an oversized iPod Touch with more Macbook like functionality.  I really don't know who this is being marketed to.  @AndrewB said it best:

" The problem is that, so far, everything they're talking about is marketing the device towards the casual market. The youtube browsers. The facebook crowd. Just seeing some movies, but... what advantage is there to watch movies on a tablet over a TV, a Laptop, or mobile phone? "

Alright, gaming is coming up.

Apple is doing so amazingly well with the games on the App Store, why the hell would they release a gaming console? They've already got the casual gaming market in the palm of their hand, releasing their own console makes no sense. 
 
This device looks really sweet, and I can definitely see several uses for it - however, it all depends on the price. 

" @woltkezero: $699.99 USD "

I'm only interested in it if I can install Photoshop 7 and draw on it with a pen.

Wow, talk about direct competition with the Kindle. They actually showed the Kindle when they were talking about books.

So, it's a netbook - keyboard + touchscreen. I think I'd prefer to have the keyboard in there also. Maybe detachable clam shell like. I'm not interested either way though, it does nothing new for media/browsing which means all that's left to differentiate it is gaming. I doubt it's gonna be a platform gamers care about without an actual controller for it. I mean, sure, market wise it could get big, but it's a whole different market than what we lot are into, and more of a side activity for any developer who wants some more cash. This is just gonna have better looking ipod/phone games if it has better specs. Will such gamers even care that they're better looking? The ipod/phone itself isn't too shabby lately, or soon, with that unreal engine running on it. Maybe this thing will get even less "conventional" games than the ipod/phone since you can't just hold it like a normal portable and use your thumbs for the controls as you can do on an ipod/phone. Playing with your index fingers pushing visual directional and action buttons? Meh, that's only suitable for very specific genres. A RTS for example. Anything involving actual character movement wouldn't quite work out. Unless it was point and click only. So, Diablo-likes are in too I suppose. Though these genres would also have compromises made to the gameplay. This is just a netbook, you can play all sorts of low-spec PC games, casual or otherwise, on a normal netbook already. This seems pretty useless so far.

" So, it's a netbook - keyboard + touchscreen. I think I'd prefer to have the keyboard in there also. Maybe detachable clam shell like. I'm not interested either way though, it does nothing new for media/browsing which means all that's left to differentiate it is gaming. I doubt it's gonna be a platform gamers care about without an actual controller for it. I mean, sure, market wise it could get big, but it's a whole different market than what we lot are into, and more of a side activity for any developer who wants some more cash. This is just gonna have better looking ipod/phone games if it has better specs. Will such gamers even care that they're better looking? The ipod/phone itself isn't too shabby lately, or soon, with that unreal engine running on it. Maybe this thing will get even less "conventional" games than the ipod/phone since you can't just hold it like a normal portable and use your thumbs for the controls as you can do on an ipod/phone. Playing with your index fingers pushing visual directional and action buttons? Meh. This is just a netbook, you can play all sorts of low-spec PC games, casual or otherwise, on a normal netbook already. This is useless. "

" @Al3xand3r said:

" So, it's a netbook - keyboard + touchscreen. I think I'd prefer to have the keyboard in there also. Maybe detachable clam shell like. I'm not interested either way though, it does nothing new for media/browsing which means all that's left to differentiate it is gaming. I doubt it's gonna be a platform gamers care about without an actual controller for it. I mean, sure, market wise it could get big, but it's a whole different market than what we lot are into, and more of a side activity for any developer who wants some more cash. This is just gonna have better looking ipod/phone games if it has better specs. Will such gamers even care that they're better looking? The ipod/phone itself isn't too shabby lately, or soon, with that unreal engine running on it. Maybe this thing will get even less "conventional" games than the ipod/phone since you can't just hold it like a normal portable and use your thumbs for the controls as you can do on an ipod/phone. Playing with your index fingers pushing visual directional and action buttons? Meh. This is just a netbook, you can play all sorts of low-spec PC games, casual or otherwise, on a normal netbook already. This is useless. "

Which is incredibly funny, because at the beginning of all of this, they bashed netbooks for being slow and clunky. The processor in this thing is a custom 1Ghz. I'm not sure about GPU, but I can't imagine it being better than an Nvidia Ion. Of course, I'd still buy this over a netbook, any day. At least it's got the aesthetic appeal. "

you actually thought they would come out with a game console? really? 
 
sheesh

It looks hideous. Not what I'd usually expect from Apple when it came to aesthetics.

" @woltkezero: $699.99 USD "

" And knowing Apple the software is most likely the best around. I'm interested in what developers (not just games) can whip up with this thing - Apple is known for having great SDK's.  "

" @Kombat: Ya It's hard to say.  I could see myself paying 700 for it.  Its not as powerful as a macbook pro or anything like that so they can't put it up there.  But they have to charge for the functionality of the touchscreen shit.  Tough call. "

" @Cube said:

"you actually thought they would come out with a game console? really?   sheesh "

No I did'nt think they would make a game console......   I HOPED!!!  Very different huh?  Come on, I read the rumors (on tech) on the internet Websites like the rest of you.. "

" @AndrewB: I'm just saying, its the idea of it that you'll be paying for.  The fact that its not some other tablet, that its Apple's iPad.  Just Apple upping price because its Apple basically. "

Wow, $9.99 for each iWork application (assuming you don't need them all) sounds good.

man even if i wanted this (which i really don't - not a huge fan of touch screen tech and have a pretty poor history with dead ipods) I would have to wait until the second version is released and all the fuck ups are ironed out.

Nice 3G

Ouch, they lost me on the 3G data plan. $14.99 for 250mb, $29.99 unlimited. At least there's no contract.

" @Cube: Well actually they did in the past..the Pippen back in the earily 90's.  But that was before iTunes, and High speed internet, and so and so on.  The system FAILED because their was to much competion, 3do, Jagaur, SNES, Genesis-32x, PSX, Saturn and even Phillips was making a gaming console... and Turbo Duo too :-|   "

People will still eat this shit up.  Slap an Apple logo and gloss on anything and the masses will purchase it.

The bigger issue is that it is a deal through AT&T and that might mean they renewed their contract.  AKA not going with Verizon.  But maybe both I guess.  They do multiple companies here in Canada

" People will still eat this shit up.  Slap an Apple logo and gloss on anything and the masses will purchase it. "

Fuck yeah! $500. I could buy that right now. Of course, that's only 16GB.

500, 600, 700 || 16,32,64

But it also costs a shitton more for the 3G modem model, which is pretty messed up.

Ships in 60 days.  90 for 3G models.
 
 
I'm done with this I want to hear about iPhone 4.0