Will you buy an ipad 2?

For $350 I got myself a top of the line Asus netbook with a dual core Atom processor and high resolution WXVGA screen. It is the bomb. It is a little bigger and heavier than an iPad (3 lbs) but not by a huge amount. It has a great keyboard. Battery lasts 4-6 hours (and the new model the full 6), capable of playing HD movies if I really wanted to do that...

The Xoom is cool and you can drag and drop like any PC, unlike an iTunes encumbered iPad. Honestly... I don't see the iPad being much more than an incredibly expensive Kindle but heavier and bulkier. At least the Kindle knows what it is - mostly a glorified, portable book which does its task well, reasonably inexpensive, lighter and smaller. I'd use that to read while I travel on the bus, etc. and the netbook for other situations. The iPad (and even the Xoom)... don't know. Only for rare, specialized purposes. I'm willing to hear others enlighten me as to the true utility of these tablets.
 
..Only for rare, specialized purposes. I'm willing to hear others enlighten me as to the true utility of these tablets.
At one time the Palm Pilot was used in certain medical situations (Rx, patient history), that may be one. Construction estimating would be another.

Just tossing out ideas, I've no up to date information.
 
At one time the Palm Pilot was used in certain medical situations (Rx, patient history), that may be one. Construction estimating would be another.
Just tossing out ideas, I've no up to date information.
Of the few specialized situations, I've heard it works for pilots for GPS and mapping purposes. So besides replacing expensive specialized GPS type devices, it also doubles as an expensive book reader, but I wouldn't spend $700 on one for that purpose alone.
 
Of the few specialized situations, I've heard it works for pilots for GPS and mapping purposes. So besides replacing expensive specialized GPS type devices, it also doubles as an expensive book reader, but I wouldn't spend $700 on one for that purpose alone.
A while ago I noticed a 2 year old in a high chair in a restaurant that was restless. Mom gave him her iPhone which had a suitable game installed which he enjoyed. Ironically the phone rang a few times and mom needed to take the phone away to answer it, which caused the child to cry. Last night I went to another restaurant and noticed another child in a high chair playing with an iPad. So I suppose childs toy could be added to the list as well, for the sufficiently affluent. I certainly will not be getting one.

With regards to other specialized applications: Knowing how management works in some companies, I venture to guess that there are some iPads bought using company money using an engineering department development project as an excuse for the company purchase (engineering working on a specialized application using an iPad). And that project may never come to fruition.
 
I have an iPad with 3G wireless and two important apps: an RDP client and an SSH client.
With those two apps, a larger screen and built-in VPN support, I can provide client support from anywhere I have wireless service without lugging around a laptop.
Its pretty damned cool to be able to fix a server in five minutes, from the bassboat on the lake and barely miss any fishing time at all.
My thinking is this: do you have a need to be able to do something that an iPad helsp accomplish? Then buy it. Do you just want a cool tech toy and you're looking for some reason to justify it? Maybe your money is better spent elsewhere.
Technology for the sake of having the next cool thing isn't fulfilling because once you have it, all you have is the last cool thing, not the next cool thing. Vicious cycle that will eat your wallet unmercifully.
I didn't buy the iPhone 4G because it didn't offer anything substantially different from my 3GS. The video conferencing capability on the iPad 2 makes me consider it, but I have to ask myself is the value of being able to take a video conference on the lake worth letting my clients know that they're paying me to work on the lake?
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For $350 I got myself a top of the line Asus netbook with a dual core Atom processor and high resolution WXVGA screen. It is the bomb. It is a little bigger and heavier than an iPad (3 lbs) but not by a huge amount. It has a great keyboard. Battery lasts 4-6 hours (and the new model the full 6), capable of playing HD movies if I really wanted to do that...

<snip> I'm willing to hear others enlighten me as to the true utility of these tablets.

For me... it's the "instant on". I don't want to wait for my netbook/laptop/desktop to boot up and get into Firefox. With an iPad, I can be online and have achieved what I needed before the other machine would have even started up.

I can also appreciate the benefit of a good netbook - I have a 12" thin and light HP laptop, but, I still think there's stuff the iPad can do better. I'll be travelling down to London on the train at the end of this month, I plan on taking the iPad as it's smaller and I don't need to bring a charger - the 10 hours battery life will last the journey down and back up, and there's really nothing I can't do on my iPad compared to my 12" laptop that I'd need to do.
 
For me... it's the "instant on". I don't want to wait for my netbook/laptop/desktop to boot up and get into Firefox. With an iPad, I can be online and have achieved what I needed before the other machine would have even started up.
I'm with you. With my billing rate the 6 seconds of boot up time from sleep to "on" that I'd do 2 or 3 times a day might save clients about $2-3,000 in billing. :p
 
I was leaning against it, but since Apple is giving me one for free, I guess its okay. Before you think thats great or anything, my company is an Apple business partner, so it really means they're pimping me out as their techno-whore. I get to be a walking sales ad.
If you'll excuse me, I feel the need to shower...vigorously.
 
Only for rare, specialized purposes. I'm willing to hear others enlighten me as to the true utility of these tablets.

For people like my parents a (Windows) desktop/laptop with all it´s bells and whistles and literally countless of options (and ditto problems) has now become way to complicated. Older people like them should not be expected to be able to maintain a PC like a sys-admin, really. And in Windows this is often the case. Therefor the brilliant concept of an iPad with it's dead-easy and intuitive interface is just i.d.e.a.l. for older people who just want to press and play. So it´s not only for rare, specialized purposes IMO. In fact, this fantastic post-PC product that Apple has come up with, will revolutionize the way people -and especially/certainly- older people use the computer. It has and will bring computer technology closer to this group of people and I believe this is an amazing (to use Apple's vocabulary) -and much needed- achievement, really.
 
This may be of interest to those of you considering buying an iPad or iPhone: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13145562

Apple iPhones and 3G iPads are secretly recording and storing details of all their owners' movements, researchers claim.
...
The findings, first reported by the Guardian newspaper, will come as a surprise to most iPhone users, as their devices do not give any visual indication that such data is being recorded.
However, although the practice is not explicitly flagged-up, it appears to be covered in the company's terms of use.
 
No
And people who are planning on buying one, should instead, use their money on something worthwhile, like, a charity :P
 
No
And people who are planning on buying one, should instead, use their money on something worthwhile, like, a charity :p

I already donate to charity - and I still bought an iPad (albeit, and iPad 1st gen rather than iPad2), and plan to purchase another one for my son who has autism.

Verizon is selling the iPad 1st gen at a very nice discount.

And I still donate to charity. :)
 
I already donate to charity - and I still bought an iPad (albeit, and iPad 1st gen rather than iPad2), and plan to purchase another one for my son who has autism.

Verizon is selling the iPad 1st gen at a very nice discount.

And I still donate to charity. :)

Naughty! Should've donated it all to charity! :P
heh just kidding.
 
After seeing a co-worker's iPad2 I kind of want one. :) Let's put it this way, if I were single I would have one right now. But there's no way my wife would ever let me have one. :(
 
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