Apple iPad first hands-on! (update: video!)
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Jan 27th 2010 4:48PM
posted Jan 27th 2010 4:48PM
- It's not light. It feels pretty weighty in your hand.
- The screen is stunning, and it's 1024 x 768. Feels just like a huge iPhone in your hands.
- The speed of the CPU is something to be marveled at. It is blazingly fast from what we can tell. Webpages loaded up super fast, and scrolling was without a hiccup. Moving into and out of apps was a breeze. Everything flew.
- There's no multitasking at all. It's a real disappointment. All this power and very little you can do with it at once. No multitasking means no streaming Pandora when you're working in Pages... you can figure it out. It's a real setback for this device.
- The ebook implementation is about as close as you can get to reading without a stack of bound paper in your hand. The visual stuff really helps flesh out the experience. It may be just for show, but it counts here.
- No camera. None, nada. Zip. No video conferencing here folks. Hell, it doesn't have an SMS app!
- It's running iPhone OS 3.2.
- The keyboard is good, not great. Not quite as responsive as it looked in the demos.
- No Flash confirmed. So Hulu is out for you, folks!
@Swagger
...no, sorry
@Swagger soo... you're saying it will be a failure?
@Swagger it will, but that does not mean it is better. It will sell out because of crazy fanboys and because of all this fuzz created.
Netbooks, are much better in my opinion especially the lenovo one with detachable screen...
@Swagger that wouldn't be hard.
all the tablet's that came out at CES? Meh. Just like this.
@Swagger Suuuuuuuure.
@Dking7
It's like when Apple ignores the useful things that a netbook can do, everybody that likes Apple does too... Netbooks ARE better at things.
@Swagger HA very true
@Swagger I'm seeing you posting this mindless crap ( "death of tablet pcs" ) again and again on all the discussions... all i can say to you is "please grow up...!!!"
@Swagger
lol, more like this thing is dead at the $499 pricepoint. This doesn't actually do _anything_ worthwhile. Functionally, it's a complete waste.
@Swagger
"Tablet PC is dead at this pricepoint, which is why the Microsoft shills are mad. "
Words fail me...
No it can not do want netbooks can. I need windows support to manage my investments and the memory is not enough. And I need to run multi applications at the same time. It is a good ipod replacement but does not replace a netbook.
@Swagger On Engadget, you can type, but no one will see you fail.
BTW, what's up with Steve hating netbooks? At least they multitask, have cameras, have Flash support, run a sophisticated OS, and can still edit documents, also while weighing around half a pound more on average. He should have dissed duplicate functionality (competing office suites, web browsers, etc.).
@HardToBelieve
+1
This isn't meant to replace a netbook people! seriously! This is targeted for students and people that need something that just works without all the windows customization things that can be messed up and crash the OS. Don't get me wrong I love Microsoft but you guys need to relax on the Apple bashing!
@commentbug I concur, and iSupposed its just common sense to think that the capabilities of the iPad is something youre handy-dandy smartphone and laptop can do. And buying it to replace your 'old' amazon kindle 2 is kind of moot in my opinion. All the things you want to know about the iPad: http://bit.ly/apple-ipad-advantages
Is it heavy?
@devitus Is it just me or is there a lot of bezel
Looks like a giant mutated iPod Touch.
Funny how the wallpaper is of a twilight. Could this be Apple's twilight.
@zbi
It's you... You have a lot of bezel.
Steve claims this is more useful than a netbook.
I don't believe him.
@devitus yes you right
@devitus Can you imagine holding this for more than 30 minutes? Your hands will fall off! I can hold my iPhone for a while, but that's what, 6 oz?
@ustna I figure it's there for ergonomic reasons.
@OwenV
No multitasking, no flash 10.1 no buy. That simple :)
@zbi
when looking at the video the bezel takes up the amopunt the thumb will cover anyway. Could that be the reason ? Seems logical
@OwenV No way netbook killer. This thing sucks. Anyone who buys it is a moron. 16GB? Joke. No flash? Joke. No camera? Joke. No multitask? Joke.
It's not even close to a computer. More to my iPhone. Really lame.
@zbi The bezel is so you can grip it without activating the touch screen, even if the side of your thumb or finger touches the screen it would mess things up. It's not quite the same as holding an iPhone from the sides
@zbi They're probably there to help the handling (less misregistered touches on the capacitive screen).
@devitus
no flash, no multitasking, no integrated webcam, no integrated physical keyboard
netbook killer?? seriously?
@Nexus
no flash 10.1? heck it doesnt even have flash at all, even my nokia 5800 has flash lite
@devitus I'll get an HD2 instead. Who's with me?
@zbi It's a lot of bezel, but you'll need it. In order to hold it with one hand, you'll have to have your thumb on top. The bezel gives you a place to do this w/o screwing up the multitouch. The iPhone/iPod touch can be held in one hand by squeezing the sides, so it needs less bezel.
@devitus I'll get an HD2 instead. Who's with me? :-)
@Chizzed This DOES kill the netbook for all it's worth.
@zbi I thought that at first, but just holding it would be hard since it's a multi touch display. The iphone can spare a small bezel because it can be held in you hand.
@devitus
Can it even run Flash? If it can't it fail big time. Not many excited program that Ipad can do, too limited function like Iphone. 1ghz.. that is the same as Google Nexus.
@Acey
Isn't the whole point of a tablet is that it doesn't have a keyboard?
@Nexus No Flash? I thought that was a selling point.
@devitus - Yea, but can it run Crysi-- oh never mind...
@bellis True
@devitus
would it have been insane to have added a camera, sd card slot, Gpu, flash support in the browser?!?!?!? I would gladly pay a extra 50 bucks for all that. (and ya it probably would cost less)
@techlord wow only 1 Ghz like a cell phone?? the horror! I never knew that computing power was based solely on clockspeed alone! I should have kept my 3.4 GHz P4 instead of buying that 2.4 Q6600 3 years ago!
I got scammed!
@devitus
How bout copy and paste? Does it have an optional mouse as well?
optional blu-ray burner?
usb and firewire?
@Nexus Agree 100%. The thing is really an oversized iPhone. Apple finally fails. They talk about Netbooks not being the right size and too weak, but I've seen netbooks with better screens and more horsepower.
@drew57 Why do people keep excusing the bezel? Are you seriously telling me that with screens that can detect more than 10 fingers at a time, that Apple couldn't have written software that KNOWS that the finger gripping the left side of the screen should be ignored because it's holding the screen?
Just ignore it and only accept data from any other touch points. Isn't that the POINT of having "multi-touch?" And now all you apologists are saying "omg, you can't hold the device if it didn't have that bezel because it would get confused."
These things are supposed to be smart and a smart software engineer could EASILY figure out if a gesture was to perform an action or if it was simply someone holding the screen.
@zbi The wide margin of Bezel is there so when you hold it, your hand doesn't obstruct your view of the screen in portrait and landscape mode; at least thats what i assume:P
@zbi There is, and while it's not as sharp looking as it might be with a screen that bleeds to the edge, where are you going to grip it if it has no bezel?
I can understand why they did this.
@darkazure
I'll get a Supersonic when it comes, but yeah, it's the same basic iDea.
@xCrunk
It weights 1.5 lbs... how much of a weakling are you. Dude.