For once I agree with you!  :O

That's ridiculous. AT&T and Apple are just companies developing from business
models that they think will garner their shareholders the highest return on
investment  - just like any other corporation. All their decisions are
business calls. They aren't aspiring to be gods, or even to be monopolies,
just profitable businesses in each of their business sectors. That you don't
agree with their policies or like their products is a decision that you can
make. Buy or don't buy as you choose, but to whip-up some idiotic Jihad
against CORPORATIONS  because you don't like what or how they sell is just a
waste of everybody's time, including yours. Forget 'em both and move on, is
my advice.

Well, you can quote ME on that if you like, although it wasn't my quote.

I think Apple has a certain hubris/arrogance that leads them to release
products in their own way, with a "like it or lump it" attitude.

However, having said that, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing-
Apple has an almost uncanny sense of what the public wants in consumer
electronics, based on experience, trends, or what they see as problems or
opportunities in the existing marketplace.  I liken it to a fashion
designer- designers make what _they_ think is good, and don't listen to
external committees, pundits, critics, or focus groups.  Popular designers
hit a nerve in buyers that attract them to that designers' work, and that's
what Apple currently seems to do.

Also, like with fashion designers, buyers seem to fall into two groups-
those that "get it" and like the work, and those that don't, and either
don't like it, or at least don't particularly see what the fuss is about.
Again, that's not a bad thing.  Obviously, as my posts generally betray, I'm
simply one of those that just don't get it.  To me, while the iPhone and
iPod are perfectly decent, acceptable products in their respective markets
and have a lot to offer, I don't see the hypnotic sway they seem to hold
over others.  I'm like the adults in the story of the Pied Piper- I can hear
the music, but I can't figure out why all the village kids are following it!
;)

Plus, to be fair, as far as "getting things fantastically right" we're
really talking about the iPod and iPhone.  Both wildly successful products
fueling Apple's current success, but Apple's other endeavors, like the Mac
and Apple TV, while perfectly good products, aren't market-leading or
market-defining products, as evidenced by their market share.  Guys like
"Your Name" can pretend all he likes that the 90% of people who don't buy
Macs don't only because they've simply had the misfortune of never actually
trying one, and are only one Genius Bar demonstration away from becoming Mac
users for life, but the Mac has been around long enough that that
explanation simply doesn't wash.  The vast majority of buyers simply don't
find the advantages the Mac has are worth the trade-offs, whether those be
barrier-of-entry costs, their existing investment (financial, intellectual,
etc.) in PCs and PC software, compatibility with work equipment, availablity
of software/games, etc.  The percentage of people who "get" the iPhone or
iPod is seemingly higher than those that "get" the Mac, which is reflected
in their respective marketshares.

One could argue that if Apple did indeed listen to consumer research, they'd
have learned quite a while ago that people want $300 laptops, which Apple
could certainly offer by cutting corners (and margins) they have no interest
in cutting.  (And I'm not suggesting they should!)

Apple has hit a nerve with the iPod and now the iPhone.  I think the iPad
will be a interesting test- this is a market that barely exists, and hasn't
proven itself as a mass market in any way, unlike the iPod and iPhone, which
were good products launched into mature markets.  [Before everyone jumps in
to argue with me that the iPod launched when MP3 players were a similar
untapped market waiting for the "right" product, I humbly submit that's only
true if you define the market as "MP3 player," or "digital music player" and
not the larger and more generic "portable music player" which, pre-iPod, was
as HUGE a category as today, dominated by CD players and radio/cassette
Walkmans.  iPods didn't "create" the portable music player market- it
transitioned the market to the digital age.  A very impressive feat, but a
certainly inevitable one.

The potential problem with the iPad, from a marketing perspective, is
figuring out what is it intended to replace.  The iPod replaced the Walkman,
the iPhone was the "smartphone for the rest of us," but what's the iPad?
It's not like we're all currently walking around with "analog" paper
clipboards screaming to be replaced by a digital version, or all lugging
around portable TVs or DVD players because our iPod's screens are too small.
Even ebooks- the darling category of the moment, is fairly well served by
current smaller, cheaper, easy to use devices.   The question is, IMO, can
Apple create an entirely new market for the first time?  Does the consumer
want/need a "couch computer?"  (The current tablet market is a professional
one running vertical applications mostly, and I don't think that's the tiny
market Apple has set its sights on!)  Will the iPad strike the same nerve in
the consumer that the iPod and iPhone did, or will be an Apple TV-like "good
idea" that most consumers might be marginally impressed by, but can't see
any pressing need for in their own lives.

Personally I don't think the iPad will become the runaway ubiquitous "hit"
that the iPhone has become, simply because there's no pressing need for it
to fill, but I think it'll sell well enough to justify its creation.  That's
another example, IMO, of Apple not listening to "consumer research."  Apple
is still gutsy enough to launch a new untested category like an Apple TV or
an iPad, despite the potential of a perceived marketplace failure "proving
wrong" their reputation for, as you kiddingly called it, "the near-psychic
powers of Apple's design team for getting things fantastically right..."
It's very impressive that when discussing Apple's failures, the best example
any one points to is the Newton, which happened nearly two decades ago, to
virtually a completely different company in terms of management.

What I will sit back and find amusing will be the tireless parade of
iPadalikes that will launch even before the iPad has time to be deemed a
market success or not- Apple's "can do no wrong" reputation has companies
already scrambling to compete in an as-yet-undefined product category
against an as yet unlaunched product!  (I look forward to buying one of
those tablet phonies on clearance in 12 months for $99 or $199 just to play
with, after they're all dumped on the market below cost after failing
miserably!)  If the iPad is successful, it will "own" the category like
iPods own the portable media player category, since any copycats won't have
time to invest in a thoughtfully planned end-to-end user experience, but
will simply press hastily-assembled keyboardless Windows or Linux netbooks
into use as "tablets."  These sure-to-released Frankenpads will fail
miserably, and deservedly so.

it's unlikely the ipad will tether to usb, but it can probably connect
to some other device that can tether. it's really up to at&t, not
apple.

Nevertheless, in lots of other countries the iPhone can be used to
tether a laptop. In my own country, Denmark, all carriers have such
contracts.

For pure data traffic, my own carrier, 3.dk, offers a data plan with
unlimited access and 16 Mbit/s. Price $58 a month, 25% VAT included. In
the cheap end it is $9 a month with a max of 50 MB and 20 cents for each
1 MB extra.

For smartphones you can get a plan that costs $70 a month with data
traffic up til 20 GB a month [no extra pay if you use more but if you do
so, the company can reduce the speed] and free sms and mms. Up till 300
minutes of telephone calls a month.

I have chosen the cheapest option, $14 a month. I pay for every
telephone call, every sms and mms I send - and I have up till 100 MB of
data traffic for free. I pay 14 cent for every MB extra with a maximum
of $35 a month for the data traffic. Why the cheapest? Because I don't
use the phone that much and usually the iPhone connects through WiFi. At
home and at the office I would use my IP telephone. And when teaching?
Well, it isn't smart for teachers to receive cell phone calls in class,
and it would be even worse to call in front of the Sixth Formers!

Lots of people use many different kinds of memory cards routinely.

Perhaps iFans are more clumsy than the "rest of us".  ;)

Not sure which side of the fence I'll be placed for mentioning this,
but I'll dare to say that I've used both USB cable and dedicated
readers.   Of course, the dilemma with trying to pigeonhole this
statement is that I have cameras that use both SD/SDHC and CF.

So with all of this yelling for a built-in card reader slot, that slot
is going to be CF...right?  :-)

BTW, before anyone suggests that CF is dead, I don't disagree that SD
is the "80% Solution" presently within the general *consumer* market,
but interestingly, the new release higher end dSLR that I just bought
happens to be CF only.

-hh

You meet millions of people a day??
Or have you mastered hyperbole?  ;)

Out of the 10 or so that post here dufus.

Steve

That's "really"

Perhaps. Though I do have a digital camera I am in no way a
photographer.

There are three kinds of people on this planet: those who can count and
those who can't.

Because it was more expedient to provide that amount of data upfront.

Ya really think so?

Wouldn't that have left an opening for a stupidly long & fruitless  /
"Is Not!"  /  "Is Too!" / "Where's your Proof?" / etc?

-hh

the ipad is not a netbook.

This assumes that all of these people are actually comfortable with
Windows in the first place. Less savvy users can use a system every day
for years and not develop real proficiently or comfort with it.

We all know these people. They're the friends and family members who
call us for tech support... which often we can't even usefully provide
over the phone because they don't understand what they're looking at
well enough to usefully describe it:

"It says there's an error."

"What error?"

"I don't remember. Something with the file."

"What program were you in?"

"I don't know, where do I find that?"

etc.

These people will likely be better off with an iPad on day one than with
Windows on day 4768. Because in 4768 days of Windows use, they didn't
learn anything but how to perform a handful of actions by following
memorized steps; they never grasped abstractions like the file system or
really wrapped their heads around things like managing multiple
windows/apps.

Do you know how many years I have been using computers?  If I am
copying data to the removable drive I wait until its done.

NEVER had a problem.

I don't know what you mean about mounting drives in Windows.  There is
no command or option I can think of to do that, it just happens when I
pop in a CD....USB stick....SD card, etc.

Steve

Which are demonstrably superior.

I wasn't disappointed, the Mac apologists weren't quiet for long.  But
of course only mentioned one of the formats I mentioned as they had no
lame excuses for the others, like LAME.

Steve

you can say anything you want, but it definitely does multitask. there
are several things running at any given moment and an app can spawn
multiple threads.

how else can an iphone receive phone calls, sms messages or email while
using another app? or how safari can stream audio when not running?

the iphone has had a camera for 2.5 years and ships with a camera app.
there is also a lot of camera software available on the store.

which means it has a card reader. it's just not built-in, but that's
ok, it's not like the card reader will work with something other than
an ipad.