My personal opinion of Apple's iPads

[unfocused]

After owning both the iPad and iPad 2, and even an iPhone and iPod Touch, I've made up my mind on how I feel about Apple's iDevice products. So I figured I'd just state my opinion about it. Keeping in mind that I no longer own either iPads.

A little while back Apple began claiming how useful the iPad was becoming for people ranging from doctors to school children. While most of us are somewhere in between that, I did notice how my many nieces and nephews loved how simple it was to just pick up the iPad, make a few swipes and begin playing one of those addicting games. Even I loved playing Monopoly and Real Racing HD with the accelerometer, you can do things like shake the tablet to roll the dice, or turn the tablet as a steering wheel. It was cool and fun. No doubt about it, the accelerometer was my favorite feature about the tablet. I also loved that it was light and portable. It had a lot of useful, and useless, apps that were interesting and fun. The abundance of ads in many of the free apps did get really annoying over time, though.

What I found myself using the tablet for the most was laying in bed surfing the internet, and carrying it with me around the house while I was doing something on it. I also used it a lot when I went out. I was never bored at a friends house because I could always just connect to the internet and find something to do. And finding something to do was easy because I loved to open Teamviewer or Air Video and connect to my home pc and watch movies or edit my files. Although Teamviewer is slow and there is no sound output, Air Video was great, when it worked. The gaming got much better with the iPad 2, but don't believe anyone that tells you it's a good gaming platform. First and foremost, the iPad will need a dedicated controller to even begin to think of itself as any kind of gaming platform. The biggest problem I had with the more graphics intensive games (ie Gangstar, Street Fighter IV, RE4, Grand Theft Auto, or pretty much any game you control a character in a 3D world) was that the controls were so very awkward and buggy that I couldn't even finish them. Rubbing your fingers profusely around on a 9.7 inch screen when a bunch of enemies come toward you is not fun. Let's not forget these games aren't even full games. GTA:CTW and Gangstar (which is closer to GTA for major consoles than GTA:CTW), for instance, played like a comicbook when the cut scenes came on. No audio, just text to read so you'll know how the story is coming along. RE4 didn't even have cut scenes. Large games need to be cut down to under 1GB. And most of these games are closer to a quarter that.

I'm sure the iPad will develop into a nice platform for games, one day. But I don't think it's a good idea to waste time trying to make it run bigger games better. The smaller games (Solitaire, Angry Birds, Plants versus Zombies) are great for the iPad. Games that take advantage of the accelerometer and do not depend too much on on-screen controls where the movement needs to be great in order to enjoy the game. If Apple designs a bluetooth controller that bigger games can base their system on, this will be great. But then we still have the problem of size. 64GB will not hold too many 3-7GB games. It won't even hold many 250-600MB games when you think about the room you need for your music, videos and apps. I'm sure something can be figured out, but not without an increase in price.

I feel I paid too much for the little use the iPad gave me. A decent laptop that can do everything the iPad can and more, much much more, can go for cheaper. I didn't like playing the games I liked, and I couldn't waste my time on the easier-to-play games I didn't like. The "useful" apps are either miniature versions of websites/apps you can find easily enough on a pc or laptop, or they were only useful to the iPad. I traded my iPad 2 for an under-priced laptop (from a couple Japanese kids, wasn't hard to pull that off). I miss Monopoly, the Address Book, and the portability of that iPad. But nothing else. I recently bought a 1TB external USB drive the size of a wallet, and put all my music, photos, PSD's and HD movies on it without the worry of running out of space. No need to sync anything between computers, no need to install iTunes, no need to worry if this movie or that movie will play when I need it to. iBooks is cool, but it's nothing new and groundbreaking. Having a webcam is cool and can be useful. But did you hear about the back camera on the iPad 2? It records like it's 1999, or more like 1995. The quality is terrible for a 2011 device. And don't think about taking still pictures with it, especially in low lighting. I'd say the iPad is king when it comes to portability. But when it comes to function, iOS is just a mini operating system that doesn't do much for me.

I still love my iPhone (although my brother has an HTC Evo and they are so awesome that I am thinking of selling my phone). But iOS is so limited that a lot of us need to jailbreak/void our warranties in order to get the full use out of them, and even then, the full use is very limited, even on the iPad. I mean sure, being able to print wirelessly to a broader range of printers is nice, but would be nicer if I ever printed stuff. Watching Netflix on my TV sounds fun, but my Xbox is already hooked up and ready to go. The watered down version of Photoshop is kind of an insult to Photoshop. Actually, the whole digital art drawing process on an iPad is probably only good for the more serious hardcore artists that love the challenge of drawing with your finger, and don't mind the lack of detail you can put in. iPhone OS is just a mobile operating system, which seems to have been built primarily for mobile phones. So why is it on the iPad? It is a mobile operating system that is overrated and over-hyped. I mean seriously, when it's this difficult to add multitasking to your operating system, you know it shouldn't belong on anything other than a cellphone. There are off-brand tablets out there running full blown Windows 7 Ultimate. I don't see the big deal about iOS.

I mean, I'm not sure if Apple advertised the iPad as anything other than a beautiful device for general purposes. But it can be used in many different ways, though it's not the best in any one of those ways. I have to bring up iBooks again, because I think it's a highlight of the iPad. But it's still not a Kindle when it comes to reading books. I loved my iPad first generation the whole year I had it. I think I lost that love when the iPad 2 came out and didn't see much of an improvement. I think the iPad is a gorgeous device and deserves a lot of the hype it has gotten. But I also think most of us should know that, for starters, it will NOT replace a laptop, let alone a desktop. So don't go trading your laptops for iPads. Most of us should know that the iPad is a great tool for certain people but not everyone. You should know that you very well might not be getting $500-$800 worth of usefulness. If you jailbreak your iPad, which is a very tempting, albeit daunting task, you void your warranty, even though you won't break any laws. How can you break any laws? All you're doing is altering software you legally own. Compare it to tie dying your shirt. I wonder if Steve Jobs writes his name on his underwear and socks.

Every now and then I catch myself on Craigslist or eBay looking for a cheap used iPad. But then I remember how limited it is for me, and I disgustingly close the tab right away. It sounds bad but even it's extreme portability is too big for the little use I find it has. But that's just me, even though I don't personally know anyone that has found a lot of use out of the iPad/2, I do know there are many people out there that do. You just need to make sure which camp you are in before you decide to invest a few hundred bucks on one. If the price doesn't bother you, I say give it a try. At the very least, it would make a nice gesture to give to someone as a gift. Maybe someday I will find one closer to the $200 range I believe it is truly worth. I really do miss Monopoly...

Now, what's this chromebook I keep hearing about?
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"edit : i luv james" - Layzcarter

[ThaKakarot]

Nice review.

I'd buy one just for the fun mindless apps but I just can't justify spending such a large amount on a gadget. :/
Already have a desktop n laptop and not too long ago I bought a 360 kinect combo with like 10 games TT_TT
Going to start saving for a vaporizer now which is gonna cost me a pretty penny too. :S


Gonna google chromebook now.

[unfocused]

Vaporizers<3

That was a joke about chromebook. It [i]seems [/i]to me like it's just another iPad fiasco. But I haven't tried one yet so I don't know.

Tommy<3
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"edit : i luv james" - Layzcarter

[cstdenis]

Interesting review.

chromebook vs ipad is presumably going to be the same Android vs iPhone. You don't get the lock-in you get with Apple which means more flexibility, but you trade that for the horribly broken android security model. And all the other flaws still remain.
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[Dewroo]

[quote="cstdenis"]Interesting review.

chromebook vs ipad is presumably going to be the same Android vs iPhone. You don't get the lock-in you get with Apple which means more flexibility, but you trade that for the horribly broken android security model. And all the other flaws still remain.[/quote]

All of the chrombook's "apps" are actually websites, really.

I haven't heard anything about it.
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[size=11][/size] You can fail if it has an apple logo.

[Jhihmoac]

Sorry...Only a MacBook Pro (Yeah, right...unaffordable) would be the "Apple" of my eye...

Rest of it's high-tech junk, in my opinion

[MedalMask]

Apple is slowly falling without Steve Jobs
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