Quote :

"double the price, not even half the features, seven times the marketing: the iPad!"

Double the price of what? And as you have ignored several hundred other times, features != value. Experience = value, features are orthogonal to that relationship.

2/9/2010 3:10:45 PM

2/18/2010 8:21:20 PM

http://gizmodo.com/5458382/ - i lold

2/22/2010 11:42:48 AM

^Do their writers get paid or can any chump off the street publish articles on the site? (I'm guessing the latter from that link)

In other news, I was playing Mass Effect 2 last night and noticed that they too have iPads in game...same foot print smaller screen. haha

2/22/2010 11:46:13 AM

i wish this thing would hurry up and come out

im ready to buy one

2/22/2010 12:01:19 PM

Quote :

"some of yall weigh in on this thought for me. Is this (and products like it) the death of the text book? I see this and I think "man in middle school/high/college if they'd just pass one of these out to every kid no need for books." Hell, no need for most computer labs/tvs/projectors all that stuff with the righ deployment. We spend so much $ on out of date textbooks just imagine eliminating all the printing/shipping/ cost of that. Maybe not this year but in 10? You'd have to assume apple or someone could get the price of these down to where schools could load up."

I never ever ever could see that happening. Maybe in a private school, but definitely not in a public school.

2/23/2010 10:29:42 PM

Maybe in Universities since you have to buy your own books. I mean shit $500/semester is not unusual on new textbooks.

But then you have the cost of publishing to consider. Distribution. etc.

2/23/2010 10:33:41 PM

^we've already seen with regular books that the move to digital has almost no impact on price. So digital textbooks might be 450 bucks a semester, but it sure as hell isn't going to offset the cost of the reader.

2/23/2010 11:34:00 PM

eliminating the cost of printing physical textbooks would be nice, but it wouldn't have as big an effect as most people think. all those color photos, fancy layouts, and phd authors aren't cheap. i'd say the technological benefits of having digital textbooks far outweighs any pricing benefits



[Edited on February 23, 2010 at 11:41 PM. Reason : .]

2/23/2010 11:41:31 PM

i don't know about you but i see 56 cents (56%) saved for every dollar, that's a pretty big impact.

2/23/2010 11:47:31 PM

Quote :

"^we've already seen with regular books that the move to digital has almost no impact on price. So digital textbooks might be 450 bucks a semester, but it sure as hell isn't going to offset the cost of the reader."

Thats what I was saying and I've said it previously in this thread that we won't see a difference in cost for digital texts vs. printed texts. It would be nice but we all know its not happening. Even if it cost less to go digital in terms of distribution I highly doubt the publisher will trickle down the savings to the consumer.

^where are you getting the 56% from? I see at most 23% eliminated by going digital but then you have to add in costs that are involved with digital. didn't include the printing costs

[Edited on February 23, 2010 at 11:59 PM. Reason : .]

2/23/2010 11:53:57 PM

You assume that means 56 cents passed on to the consumer. And that assumes digital distribution is free. Which it isn't.

There are major costs associated with digital content distribution. The publisher is paying 10-25 cents on the dollar just to sell their book on Platform X. Add to that the infrastructure they have to create and maintain to push to that distribution network.

So you're realistically back to saving the 20-30 cents on the dollar for the cost of the paper. And guess what? Publishers will turn that into PROFIT, not discounts. The publishing industry has been running on razor thin margins for years. This is their one big reset button and it's going to be a long ass time before they drop those margins again.

2/23/2010 11:57:05 PM

They'll just go from spending on paper to spending on "infrastructure" and all will remain as it is.

You'll just no longer have the satisfaction of torching the book at the end of the semester.

2/23/2010 11:57:42 PM

where are you getting 56 cents?

^ not to mention in many cases you can sell your book and get back 20-50% what you paid for it

2/24/2010 12:12:28 AM

Publisher's Paper, Printing, Editorial costs
+
College Store Personnel
+
Freight Expense
+
College Store Operations

2/24/2010 12:14:35 AM

- Publisher's Paper, Printing, Editorial costs
i wish they broke this down more. you can reduce the paper/printing, but the editorial costs remain, which i suspect is at least 20% of that 30%

- College Store Personnel
college stores sell things other than textbooks. also, they compile all the textbook information from professors. this takes a lot more work than people realize. you could probably eliminate half this category

- Freight Expense
it's only 1% but sure you could get rid of that

- College Store Operations
if textbooks aren't sold in bookstores at all, you could bypass this cost by adding it to supplies/shirts/etc



so say you have a $100 new textbook
buy it used for $70
sell it at the end of the semester for $30
total cost: $40

are they going to be able to reduce the price of a $100 textbook down to $40 just by going digital? not likely

[Edited on February 24, 2010 at 12:24 AM. Reason : .]

2/24/2010 12:21:18 AM

i wonder how they will protect their content, its a lot easier to pirate digital books (well maybe not as easy as ordering foreign editions for cheap, but thats still paying). will this be the new drm crack-fix race?

2/24/2010 12:31:56 AM

they are using EPUB, which is an open standard. however, they are adding their own DRM. which is pretty disappointing, considering the success they've had moving away from DRM in the music industry. i'll be interested to see if the kindle and B&N ebook apps end up having any success on the ipad

[Edited on February 24, 2010 at 12:41 AM. Reason : interoperability kna mean]

2/24/2010 12:40:35 AM

^^^I agree with you, I was just posting how I figured he came to that savings amount.

2/24/2010 12:48:43 AM

ic

2/24/2010 1:19:45 AM

Anyone planning on making applications specifically for this device?

Gaming wise it opens up an exciting array of possibilities, and it would be nice to be out early in the iPad 'market', but you cant just ignore the 40+ million iphone/touchs out there either...

2/24/2010 10:43:13 AM

i think gaming will be one thing but app developer need to focus on the segment i think will be buying this... baby-boomers and whichever gen is right below them. My lovely wife wants one just for sitting on the couch and playing bejeweled but the ladies in my office are the ones who are really talking about how great it would be for browsing and email. I think that generation is much less inclined to use a mouse if they could have touch screen, my mother for one still has a hard time with mousing when she's rushed (ie me going "WHY CAN'T YOU DO THIS") touch screens make sense for them, and apple is going to make touch screens easy... win

2/24/2010 11:05:03 AM

ok i have a question... say I buy one of these ipads with 3g. does it also have edge? or will it only work on 3g towers... where I live and work for the most part 3g is non-existant.

2/25/2010 6:02:17 PM

Its a tablet. Having 3G is really a bullet point for this thing as you'd nearly always want to be connected to WiFi somewhere.

2/25/2010 6:56:15 PM

^^ Yes it will work on EDGE

2/25/2010 7:14:24 PM

^^ Is it really just a bullet point if there's a 130 dollar premium for the ability, and you still have to get a subscription?

I mean, if someone is never concerned about being away from Wifi they just won't bother with the 3g tablet at all.

2/26/2010 8:08:06 AM

i work weekends at the farmers market. i have power, i have 3g I do not have wifi

2/26/2010 6:06:54 PM

young person working at the farmers market? Yep, apple user.

3/2/2010 10:21:04 AM

^lol?

3/2/2010 10:25:40 AM

Wifi comes out April 3rd. Available for pre order march 12th

3/7/2010 12:22:45 PM

i was pretty dead set on getting a 3G model

but now i am not so sure if i want to pay the $130 premium

3/7/2010 12:24:14 PM

big day is tomorrow... who's throwing down $

3/11/2010 3:31:23 PM

so the 3G model you also need an AT&T subscription? is this in addition to your iphone service? I assume so but that would suck

3/11/2010 3:32:53 PM

^Yes so you're paying for data twice.

Although I'm pretty confidant someone will figure out how to tether a jailbroken iphone to an ipad for internet. I'd get one if that were the case.

3/11/2010 3:33:55 PM

^^I'm pre-ordering tomorrow! The plan is to give it to my brother when he comes to visit in June and buy myself a 3g one if i really like it

3/11/2010 3:35:11 PM

you need a 3g provider... but it's not required. and you can add the service or cancel at will. aka go on a trip? turn it on... staying home for a month turn it off.

3/11/2010 7:17:44 PM

but 3G & app store is about all this thing has to offer over 7 alternatives, that are MUCH better bang for your buck:

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/03/12/seven-alternatives-to-the-apple-ipad/

i mean let's face it, the only people who are going to buy the iPad are Apple fans that love the Apple "experience", there's nothing revolutionary about the product or technology, just another content delivery platform for eBooks (& app/iTunes) for Apple that builds on their already successful multi-touch user-interface.

[Edited on March 12, 2010 at 11:44 AM. Reason : .]

3/12/2010 11:40:43 AM

^I remember reading the exact same thing in the iPhone thread when it, too, was first announced.

3/12/2010 11:43:47 AM

yea, i've heard that one before too.

3/12/2010 11:44:51 AM

Well at least you know how ridiculous making assumptions is...

3/12/2010 12:15:10 PM

Quote :

"Although I'm pretty confidant someone will figure out how to tether a jailbroken iphone to an ipad for internet. I'd get one if that were the case."

What's there to figure out? There are several programs that turn your iPhone into a wifi hotspot.

3/12/2010 1:17:46 PM

This thing would be perfect for my mom. Big icons, easy to read and use, and "cute", as she would put it.

Too bad my dad bought her a sony e-reader over Christmas.

3/12/2010 1:39:01 PM

Quote :

"What's there to figure out? There are several programs that turn your iPhone into a wifi hotspot."

Oh yeah good point. Alright tethering to iphone. Check.

3/12/2010 2:28:28 PM

Is there any word on when the Notion Ink Adam will be released or how much it'll be? I haven't found anything but I might have missed something.

3/12/2010 2:32:30 PM

June/July - $327-$800
http://gizmodo.com/5471559/notion-ink-adam-tablet-caught-on-video-specs-finalized

3/12/2010 3:13:44 PM

^

3/12/2010 3:25:51 PM

Yeah those look hot. It could actually replace my e-book reader whereas the ipad could not with the e-book display.

3/12/2010 4:46:03 PM

^^they forgot the 30 days of stand-by time on the battery for the iPad...that alone was something that got me interested.

Also, why leave out all the 'other' features of the iPad if you're going to list them for the ink?

[Edited on March 12, 2010 at 4:49 PM. Reason : .]

3/12/2010 4:46:04 PM

what other features? OIC

they are the same in terms of "other"

both have AGPS, ambient light sensor, accelerometer, RF, except the Ink has touchpad & proximity

[Edited on March 12, 2010 at 4:56 PM. Reason : .]

3/12/2010 4:53:09 PM

Quote :

"except the Ink has touchpad & proximity"

why do you need a touchpad on a touchscreen device?

and i'm guessing proximity is the same 'feature' that the iPhone uses when you put it up to your ear or is that something else entirely?

Also, storage...is that strictly removable storage or internal storage as well?

[Edited on March 12, 2010 at 5:00 PM. Reason : .]

3/12/2010 4:58:42 PM