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Thread ID: 111475 2010-07-28 21:00:00 Alan buys an Ipad pctek (84) PC World Chat
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1123140 2010-07-28 21:00:00 (Friend of mine - normally a sane Linux geek)



iThought iSaw A Shiny by alan robson

---------------------

It was iPad day in New Zealand so iWent to Dick Smith to consult with a
techxspert . The man himself was there demonstrating away like mad . The crowd
was iV people wide and iX people deep . Greasy fingers, toes and the occasional
willy poked the display models and, in response, pretty icons zinged back and
forth on smeary screens . There was a distinct odour of techno-lust in the
atmosphere . Or possibly it was sweaty feet .

" iWant one, " iSaid .

" WiFi by itself or WiFi and 3G network? " asked Dick Smith .

" What's the difference? "

" WiFi connects to the internet through a wireless router such as the one you
absolutely must have at home if you want to get any use at all out of the iPad,
and 3G connects to the internet through the telephone network at enormous cost
to you which results in hugely obscene profits for the phone company . "

" iThink that 3G is not for me, " iSaid . " My WiFi router at home will suffice .
Good job I have one, eh? "

" Indeed it is, " said Dick Smith . " iAssume, being the well prepared nerd that
you so obviously are, that you also have a PC running Windows? "

" Yes, " iWhispered, ashamed . " Is that really necessary? "

" The iPad won't work without it, " explained Dick Smith . " You need to run iTunes
on a separate computer to set up and maintain your new gadget . The iPad is
sexy, but it won't stand up alone . It needs the helping hand of a professional
to bring out its most satisfying performance . "

" Does iTunes work on Linux? "

" No . "

" Not even if iOffer it a glass of Wine? "

" Especially not then . Steve Jobs has had a liver transplant and so he doesn't
allow his minions to drink alcohol any more . He rules Apple with a rod of iRon,
you know . "

" What are his feelings about cider? " iAsked .

" Only with Rosie, " said Dick Smith gnomically . " Now which iPad is to be
yourPad? "

" The WiFi model, please . "

" iWill see if iHave one in the storeroom, " said Dick Smith . He vanished into
the back room and had words with a harassed looking person hiding behind a pile
of cardboard boxes . The man delved deep into his pile and emerged holding a
significant box . Dick Smith took it from him and carried it in triumph to me .
" Here it is! " heDeclared . " And now weCome to the sordid commercial part of our
intimate relationship . "

" iHave money, " iTold him .

" That's just as well, " heSaid, " because iWant lots of it . "

" iAm fed up with this joke, " iSaid .

" You should try selling these things for a living, " heSaid . " iWas sick of the
joke within five minutes of putting them on display . We've been open since
sparrow fart; it is now the middle of the afternoon and iHaven't even had time
to get myLunch yet! "

" Are they selling well? " iAsked .

" iSold nothing else all day, " heSaid . " Nobody wants any of the other boring
stuff in the shop . This is the only thing that people are interested in buying
today . "

iTook my cardboard box home and unpacked it . Rather to my surprise, iDiscovered
that the battery in the iPad was fully charged, so iCould start using my new
gadget right away . Just like me, Steve Jobs is a member of the instant
gratification generation and little touches like this show that he truly
understands his target market .

myPad is just as wonderful a toy as all the media articles say it is . It has
its drawbacks, of course . It isn't a proper computer (unless you jailbreak it,
but that invalidates the warranty) . It is severely limited in what it is
allowed to do and it point blank refuses to let you get inside it and fiddle
around, which is very frustrating for geeks like me . However if you are willing
to treat it as what it is rather than curse at it for not being what it isn't,
it soon becomes clear that it is a magnificent gadget, full of possibilities
and the source of endless fun .

Mainly there is the sheer child-like pleasure to be taken from the clever
elegance of the design . Apple really do know how to make extraordinarily
beautiful objects . Just holding it in your hands evokes a technological orgasm .
And then you turn it on and start to stroke it and your cup of delight runneth
over . Applications zoom up to fill the screen and you control them with
suitable gestures of the fingers . Do you feel the urge to indulge in a larger
font? Simply squeeze your finger and thumb together, touch them to the screen
and then separate them . The image behaves like an elastic surface and stretches
out beneath your fingertips, increasing the size of the letters as it grows .
When you read an eBook and need to turn the page, just position your fingers
exactly as you would with a real book and make the same gesture you would make
to turn a paper page and the electronic page flips over just like a real one! I
didn't read a word of the first eBook I loaded on to myPad . I just turned its
pages all the way through to the end . And then I went back to the beginning and
turned them all over again .

The only fly that I've found swimming in the soup of myPad is that stray cat
hairs floating around the house tend to plonk themselves down on the screen in
great abundance . Presumably there is a small static charge attracting them . I
have found that it is important to resist the temptation to brush them off --
whatever application currently has the focus tends to go berserk at such random
gropings, and who can blame it? I've tried blowing them away, with mixed
success . The hairs do tend to detach themselves, but they are usually replaced
with a thin layer of spit which is even less aesthetically pleasing . Once the
power is safely turned off, I find myself constantly polishing the screen with
the same sort of microfibre cloth I use for cleaning my glasses . It works quite
well, actually . . .

But when you get right down to the actual nitty gritty of it, myPad is really
only a device for showing off just how cool iAm in coffee shops and pubs . I'm
absolutely certain that it will prove to be a geek babe-magnet . iCan easily
imagine myself browsing the web with one finger and using my other fingers to
titillate all the giggling, squirming geek groupies one by one by one (just
like me, the iPad doesn't multitask) .

iRule!
pctek (84)
1123141 2010-07-28 22:01:00 iLaugh. KarameaDave (15222)
1123142 2010-07-28 22:22:00 iAgree, iLaugh too. tingle (6539)
1123143 2010-07-28 22:28:00 Can you forward emails on ipad? read somewhere you couldnt on an Iphone.
The main reason I wouldnt buy one is I am absent minded and would leave it loafing somewhere and lose it.
prefect (6291)
1123144 2010-07-28 23:53:00 Yeah of course, can forward, reply ... The iOS has just implemented a unified mailbox, basically what Android / Gmail has had for ages now. So far everybody loves it and think its the greatest since sliced bread. I've had it for years :p

Played with an iPad. Looks nice, but most of the iPad-specific apps such as NZHeralds could just as easily be achieved from the browser IMO.
Chilling_Silence (9)
1123145 2010-07-28 23:58:00 Classic. wratterus (105)
1123146 2010-07-29 00:33:00 iLove it...

Ken :banana
kenj (9738)
1123147 2010-07-29 00:58:00 Yeah of course, can forward, reply . . . The iOS has just implemented a unified mailbox, basically what Android / Gmail has had for ages now . So far everybody loves it and think its the greatest since sliced bread . I've had it for years :p

Played with an iPad . Looks nice, but most of the iPad-specific apps such as NZHeralds could just as easily be achieved from the browser IMO .

Same as the Palm OS devices had threaded TXT messages for years before Apple 'adopted' this functionality . . .

There's nothing really new with all these new devices, just tweaks on previously implemented stuff .

(And the unified mailbox implementation on iPhone is pretty average too, IMO)
johcar (6283)
1123148 2010-07-29 01:26:00 He does this often:

homepages.paradise.net.nz

Lots of them are tech related (not all)


:clap

One of my fav things to read...........
pctek (84)
1123149 2010-07-29 01:36:00 are the IPAD wifi bugs resolved??

"A weird fix for the lack of auto-connect has appeared on the Apple forums: apparently if you have the brightness set down to minimum and the iPad goes to sleep, the Wi-Fi does not auto-connect – but turn it up and problem is resolved. "

the one I saw wouldnt connect to a WEP enabled wifi router(resolved by changing router to WPA2)
1101 (13337)
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