Thud

Color me asleep. Way to go, Steve-o.

Somebody quick photoshop a 10x size iPhone into the Verizon guy's hand as he shouts, "Can you hear me now??!"

I'm normally not one to get excited over new technology stuff (most of it is just useless crap that will be obsolete in a few months) but this thing I actually do find kind of interesting. I can't stand the QWERTY keyboard interface for computing, even though I use it daily and am proficient with it. It's antiquated, clunky and (IMHO) is a real bottleneck in the man/machine interface with respect to maximizing efficiency/productivity. You guys do know that the "standard" QWERTY keyboard was deliberately designed to SLOW DOWN data entry/typing right? Google "Dvorak keyboard" for more info... Anyway, I used to like my old Palm Pilot's "letter recognition" thing with the stylus - once you learned it, it was actually reasonably efficient. I'm sure that a well-designed product could be even better at character recognition and not require a keyboard. Besides, I find keyboards are best for:

1. collecting crumbs/dust/crap, and
2. breaking

The good news is you can hit a conventional keyboard with a pressure washer (not plugged in) and clean it pretty well. They work better afterwards too. Not recommended for laptops.

It'll all come down to how durable and reliable the stylus/non-keyboard interface thingy is. If it works well and holds up well, I may very well pick one up. I really like the concept of a non-keyboard-limited computing device (that doesn't rely on speech recognition, which characteristically sucks and is unreliable).

All I know is my Daffy avatar looks brilliant on your screen. :D

Seriously, I have left-handed genius scribbling. My name is barely recognized by credit card signature pads. I'm still a pen and pad sort.

Oh, and btw, concerning Job's announcement, these two graphs say a lot from a snipped AP story:

"A new newspaper reader program from The New York Times and a game from Electronic Arts Inc. were also demonstrated during the event. The audience, which included many journalists and bloggers, clapped and even gave Jobs a standing ovation."

Meanwhile...

"Shares in Apple fell $2.75, or 1.3 percent, to $203.19 in afternoon trading Wednesday. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company's shares have more than doubled over the past year, partly on anticipation of the tablet computer."

Not quite what Wall Street had in mind, eh?

Buy on rumor, sell on delivery

Yep...

One product I won't be buying. It's really nothing more than a giant iPod Touch. What a disappointment.

If it had the capability to do photo and video editing and everything I do with my laptop I'd buy one... But it doesn't.... So I wont...

You know, I would have really been interested if Apple's announcement was I could use an iPhone with Verizon. Or that now the company would start properly spelling iPhone "Iphone."

That is both digusting and funny, all at the same time!

Yeah, I'm trying to see the "killer app" in this. It is a giant Ipod. It needs a giant iKeyboard.

Run along back to mommy, you little whipper-snapper, before I tan your hide!

OK, Enzo, what is the killer app? Watching TV on the tablet instead of the big screen? E-reader? Are you going to read it in the toilet, while you take a dump?

yes, yes, & yes! It will sell many more than has been predicted, it is going to be AWESOME, can't wait! The "Apps" are the key>160,000 and counting, in 60 days there will be many more. Books, magazines, newspapers, gaming.... tv, iwork, internet phone, yes a big iphone with print u can SEE, think of it as multitouch macbook, don't need no stinking keyboard, but u can bluetooth 1 if needed

You think 160,000 applications is a lot?

• iPhone apps: This thing runs them! The iPad runs iPhone apps right out of the App Store, with no modification, but they're either relegated to the center of the screen or in "pixel double" mode, which just blows them up crudely. Any apps you've purchased for your iPhone can be synced, for free, to your iPad.

Its just a matter of time until those are ported for iPad.

Again with the non-replacable battery.

Good News, it has a keyboard/dock unit....but no mouse. You have to use the touch screen.

There are adapters for video output, but not DVI. There is a adapter for USB picture cards, but not a general USB port.

No built in camera.

You are on crack.

Right?

SmileWavy

Tablets are great for vertical applications, casual use, etc, but when you need to get work done you need a keyboard.

Unless can claim you code, write large quantities of text, or crunch a massive spreadsheet with a stylus fast than you can with a keyboard? If that's the case, you need a typing class. :eek:

The most productive I've ever been in my life was writing code for a securities firm back in the 90's. My AIX terminal had a mouse but I never used it--all I did was code in vi all day.

I've been using the same Kinesis Classic keyboard for over a decade.

So, to get only some of the capabilities of my Netbook, except for the 160 GB Hard Drive, 3 USB ports, built in VGA connector, keyboard, and be limited to applications and materials only from the Apple Store, I have to pay a minimum of twice as much? Did I gbet this right?

I am just not seeing the "killer" app yet.