Reuters reports that the Apple iPad tablet computing device has outpaced even the Apple iPhone in sales speed – surpassing a million units sold in only 28 days from the launch of one of the most breathlessly anticipated computing devices in years.
Reuters on iPad sales.
The iPad appears to be a huge success even as some critics dismissed it as nothing more than a “giant iPhone”. Clearly the device is satisfying consumer demand for a lightweight, stylish device and appears to be in use mostly for web surfing movies, and books. My view is that the Kindle is now effectively dead unless Amazon can lower the price point substantially or find a way to compete with the iPad’s vastly superior capabilities. Where the Kindle is simply a book reader, the iPad is a fully functional computing device as well as a book reader. At similar pricing, this is a “no contest” battle.
Personally I favor netbooks over tablets because much of my time is spent typing, and the touchscreen typing experience on a iPad is pretty marginal. I played briefly with one the other day with my new pals at 541live.com, a great resource for Oregon events and attractions. It’s a wonderful device visually and the touch response is fantastic, but I sure would not want to type out blog posts that way. However, as 541 noted, it’s hard to beat the iPad for presentations because you can hand it around much more easily than a laptop.
Ipod, iPad
iPad
Update: Well, the reviews seem a bit mixed from the tech crowd even as the TV news stories are about the best thing Apple could have hoped for – breathless anchors telling us how much they want an iPad.
Wall Street Journal has a good summary of the early buzz. My take so far is that these are the key features in play:
“low price” “giant iPhone” “many applications” “high quality” “no still or video camera” “potential typing challenges”
This morning Apple launched what is almost certain to become the new tablet computing standard, the Apple iPad. Reviews will be coming in at a lightning pace today and we’ll try to summarize them later, but in the meantime here’s a great “Everything you need to know about the iPad” piece from the Gizmodo people.
Apple iPAD launches
Ipod, apple, computers, iPad, laptops
apple, iPad, tablets
I was having difficulty in downloading and playing some music, and most TV videos, on my Ipod nano. I rarely buy music from the itunes store, but I have a large, perfectly legal, personal music collection. I also really enjoy checking out the free video offerings in the itunes store for TV shows such as the new mini-episodes for the much delayed season of Battlestar Galactica.
However, when I sync up my iPod Nano 3G, I receive this message: “The (song or video) was not synched because you are not authorized to play them on this computer.”
You know what’s really bothering me about this? These were all songs were bought by me or free videos I downloaded right from the store. Now, moments later, I was being told I wasn’t authorized to play them.
Suggestions from various places on the web encouraged me to open iTunes, click Store->De-authorize Computer, and then click Store->Authorize computer. I did this, and it worked, at least for me. iTunes now tells me I’ve authorized a total of 2 of 5 possible computers — I’m not sure which computers those are, since I have about 5, but oh well.
I’ve read that, failing the procedure above, you can go into iTunes and double-click one of the forbidden songs or videos. In this case, iTunes warns you that the song isn’t authorized to play on this computer … but then it offers to sign you in and authorize you.
You accept that offer by entering your iTunes password. Then, like magic, you then become an authorized user (whatever that means) … and your forbidden songs and videos are now synched to the Nano.
John Ghysels, 1/14/2009
3G Ipod, Audio, Ipod, apple, digital TV
battlestar, Ipod, Itunes, video
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