iGotcha on steroids  

Let's how long it takes before they start bringing out kewl "improved" versions with all the stuff that the initial models don't have.

Cynical fixes to make the poor saps that buy the first to bin them and buy another one so that their kewl mates wont laugh at them for having last week's version.

Or, because the later version have the features that make them work properly, and not like the early release clunkers.

I wonder if this toy will be fitted with earlier feature from the IGotcha range?

Such as the screens that began to scratch easily and had to be replace.

Or the exploding batteries.

And then there's the horrendously expensive replacement battery, which can only be done by Apple when the battery dies.

Then again, they may have some new features and options to upstage this list - perhaps the big touch sensitive screen will fail early in its life in the real, rather than development, world.

Let's watch and see in a year.

(I'm afraid I'm not really interested in it, so there won't be any interesting comment, review, or opinion on it - but maybe a lot of parody. Anyone with with one can fill us in).

Looks as if I don't have to think about having fun with Apple's newest toy...

They did it all by themselves when the christened it the iPad ...

iTampon

Quoted Text

Apple's iTampon

The name 'iPad' has certain connotations for women, as Kira Cochrane explains

It's interesting to imagine what the conversation was like at Apple HQ when they were naming their new product. Did they play any word-association games? Did eager employees sit around a giant table, shouting out words synonymous with "pad", while a colleague scrawled "note", "knee", "launch", and "to tread very lightly" on a white board? And were there no women there? Did no one raise their hand with a weary grimace and say, "You know what, guys, this is kinda obvious, but this word has other associations for me . . . Namely blood. Menstrual blood. Oh, and cramps. Also, painkillers. And sometimes shame. Don't forget the shame."

Who knows? Perhaps the associ­ation of the word "pad" with "sanitary protection" just never came up. But as soon as the name was announced – and Steve Jobs described the product as "so much more intimate than a laptop" – the jokes began. And quickly became an avalanche.

Within hours, the term "iTampon" was trending on Twitter, and these quips were circulating: "Will women send their husbands to the Apple store to buy iPads?"; "If I order this, will my boyfriend and I have to worry if it comes late?"; "Meh. I'll wait until they come out with the iMoonCup". Mock ads were created, including one featuring a sanitary towel with the Apple logo and slogan, "Like a tampon. Only more expensive." And a 2006 clip (left) from the US sketch show, MadTV, featuring a product much like an iPod – but considerably more absorbent – went viral. It turned out that those sketch writers had had the idea for an "iPad" a full four years ago.

Some have suggested that these jokes are a disaster for Apple; others have pointed out the enormous success of the Nintendo Wii – another product with a questionable name. And still others have implied that the geniuses behind the brand had all this free publicity in mind when they named the product. Are they really that clever? Or did they just go with the flow?

Apple's iTampon | Technology | The Guardian

Quoted from Apollo

Looks as if I don't have to think about having fun with Apple's newest toy...

They did it all by themselves when the christened it the iPad ...

iTampon

I take it you saw this?

I think there might be some ticks missing on the right hand column, and the item there actually scores even better over the iPad.

It led to a review, which looks interesting and revealing, since I can't be bothered wasting time reading about this gimmick - which it clearly is if the following is accurate, and really just confirms than Apple is playing on its name and "kewl" reputation to sell a toy and fleece it faithful worshippers -again (and that was my opinion before spotting that this reviewer used the same word):

Quoted Text

What’s missing: no multi-tasking (you need to open-close-open-close apps…), no cellular voice, no camera (no video conferencing), no Flash support in Safari, no HD video or imagery, no support for PNG, no improvements to the OS (still uses the weak iPhone OS), no expandable storage, no stereo speakers (seriously!), the battery is baked in like on all other Apple gadgets, no choice of carrier at release (forced to use AT&T) just to mention a few limitations.

These toys are priced from US $499.00 to US $699 + around US $130 for 3G.

Conclusion for this Apple iPad review: The best thing about this toy is that the display uses (green) arsenic-free display glass, so it’s perfectly safe to keep your latte or donut on the iPad while you get your work done on a real computer.

Looks: 4 out of 5 stars.
Innovation: 2 out 5 stars.
Technology: 1 out of 5 stars.

I don't think there is much chance of me buying one, too expensive and too many extra charges.  But I would like a very portable device with good battery life that would let me carry around PDF files and access them anywhere.  I have a quite maps in PDF format - Lancashire, Cheshire, London 25" early OS maps and various others.  It would be great to be able to view those in the field (not literally), ideally I would also have modern maps also perhaps even linked to GPS like a Sat Nav.

I have been looking at the cheap digital picture frames as a way of carrying copies of my photographs but still trying to find a battery powered one.

I have a netbook that I can use for both these but would just like something more portable.

MB

Whoops...

The first day poll doesn't look too promising:

Won't buy one 80.9%

Will buy one 19.1 %

Poll | Will you be buying the new Apple tablet? | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

The following article starts in a terribly rambling way, but the conclusion, which I've quoted, does seem to sum things up:

Apple + iPad + Huxley = Orwellian nightmare | Technology | guardian.co.uk

As with the first release of the iPhone, there has been lots of carping about alleged deficiencies: no camera, no physical keyboard, no USB slot, no removable battery, no memory card slot, doesn't do Flash, etc. Some of these probably don't matter much. Or, in Stephen Fry's words: "They all fall away the minute you use it ... No YouTube film, no promotional video, no keynote address can even hint at the extraordinary feeling you get from actually using and interacting with one of these magical objects."

Which is where I begin to think of Huxley and Soma, the hallucinogenic, hangover-free drug in Brave New World that makes users contented with their (subjugated) lot. If the iPad takes off as the iPhone did, then it will have as disruptive an impact on the computing and media industries as the Apple phone has already had on mobile telephony.

And if that happens then we will all have to take a long, hard look at the company that has made it possible.

For the implication of an iPad-crazed world – with its millions of delighted, infatuated users – is that a single US company renowned for control-freakery will have become the gatekeeper to the online world. The iPad – like the iPhone – is a closed, tightly controlled device: nothing gets on to it that has not been expressly approved by Apple. We will have arrived at an Orwellian end by Huxleian means. And be foolish enough to think that we've attained nirvana.

Can anyone explain to me why anyone cares about what Stephen Fry has to say, about Apple or anything else?

He seems to achieved some sort of god-like status, and although I have never, and never will, look at a word he puts online, from the media coverage, it seem the world goes into meltdown every time he merely suggests he is going to leave Twitter - and I doubt he (or any other celebrity that seems to be spending their lives Tweeting to the masses) has the time to sit typing into that all day, so the faithful must surely be worshipping some ghost-writer anyway, making this even sillier.

More of the same to be found if you follow the original to YouTube

They say there is no such thing as bad publicity, but you have to wonder how Apple put something out that was is so clearly overpriced and undespec'd - they really are just milking their faithful for cash to develop the proper version, and then get a second windfall because they know the faithful will shell out again so they have the nice shiny box and look kewl all over again.

I rather like the other name I spotted on YouTube...

The iSlate

That's just about right for it's current state of development, compared to how far ahead i(Pencil and paper) would be by comparison.

Charlie Brooker in the Guardian is spot-on about it, as usual.

I don't get the thing about Stephen Fry. I mean he's a nice enough bloke, mostly funny, but like Carol Vorderman he seems to be idolised as some kind of uber-intellectual.

Having wasted my money in the early days of computing, and having two, or possibly three (I lost count through the tears as I looked at my dwindling pennies) Apple computers still gathering dust in my loft, I have never understood the cult of Apple worship. Apart from satisfying the sad people born with the "kewl" gene, Apple only managed to gain a reasonable foothold in DTP (desktop publishing) and the associated need to provide good image processing, both applications which combined with Adobe in their day.

However, as has been ably demonstrated by many PC builders, and in public by The Gadget Show, a decent PC can easily Whip and Apple's butt in speed and performance, and can be built, and much more importantly, repaired at less cost, and much quicker, than Apple's offering, as the PC does not suffer from being virtually locked into an proprietary noose. PC parts can be picked up anywhere - break an Apple part... and you get it when Apple can find it and get it to you.

I don't like the iPhone. For one thing it's kewl, so I don't want to be seen with one.

But, more seriously, unlike its competition that can be programmed using various open source languages, while you can assemble an app for an iPhone in a similar way, you won't get it out into the world and seen on an iPhone unless you submit to Apple for approval, and they approve it.

And they do knock back things they don't happen to approve of.

But Microsoft is considered the evil master of all computing, yet it couldn't do that even if it wanted to.

It seems the same stranglehold is exercised by Apple over the iSlate, and the media has noticed, and the some of the industry might not be too happy about the potential implications...

Apple iPad will choke innovation, say open internet advocates | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Here's an app suggestion that I suspect the masters of the iSlate probably wouldn't approve:

A simple motion detector set up to detect whenever a stylus or finger is moving across the face of the iSlate.

Whenever this motion is detected, it disables the volume control of the iSlate, and simulates the screeching noise made when a real slate pencil is used on a real slate

Update

There weren't any reader's comments on the above mentioned article when I pieced the preceding ramble together, but it has attracted quite a few, and ignoring the usual headcase or two, the sober responses make interesting reading, namely that some confirm they will have it merely because it is the current kewl (and don't appear to care if it works or does anything), while others will go for it if it does one thing well, but will still be committed to their PCs. That all rather interesting and informative.

I have an iPhone, and it is a little annoying that it's locked to Apple-approved applications - it's more annoying that it won't properly multitask. But it is still the best phone I've had - easily the easiest to browse the web on. More relvantly for me, it's tough - with a wee rubber case on I've dropped mine lots, and for exploring GPS + Google Maps is fantastic.