PunchPudding

Phone looks great but unfortunately i'm in Canada and have taken a vow not to continue supporting our carriers. We are home to some of the highest phone/data rates in the world and the ubiquitous three year contract. After my current contract is done I'm going to month to month service and will likely be sticking with a cheap dumb phone... until CRTC gets it's act together and does something about this.

Is there are market for some really nice, cheap, minimalistic dumb phones?

Huh, there have been hobbyists trying to use javascript and html to create games in the past and some of them have created some cool and fun hacks but what I'm really wondering is if anybody has read up on what HTML 5 offers. It is created for marking up *text*.

Go look up the new HTML elements like 'header', 'footer', 'menu', etc, one big one will be 'canvas' that may allow for some cool hacked games, but these updates are meant to better display and layout web pages-- they are not meant to compete with flash... yet. HTML5 still cannot compete with Flash's vector graphics, collision detection, event listeners, existing libraries and tools, etc... stuff that make good *apps* (like games). The point here is that Apple knows this; Flash doesn't compete with HTML5 (they can coexist just fine) but the app store and it has always been this way. If you take Flash (or silverlight i guess) out of the web or make it less common, your only option to get the same experience is to run native apps... like iphone apps.

So it comes down to whether people want easy/free to develop ,platform-independent apps like Flash apps, or tightly regulated, subscription based development on a single platform for a single platform. Problem is that lots of people are already unintentionally casting their vote simply by buying a gadget that looks cool-- the debate is being 'won' not by logic and arguments but by sneaking it out from under our noses.

@sonola777
The 5 hour battery life is a big enough sore point for me to lose interest in this device (myself being one of the early hopefuls). The average netbook now has around 10hrs battery life and those are supposed to be laptops for emailing and light tasks at home or work. Now here is a device that's meant to do that PLUS additional media consumption and gets used everywhere you go. Yet it has half the battery life.

It makes me wonder if the people at HP thought about how people would USE this thing before they started throwing in a bunch of features. Some people won't mind outlet hunting everywhere they go but I'm a little too used to my netbook that this slate was supposed to replace.

Couldn't have asked for a better review. Lots of info in there and reminds me of why slates/pads are such a good idea in the first place. Didn't hold back on the cons either. Overall it still confirms my idea that the ipad is too much of a luxury item for myself because, you know, i try to keep it real.

i thought about getting one for my parents but in the end it's not really suitable for their needs (compared to a netbook). Pretty tempting at the next price drop though.

I'd also like to say bravo to Engadget for their coverage of the ipad so far compared to that other gadget site. Very classy.

@Reisa
Here's my take on this. Walk into any meeting room at any company, tech related or not. There's a good chance you will see one or two people with laptops plugging into a projector leading discussions; then you have a bunch of other people sitting around that table with pens and notepads jotting notes on paper (not because they don't have laptops but because this is how they work most efficiently).

Now imagine a device that makes everybody in the room happy-- it can take freehand notes right on your computer or plug into a projector and give a presentation at any given moment.

This reminds me of that family guy episode where stewie went to high school and dressed cool and acted cool and made all the other kids like him. Then everyone found out he had a little baby penis.

@Mack Stone
How about this explanation. The 'leaked' images came out and some people liked it while others didn't. Now the actual product is out in the public and some people like it and some people don't. Among these people are windows fans, apple fans, android fans... whatever. Some people who liked the leaks may not like the new product (check out the post on how the new marketplace will be closed) and vice versa (the new UI brought a lot of new potential buyers on board). Maybe some people really did change their minds (is that a crime?).

Now it's your choice whether you want to try to reduce everybody's individual opinion to one unanimous, single-minded, fanboy, "me against them" deal. If that kind of thing makes you happy.

@maddoguk69
I'll be nice and ignore the doofus thing, but both companies are motivated by money. If not, what is the motivation for creating the ipad?

It just seems like the Courier has a better identified problem to solve in *addition* to hoping to grab some money from our wallets.

@BurtonBytes
Partially agreed but more towards the Courier positive side for me. With Courier, MS found a problem and are trying to create a solution. With Ipad, Apple's only problem was 'we need more money'.