that said videocalls can be fun and useful. i used my free promo video time and i can say that if it costed as much as voice i would definitely use it. not to mention that all high end nokia phones have 2 cameras by default so do most other high end handsets other than the iphone.

IMing without webcam is out of the question. a cam is an absolute must (ergo all netbooks and notebooks sport one). if you don’t miss it probably you don’t use the full potential of the web anyway.

lack of a feature in an apple product does not make the feature useless.

The publishing potential is intriguing. It would be nice to see how the iBook store competes against the Kindle.

Still, I don’t see this as a publishing magic bullet. I mean even on a textbook level, wouldn’t a serious student want a laptop with a real keyboard and more options? And the “Apple A4″ chip? What is that? Wither Intel or is this a stopgap chip until Intel perfects a mobile chip?

“iPad Camera Connection Kit

The Camera Connection Kit gives you two ways to import photos and videos from a digital camera. The Camera Connector lets you import your photos and videos to iPad using the camera’s USB cable. Or you can use the SD Card Reader to import photos and videos directly from the camera’s SD card.”

Okay, so two of my issues about using this as a primary computer are partially resolved.

2. Wonder where Jobs was when this was being designed, is this an example of Apple products post Jobs ?

I really want something portable that I can upload work from an electronic typewriter to (I currently use a laptop with a USB to serial converter). I think I’ll get myself a Nokia N810, it’s smaller, it’s hackable and it’s available for about £100 on ebay.

Even phones are now coming with USB host (Nokia N900 – off the top of my head).

Yes it is. It’s 40% better.

1. No apps that have not been approved by Apple. By which I mean, you can’t download your favorite apps off some web site somewhere. You are strictly limited to the app store.

2. No camera.

3. Microphone, but apparently… no voice calls.

4. eBook reader only through iBookstore. No word about loading your own books/PDFs.

5. Network is GSM-based. That rules out Verizon for your choices.

6. No multitasking. This isn’t OSX. It’s not a laptop. Or a mini-laptop. Or even, apparently, a netbook. It’s the stripped-down iPhone OS.

7. 16 GB for $500. 64 GB for $700. Some are complaining about the price because of the limited functionality.

8. No video out? Does that docking station allow video out, or is it just for the keyboard?

No, it doesn’t. Bad comparison, sorry.

Also: the only netbook that’s not a USB master (so no access to thumbdrives, etc from it)

9. Apple doesn’t like to sell apps in the app store that duplicate apps it already has. So does that mean that Ray Kurzweil will NOT be able to run the Blio ereader software on this thing because it already has Apple’s iBook? I weep for humanity.

I am curious about the available dongles for it — http://i.gizmodo.com/5458376/apple-ipads-myriad-optional-dongles-usb-sd-ac-bbq . A USB dongle? One for an SD card? It may be that the USb only charges and the SD card is just a way to get photos on from your camera, but if you can access external storage without going through iTunes the iPad looks much more attractive to me.

I’m worried about Stanza, though. Apple hates products that compete with theirs; will it matter if one already existed?

Apple trivia: It’s a bite, not a dent. As in how Alan Turing (the inventor of the digital computer because it’s a computer company) committed suicide.

Now, I have to admit, I’m actually middling impressed with the Touch. It misses the boat in a lot of ways for what _I_ would want — most notably, it’s miles behind even the original Palm as an organizer and doesn’t appear likely to ever close that gap — but it’s certainly a bit more sexy than the Archos and similar wifi-enabled media players it was directly competing against. It’s the standard Apple closed-platform tradeoff: What it does it does well, but what it does officially is all it does, and if you need something more you simply aren’t its target market.

But part of the attraction of the Touch is that it’s still in the shirtpocket form factor, which means it will actually be carried and used. Going up to a larger screen loses that advantage.

There’s a market for it. But for me it’s a step _away_ from the sweet spot for the portable media/communications device.

Then again, I’m not in the netbook target market either, except _maybe_ as remote consoles for an integrated home automation system. If I can’t put it in a pocket when I’m walking more than a few feet with it, it has to go in a backpack; once I’ve crossed that line, a full-sized laptop wins big.

Exactly, here’s my thoughts from when Intel bitched-out netbooks in 2008. It’s surprisingly related (not “surprisingly related” like there’s a twist in the end that ties it all together in a gasp-inducing crecendo of deceit and double-deceit, but surprising that it’s actually pretty relevant).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsjU0K8QPhs

That’s a fact, Jack!

Multitasking, just to use an example, is not a bell or a whistle. It’s something that is a natural part of personal computing. Apple isn’t “giving us what we never even knew we wanted” as much as it is “taking away things that we need and telling us we never needed them in the first place”.

Honestly, this thing is underwhelming; to me, it’s just a very large iPod Touch. Obviously it’s going to sell by the bucketload because, “Ooh, pretty”, and because Apple markets their products as fashion accessories.

And the funny thing is that in September they’ll probably release a new model that addresses some or all of the complaints about this one, and everyone will be locked in a happy cycle of mindless consumerism.