iPad

If not by this Christmas, then by next Christmas, Amazon would have to come out with a new Kindle which also does color, does more with web and video and offers apps. as well.

Same with Nook and other eReaders.
 
Amazon's new Kindle is due out in August.
It will not have color and no touch screen controls.
I think what will be their potential competitive point will be a cheap enough price point.
 
I wonder if any of these Chinese iPad copycats (to be unveiled at the Computex trade show in Taiwan this week) will be any good? Amazing if they can pull it off for $100. I'm skeptical about the quality, given the low price.
 
Snidely Whiplash said:
News this morning that AT&T was changing the data cap and pricing of its data plans has brought that idea to a screeching halt.
Click to expand...

How much data do you plan to use? These plans might save you money.

•·
DataPlus is the cheapest plan available, which provides you with 200MB of data for $15 per month, a much better value plan for light data users who pay $30 for the unlimited plan right now. AT&T says that on average, 65 per cent of its customers use less than 200MB per month. If you exceed 200MB in a month, you can get another 200MB for an additional $15.

•· DataPro is the new highbrow mobile data plan from AT&T, which includes 2GB of data for $25 per month, and will charge each additional GB used over this limit at $10. This new plan is designed to replace the outgoing Unlimited plan, as AT&T claims 98 percent of its smartphone customers use on average less than 2GB of data per month.
Click to expand...

I would have no idea how much data I would use per month in a mobile setting.

-ERD50
 
It seems to me that I use my iPhone over the wireless network a lot: email and internet browsing, but when I checked our ATT account I see that I have never used more than 500 MB in a month. I generally don't download music or videos over the network.
So it seems that 2 GB is reasonable, provided that you avoid streaming movies or TV over the network.
My iPad is the non3G version, but I expect the wireless usage would be about the same.
Anyone else check their wireless usage?
 
W2R said:
I wonder if any of these Chinese iPad copycats (to be unveiled at the Computex trade show in Taiwan this week) will be any good? Amazing if they can pull it off for $100. I'm skeptical about the quality, given the low price.
Click to expand...

They probably won't be as sleek and user friendly as the ipad. But they will likely have much more bang for the buck. Some of the $100-200 level models I have seen being sold now have more features (in some regards) than the ipad, namely USB connections and an SD memory card slot. However their storage capacity was generally smaller than the 16GB minimum on the ipad, and they obviously lack the ipad OS. All that I have seen run on Android, and most can use the android apps (like the iphone/ipad apps).

The real gem among these knockoffs is you have much more variety in options and features. For example, maybe a 7" screen suits you better - it is available.

Seems like you would have to be open to some tinkering and troubleshooting if you bought one of these cheap chinese knock offs. It would work for me but YMMV.
 
Snidely Whiplash said:
After reading this thread I was seriously considering an ipad for travelling as it looks like it would meet my needs in a very convenient form factor. News this morning that AT&T was changing the data cap and pricing of its data plans has brought that idea to a screeching halt.

AT&T Pulls the Plug on Its Unlimited Data Plans - PCWorld
Click to expand...

If it were me using the 2GB/month Datapro plan, I would have to avoid watching videos on my ipad while away from wifi or a hotspot. I assume the vids would quickly eat up your 2 GB quota. Can you even stream a youtube or CNN vid over 3g network anyway?

Seems like the unlimited for just $5 more is worth it from a "peace of mind" standpoint. I guess this is targeted towards those very heavy users (the 2%) that consistently exceed 2 GB a month. Interesting timing of this just a month after the launch of 3G ipads. Ole bait n switch? :) AT&T is probably trying to unclog their congested networks so more users can have better service.
 
Maximum monthly data usage over the past 6 months:

my iPhone: 75 MB
DW's iPhone: 180 MB

my iPad: 100 MB over the past month (my iPad is wifi only, but DW and I share a mifi). It will likely be much, much higher when we travel (we have a 5GB/month data plan on the mifi).

We do use wifi as much as we can. So AT&T's new 200MB plan is going to be a good deal for us, I think.
 
IndependentlyPoor said:
It seems to me that I use my iPhone over the wireless network a lot: email and internet browsing, but when I checked our ATT account I see that I have never used more than 500 MB in a month. I generally don't download music or videos over the network.
So it seems that 2 GB is reasonable, provided that you avoid streaming movies or TV over the network.
My iPad is the non3G version, but I expect the wireless usage would be about the same.
Anyone else check their wireless usage?
Click to expand...
Yeah that was a bit of a nasty bait and switch! But the original deal also seemed a bit too good to be true.

Anyway, 2G will work for me. I'm not interested in streaming videos over cell. Just need occasional internet access when away from wifi hotspots.

Audrey
 
I think the 2GB for the phone is probably fine. I am very irritated by the $20 extra a month for tethering since you don't get any extra data. That is if you don't have tethering you pay $25 and get 2GB of data. OK.

If you want the ability to tether you pay $45 a month and get...2GB of data. Something seems wrong with that picture. I could see charging an extra $20 a month if you get more data.

For the iPad the 2GB will be a big issue for anyone who watches, say, youtube (yes you can stream youtube on the iPad) or Netflix. The other day on my iPad I fired up the limited plan ($15 a month) and was doing some mild email and web surfing. I am pretty sure I could do that all month for less than 2GB even if I was traveling (at home I have wifi).

But then my son borrowed my iPad and he likes to go to youtube, not so much for video but to listen to songs. So he used my iPad for about half an hour listening to songs on youtube. That used about 100MB of data (I say an article that someone tested Netflix and it used about 143MB of data in half an hour). So people who like to watch streaming videos - whehter you tube, slingplayer, netflix -- will find that 2GB is woefully inadequate.

I am pondering whether to upgrade my iPad to the unlimited plan before next Monday. If I do so, I can keep that plan (for now anyway). It is sort of annoying to give up the option to have a limited plan for a month but I want to get grandfathered in on unlimited on the iPad.
 
Katsmeow said:
...some mild email and web surfing. I am pretty sure I could do that all month for less than 2GB even if I was traveling (at home I have wifi).

But then my son borrowed my iPad and he likes to go to youtube, not so much for video but to listen to songs. So he used my iPad for about half an hour listening to songs on youtube. That used about 100MB of data (I say an article that someone tested Netflix and it used about 143MB of data in half an hour). So people who like to watch streaming videos - whehter you tube, slingplayer, netflix -- will find that 2GB is woefully inadequate.
Click to expand...

WiFi does not count against the data plan for AT&T. So you can stream all the video you want since you have wifi at home.
For those that want to stream much video away from wifi networks, then this may get expensive.

I bet the marketers at Apple are ticked off, again, at AT&T's behavior. I think all AT&T did was to speed up the day that iPhones are no longer exclusive to AT&T.
 
IndependentlyPoor said:
iPad competition on the way!
Asus Eee Pad, iPad Competitor, Unveiled
Click to expand...

This is a gadget running Windows 7, which should help embiggen the price tag. The good news is that Windows 7 supports multitouch input at the system level, so if Asus does a good job on the multitouch device drivers [1], all those multitouch-aware Windows apps (AirHockey, Fishbowl, Microsoft Surface Collage, Globe, and Lagoon, and a little bit in IE 8 and FireFox 4) will Just Work.

I'll be curious to hear what battery life is like.


1. Not as easy as it sounds. I did a bunch of the input/event stuff at Apple, and the multitouch stuff wound up as a serious AI project. Seriously.
 
ERD50 said:
How much data do you plan to use? These plans might save you money.
Click to expand...

I suspect the two new plans are very reasonable for users of the iPhone.

For the iPad I suspect a 2 Gb limit would be pretty constraining to use the product as it is promoted and advertised (specifically its video capabilities). To justify the purchase, for me, it would need to reliably function independantly of WiFi for extended periods of time while I travelled. Why would I buy the 3G version if I need to constantly be finding WiFi availability? And if the majority of AT&T's users are using so little data, why lower the cap at all?

I wasnt happy when I discovered their "unlimited" plan wasnt really unlimited (5Gb cap) - Forgive me if I dont put much faith in the benevolence of AT&T and their changing the plans to save me money.
 
RE: Asus Eee Pad, iPad Competitor, Unveiled

M Paquette said:
... if Asus does a good job on the multitouch device drivers [1], ...

1. Not as easy as it sounds. I did a bunch of the input/event stuff at Apple, and the multitouch stuff wound up as a serious AI project. Seriously.
Click to expand...

I first thought it was really lame that copy/paste were not in the iPhone when first shipped. Then I thought about it a minute, and realized that you can't really 'drag-paint' (or whatever it is called) some text with your finger to select it to copy/paste, because that motion already does other things at a lower level. When you do that with a mouse, you add the 'hold down the mouse button' to the action. So yes, it's a sticky wicket.

I'm not even sure how they do it now. Gonna have to go try it when I get a chance (or check the web).

Snidely Whiplash said:
And if the majority of AT&T's users are using so little data, why lower the cap at all?
Click to expand...

Because it only takes a few using gobs of data to skew the average and hurt throughput for others.

I wasnt happy when I discovered their "unlimited" plan wasnt really unlimited (5Gb cap) - Forgive me if I dont put much faith in the benevolence of AT&T and their changing the plans to save me money.
Click to expand...

I sure wouldn't put any faith in the benevolence of any company - you're not gonna make me quote Adam Smith, are you ? ;)

-ERD50
 
I'm not even sure how they do it now. Gonna have to go try it when I get a chance (or check the web).
Click to expand...
You hold your finger down, and then a menu appears with Select as an option. If you choose that then a box appears that you can resize with your finger.

mail
 
ERD50 said:
Because it only takes a few using gobs of data to skew the average and hurt throughput for others.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I understand that. What I dont understand is a response that risks alienating a lot of your "good users" (for lack of a better term) rather than targeting the few "bad users" who are "using gobs of data".
 
The majority of the 'good users' as you put it, are paying less.
I am going to watch carefully, but I suspect the $25 plan will work well for me and will save me $5 a month.
 
From Job's presentation today:

"In first 65 days, users have downloaded over 5 million books."

That be a lotta books!
 
IndependentlyPoor said:
From Job's presentation today:

"In first 65 days, users have downloaded over 5 million books."

That be a lotta books!
Click to expand...

I am surprised. I am still buying my books on Amazon and reading them with the kindle app. I have been disappointed with the iBook Store selection so far.

I dunno why but since I bought the iPad almost 2 months ago, I have already read as many books as I usually read in one year!
 
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