The State of iPad Satisfaction 443
harrymcc writes "We know that the iPad is selling like hotcakes, but how satisfied are the people who buy it? Over at Technologizer, we conducted a survey of 6,000 iPad early adopters. There are a few places where they were critical — the majority, for instance, aren't happy with Apple's App Store approval process. Overall, however, they're overwhelmingly upbeat."
Re:Flawed survey (Score:5, Informative)
Don't survey a subset of the users and then generalize that to all users. It's inherently unfair
Not at all. Unless you are surveying ALL users of a product, then by definition you are surveying a subset and generalizing to the entire population. The trick is picking a representative subset.
The problem is one of methodology. Do you pick a subset with specific, known characteristics, and then generalize that? If so, you've introduced bias.
iPad owner opinion (Score:5, Informative)
I have an iPad at home, and while I'm a developer by trade, I do not develop iPad/iPhone apps.
I have two major gripes (and they are easy to guess):
1) Flash support. This is purely a practical objection (suspending my philosophical objections). This is a neat toy for having around the house. It is the #1 way my kids browse. There are a lot of child oriented sites that need flash ( my younger kids love pbskids.org ). If apple succeeds in driving flash from the web and everybody uses html5 then I'd be fine, but this will take forever.
2) Printing. I never missed it much on my iPhone, but when you are using the iPad it is hard not to think of it as a "computer", and a computer should be able to print. There are some apps that help here, but there needs to be universal support. I'm sitting on the couch reading an e-mail. Next to me hidden under an end table is my wifi laser printer. I really would like to print an email. I'd also like to print out map/directions to take on a trip. This really needs to be on the iOS list (even if it needs a daemon / iTunes on a computer to avoid having to load printer drivers in the iPad).
I'm quite happy for a particular reason (Score:4, Informative)
I'm an avid geocacher and I've found the GPS accuracy in the iPad to be better than the iPhone, and comparable to my Garmin 60csx (which is more-or-less the gold standard). I use the iPad for a lot of other reasons (the kids like to watch movies or play games on it while we're driving out to a forest preserve) but I was really pleasantly surprised to see that I could pretty much rely on it to get me to the spot.
I'm waiting for Otterbox to come out with their Defender case so I can keep it out all the time through the woods, instead of putting it back in the backpack on the chance I trip over a log or something. The iPad might not be as compact as the iPhone or Garmin, but it beats a day of DNFs.
Re:Personally (Score:4, Informative)
I am waiting for the android based tablets.
Wait no more. [amazon.com]
Re:Screw the iPad (Score:2, Informative)
Check DealExtreme. [dealextreme.com]
So far the feedback from most forums is that it sucks. Build quality is all over the place. The touch screen is lacking multi-touch. (Different technology). Some people have had theirs die completely after a few days of use. The battery life is horrible compared to the iPad and it's running Android 1.6.
But it is cheap.
Re:Flawed survey (Score:2, Informative)
Actually, if you look at the article, you'd see that the Slashdot summary correctly reflects what the article says:
I haven't developed any iPad/iPhone apps, or know anyone who has, but I'm not pleased with their approval process because I actually read and am aware of some of the gaffes they've made with it (Mark Fiore's app, Ulysses Seen, Tom Bouden's version of The Importance of Being Earnest, etc.).
Re:Personally (Score:4, Informative)
Not to mention, you can't root it. And it's stuck at 1.6, and won't ever get 2.x. Which is a horrendous issue for Android devices - it seems there are great models (Nexus One) with full rootability and the like. Others that are bound to a carrier can have special root-proof firmware installed (Rogers did just that with a mandatory update - sure it fixed a critical bug, but it also removed the ability to root it). And always the question of whether or not your phone will officially get 2.x. Sure there's unofficial mods (provided you root your phone), but it seems there aren't that many that are "good" (rootable, futureproof, etc).
Probably my one complaint is how carriers have all seemed to conspire to collectively try to hobble Android. Couldn't Google have done an iPhone and pretty much say "This is the way we're doing it, and if you don't like it, tough!" like Apple?
Re:Personally (Score:3, Informative)
The problem with the Archos tablet, if I recall, was that it runs a heavily modified version of Android based on an old release of Android. It uses closed-source Archos software to replace many common Android features. And it doesn't have the Android Market. And it's not as physically large as an iPad. From what I'm to understand, calling it an Android tablet is a stretch, especially if you want to compare it with an iPad, but I'm happy to be corrected by anyone who owns one.
Re:Personally (Score:2, Informative)
Re:3G Reception? (Score:5, Informative)
Stockholm syndrome is very specific in that it only applies to a hostage or captive individual, so unless your iPad is holding you at gunpoint it doesn't quite work here.
The term GP is searching for is Cognitive Dissonance, specifically Post-Decision Dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the idea that one may possess two conflicting thoughts simultaneously (I love my iPad / This iPad sucks). The mental tension that builds between these two ideas eventually has to be resolved, usually by the introduction of "rationalization". In these cases the specific justification doesn't necessarily need to follow logic (I chose an iPad because it smells like a rainbow), so long as it resolves the dissonance. Its sort of like solving an equation by introducing nonsense to one side. This form of creative logic reduces the tension caused by cognitive dissonance, essentially freeing people from the regret of having made a "bad" (or questionable) decision.
Psych studies have been done on this phenomenon, where it was observed that after giving people (and monkeys, by the way) a choice between two fairly equal items their approval of the item of their choice rose, while it fell for the item they didn't choose. This happens all the time in all types of people. I have a good example myself: When hunting for a PMP (portable media player) I eventually chose a Cowon S9 over the iPod touch. When my girlfriend bought herself an iPod touch, I reacted negatively and joked that she was now part of the Apple fanclub, and asked her when her lifesized poster of her new overlord (Jobs) would arrive in the mail. I also dismissed certain advantages of the touch outright (app store = full of crap, better touch screen = not a big deal, wifi = battery leech, etc) while taking pride in the advantages of my own purchase (AMOLED screen = sexy, broad file format support = better, superior EQ = awesome, etc.). It actually took me a few weeks of using both side by side to rationalize my own purchase in a more logical way. Now i'm at the point where, while i'm not displeased with my purchase, I have seen much of the appeal with the iPod Touch. Ultimately I think i've rationalized them into two separate non-competing categories, where the Cowon S9 is the superior media device (well, it is!) but the iPod Touch has a wide variety of non-media functionality. Thus I can appreciate both items without experiencing any form of cognitive dissonance (regret) over my decision.
Re:3G Reception? (Score:5, Informative)
It's easy to see how one could get confused. [tmcnet.com] (Video [google.com])
After reading the Wiki: Originally Cingular Wireless LLC, a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth, the company acquired the old AT&T Wireless in 2004; SBC later acquired the original AT&T and re-branded as "The New AT&T". Cingular became wholly-owned by The New AT&T in December 2006 as a result of AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth.
So Cingular (a joint venture between SBC and Bell bought AT&T Wireless), but still operated as "Cingular". SBC bought AT&T. And renamed itself "The New AT&T". Cingluar (With AT&T Wireless) was still being operated by SBC and Bell.
SBC (The New AT&T) then bought out Bell South. Meaning that the joint venture of Cingular was bought by AT&T, becoming an owned subsidiary.
They then renamed Cingular to AT&T.
And remember, Bell South and SBC were both formed when AT&T was broken up for being a monopoly.
Re:3G Reception? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, but Cingular was already owned by AT&T, they just didn't adopt the AT&T name until they bought AT&T Wireless.
Remember the chain of purchases:
AT&T forced to breakup-->Southwestern Bell turns SBC for no reason, tells all employees that the SBC doesn't mean Southwestern Bell Corp, but just random acronyms with no meaning. Buys Pacbell, Ameritech, Nevada Bell, and SNET; starts records cleanup and reorganizing-->Combines its wireless services, Southwestern Bell Wireless, with BellSouth Wireless and renames it Cingular.-->Cingular buys AT&T Wireless but decides to keep using Cingular brand-->SBC acquires the remains of AT&T and adopts the AT&T name for land line services-->AT&T buys Bellsouth and changes the Cingular brand into AT&T and uses AT&T as the name for all telecommunication services.[source: I was an AT&T manager during the acquisitions and cleanup (SBC period), family members that still work for AT&T or retirees of AT&T]
Re:Pretty much sums it up (Score:1, Informative)
Check out the Stanza ebook reader. It offers a really nice interface to even more collections of free books. If you play an instrument, it also has built-in access to Mutopia [mutopiaproject.org], which is really nice.
Re:Flawed survey (Score:3, Informative)
Most iP* users are like the GP. They like the fact that there is a safe, one-stop shop for all apps.
Proof? considering TFA states the exact opposite and all.
Re:Becomming more satisfied... (Score:3, Informative)
(Oh, and it pisses the living sh!t out of me that Slashdot jumps down half a page when you expand a comment!)
Go to http://slashdot.org/help [slashdot.org]
Click the "Classic Index" link. Select Use Classic Index, Simple Design, Low Bandwidth, No Icons. Click Save.
Click the "Dynamic Index" link. Select Lowbandwidth [sic], Simple Design, Use Classic Index.
Voila, /. as $deity intended it.
Re:Becomming more satisfied... (Score:3, Informative)
Shit, forgot to say:
Click the "Discussion" link. Select Slashdot Classic Discussion System. Set Display Mode to Nested, Sort Order to Oldest First, and Threshold and Highlight Threshold to whatever you want (mine is 5: Score +5 and 3: Score +3 respectively). I also recommend selected Hard Thresholds, Reparent Highly Rated Comments, and increasing comment limit, comment byte limit, and index spill to something large like 100, 1024k, 500.
Re:Flawed survey (Score:3, Informative)
As soon as you let average users bypass the Apple store ...
You can bypass the app store today, by jailbreaking. The only thing being asked of Apple is to make the latter an officially supported (even if warranty-voiding) operation, just as it is on Android. It doesn't have to be easier to do than today in terms of effort, so as to deter casual users; just make it available somehow.