Hands On With Apple IPad 2

adeelarshad82 writes "Yesterday's announcement of the second-generation iPad showed exactly why there was so much excitment around the device. As the video hands on shows, iPad 2 makes up for all the things lacking in the original iPad. The 1GHz dual-core A5 chip does justice to apps like Photo Booth and over all user experience. Moreover, while the screen carries the same resolution, Apple was able to pack it in a noticably thinner iPad 2. Infact its dimensions, 13.4 mm to 8.8mm thick, make it 33% thinner than iPhone 4. Also while the cameras aren't HD, the inclusion itself provides an opportuntiy for Facetime, which is actually more interactive than what we've seen so far on other Apple devices."

Makes up for all the things lacking in iPad1?

[chispito]

What about an SD card slot or USB port?

Re:Makes up for all the things lacking in iPad1?

[killmenow]

You beat me to it. Those two things right there contribute to making the iPad a no go in our corporate environment even though some of our senior management loves the shiny things. USB Host port plz. And not via a fscking apple port adapter. Put a native USB port and native SD slot (with HC and preferably XC support) and a native HDMI out on the sucker. Then maybe we'll get the SDK, port some bespoke apps and start equipping our sales reps with these things.

Until then, hey, they're cool for checking the weather forecast from my couch.

Re:Makes up for all the things lacking in iPad1?

[killmenow]

The business case for the iPad (in our company anyway) would include (a) running bespoke apps to hook into our transaction processing system so reps in the field could enter orders from customer premises directly and/or query order/inventory status for customers while on site, and (b) giving presentations while on site at customers. Most projectors accept hdmi in. As is, via the adapter they could show presentations with projectors but it's yet one more type of specialized cable they have to keep track of instead of a relatively cheap standard short HDMI cable. And it's a PITA and stupid and one more way Apple tries to nickle and dime you, imho.

The removable storage is less for putting things ON the damn thing and more for getting things OFF of it. Like after you've given your presentation and the customer says that was great can you copy it to my USB thumb drive here so I can show it to the CEO later. Yes, you can just say "I'll email it to you" but many e-mail systems limit the size of attachments to 10MB or under and some large presentations and PDFs with lots of embedded images go over that but still well under the limits of even the smallest USB thumb drives. Also, SD card for holding/loading said bespoke apps in standardized/manageable ways, etc.

I can't imagine we'd put iPads directly on our corporate network. But most of our salespeople do have laptops and VPN connections. Replacing those with something smaller, lighter, still able to get e-mail on and run necessary apps and give presentations and do the things they do now...that is also less easy for them to get "YOU HAVE A VIRUS! CLICK HERE TO GIVE US YOUR CREDIT CARD INFO!!!!" phishing trojan crap on is desirable. But iPads don't really fit the bill as of right now.

Plus, considering our corporate web site is now flash heavy (don't blame me, I tried but it's out of my control), it'd be kind of stupid to give our salespeople devices that couldn't even pull up our own company's web site. (Oh...and you're 100% right about iTunes.)

Re:Your needs/desires aren't everyone's needs/desi

[iluvcapra]

Wow. That's some arrogance. Did you really mean to say: "Either you agree with apple, or you are wrong."

It's more like "Either you agree with Apple, or you are not their customer." That Apple has so many customers despite declining to accept the dogma of MOAR CUSTOMISE FOREVAH! is the fundamental conflict here. If Apple was losing customers to this you wouldn't be posting.

Can you actually name any [advantages to having sealed, fixed memory] that are relevant?

It makes the product smaller and lighter, with fewer moving parts and structural compromises.

For the sort of engineering inspiration that keeps Jobs going, I would look at rifles. If the sort of mentality that invented the Motorola Zoom invented a rifle, it would have interchangeable bolts and barrels for different gauge ammunition, six different selectable firing rates and patterns (with a pluggable architecture to create others), would be 25 pounds, have a USB port, and be controlled by an I2C network of Arduinos and require three 9-volt batteries. It would only be accurate to a hundred yards, but we would be constantly reminded that it's only a "1.0" product and that it's really meant for the "power gun user" market instead of for the Joe Sixpack "just-wants-to-shoot" crowd.