Since Apple released the iPad there’s been a number of companies and manufacturers throw their hats into the ring and declare themselves a part of the big tablet PC war but if you were to choose the next big name to announce a new release you probably wouldn’t guess at high street chain Next.
You might have plumped for Facebook getting in on the action following the rumours surrounding the Facebook phone. You might have even said Amazon because they’re seemingly trying to get a piece of pretty much every pie going. Heck, even HMV would have been a more realistic bet – they’re facing some fairly major problems, share prices have plummeted and they seem to be banking on the HMVDigital download marketplace to drag them out of the creek but, seriously, Next?
Well, believe it or not, it’s true and bizarrely it actually has something going for it too – namely the very low £180 price tag. In anything other than weird branding and product crossover, as well as the vaunted price tag, it’s not really all that ground breaking.
However, it is a rather reasonable 10 inch tablet, it offers a 1.0GHz processor, and it packs 236MB RAM and 8GB of internal memory. It’s also sporting an Android operating system, although unfortunately it’s only 2.1 and there’s no news as to whether it will happily upgrade to the 2.1 FroYou OS. However, did we mention that it’s only £180?
The biggest drawback about it isn’t the size of the processor or the slightly diminutive memory but it’s the fact that it only offers around 3 hours in battery life so while you can use it while you’re on the go, you won’t be going for long.
We know there’s plenty of people out there that would buy a pair of Apple branded socks but would you want a Next branded tablet PC?
FINALLY SOMEONES WRITING FROM EXPERIENCE OMG!!!!
"the last time there was this much excitement over some tablets the commandments where written on them"
Yes I own an iPad that i use everyday
Many of you, whether in favor or against, havent really experienced all the ipad can be. Don't forget that the iPad can be jailbroken! First to all the haters who believe that jailbreaking a device will somehow screw it up or give it a virus… You are stupid and assume too much. Do the research… Jailbreaking is as safe as ever and sure it does void the warranty but if you restore your device apple cannot tell that it was at one time jailbroken therefore warranty is still valid. My 1st generation iPod touch (ya my fjrst generation touch still works) has been jailbroken for years and my ipad has been jailbroken since the day i bought it. Ok now that we've cleared that up let us hear about the wonderful qualities of jailbreaking. As for running multi apps and having folders for apps, for apple these features pre-date the iPad and I was able to have both functions the day I bought it which was the end of may. Including many other small features (like a dock that drops from the top of screen when I hold the sleep button for a bit that allows me to change brightness or switch from wifi to 3G ect… and a selection of my favorite 4 apps without having to leave the app I'm running) the thing that I hear the most is no flash on the iPad! This is a myth! I've had adobe flash on my iPad for almost a month now. Now it's not perfect as some things still won't work but hey, 80% of flash is better than none!
I've heard people complaining about how limited the ipads connections are (USB ect.) well I have iTunes on my iPad, as in I no longer need to hook my iPad up to a computer in order to transfer files, thanks to being jailbroken. I connect to my home computer or any computer with ease and transfer files back and forth. Pffft who needs USB if everything is wireless?
I can't remember who it was but some smartphone is able to send out a wifi signal to other nearby devices… Yes lol you guessed it! Been doing it on my 3G iPad for quite some time now. Another myth about ipads is that AT&T got sole coverage. Any sim card from an iphone can be cut (yes cut lol with scissors) down to a smaller size to fit in the iPad which is already set up to work as a cell phone.
Another myth is that jailbreaking is illegal. No it's not lol you cannot get in any legal trouble for jailbreaking your device. Now what I'm about to tell you on the other hand is probably quite illegal, I would estimate I have about $2000-$2500 worth of apps that I got for free. How you ask? Once jailbroken you can download a program called installous which let's you download apps from the app store for free 😮
That's enough about jailbreaking. Let's look at some of the games I have on my iPad: madden NFL '11, splinter cell, EA skate, need for speed, grand theft auto: chinatown, avitar, call of duty WaW nazi zombies, iron man 2, prince of Persia, FIFA soccer'11, resident evil 4 just to name a few. And these aren't cheap iPhone games either…. All these are iPad apps! Some games even have online multiplayer and for me anyways… Since I got my iPad all my ps3 has done is collect dust. As for music… Wow lol I have a few friends that are dj's and their is literally nothing they can do that I can't…the only difference, my iPad cost $800 and thier DJing equipment cost well over $5000. I could go on and on about the many music apps I have but just trust me….there is no competition.
As for the weight, when I first held it I was amazed at how light it actually was! Compared to a laptop (which at the time was the only thing comparable) it is very light. Now the new tablets may be lighter but at what expense to durability? I'm ruff with my iPad and I don't mean like how some people are ruff with their laptops, I mean how kids are ruff with… Well everything lol. If I drop my iPad (which I do fairly often) I'm not worried it's gunna break or get cracked. That's the amazing thing about apple… They build things for real life situations. Another tablet may be $200 cheaper but if it breaks when I sit on it or my kid decides to throw it down the stairs I'm screwed! Obviously Not everyone has kids that throw their devices down the stairs lol it's just an example of the strength and durability. It's back shell is metal unlike the competition… Plastic, really???? Now who knows maybe it's super durable plastic I dunno i haven't tried any other tablets yet so I'm not gunna hate.
As for the glare… For $60 you can buy the invsa-sheild (not sure on spelling) which eliminates all glare and protects the screen from ANY scratches.
As for performance… I have over 5500 songs and 20G's of video on top of my 192 apps (someofwhich are 500-800Mb each) and my iPad still runs 100% smoothly and everytime I click something it is instantaneous. Most people do not understand frictionless operating largely because it's never been available on this level. I hope all these new tablets are everything they say they are, i hope they are as user friendly as ipads, I hope they get apps that are comparable to ipads because frankly iDoubt that any of these new products will be half of what the first generation iPad is now… Let alone the new one coming out very soon.
Lol I still find that funny 'more RAM' hahahahaha. Have you ever used an iPad? Or even an apple product? They don't need insane amounts of ram to run perfectly, in fact I think they should lower their ram just so they aren't embarrassing the competition. Haha kidding of course… Apple is right where it wants to be. Right now apple is a monopoly in the tablet game, when (or if) another company comes out with a device that threatens the ipad then apple can just lower the price! You think for some reason that apple will stand by and let these other companies beat them at there own game? Even if you hate apple you must respect what they are doing. The iPhone/touch/pad is by far (my opinion obviously) the coolest leap forward in technology for our generation. Computers and cell phones were good ideas but were never perfect… They were always flawed in big ways… Never have more people flocked to a single model of phone than the iPhone. FACT: more iPhones were sold in the world in 2009 than any other companies ENTIRE line up…. Which means…. iPhones outsold EVERY samsung phone world wide combined…. Every Nokia phone world wide combined…. You can hate it or love it but numbers don't lie…
Maybe I'm biased to ipads cuz I own one… Almost everything that I've written has been fact not opinion about the iPad I own and use everyday… Please, someone, from experience using the device they are defending and claiming will 'kill the ipad', top that with another a tablet. I think we've reached a point in time where if you must wait for things to load, during a full days operating, for more than a combined time of 1 minute , it's garbage and miles behind apple. If you ever waited for a webpage to download or have seen that stupid hour glass or things similar too it…. Your living in the past waiting is soooo 20th century lol. iPad to my knowledge is the only truly frictionless multi-touchscreen 3G with built in speakers and a 10 hour battery on the market… I don't think apple set the bar with iPad either, the second best tablet will set the bar where as apple will sit on it's throne (as usual) not paying attention to what garbage the 'competition' releases. I could give my grandmother, who thinks voicemail is rocket science, an iPad and she could figure it out. Take other devices, with their 200 page instruction booklets and completely useless interface and compare it to an apple device… My iPad came with a one page card that points out the volume, home, and sleep button… That's the apple instruction booklet, and tell you the truth I think it's more than anyone needs 🙂
I dare anyone to find something their laptop/smartphone/tablet can do that my iPad is incapable of doing. Obviously aside from its lack of camera ability, although if its really important you take pictures with your ipad then you can buy a cord that connects to your iphone and projects the camera to your ipad, i havent tried any of the ipad photo editting apps (yes lol many do exsist already) but just from looking at them and reading reviews it isnt hard to believe that the ipad photo software will rival the software professionals use. So far every thread I've read (and I've read a few) lists all the things the iPad "can't" do and so far ive done them all with ease. Remember, all jailbreaking an iPad does is over ride all those many many many restrictions apple put on thier devices. It let's you be free to do whatever you want to do. I would take a bullet for my iPad and have never had this kind of love towards an electronic device, But if another company releases a tablet far superior to the ipad then I will no doubt buy it. I'm not biased to apple… I just know a good thing when I see it. And I hope you all enjoy your 'tablets' as much as I will my iPad. The only thing I'm worried about when it comes to my iPad is that I'll die of old age before being able to FULLY experience everything the iPad has to offer.
Sent from my iPad 🙂
Somebody needs to get out more!
I have an iPad…. Why would I wanna 'get out' lol
ipadlover, you fail at life – apple sucks donkeys
What the heck… That's not a comment, that's a freggin article!
Quote from ipadlover: Never have more people flocked to a single model of phone than the iPhone. FACT: more iPhones were sold in the world in 2009 than any other companies ENTIRE line up…. Which means…. iPhones outsold EVERY samsung phone world wide combined…. Every Nokia phone world wide combined…. You can hate it or love it but numbers don’t lie…
Dont make me laugh, Apple's share of just the smart phone market in 2009 was only 14.4% (let alon the whole mobile phone market). They were out sold by Symbian (46.9%) and RIM (19.9%)
You Apple fanbois really do live in a deluded world
How do "widgets" look on your ipad screen ? Oh wait, you dont have any.
"My iPad came with a one page card that points out the volume, home, and sleep button… That’s the apple instruction booklet, and tell you the truth I think it’s more than anyone needs "
Is that because the iPad doesn't do anything else?
Only apple fan would be showing off their apps an android has half the apps u mention. Apple kisses up!
I like Macs. However the main upside to the iPad is reading books on it. Id rather spend the money on something else