I've seen you say this before, but man, I also had a 3G iphone and jumped to the 4 and the difference is night and day. Performance alone - thanks to the hardware bumps and battery life - is like moving up a generation of consoles in video games. The differences are huge. I agree about the iPad comparison, though, particularly when you have an iPhone 3GS or 4. (though the act of simply reading webpages or PDFs on the bigger screen is nice). But for a guy like you who is still stuck with a 3G, both the iPad and the iPhone 4 are far from 'not much of an improvement'.
DoD hit the nail on the head for me in this one. Every time I get asked if I'm interested in an iPad I always respond with some variation of "Why do I need a giant iPhone that doesn't make phone calls?"
I use my iPhone to check email, check the weather, check stocks, listen to radio stations, do searches, surf a couple of websites, and annoy people on Facebook, etc. I don't find any of these unbearably slow after the patching of the new OS, so I didn't bother upgrading. It was horrible after the initial release of the OS, but the patches have stopped most of the crashing issues. Is it slower than it used to be with the previous OS? Yes. Can it be faster with the iPhone 4? Yes. But it's not worth spending the money to me. If the new Windows phones offer something above and beyond what my 3G offers, I may get one. Otherwise, I'll stick with this until Apple stops supporting the phone. It's the same reason I don't need to upgrade the quad-core processor PC I built back in 2007. There are faster processors out now, but I barely tax what I have now and haven't felt the need for more speed, so I'll hang onto it.
Some people had problems with the upgrade to iOS 4 on the 3Gs and some people didn't... still haven't seen a reason for what caused the problems. For me though, after upgrading app load times were painfully slow. It could take 30 seconds or more from the time I hit the text message icon until the initial screen loaded. I ended up downgrading back to the last version of iOS 3 before they started patching iOS4 and basically decided for me it wasn't worth the hassle of going through the process of upgrading to test the patch and then having to downgrade again if the slow load times were still there. I didn't want to stay on the old version of iOS and potentially start losing functionality in the apps so I decided shell out the money for the new phone. I like it. It's faster and the new and improved screen is more impressive than I thought it was at first glance.
As I have written, I productively use mine quite often. Much more convenient than a laptop when traveling. Much better viewing and using experience than a mobile phone.
Quite often. I used it alone in my Korea hotel every night for 2 weeks. I use it at home almost daily. I use it in my office. I don't see what the big deal is about folks having iPads.
lol, I specifically was careful not to promote buying on trends- I pointed to the vision and skill that establishes trends. When you show repeatedly that your stuff is so great that as soon as you release it everyone else tries to imitate it, doesn't that mean something about your ability? And don't you think there design details that are not obvious, and therefore not easily imitated by inferior competitors, and that chances are that person had the skill to get those design details correct as well? Actually, I'm not disagreeing with your post, just clarifying that I didn't say what you think I said. I was more discussing iPad versus it's competitors, rather than "tablet or not" which is what you were discussing.
Are you kidding? Do you honestly believe there is no use for an iPad than to use it in public. Hell, if I had one, I'd hide it in public for fear of getting mugged for it.
Wrong. HP never abandoned the Slate, and actually it was <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/21/hp-slate-finally-finally-official-rings-up-at-799/">officially announced yesterday</a>. It includes a Wacom digitizer/pen so you can easily take notes and sketch stuff on the go, comes with a free case and dock with HDMI output, has two cameras including one front facing for Skypeing/video chatting, can multitask and is much more powerful than the iPad. To the OP -- personally I'm waiting until after CES 2011 in January when the PalmPad is expected to be announced, and then I'll make my decision on what tablet to buy. The two top items on my list are the PalmPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The iPad is too restricted and does not offer nearly enough options for me especially at its price point.
Ah. It sounded like you thought the improvements were minimal in of themselves, rather than how they would effect, say, your email. I get that. I just didn't agree that the bump (especially between the 3G and the new models) 'didn't really do enough to improve' the device. But I see what you are saying. I'd imagine that it would have something to offer, by sheer virtue of the fact that you're still on a 3G. :grin: Though it really sounds like the first run of Windows 7 phone has a lot of the limitations of a first gen iPhone, sadly. I'd imagine a few iterations down the line will be pretty solid.
My opinion: I like ports. USB, headphone, microphone, HDMI, SDcard, etc. The more ports, the better. I also like not having to buy every little ringtone, game, app, song, movie, and feature that I want to put on my device. With those in mind, I would think that an iPhone is not for me. I'm not gonna bash it - it actually looks like a very graceful device. But it sounds like I would be disappointed in some of its shortcomings. When I find the device that meets the above needs and has the fluid look-and-feel that the iPhone/iPad have mastered... THEN I'll know which device to get. Maybe that's a next-gen Apple device... maybe it's a competitor.
Um it was VAPORWARE.... until they announced it yesterday. It is a Major FAIL too. You notice they change the target market to business... Because it will not compete with the iPad. Problem is, the iPad is being used the Enterprise market. It is a better value. Windows 7 is not a tablet OS... period. Plus the battery life on this thing is rated at 4 hours... Which really means 3.
By the way...iPad 2 will be announced in Q1 of next year. And it will have cameras because of FaceTime. These other companies gave Apple a headstart and let it define the market.... Big Mistake.
I like ports too, though that's not as much a deal breaker for me... it's functional enough for me... and as scarface pointed out, the next iPad will have a front camera, which I think should have been included on round one of this, but whatever, I wouldn't have bought one first round anyway. I guess I don't get the "I don't want to have to buy everything" comment unless it's just a no-flash bash (which I think will have to change eventually). Songs can be put on there like any mp3 playing device, ringtones can be created from songs you have/own, movies can be ripped via software and put on the device... so I don't get this really, not that you don't have a point, I'm just not sure what you're getting at specifically, unless, again, you're talking about no flash for things like online flash games.
I have a wife that is not computer friendly she always had troubles with it. She only checks e-mail,surfs web,and play games with it.she was always mad and upset with the laptop. Got her an ipad and she spent sometime at the Apple store and now she spends 3 to 4 hours every evening on it without trouble for the last 4 months. I would buy another one the second this one broke gladly!
