Technology iPad

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Yeah, and I wanted to wait a few days and see what people were saying about the iPad. Overall, even the skeptics are finding it to be at least a decent device. That, and seeing some of the apps tipped me over the line. Even more exciting is the iPhone software update. Gonna be a good year for tech. Too bad my next break away from school is not until December.

It's going to be like high school puppy love in order to get any iPad time in. Meeting up for some "alone" time in a vacant class room during lunch break is about as good as it gets.:D There is always the time I spend commuting to class and clinical rotations, but they have laws against that down here.

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Yeah, and I wanted to wait a few days and see what people were saying about the iPad. Overall, even the skeptics are finding it to be at least a decent device. That, and seeing some of the apps tipped me over the line. Even more exciting is the iPhone software update. Gonna be a good year for tech. Too bad my next break away from school is not until December.

It's going to be like high school puppy love in order to get any iPad time in. Meeting up for some "alone" time in a vacant class room during lunch break is about as good as it gets.:D There is always the time I spend commuting to class and clinical rotations, but they have laws against that down here.

God forbid in America you should infringe upon anyone's liberty to use an iPad while driving/riding a motorcycle/flying a plane...:rolleyes:
 
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So I'm just curious - where would you want the camera to be? On the back - iphone style? Or on the front - webcam style?

I feel like either wouldn't really have a huge use. A webcam would only be useful if you had it docked (otherwise what would you see if you had it laying on your lap?) and it would be awkward to hold the iPad to try to snap photos like a phone.

Just a thought.
 
Just a guess, but maybe that's why Apple didn't include a camera on the iPad...? It makes an ungainly camera, and I can't imagine too many folks really wanting to video conference from their lap ("Yo, nice nose hair!") :laugh:
 
If they have any interest in it being used in medicine then no camera is best. No camera = no concerns about privacy violations.

I just don't see the utility of mobile video conferencing. You can transmit all you need using your voice. I really don't need to be seeing all the ugly people I am forced to talk to everyday over the phone. I see enough ugly people in public.
 
So, anybody look at the new 4.0 update due this summer? Multitasking, folders, and a few other goodies. Should be a great update for us 3GS owners? Looks like iPad will get an update in the fall with similar features?


[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz0nN3tS_mI&playnext_from=TL&videos=kZQbIVh76x4[/YOUTUBE]
 
So, anybody look at the new 4.0 update due this summer? Multitasking, folders, and a few other goodies. Should be a great update for us 3GS owners? Looks like iPad will get an update in the fall with similar features?

I watched the Apple event. Looks like a good upgrade, especially the multitasking features. I'd like to be listening to Pandora while I'm typing this. :)
 
is now the time to finally embrace the tablet? it failed years ago.

but i predict many people will have tablets in the next 3 years.
 
is now the time to finally embrace the tablet? it failed years ago.

but i predict many people will have tablets in the next 3 years.
The big problem before was a lack of parts that had low power consumption and decent performance, combined with the limited power density of batteries at that time.

Now we have plenty of low power/decent performance parts to pick from and the incremental increases in power density for Li-Ion technology allows for enough power to be packed into a decent sized space.

Basically the tablet suffered the same fate as many other devices throughout history, it was just ahead of its time.

Hell, look at the early laptops, talk about design FAIL, you'd need to have a lap the size of Rosie O'Donnell's to use that ****. But they were limited by the technology that was available at that time.
 
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Design issues are important, and the iPad sets new standards as far as that's concerned. However, the big driver of tablet sales is going to be applications. Previously, there simply weren't any compelling apps to make anyone want to fiddle with a tablet. Handwriting recognition and digital ink always seemed like solutions looking for a problem.

The more I use my iPad, the more I appreciate how truly revolutionary it is. The addition of multitasking will make it even more useful. This ain't your father's tablet computer.
 
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I got a chance to fiddle with a friends iPad the other day, it's certainly evolutionary, but by no means revolutionary. Apple did what it does best, take an existing idea and refine it, nothing more.
 
The iPad is the electronic clipboard that people have been thinking about for decades.

2001-a-space-odyssey-ipad.jpg


Hold the meal please.
 
I got a chance to fiddle with a friends iPad the other day, it's certainly evolutionary, but by no means revolutionary. Apple did what it does best, take an existing idea and refine it, nothing more.

Kinda like they did with the MP3 player and the cell phone? ;)
 
Well, LaurenJade also posted a similar thing in radiology, with a description of what IS radiology.

Yeah, it's a spam bot. I reported it.

Awesome! So, "she" is spamming radiological services (or just the specialty of radiology as whole) as well? This just gets better. Quite the inventive spammer.
 
Awesome! So, "she" is spamming radiological services (or just the specialty of radiology as whole) as well? This just gets better. Quite the inventive spammer.
Meh. I've seen far better spam bots that that one. It was terribly obvious. Some of the better ones actually do a decent job of appearing at least somewhat human.
 
Design issues are important, and the iPad sets new standards as far as that's concerned. However, the big driver of tablet sales is going to be applications. .



in that case, the HP Slate should do pretty well, if priced right.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p-RZAwQq0E[/YOUTUBE]

it runs windows 7, so it runs every app you run at home.
take your office on the go.

the only problem i see with tablets is that they're not really good for taking notes because of short battery life. you wouldn't be able to get through a whole school day at college.
 
The problem with the HP Slate is that you would have to run Windows programs on it - none of which would be optimized in any way for touchscreen or mobile use.
 
The problem with the HP Slate is that you would have to run Windows programs on it - none of which would be optimized in any way for touchscreen or mobile use.


that makes absolutely no sense.

every windows program is made for the mouse. and windows already optimizes every program for touch screen

in the case of touchscreen, your finger is the mouse...... just like the touchpad of your laptop. you just tap and drag. I don't even use the buttons below the touchpad.
 
that makes absolutely no sense.

every windows program is made for the mouse. and windows already optimizes every program for touch screen

in the case of touchscreen, your finger is the mouse...... just like the touchpad of your laptop. you just tap and drag. I don't even use the buttons below the touchpad.

Fingers are less precise than mice are, they need a bigger target area. Windows apps are designed for mice target areas can be smaller, allows them to group buttons closer together but by doing so and having to use a finger for input that may cause the user to trigger events they don't want because they aren't hitting the correct target due to the precision of their finger compared to the mouse.


I don't know how you can say windows optimizes every program for a touch screen, many programs are processor hogs and need to have the total number of lines of code cut down to save on processor cycles in order to reduce battery consumption to prolong the wireless use of the device.
 
So, does anyone who has one here, actually find something useful/awesome about an iPad only app so far, or is everyone just creaming their pants based on potential?

Side note/random thought:
Blue dog, every time I see your name, I think of a restaurant in Lafayette, LA: Blue Dog cafe.
 
I have no problem with Windows - on a PC. It's not made for a mobile device, though. For example, a clinical user logs in to their secure iPad by tapping a four digit number into the pad. A slate PC user will get an account prompt, tap the login button, and then enter an alphanumeric password via a keyboard. Multiply that by a couple dozen times per day. An iPad use scrolls down by flicking-up on the touchscreen - anywhere. A windows user locates the scroll bar and slides down. Most iPhone OS documents or images are slid on and off the screen from left to right. Windows documents don't do that.

These may sound like trivial user interface details but remember that the iPhone practically killed the dominant Palm and Windows Mobile smartphones within two years of release simply by reinventing the smartphone UI and creating a robust app environment.

The Joo Joo sounded pretty cool from a pricing and feature standpoint a few months ago but showed up DOA when compared to the iPad. I wouldn't bank on HP doing much better unless they take the next year to refine their product. By that time, there will be twenty thousand custom iPad apps including several hundred medical ones.

Microsoft scuttled about a year of development in favor of a complete restart of their smartphone platform in order to compete with the iPhone. I think Windows 7 will need the same treatment to compete with the iPad.
 
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So, does anyone who has one here, actually find something useful/awesome about an iPad only app so far, or is everyone just creaming their pants based on potential?

I'm enjoying the hell out of my iPad. I've hardly used my Powerbook since I got it.

Blue dog, every time I see your name, I think of a restaurant in Lafayette, LA: Blue Dog cafe.

I'm just glad you don't think of Democrats. ;)
 
So those of you with an iPad and in clinical practice. How is it holding up? Is it worth the money paid for it?

It's holding up fine, if you mean durability-wise. I got a silicone rubber case for mine to make it less slippery. It will be more useful to me in the office once our IT guys get the Citrix client working. I gave them permission to buy one for the department in order to make the process go faster (I didn't want to let them borrow mine). Have run into some of the poor WiFi reception issues that have been mentioned, but that's the only real problem I've found so far.
 
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I'm carrying mine around during patient visits. I'm using it to display content to patients including:

I haven't encountered any wifi issues except that the device does not stay logged in to our free public wifi system when turned off so I always have to go through the "I Accept The Terms of Use" page.

Listen to any discussion about the iPad and vertical applications and they always mention health care first. Use of the iPad in clinical settings is about to explode in the next year or so. What is holding back any real implementation, right now, is that the device is not available for large orders. Even that hospital who bought a measly 100 devices had to go through Apple for the volume order.
 
Has anyone tried any of the writing/notes apps with a stylus? I'm considering iPad + Evernote or SmartNote as a note-taking solution (it's cheaper than the recommended tablet and I already have a laptop), but I'm wondering if having the heel of your hand bump the screen while writing would mess things up and make it less usable.
 
Evernote is good, though I haven't yet tried it with a stylus. Smartnote is having some problems and the app has been temporarily removed from the app store. The one problem I am having with the iPad is that pdfs that contain any graphics (even graphic light stuff like chemical structures) scroll very slowly on Evernote. There isn't a "go to page" function (at least that I could find) so it is painfully slow to scroll through even a small document. So, for right now I have been using Evernote to sync my notes on my laptop and iPad and then moving my notes/journals to Goodreader manually. Kind of a pain but I find that Goodreader is more responsive than Evernote for some reason. However, the same pdfs scroll very well when viewed over the internet. Since this is the case I can't wait for Microsoft's Onenote 2010 to come out because you can sync it with their servers to access from the web (no local storage on mobile devices yet.) I think that Onenote has a better organizational structure than Evernote anyway.
 
With the recent announcement of Palm being acquired by HP....Hello WebSlate!

webos-slate-hp-pixi-rm-eng.jpg


I can seriously see this being a serious iPad contender
 
With the recent announcement of Palm being acquired by HP....Hello WebSlate!

webos-slate-hp-pixi-rm-eng.jpg


I can seriously see this being a serious iPad contender

Eeeeeh...

What I'm hoping is that it stimulates expansion of the iPad's feature list.
 
First, we're going to get the HP Slate with Windows 7, though. At least that was the iPad contender 3 weeks ago. You've got to wonder whether HP is simply going to churn out these slates like they do laptops, printers, and iPAQs.
 
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