5 ms·
The lack of a front facing camera is a common complaint but honestly (owning an iPad that I love and use all the time) I don't think the use case is as cut and
by cletus 16y ago
The lack of a front facing camera is a common complaint but honestly (owning an iPad that I love and use all the time) I don't think the use case is as cut and dried as that.
Video calls are most often made with a desktop computer or laptop. Laptops have a camera at the top of the screen. Most Webcams are attached to the top of monitors. So you are typically eye level with a desktop webcam or just above with a laptop. That's a fairly natural position.
With an iPad it is most often put on a table, your lap, held in your arm on an armrest or your lap or propped up on your lap or chest when lying down.
All of these cases would have a highly unflattering view if using video. "Looking up someone's nostrils" is how I'd describe it. I could see it working in the keyboard dock, if you have that (which I don't) but that mimics a laptop setup.
I'm not saying they won't add a front facing camera but just think about the practicalities of it.
As for Gen 2, I've gotten so much use out of mine that I won't think twice about selling it to buy the new one. I simply use it that much that it's a complete no brainer. Few devices I own, other than my PC, get that much use.
I'd like to see more memory. Not because I need it but because more applications will be possible with it. I'd also like to see digital out. There is a VGA out connector but it's analog and has idiotic restrictions on it like you can't play iTunes video on it, I guess as an appeasement to the idiots at the MPAA.
But front facing camera? For me it's pretty low priority.
As far as form factor goes, there might be a smaller one. Rumours of a 7" iPad persist. I'm frankly unconvinced. Even if there was one I wouldn't buy one. A 10" screen for a portable device is truly wonderful. I'm not going backwards, I don't care how much lighter it might be.
And as far as Android/WebOS/Windows tablets go, my own view is that the competition is AT LEAST two years behind. Sure in the next 6 months you're going to see any number of crappy tablets coming out but it will be at least 1-2 years before they'll have the polish, battery life and especially the ecosystem of the iPad.
- michaelbuckbee 16y agoNot quite digital out, but with the new Apple TV (another 99 bucks to Steve) you should be able to play iTunes video through to your TV from your iPad via the AppleTV.
- cletus 16y agoI ordered the Apple TV right after Chris Martin finished singing off key. Not because I'm utterly convinced of its utility but because for $99 I don't really care if it doesn't meet my expectations.
- loewenskind 16y ago>I'm not going backwards, I don't care how much lighter it might be. I agree. It doesn't weight much more than a paper tablet (or at least it doesn't feel like it) and that's one of the things it replaced for me. For me the size is perfect.
- noja 16y ago> I'm not saying they won't add a front facing camera but just think about the practicalities of it. What if the camera wasn't fixed in one direction?
- saurik 16y agoI'd love to know what you actually do with yours. Every single use case I could come up with for the iPad was totally destroyed by the iPhone 4, which has 80% the resolution but fits in my pocket. If a new iPad came out with a reasonable screen I could totally see it being an awesome device, but at 1024x768 people really just need to learn to hold their iPhone 4 closer to their face.
- cletus 16y agoEmail, Web browsing, reading technical books, games, photo storage, photo editing, slideshows, watching TV, Twitter, Facebook (even though theres no native iPad app annoyingly), reading (particular technical books where the extra screen real estate really shines), reading my RSS feeds, etc. I have n iPhone 4 too and will certainly pull that out of my pocket and use it but at home I just prefer the larger screen.
- qwzybug 16y agoComposing presentations, preparing invoices, sketching, Monkey Island, writing. The retina display makes a huge difference for reading, so I tend to use the iPhone for feeds and things, but for anything creative the iPad is the clear winner.
- josefresco 16y agoThe bigger screen also makes it a great trip/car browsing device. It's sinmply not comfortable to do extensive browsing on a phone. The iPad's niche is the middle-ground between a phone and latptop (between walking mobile and mobile office)
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- cstross 16y agoYou don't have presbyopia, do you? I'll grant that the iPhone 4 is a lovely piece of kit, but if you have 45-year-old (or older) eyeballs, you will probably need the bigger screen. Our eyes become somewhat less flexible with age, and our lenses lose the capability to focus well on small, nearby objects: the result is reading glasses (and a lot of grumbling). I can still read ebooks on the iPhone ... for about 10 minutes; then I begin to get a headache. Movies are right out, as are games. The iPad is a lot more old-fart eyeball-friendly.