Please warn people if you're directing to places like the Daily Heil, thanks.

What gets me is that they are buying them through a management contract! Can't this be done in-house? Also replacing them every two years isn't that over the top as well?

You just know that's not a one-off instance either

They can buy me a greenwash house if they want to though

This deal looks like a scam. It is overpriced and clearly poorly thought out. While the basic premise may be sound the implementation looks very poorly thought out. The council could bulk buy directly and if they hold on to them for 4 years which is practical then the costs would be more manageable. I get the feeling that this has been proposed as a way to get councillors free iPads.

Is it for me?

Let's see. Leaving aside my dislike of Apple as a company, do I want what is in essence a super-sized iPod Touch?

No.

Hmm...

1. Multi-tasking : A number of American commentators who have switched to Android phones (Droid or Nexus One) are now complaining about the multi-tasking and saying that maybe Apple's decision not to isn't that bad. The two biggest complaints are the constant crashing of the Nexus One with certain apps (Leo Laporte has two weeks in a row had different rogue applications which crashed his phone - the first, a podcast catcher - took 45 minutes to get the phone stable enough after restarting, before he could completely remove it. Molly Wood, a long term critic of the iPhone, was also moaning, the main problem being that, at least with the Droid and Android 2.0, you can't kill apps off any more, they just run in the background and drain the battery (yes, she has downloaded a couple of app killers, but that you can't quit the apps and you can't stop them from the phone without a third party app are short sighted).

Otherwise, both love their Android 'phones.

2. Printing : Why? Sorry, I just don't see it. It sounds like the people requesting this haven't looked at the devices targeted use. Although I suppose there is nothing to stop them adding it in for specific applications (eBooks will never get printing, for example) over wireless to either a wireless printer or a networked printer.

3. iLife : Yes, I can see, at least parts of it, coming to the iPad. I guess some of them are probably in the works, but that porting iWork was probably a lot easier.

4. Camera: I agree that using it as a normal camera doesn't make sense. I also thought a web cam would be a good idea, but given the form factor, it will probably be recording the ceiling or what is up your nostrils most of the time. I can see it coming, but I don't know how useful it will be.

5. Syncing : Hmm, it is designed to sync with the cloud or with a computer. That said, I can see people using it instead of a computer, then the lack of syncing would be a problem. I think this is a fault of the design. They are making something which would be ideal for people who don't want a real computer, but they have designed it on the same principles as the iPhone and iPod Touch, which require a computer to sync them (at least in theory).

6. Backup : There are several options for backing up, without going near a computer. With the exception of my music, everything on my iPhone is automatically synced with the cloud and my desktop. There are solutions for this, they aren't necessarily free, but they do already exist.

7. Apps : I sort of agree that deleting apps and taking the data for those with it isn't always good, but it hasn't been a problem until now. I think Apple might have to come up with a method of backing up the data for deleted apps. Currently, if you accidentally delete an app, you can restore to the last backup of the iPhone, but restoring apps after weeks is a problem - although the Myst and Peggle examples are a bit "meh", I mean, they are only games, so it isn't a real problem.

RE: Flash:

Adobe screw-up leaves Flash flaw unpatched for 16 months!

That, on top of all the other security problems they've had in the last year... That is why I never surf without FlashBlock or Click to Flash installed.

There's an interesting article here which covers the various mechanisms for 'multi-tasking' from a user perspective and ponders how they may be implemented on the 'iDevices'.


There is definitely a class of user for whom having a device like an iPad would be a reasonable substitution for an 'actual computer'. My parents are a good example. The iPad (with iWorks) is capable of pretty much all the tasks they generally perform with a PC. The one major show stopper however is printing - they still do often print out the documents/pictures they create and would consider the lack of printing to be a major problem. If the iPad could print to a wifi inkjet printer, I'd consider it a better solution for them than a laptop.


iWeb and iPhoto I can see, Garageband maybe. Since Apple seem to have pretty much given up on iDVD and the obvious lack of required hardware, I'd think that one would be almost certainly not included.


I suspect Apple have the same thoughts, which is why it hasn't been included. A camera, to me, seems to be one of the components that people simply expect to be there without really placing a lot of thought into why it should be there.


The iPhone (IIRC) needs a PC to activate it but after that a PC isn't really required - only for firmware updates. The requirement to sync (IMO) is largely defined by the notion that the iPhone/Touch is a 'companion' device, rather than stand alone device. if you assume that the owner of an iPad previously had no PC anyway and therefore has no existing digital media to transfer, assuming you have MobileMe could syncing/backup for much of the personal data, you somewhat struggle to think of a reason to hook the thing up to a PC at all.


If Apple were really on the ball, they'd be giving a years free MobileMe sub with every iPad sold.


You wait until you've lost a really high score . It strikes me that the kind of consumers we're looking at as being the people who only have an iPad probably aren't going to be downloading tons of apps. It strikes me they are web/email users, light content creators and not really games players. I don't honestly see them having pages of apps with lots of data included. Given the premise that personal data and iworks documents are saved to mobile me over wifi/3G, for these kinds of people the need to backup isn't quite so pressing.

Jon

I've loaded and deleted several apps and then reloaded them, I also switched form a iPod Touch to an iPhone, so I know all about losing high scores... At the end of the day, who gives a [LIFTED]... If it worries you that much, publish the high scores online and then you'll see how bad you really are.

Although I did get my GloBall high score compared, I'm in the low thousands...

Adobe: 7m Flash download requests for iPhone and iPod touch

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and ... uch-669505

Out of 55 million users? Not exactly overwhelming.

Jon

In "December alone"? I'd say that's a fair number. I had no idea of the existence of this, and I suspect many other iPod/iPhone users don't either.

I'd need to see more details. Are they unique requests i.e. have they discounted multiple requests from the same person and if so, how? Are they aware that desktop web browsers can be made to appear to be mobilesafari and have they made any attempt to account for that?

It's in Adobe's interests to make the numbers look as big as possible, so essentially they have no incentive to 'sanity check' the data. I'd much prefer to see a survey carried out by an objective 3rd party. I'm sure if Apple carried out their own analysis, the numbers would be different (and no more or no less suspect...)

Jon