Category: Geeks r Us
Is the iPad the same as a Netbook but the iPad has mac software and the Netbook has windows software?
price wise maybe. hardware wise no, the new macbook air, for 1000 dollars is the apple netbook. its comparible hardware wise.
I was asking because I keep getting websites that have reasons why the netbook is better than the iPad and that made me think that the iPad was the same as a Netbook. So if the iPad isn't the same as a Netbook, then what's the difference Or can you direct me to a good website so that I can read exactly what an iPad is?
an ipad is a very large very suped up ipod touch, with more ram and processor speed. oh, and minus the camera.
You forgot to mention iWork, the Macintosh iPad suite of Office applications.
And if *I* can type on an iPad, all you young textin' fools can, I'm tellin' you. My daughter, her friends and my nieces all say how slow I text with a thumb keyboard on a phone, but on the iPad with the older software, I was typing faster than that using both hands like a miniature laptop. Now with iOS 4.2, it'd be a screamer no double tap.
OK enough personal stuff: Just remember a netbook's processor can be best described as a souped-up mobile processor. Your iPad has a very good one of those, plus no mechanical disk drive. If you use it, as my Division Commander does, as a cloud device: sync DropBox, use GMail or some other cloud-based email service, and alternate between using wi fi and 3G you'll do fine. People show off the toys, and that gets a lot of buyers, but I can see how the Pad would be very useful indeed, especially now with an optional external keyboard for your apartment or college dorm room.
You could never have told me five years ago Apple would produce this level of usefulness: many of you all were learning to keep your pants dry when they shipped Claris Works which was quite the flop. However, I get documents from Mac users, including Powerpoint, Word and Excel, from their iPads, and download them on the PAC Mate (which I still have) with no problems at all. Until very recently that was virtually unheard of: You always got a certain amount of graffiti produced by software incompatibility.
But all this to say, the Pad has really turned out to be a very useful device, and especially now with the upgrade to iOS 4.2 I think you'll be in good shape. I wish they'd allow their broadband 3G to work with Clear and other Wireless manufacturers though: in this way they still have a bit of growing up to do. Pretending you're a boutique establishment with elite users and an altar serves nobody, least of all the productivity user.
You may also just consider getting an iPhone 4, an external bluetooth keyboard (I got one for $25 of Amazon, Menotek I think, it was on sale, but you should be able to get one under $50) and a few sd cards. buy.com has 16 gigs on sale for $20 to $30 and I got a 32gb for $60 once.
Combine that with online storage such as DropBox, and possibly a bluetooth braille display, and you have yourself a very useful, very tiny, very portable solution that kicks almost any braille pdas ass out of the water for half the price.
You can even get an Easylink bluetooth braille input keyboard, if you want to type Perkins style, though I do not think the iPhone accepts grade II input, not yet, no reason one couldn't write an app for that.
I had my initial difficulties with the iPhone and I have never been pro Apple, and I still find that the iPhone itself has problems with phone calls, but it does virtually everything else with amazing ease, plus, you know, it's a phone and stuff.
I got a 12-inch Linovo Thinkpad for $800, with a good processor and fullsize keyboard, and then I use the iPhone, find that a much more portable set up than anything else, oh, and I got a 2tb network hard drive for $140 that I connect to my router and use to store my music collection and backing up my things.
The iPhone costs $200 new I think, with a 2-year AT&T service plan, I got the extra $15 a month data plan but you can skip it if you are blind, the phone detects wireless networks automatically so you can go online in coffee shops, hotels and near houses where you can smooch of the unprotected wi-fi.
Whatever else Apple has done, or will do, I have to give them high marks for the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch interface and ease of use.
Android will be interesting and could end up being cheaper and equally good, but those days are not here yet, not by a long shot.
Actually, the iPad only has 256 mb of ram. The iPhone 4 has 512. And I'm sure the next gen iPad will have the same amount of ram as the iPhone 4, plus the FaceTime camera and possibly a rear camera as well. So it'll be even more souped up. And as far as a netbook goes, I wouldn't think of an iPad as a netbook, I think of it as a very large iPod touch with the iWork suite included. But if I were you, I'd wait until this next gen iPad comes out in January. It'll be even better than the current one.
I can't use a touch screen to type. Case closed. I cannot use it. (by the way, my texting speed is somewhere around 2 words per minute. I have only used it to enter data into my braille plus, and then I stopped after like one word.
Two words a minute? Hey that's close to my speed. If you're younger than I am, which it sounds like you might be, makes me feel better already! Lol! Turning forty in a month.
For whatever reason, the touch screen didn't intimidate me and I'm a lifer, yet again I don't know why despite everything they say online about lifers struggling with them. And what they say makes sense, till I went and tried it. Oh I was fumblin' don't kid yourself: the kind of fumblin' you do when you've had a bit too much sumpum sumpum and go to look at a Braille chart.
But still, I could totally visualize what was going on. Wish I knew what it is, so someone could un-intimidate other people if they need to use 'em.
It's moot right now as I can't be buyin' one yet but still. Whatever works / makes you productive and doesn't leave you cold, go with it.
Yep, I'm younger. Still in high school. But I never texted. By the way, the macs are great for accessibility and other stuff (as well as having a regular keyboard)
Okay so if the Ipad isn't a netbook and it's like a super Ipod then I'm confused because I thought that the media said that it was like a ereader. Am I wrong? Is it like a kindle? If it is like a kendle then what's the difference?
It has a books application also. The device is really a new class of device: a hybrid between the mobile and netbook. Remember the kernel on which it's founded it's not Windows so it's much more judicious with its use of memory. As with anything you have to start by assessing your needs first, then get the device that suits your needs. Unless you're a kid and simply wants the latest and greatest thing ...
Hey. Adults seem to want the latest and greatest thing too, even more than kids. And yes, it's not windows so it doesn't haveall that junk on it.
And I'm not saying windows is bad (especially since I'm using windows now), but windows cernels don't really work well on mobile devices. The pacmate is an excellent example of this failure.
wildebrew on post six I like your idea of the Iphone with the keyboard but if I had problems when I had a macbook using safari because I like internet explorer won't I have the same problem with the Iphone? I'm actually just looking for the smallest device that can be a laptop or a desktop.
Yep, Windows kernels don't work well on Mobile devices; however, I have to say the BrailleNote is probably the most stable note taker that uses a Windows Kernel. The PAC Mate still needs a lot of improvement. Not so sure about the Braille Sense. But with the netbooks and all that coming around, I'd just tell you to get a netbook or a Macbook, get Jaws or Window Eyes for your netbook, or even NVDA, get a Braille display, and you're on your way. Even the iPads have bluetooth Braille display support, for those of you who didn't know that.
To answer the original question, the iPad can do just about everything a netbook can, but does require some getting used to.
The nice part of the bigger iPad screen is that you can get the layout of webpages easily. For example, if you log into gmail, you can run your finger down a column to read the subject just as a sighted person would glance down that same column with their vision. As was mentioned, you can pair with a bt keyboard or braille display and use it basically like a traditional *top device. Also, grade 2 input/output both works. I have used it with an iPad and an iPhone 4; texting in grade 2 is quite cool in fact. Pages/Numbers/Keynote (basically Word, Excel, and Powerpoint) are all accessible and only run on the iPad.
There are a few differences in iPhone/iPad hardware wise, but totally irrelevant as far as the user's concerned. Apple doesn't really even publish how much ram is in the device; that's because it honestly doesn't matter if there's 256MB or 2 GB of RAM just as long as the device stays responsive and performs like it should. That's the biggest difference in Apple--that simplicity, friendliness, and intuitiveness should win out to configurability, complexity, geeky features, and obscure tweeks. If that rubs you the wrong way as it does many, then Windows remains the better choice since you'll be allowed to do whatever and shoot yourself in the foot doing so if you wish. In Apple land, there's an expectation that you do things the way they're layed out or you can't do it at all.
<rant over>
I think not. I find the mac, at least, has very many ways of doing the same thing, with any number of "geeky features". In apple land, it seems like you just have a hundred different ways to do something and it's your choice which one to take.
Agreed on the Mac as far as software. You can of course, fire up terminal and hack away at the underbelly of OS X which is just Darwin (a variant of Linux). But, even at higher levels, Windows surfaces far more to the average user than Mac. Not sure your technical background, but Windows has far more baggage and Mac has far less.
I still hold that Apple strives for simplicity over everything else. Just think of installing applications, reinstalling the OS, etc and the lack of mods you can make on Macbook's; where's the blue ray player for MBP's? MBP's just recently got sd card support, etc.
When we're talking about the i* devices, what I said is doubly true...
I bought an iPad and love it. I can type super fast on it, I take it wherever I do not want to haul around a laptop, my mbp. I can't wait for the new iPad in January if this is true, haven't heard about this so I will have to check it out. I've got the keyboard dock should I need it, and the bigger screen gives me more space to works, and provides a more intuitive interface for applications such as IM+ though I wish that there were iPad equivalents for the iPad like skype, which even though there is a full screen button at the bottom right, it still does not take up the full screen like other apps do, and plus, the keyboard is the same as on the iPhone, with the delete and enter keys where they are on the iPhone.
@1 you seem hellbent on not using ios or osx, so just get yourself a netbook.
wildebrew, why skip the data plan if I'm blind? Does the Iphone voice over not work right with the internet, texting, or emailing?
If you have the bread for the data plan go for it. WB was just saying there's an option for you with AT&T. And not all can afford the data plan.
I thought they made you get the data plan? Am I wrong? I'm trying to get the cheapest plan.
there really iis no reason to get the IPhone if you don't get data, all the apps need data in one way or another so.
Yes that's what I figured. So I'm trying to find the cheapest plan with the data.
actually, Darwin is Unix not Linux. and please don't misunderstand the differences between the two. yes, big sticking point /soapbox.>