Apple iPad 2 said to sport über speaker Apple's iPad 2 will be slightly smaller than the current model, be a little less curvy - think of the latest, flat-backed iPod Touch rather than the angular iPhone 4 - but don't expect it to sport either the rumoured USB port or SD card slot. So claims Japanese website Macotakara, citing Chinese moles. The big gaps seen on …
Although a wonderful addition, I will not be surprised if they don't appear. Every external connection opens the possibilities for people to hack the fruity device. Apple already have enough problems keep their things locked down without the chance of some smart-arse getting linux to boot off a USB stick!
Although I for one would love to see that!
I've had my iPad for a couple of months. It has largely replaced my 15" MacBook Pro for casual use. I took it on a trip to the States last month in addition to my laptop and I used it for pretty much everything. The onl reason I got the laptop out was to watch MegaVideo which uses Flash. The fans kicked in and ran it ran the battery flat in a little over an hour.
I keep finding new uses for the iPad. AirDisplay makes it into a cool third monitor for my laptop in addition to the builtin one and my cinema display, AirVideo streams movies and TV shows from my server and SplashTopRemote provides very high performance remote desktop which streams FMV and audio. Sure, it is basically and adjunct to my main machine but it works well, the battery lasts for 10 hours, the screen is good and most web pages render properly. Best of all, can whip it out and it is instantly on and it doesn't cook my nuts like a laptop.
Saying it is a toy is missing the point entirely. It isn't a full computer and shouldn't try to be. What it is is the first usable tablet because it drops all the desktop cruft.
Security is one concern. Apple really doesn't care about the hacker community of OS X or iOS (they have a long tradition of openly supporting tinkerers, just not those who SELL stuff). the CARRIERS have the issue with hacking, and Apple has an issue with any published exploitable security vulnerabilities, so between the two it looks like cat and mouse hacker chasing, but it;s just the way it has to be.
Other concerns are: there is no file system... It;s a data space, but it is not a traditional file architecture, there's no file browser, no file permission system, it doesn't even have "user" accounts so to speak. It can import from SD through a dongle (which has the bulk of the FAT32 knowledge and USB stack info in its own dedicated chip), and being a dongle, it gets them around some licensing issues with port support, but adding either to iOS is a BIG deal on a software and licensing standpoint.
But really, it's the cloud. You can't bring media generically in and out of an iPad (because of restrictions the content providers place on apple for permitting the mere existence of iTunes, not Apple's own choices), it has to live in a database, and prevent ANY form of copying music from a PC, to iOS, and then to someone ELSES PC. This makes most use of USB for file transfers limited to just that, files. small things just as easily e-mailed as copied to a stick, let alone through that giant datacenter they just spend a $B in NC....
...and then there's structural reasons. Without a dramatic change to the bezel, neither USB mini or SD fit physically on the edge of the device...
Having a USB port doesn't necessarily open it to hacking. It's how the BIOS and the like treats the USB (as a bootable location or the like) that's the problem. The i[insert device here] was designed to upgrade the OS from the iConnector, thus made this process open to hacking (for instance).
Likely, since Apple gets a cut of any device branded with an "iDevice" or with an iConnector, they likely don't want to give that up by allowing any old slutty USB device to potentially connect to their Walled Garden Device. Nah, they'll keep selling licensing, and companies will keep charging 2x$$ for iConnecting products. Don't believe me? Check out the pricing for a Monster-branded CarPlay (fm transmitter) with a mini-headset jack vs the iConnector version. And no, the iConnector version doesn't have controls for audio playback either.
Here's a thought, why don't you wait a few more generations until they release the one with the thought-controlled interface and a free jet-pack attachment. Oh wait, what if they release one with a tele-porter the year after? Perhaps you should wait one more year then. But, maybe 10 years hence they finally add the SD card slot; I say you should wait still for that one, then.
I personally think that the first generation of the iPad is rather "big stuff" already and I don't believe in waiting indefinitely to get that elusive mythical "next generation that will have it all," when I already know that they'll probably release a new and better one each year after. It's not like, say, the first generation of the Google TV or Windows 1.0 (or Windows Vista for that matter), which were actually half-baked, rushed to market, and rather worthless.
-dZ.
It was bad enough when their "music" was escaping from their headphones, but now bloody young people listening to repetative beats on the train through speakers is enough to make me reach for my blunderbus! If something isnt done, soon we will have to endure their illegal recordings of their vulgar television programs being rebroadcast to all & sundry with these so-called Eye Pads. What's wrong with a good book?
Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.
I have been wondering, as in the EU all phons now have to use the same micro usb cable to charge from, does that apply to the iPad? \What aboyt the iPhone? Surelt if they will have to have the same connector as every one else? I can't see even apple getting away with usb charging, and a seporate connector for every thing else.
Many people entering university need remedial English courses so they can have some form of communication with their instructors, others who don't make it that far resort to pictures and cartoons.
Likely those with their electronics turned up load have suffered from hearing loss through years of having ear bud volumes turned up full.
I thought Jobs barred displays of prurient material from his iThings?
As much as I admire the hardware Apple cobbles together and the excellent GUI design, the limitations imposed upon a geek like myself are impossible to ignore.
It's tethered to iTunes.
It's locked down - Apple decides what I'm allowed to run on it.
It's not standards compliant - requiring a connector that no other devices, other than apple, use.
I'll wait until firstly, I can justify needing a Tablet device & secondly, until a decent Android based competitor is launched.
In the interim, I've got my eye on a Kindle...
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