Posts by uhuznaa

Ten... budget Android smartphones

Orange SF

This thing is easily unlocked, so you can put any SIM into it.

The SF is causing quite a stir at the moment. Right now it's sold exclusively by Orange and there is a healthy ebay buzz going on, with that thing being bought like mad from all over Europe. I've heard from people flying to London from Germany to buy one, this still being cheaper than buying some overpriced HTC phone around the corner...

It's really cheap as chips and quite good for that. 512MB of RAM, a 800x480 OLED capacitive touch screen, GPS, 3G, WiFi, FM-radio and all of this in a nice thin package. The battery is a bit on the weak side, though. And the camera the usual crap. Still, you can't get a better budget smartphone right now.

Hands on with the new Apple MacBook Air

Hmmm...

Having lugged around my 13" MacBook quite a lot lately I can say that 2 kg and 1 kg does make a difference. And having handled the 11.6" MBA a few days ago I must say that this thing really feels like a "full" laptop, just without the size and the weight. Good keyboard, enough pixels, great trackpad. It's a really nice machine. And the SSD is snappy. Ars Technica already ran some benchmarks and the SSD was nearly a factor of 10 faster than the 5400 RPM HD in a current MacBook Pro. And it feels this way, too.

Raw CPU power is not that important anymore. With a fast SSD and a decent GPU this thing is fast enough for everything that doesn't involve massive computing power (video editing, rendering, etc). Just make sure to get the 4 GB version. 2 GB won't cut it in the long run and there is no way to put more RAM in.

Apple bolts chastity belt on super svelte MacBook Air

I haven't ripped apart one yet

but to me the SSD module looks plainly like a Mini PCI-E card, which were pretty standard with oldish Netbooks (back in the good old days when they still had SSDs and running Linux instead of HDs with Windows on them). Nothing you kids have ever seen, of course.

According to some benchmarks from Ars this SSD is a fast one, by the way.

Apple threatens Java with death on the Mac

Update

Steve Jobs comment is this (from http://www.flickr.com/photos/frasers/5104179782/):

"Sun (now Oracle) supplies Java for all other platforms. They have their own release schedules, which are almost always different than ours, so the Java we ship is always a version behind. This may not be the best way to do it."

Say what you want, but he's right. Java on OS X was always a step behind and Oracle shipping it in sync with the Windows and Linux versions would be The Right Thing to do.

Apple signals disk free notebooks way to go

Take a look around...

There are quite a few very comparable machines out there (from Sony, Dell, Acer...). If you spec them the same as the Air they're not cheaper. I would really like the Reg doing some charts and benchmarks here.

DVDs...

I mean, you can plug any external DVD drive into that thing which surely would be enough to watch a movie now and then at home?

Optical drives are on the way out the very same way floppies went. I think I used the drive of my MB three times last year.

I agree though that 64 GB is tight if this is not just a secondary machine. You'd need cheap cloud mass storage to overcome that and of course a fast mobile network connection and the Air comes with neither. I still like the base 11.6" model.

Another thing: Speed is not so easy to judge with SSDs. Even if the plain read and write speed isn't *that* fast, they have no seek times and are really fast when gathering up lots of small files. Almost any app nowadays reads hundreds or thousands of small files at startup and HDs have a really bad impact here. In my experience even slow SSDs feel much faster in daily use because of this.

Phone 7: Another Vista or another XP?

Curious ommission...

in that article: Can you actually, like, make a phone call with the thing?

Not that I'm one of those who think that phones are the end of all. I rather think a smartphone is a mini-tablet with a pre-installed phone app. Still, a review of a smartphone without a single word about the phone part seems a bit incomplete?

Apple rolls out two new MacBook Air models

Netbooks

I'm really looking forward to a Reg article doing a benchmark comparison between the MBA and the cheap 11.6" netbook flock.

Personally I think the 11.6" MBA will be a hit. It costs as much as the 13" plastic Macbook, weights half as much, is thinner, prettier and not much slower. It also has the full-size keyboard as any MacBook. When my MBP is about to go to a new home (in half a year or so) I will have a good look at this thing.

Finder...

AC, you can mail a file from the Finder by just dragging it onto the Mail icon in the dock. Using Cmd-Backspace for deleting has some logic to it, since portable Macs have no Delete key and using just Backspace for this is a bit too easy. And what's wrong with Cmd-O for opening a file? It's the same keycombo you use within an app to open a file, so it's just consistent. Hitting enter for renaming instead of selecting a menu entry can't be that troublesome since the next thing you will do (typing a new name) will involve the keyboard anyway.

There are some things the Finder does differently, but I can't really see a problem here. At least there's some logic to it.

I totally agree that the Lion presentation was disappointig. It just dealt with cosmetic stuff. I don't think these will be the only changes, though.

The app store, as an option, is a good thing. A direct connection between developers and endusers/customers can't be a bad thing. Apple takes a healthy cut, but on the other hand trying to reach the same audience and setting up your own licensing model and selling software online is not exactly free either. Most indy developers use third-party services and companies to market and sell their software and getting 70% out of what the customer pays is very hard then.

Well...

compared to similar offerings from Dell, Sony, Acer etc. this thing is not especially expensive. Note that this is not an Atom-"powered" Netbook at all. It's a subnotebook and these never were really cheap.

Still, I think the 13.3" version is a luxury compared to a 13" MBP. It's a bit lighter, a bit thinner and more expensive.

The 11.6 Version is only about as expensive as a white plastic MB (the cheapest portable Mac) and I'm pretty sure that people will like it. Decent power, full-size keyboard, decent screen, *very* light, small and thin. I've been lugging around my MB quite a bit lately and cutting the weight in half surely would be tempting.

Apple posts $20bn+ quarter

"halo effect"

I can tell from experience that there *are* people getting an iPhone, iPad or an iPod touch, using it a while, then comparing the way of using the thing with their Windows machine and when they have to get a new computer just can't bring themselves to get another PC anymore. There's quite a bit of greener grass on the other side of the fence going on, but the iThings also have a certain way of seducing users with elegance and simplicity and making them look for more of this drug.

Bloggers swallow iPhone 4 screen weakness claim

Accidents happen

I have a first gen iPod touch since three years now. I'm using it mainly as a PDA, book-reader and internet terminal, so I usually have it on or around me all day long. I'm usually rather cautious with my gadgets, still in these three years I had about half a dozen cases of the thing being dropped, slipping out of a pocket or swiped off a desk and clattering down on hard floor (tiles, concrete).

This iPod has a steel bezel around the screen and this bezel has about four deep dents and notches now (and lots of smaller scratches). Nothing serious, but I guess each of these would have been enough to shatter the exposed edges of the glass on an iPhone 4. I've come to see my iPod touch as nearly indestructable but I really wouldn't think the same about the iPhone 4. With the iPhone it's just imperative to *never* drop it, I'd say.

KeyCase iPad Folio Deluxe

Hmm

Most of recent Apple products have either easily or at least half easily changable batteries now. The iPhone 4 requires 2 screws to be removed and you can slide the back off. The iPad is not that easy but entirely possible without ripping off glue or something like that. For something you should need to do only every four or five years at best (and this is a looong time in gadgets) I wouldn't waste a single thought about it.

Anyway, I think a decent external BT keyboard (like the Apple one which is actually quite small and light) and a case for the lone iPad with a stand might be a better way to get at an iPad with a keyboard than this thing.

Apple to sell 45m iPads in 2011?

7" and 10"

This is much more than a "minor" difference. Apple also sells 13", 15" and 17" laptops and the difference between those is both absolutely and relatively smaller than between 7" and 10".

A 3.5" iPhone and 7" and 10" iPads would be just a sane choice of sizes.

Offer me a 7" iPad with a camera and 512MB (or more) of RAM and I will finally give in and get one.

Apple's iPad is the hotcake of the 21st century

58,5 km...

...if you stack them all on top of one another. Space officially starts only at 80 km, so Apple has to sell some more to leave Earth. Not many more, though. They're there anyway already, all iPhones and iPod touch stacked would make a tower quite a bit higher than the orbit of the International Space Station.

£180 7in Android tablet launched

Strange gap there

Really, there's a very strange gap between the decent but expensive gadgets from Apple and Samsung and all the dirt cheap tablets. Some recent Android, $20 phone and GPS chips, a mic and a speaker (to make the thing work as a phone and so satisfy Google to license the app market) and a capacitive touchscreen just can't be THAT expensive. Maybe $100.

There must be plenty of room for decent Android tablets in the $300 to $400 range. There're none though.

I get the feeling that all the major brands just start to realize that many people do not need expensive computers at all and would be very happy with a simple tablet for their needs. Selling $300 tablets and not selling expensive laptops anymore then would be suicide. So they're stalling and/or selling expensive tablets.

Bookeen debuts multi-touch e-book reader... with web browser

Touch and e-ink...

...doesn't work. E-ink is just too slow to give that kind of responsiveness you just need with a touchscreen. Blindly tapping and swiping on a screen and then waiting for something to happen is totally frustrating and confusing. On a touchscreen you need instant feedback and smooth animations/scrolling.

Dell Streaks on stage

Not too bad, actually

The trouble with the Streak is its cheesy design and those capacitive buttons you can't feel and always end up with your thumb on them by accident.

An HTC named Desire. OK, two HTCs...

Ahhhh

I knew it. Larger screens, smaller batteries (since they really don't want to make the thing thicker)... That's the kind of "innovation" you just have to expect from those guys.

I'm still waiting for the HTC Giga with an 14" screen, four cameras, three USB ports and a battery life of 2 hours.

iPhone 4 jailbreak banks on browser exploit

Scary

Nobody seems to notice that, but: What this Jailbreak means is that there is a remote root exploit in Mobile Safari. It's nice to jailbreak your iPhone/iPad this way but this also means that basically any website can take over your device and run any code on it. This is scary. When iOS 4.1 comes out you'll have to decide if you want to keep your jailbreak or to have your device secured against this remote exploit.

Chaos surrounds New Zealand iPhone 4 day

This is getting absurd

It looks more and more as if the iPhone supply is nothing but a trickle meanwhile. It's almost impossible to buy an iPhone anywhere. And it's not only a "more demand than supply" thing, there's hardly any supply at all.

Samsung Galaxy S

@Efros:

"Or do other people have the nascent welder within clamouring to get out and scream "450 quid for a *&%$ing phone!!!!!"?"

If it were just a phone you'd be right. Face it, for many people these things are becoming the new Personal Computers, with "real" computers rapidly becoming just office machinery nobody wants to use anymore (except in the office).

Both the iPhone and Android smartphones aren't phones, they're mini tablet computers with a preinstalled phone app.

Still, I would expect something that holds together for a few years with daily usage when I spend such amounts of money on it and this Samsung seems to have certain shortcomings here.

Hmm

I tried one of these a few days ago and while I was very interested from the specs it left me a bit doubtful. It feels outright flimsy and the buttons don't feel as if they could stand some real abuse. The silver bezel is just silver plastic and will be scratched in no time. I don't want to know what happens to it if it falls to the ground even once. Everything on this phone looks and feels thin, cheap and breakable.

Then the thing does not mount via USB on Macs. Known problem, no solution yet. The included syncing app (Kies) runs only on Windows. So the only option on a Mac now is to buy Missing Sync for $40. The Samsung software on the Galaxy is not a shining example of stability and reliability either.

Nvidia Tegra 2 tablet to debut at IFA show

Small problem...

The cheapest version (€399) will have no 3G and no GPS and as such will not qualify for Google Apps and the Android app market. Which makes it a bit useless, as many Android tablets right now.

Developer slips tethering into iTunes

Hmm, but this isn't the iPhone

The iPhone and iOS can do tethering quite fine, it's just an existing feature of the phone. Not for all carriers, though.

This guy was brave! Someone give him a medal. He should publish the source for this tethering app, nicely documented and freely licensed and more developers should add this feature to their apps.

Apple iPad – the 'Tickle Me Elmo' of 2010

@Dick Emery:

So what would be the Next Big Product you would create, design and sell in millions and millions of copies to eager customers if you'd be running HP, Dell, Asus, or Samsung? I'm curious, really.

They are all aping Apple because the whole PC industry has ever only been an industry that produced what someone else already sold well. And then tried to make it cheaper and faster and with more megapixels, more buttons and larger screens. While at the same time never ever leave out any feature that has been in the previous model. It's no surprise that the last smartphones creep to 4 and 5" screens, two flash lights on the back and ever more Ghz. Next year we will probably see the first smartphones with cameras on the sides and *two* USB ports. And some buttons on the back, maybe.

Phonemakers cry foul on Steve Jobs 'We're all alike' attack

Nokia

When this came up I immediately took up my good old puny Nokia 2630 and applied the grip of death to it. Four bars... three bars... two bars... one bar... Hey, it works! I often noticed that the thing had real trouble to hang onto a call cleanly when I had only one or two bars to begin with. Now I know -- I just held it wrong!

By the way: http://www.etsy.com/listing/51772143/antenn-aid-for-iphone-4-6-pack

Come on, judging from the very few sites that did real measurements (you know, if you have numbers it's a fact, everything else is just opinion) the iPhone has really good reception and sensitivity, except when you grip the lower left side with wet and salty hands in an area with a bad signal in which case it may be a bit worse than others. This is not the end of the world. Stick a piece of tape or an antenn-aid or a skin or a bumper or a case over it if you're panicky. Or just avoid touching that spot when the signal is weak. There are surely spots on my gf I don't dare to touch when the signal is weak, too.

Another nice message is this:

http://www.gelaskins.com/store/skins/phones/iPhone_4/Keep_Calm

Some peope need to get this stamped onto their foreheads.

I fully expect RIM to come with a BlackBerry with a 10" half-retractable rubber-coated antenna later this year. Function over form rules!

Apple greenlights browserless Firefox app for iPhone

Browsers

There is no lack of them on the iPhone. Literally dozens of them. What Apple doesn't allow is other JS interpreters than their own, so you're basically limited to WebKit as the base for your browser.

And there was nothing surprising about Firefox Home being approved, really. It was fully expected.

iPhone 4 fix to centre on software, negate need for recall

30 days

They're not over now even for first-day buyers, you know. Even those still have a full week to return the thing.

This is totally getting out of hand

Apple deserves some spanking about their handling of this, but to see how people go into a hate and derision frenzy now makes me feel ashamed about my fellow humans. It almost looks like a witchhunt meanwhile.

Just trying to be the lone voice of reason, you know. You can go on now.

Apple spews Judas Phone signal bar 'fix' to world+dog

One thing

If this thing will still sell like hot cakes (and I have no doubt it will) this proves only one thing: People care not so much about a perfect cellphone but more about a really nice appliance in their pockets.

Yell about that all you might, but I can understand that. Providing that they get the proximitiy sensor issue fixed, I will get an iPhone 4 later this year, too. Having to hold the thing more carefully in areas with a bad signal (or just buying a case) may be a little bit annoying but it's such a great appliance (I have learned I can use the thing even when mindlessly drunk) that I just don't care about the last dBm. And come on, not getting a call or being able to drop a call when you grip the thing tightly is not a bug. Nowadays it's a feature. I often just forget my phone to get something like that.

dBm are like HP with cars and MP with digicams: Not everything. I still hate Apple but again I have to secretly admire SJ. Phones are so 20th century.

Pressure mounts on Apple to recall iPhone 4

Consumer Report

Yeah, still they rated it as the best smartphone they've ever reviewed. Things aren't as black and white as some people think.

I think the proximity sensor issue is a real problem. Apple has to fix that (and it's probably a rather easy thing to fix).

The antenna attenuation is a curious particularity of that design with an external antenna. This design has its advantages and disadvantages. I pretty sure that most people wouldn't like the iPhone to be larger with a plastic casing and an internal antenna and those who'd prefer that can easily add a plastic case/skin/bumper and then even have a wide choice of cases. Seems better to me than a phone with an internal antenna und a plastic casing already fixed to it forever. Why do you hate freedom so much? ;-)

This is crazy

A recall of millions of phones for some problem that does not endanger anyone (which is quite different from braking problems with a car) with no easy way to deliver a similar product that doesn't have the problem would be insane. Especially since they still can't get the phones out fast enough to satisfy demand.

Yes, this issue surely is a small PR disaster but adding a not so small economic disaster to it won't help anyone.

This Gizmodo article sounds more than iffy. Coating the antenna won't change anything when even putting thin tape onto the antenna doesn't help. It's a capacitive problem and with these you need just a few millimeters between your hand and the antenna. You'd need a rather thick coating for that.

In their place I would just sit that out, try to come up with some hardware or software workaround, introduce it silently in production, exchange phones as needed during the warranty and let those who don't notice the problem just keep their phones. Everything else wouldn't help and would make no PR or economic sense.

Apple is in a position right now where everything short of 110% perfect will draw flaming hate and ridicule anyway. They get lots of press coverage for what they do right and they get lots of press coverage for what they do wrong. If you look at other smartphones you'll find they all have their bugs and shortcomings. Some HTC models are really bad at switching from WiFi to 3G without a reboot, the Samsung Galaxy mounts via USB mass storage only randomly on Macs and sometimes needs half a minute to launch its phone app if you haven't rebooted it for a few days... and nobody cares (well, apart from the users being hit by this). Business as usual.

Fanbois end Judas Phone 'Death Grip' with, um, SIM tape

Hmm

The only difference I can see between an iPhone with an Apple or third-party case applied and a "regular" plastic phone with an internal antenna is that I can optionally remove or replace the case on the iPhone while the plastic casing on the other phone is fixed to it forever.

I think the proximity sensor issue is worse.

Apple iPad 3G 32GB

Hmmpff

"And thr trouble is there are some rather big and nasty people in the world that know that an iPad is going to make a very quick profit if they nick it off you. If you really must have an iPad, do the sensible thing and buy the WiFi version and leave it at home where it belongs."

Well, not everyone lives in the places you seem to thrive in, you know... Some of us even use their even more expensive laptops out in the open.

MiFi

A MiFi runs its battery dry in no time, you have *another* gadget to keep charged, and the process of getting the thing online and the iPad connected to it is not exactly blazingly fast. In fact, apart from it being a bit cheaper and being usable with other devices it's a pain in the rear compared to a 3G iPad.

This thing is a luxury anyway, so just pay a bit more and be done with it. I don't have an iPad but if I would buy one I wouldn't want to bother with another gadget for 3G.

Motorola advert revels in anti-iPhone schadenfreude

No

"This applies even if without the antenna covered it can pick up calls from Mars."

If this thing has a really good reception except when I grip it in a certain way with sweaty hands I would happily either avoid gripping it this way in badly covered areas or just install a case/bumper.

This would be different if it had just average reception which gets only worse if you hold it in the wrong way, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Curiously, the same Anandtech article states that the WiFi radio gets a boost of +10dB if you grip the WiFi-antenna part of the frame. Being able to squeeze better reception out of a phone by touching it in certain ways somehow appeals to my geek mind ;-)

Hey, it's a magic device after all. So just learn your magic grip, will you?

On the other hand...

"From my day of testing, I've determined that the iPhone 4 performs much better than the 3GS in situations where signal is very low, at -113 dBm (1 bar). Previously, dropping this low all but guaranteed that calls would drop, fail to be placed, and data would no longer be transacted at all. I can honestly say that I've never held onto so many calls and data simultaneously on 1 bar at -113 dBm as I have with the iPhone 4, so it's readily apparent that the new baseband hardware is much more sensitive compared to what was in the 3GS. The difference is that reception is massively better on the iPhone 4 in actual use.

With my bumper case on, I made it further into dead zones than ever before, and into marginal areas that would always drop calls without any problems at all. It's amazing really to experience the difference in sensitivity the iPhone 4 brings compared to the 3GS, and issues from holding the phone aside, reception is absolutely definitely improved. I felt like I was going places no iPhone had ever gone before. There's no doubt in my mind this iPhone gets the best cellular reception yet, even though measured signal is lower than the 3GS."

This is from the same Anandtech article you quoted. Apple may have exposed its underbelly here, but things are not that easy. The antenna seems to works both very good and very badly, depending how you hold the phone.

The 3G coverage picture that can't be published

Crowdsourcing

Someone write a simple app for the iPhone/Android that checks 3G signal power and sends it along with GPS location data up to some server which compiles maps from that data then. Should be easy to do and you'd get better and more honest data than you'll ever get from the carriers.

Dell Streak Android tablet phone

This is no tablet

It has a screen just 0.7" larger than the HTC Evo, which certainly isn't a tablet. The streak is just a large (and rather heavy) smartphone.

Apple flogs 3m iPads in 3 months

"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced"

In this sense this thing is a bit magical. Compared to most other tablets the iPad really makes the technology behind it totally vanish when you use it. I don't have one and I don't need one, but I've used one and I think that Jobs is totally on track here. With all other tablets you still have the (correct) feeling that you're issuing gesture commands on a touch surface which get translated to software commands through 15 layers of API until finally the software does something which changes the screen beneath the touch surface. With the iPad it feels as if you were moving real things around and press real buttons. And there is hardly any UI to the actual OS running the thing (just the home screen and the settings app), which is a good thing for most users. The whole thing is basically just a slate that totally turns into whatever an apps makes it into.

Surely this is fake magic but it's really well done fake magic and there is no other magic than fake magic anyway. So stop whining please, yes? For most people this is exactly the way they like their technology.

Apple's iOS 4 beams into unprepared world

Photos syncing

There are numerous comments out there that just syncing twice fixes the problem with the blurry photos. There are also users reporting greatly decreased space taken by their photos, so this may be down to different compression or something like that.

iPhone 4 fever takes hold. Again

Say what you want

But as an easy to use mini-tablet with multiple functionality including a phone, a photo camera and a HD video camera this thing isn't bad at all. Apple or not.

Apple to sell unlocked iPhone 4

Could've been worse

If you look at eBay prices for new officially unlocked iPhones imported from elsewhere the prices aren't that bad.

Superslim iPhone 4 enough to fend off Android?

@Anonymous Coward:

"Maybe you should go back and rewatch the keynote. Jobs boasted that they kept the pixels the SAME SIZE, *NOT* bigger."

He said they kept the pixels the same size as on the old 3 MP camera, making the sensor bigger rather than the pixels smaller. They *are* larger than on most (or all) other smartphone cameras with the same or higher MP count.

That being said, the sensor is still pathetically small compared to "real" cameras. But there is not much you can do about this in a smartphone, a bigger sensor would require more depth for the lens and there is just no room for that. Things like backside illuminated sensors help a bit, though. Every little bit helps here. Except more megapixels of course.

Well...

The hardware of that thing is not at all bad, I think. And the "only 5MP" is really tiring. It has a rather large sensor and lens, a backside illuminated sensor (which is a first in a smartphone as far as I know, not that any "tech journalist" would care) and seems to take quite good macro shots. Any smartphone maker putting such effort into the camera while giving up on the MP race has to be lauded. Everybody knows that piling megapixel on megapixel is a bad thing but obviously nobody has the balls to be the first to do something about it.

The gyroscope is also something noone else thought of yet. The screen has not only high DPI, it has the touchscreen laminated to the LCD, which should help to minimize parallax problems and make it tougher. The battery seems to be really good, the design surely isn't shabby. 9.3mm is, well, good. No, the hardware is really fine.

iOS starts to suck, though. When it comes to wireless syncing and file management and the like the OS is user-unfriendly in a way that is outright un-Apple. Things like "openness" are irrelevant here, the masses don't care, only geeks care.

And can Apple fend off Android? Why, no. Never. One company with one or two devices can't fend off uncounted companies offering hundreds of phones and tablets with an OS they get for free. There are lower prices there and more options. Even *expecting* Apple to hold a majority of the market is madness. In fact, if they manage to keep a third of the market or so they will do really, really great. One could even say that the iPhone holds up that good today is either a miracle or most Android phones aren't really that good compared to the iPhone. Which Android smartphone exactly is selling bettter than the iPhone or even close?

In the smartphone market Android will become what Windows was (or still is) in the PC market, there is little doubt to that. Expecting Apple to "fend off" all other Android phones together is like expecting Apple selling more Macs than all others selling PCs.

Steve Jobs unveils iPhone 4

Glass and glass...

I can tell you that there is glass you can throw at a concrete floor without breaking it. You can even buy cups and plates made from it. It must be about 20 years ago that someone demonstrated this for me and I was very much impressed by it. Imagine a plate of glass just wiped off the table jumping and tumbling over the floor right against the other wall without breaking.

No, you can have glass you can hardly shatter even if you try hard, really.

Well, I know it's the Reg, but...

looks like a pretty decent and nice looking phone to me.

Apple MacBook Pro 15in

It *is* a bit of luxury

but what is wrong with that? I have the 13" and I'm using it about 10 hours a day. Spending a bit more money on such a tool and then not having to put up with cheap crap 10 hours a day for years is a good idea. I don't work with specs, I work with a computer and details count.

Apple prices up iPad for UK

Hello?

Everyone who has a desktop, a laptop, a netbook, three consoles and a smartphone and now complains about the iPad not being "computer" enough should try and get a life. Or buy an iPad anyway, use the other crap a bit less and try to find out how many of these devices he really needs in the long run...

I mean, I will probably not get an iPad but I can fully understand the lure of a device that is exactly not another computer. There are too many computers in our lifes anyway. Some people seem to have a serious addiction going on with them, they react to the iPad like a heavy boozer to a cup of tea...