You shouldn't blame the Machines people on the failures of the iPad, they are just resellers. Should there be an actual Apple Store operated by Apple themselves here, then you can go ahead with the cynical jabs.

To everyone else, how's your pared-down expectations of the iPad now, now that Malaysian iPads have lost the eBook feature? And the cutting down of the sim card to size? Okay with that? Or are you just happy with using the iPad as the email reader, web browser, music player, video player, games/apps player that you plan it to be? But isn't there already a device in the market, made by Apple themselves, that already does these functions (iPod touch)? Or are you paying RM1.8k(iPad USD499 base price) for simply the larger screen? Is that single reason justifiable to spend on another overlapping product you either already have, or already made available now?

Just wondering - Would you guys buy this iPad if you don't own an iPod Touch?

I think I will still get the iPad despite all the rest grumbling about it.
Reason being - I just want a bigger screen, slim enough to walk around to read e-books. The only thing I hope, if they did not support the iBookStore, I hope I can still read ALL my PDF files just like an eBook format.
Also I don't mind not having the 3G version coz I can still sync later the contents via my Macbook.
I am not into games or videos. If I wanna play videos, I can use my Macbook.

This post has been edited by Edoras: Jan 30 2010, 12:44 AM

iPod touch baseline is lesser than RM800, and it can fit into the pocket, and its feature virtually the same as iPad

why iPad then..

I want the big screen....

big screen, either HP Slate or netbook for me

Firmware specific? Smells like a software logistics nightmare to me.

More likely its gonna be something tied to your iTunes account.

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Added on January 30, 2010, 12:52 amDon't get your hopes up for PDF files, 'cause I remembered something about the epub format during the presentation. But on the good side, you can still use Stanza (the desktop version) to convert all your PDFs to .epub. Thus the only left over question is whether you can load your own .epub files in or not, and how to do so. 2 possible ways that I can think of:
- downloading from somewhere like Stanza does (the iPhone/iPod Touch version)
- drag and drop your epub files into iTunes and sync from there, just like how audio/video is currently handled.

This post has been edited by fyire: Jan 30 2010, 12:52 AM

then you'll see them posting stuff like 'omfgwtfbbqsos apple added camera/usb for ipad v2'
i suppose those are 'revolutionary' or lemme quote from steve, "magical" breakthrough. funny how simple addition already available as of now will wow some of those fanbois. i foresee things like this to happen and i cant help but lol.


u just gave me great idea...imma try this out in 2 months time

I did grumble about the lack of Bluray in the Macs, until I asked myself, how many BluRay disks do I actually own anyways, and how many do I plan to get in the near future. Answer is that I don't own any BluRay disks (apart from PS3 games, which can't be used on the Macs anyways), and how many BluRay disks am I planning to buy in the near future? Most likely 1 at max, seeing how much it costs, and that's just for the fun of it.

so u are gonna spend 1.8k on something just to read pdf? you have too much money to spare thats for sure. ever consider donating $ to haiti fund?

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Added on January 30, 2010, 1:03 amwhile bluray is quite expensive here in msia, it is more reasonable in most developed country (dollar to dollar comparison) therefore you cant relate your case with the rest of the world

This post has been edited by jiidaineko: Jan 30 2010, 01:05 AM

On the camera, are you really gonna hold up a 9.5 by 7.5 inch piece of equipment to take photos with? If anything, a front facing camera will actually be more useful for video calls.

Still does not negate the fact that Apple may ship only US iPads with iBook app installed, and remove it from the Asian iPads with no options to download the iBook app anywhere. Any app installed as a built-in(Youtube, Maps, etc), you don't see it being redownloadable as a separate download. Unless somewhere along the road, jailbreaking the iPAd is made possible, and allows custom installation of singular apps irregardless of region.

Either way, it's a pain. And it diminishes the appeal of the already questionable reason of why one would get an iPad in the first place.

As for Edoras' case, PDF-to-epub conversion can be very messy. I've used an application called Calibre to do that, and almost all the time, the formatting on the PDF is removed during the conversion, resulting in epub articles with flawed paragraphing, or weird punctuations and spacing. Not to mention line sentences haywiredly rendered with no control over the article formatting. You can forget graph/table/diagram/picture heavy PDFs, these will be destroyed format-wise, during the conversion.

Now, with that in mind Edoras,.......now what?

im referring to a video call camera.

well that is from your situation, in western countries, blu ray movies can be rented at much cheaper price, which is also what Apple worries about

Apple being one of the members of bluray association, it is shocking to see Steve Job's view towards BD as "bags of hurts"

the reason being lies in Apple's business structure, unlike Google and MS, Apple invest their costs in hardware, software, and digital distribution. They have no other source of revenue apart from these three. This is the fundamental fact that potential Apple buyers including fanboys should know

Shouldn't stop Apple from providing it as a CTO. I agree that it is not a widely-accepted consensus, but seeing how Apple holds stake in the Blu-Ray Consortium, it's funny how they react towards their position in that board.

Of course, CTO it into the higher end MBP lah, no point having a paltry 13 incher playing BD movies. There are those who want to make use of their BD collections while moving away from home base. In fact, I've stopped buying DVDs and buying exclusively BDs these days, with getting SD content via iTunes if I deem it unnecessary to get the HD version. See, Apple's ecosystem of content distribution is still safe for folks like me, since I will still be buying stuff from their iTunes store, and even adding to their coffers with my BD purchase. Question is, what "bags of hurt" are we talking about here, to the consumer, or the coffers of Steve & Co.?

Well, the question that I'm asking here is, has there ever been any software or firmware from Apple that is region specific? Only thing there ever was that does this is the iPhone with its sim lock, but even for that, its still the same firmware that runs on the iPhones regardless of simlock or no simlock.

Like I said, very much a software logistics nightmare that could be easily resolved by controlling it in a single location instead, via the iTunes account.

I'm only recalling iPhone locked firmware.

That's a sim lock. But the firmware versions are still the same, regardless of whether the phone is simlocked or no.

And the fact remains, it is a pain to those without the technical know-how to do so, if there is indeed anyway to get the iBook app into non-US iPad the unconventional way, if that is what you're implying.

No, I'm saying that the iBook app is likely going to exist in all iPads anyways, 'cause they're most likely to be controlling the ebook purchases in the same way that they've been controlling regional audio/video/app purchases all these time. Via the iTunes store account.

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Added on January 30, 2010, 1:25 amWhich also brings up the other question of, how many ppl actually watch bluray disks on their computers anyways, instead of on that huge flatscreen in the living room?

This post has been edited by fyire: Jan 30 2010, 01:25 AM

which goes back to the point "Apple is self-centric"

they just refuse to go with the flow, let's see how many years it take them to finally put in a card reader in MacBook

the mainstream brand like Dell, Acer, etc are bundling BD drive on mid-highend lineups, along with HDMI port, that makes the laptop a good BD player to families without a dedicated BD player.

however, Apple will always be different, they despise HDMI for unknown reasons, they look down on the idea of turning Mac into HTPC, to me they are just weird.