Initial Thoughts on Hands on With My iPad

BTW Drew, did you see where you can use the iPad as an external multi-touch monitor for your Mac using 3g or wifi?

http://gizmodo.com/5508500/turn-your-iphon...or-for-your-mac

Yeah, when I saw it in person, I noticed it wasn't very "flashy". hehehe.

So you think you are punny don't you?

BTW Drew, did you see where you can use the iPad as an external multi-touch monitor for your Mac using 3g or wifi?

 

http://gizmodo.com/5508500/turn-your-iphon...or-for-your-mac

Cool. Can't wait to see what other things come out - not sure if I will use the iPad as an extrea display but the input could be interesting.

Drew, thanks for the thorough review.

I can see taking it on trips instead of my Macbook Pro. If I'm shooting video, I wait till I get home before editing, and that won't change.

If I'm shooting stills, I usually Lightroom them each evening. With the iPad, I'd download them and do the initial edit (dump the rejects), and back them up to an external drive.

Count me in as an Apple fanboy. I was going to wait for the 3G, but it sure would be nice to watch movies on an iPad on the way to Germany later this month.

Hmmmm.

Thanks for the review.

I've been using laptop and tabletPCs for years. As a geek in underwater video, I don't find any interest in the Ipad, considering there's on the market alternate solutions such as the Archos PC tablet 9 and a couple of Tablet netbooks from Asus which have all the versability one may want for the same price range.

I like my Ipod but like when Iphone appeared, I don't see where the revolution or change is. Smartphone and TabletPC were almost a decade before Apple's products. It's the way they are advertised that make them different with lots of buzz selling revolution that actually does not exist.

My old 2004 tablet PC was quite useful to review DV video shots. Even Vegas was running well on it. Last time I used it in the field for video was 2 years ago. Now I am in the AVCHD world and so far no product such as Ipad or netbook have met my expectation. So no Ipad for me.

Drew, thanks for the thorough review.

 

Count me in as an Apple fanboy. I was going to wait for the 3G, but it sure would be nice to watch movies on an iPad on the way to Germany later this month.

But wouldn't it be nice to watch movies at full screen size in the proper aspect ratio. For a media consumption device the lack of a 16:9 screen is sort of unbelievable.

Of course some video posted is not viewable, such as Vimeo. We all knew that was going to happen based on what the device would or would not support, and in an ideal world, it would be nice to see every type of media out there.

You should be able to view most new-ish videos on Vimeo. In fact Apple lists Vimeo on it's list of official iPad-ready sites.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/ready-for-ipad/

Try the non-Flash Vimeo mobile. Works great on my iPhone: www.vimeo.com/m

-Brad

Drew, thanks for the thorough review.

Glad you liked it Eric.

I can see taking it on trips instead of my Macbook Pro. If I'm shooting video, I wait till I get home before editing, and that won't change.

I hear you on the video side of things. I have a couple of the hard drive/card reader combinations so it is easy to get back-ups in addition to what is moved to the iPad

If I'm shooting stills, I usually Lightroom them each evening. With the iPad, I'd download them and do the initial edit (dump the rejects), and back them up to an external drive.

Will have to see how the back and forth pans out and what applications come, someone will figure it out. As to whether it will be approved, who knows.

Count me in as an Apple fanboy. I was going to wait for the 3G, but it sure would be nice to watch movies on an iPad on the way to Germany later this month.

 

Hmmmm.

Keep an eye on the shipping dates

Thanks for the review.

 

....

My old 2004 tablet PC was quite useful to review DV video shots. Even Vegas was running well on it. Last time I used it in the field for video was 2 years ago. Now I am in the AVCHD world and so far no product such as Ipad or netbook have met my expectation. So no Ipad for me.

Yup, definately different strokes for different folks and whatever works for any of us is cool. Weigh the plus and minuses and what you need, then go from there. Like you and Eric I shoot video, so there is the issue there, and for longer trips (meaning away for awhile) the iPad may not cut it, but even then I would probably carry it myself for the things it does do and how easy it is to deal with.

But wouldn't it be nice to watch movies at full screen size in the proper aspect ratio. For a media consumption device the lack of a 16:9 screen is sort of unbelievable.

I have watched things on it in 16:9 and it looks fine (actually very, very good) and the ease and size makes it fun. The fact that the iPad is not 166:9 ration for me is really a non-issue. Again different things for different people.....

You should be able to view most new-ish videos on Vimeo. In fact Apple lists Vimeo on it's list of official iPad-ready sites.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/ready-for-ipad/

 

Try the non-Flash Vimeo mobile. Works great on my iPhone: www.vimeo.com/m

 

-Brad

I surfed over to vimeo the other day and found alot of things that played, and it played very smoothly. I think the intial ones I looked at were the embedded ones, such as a couple of posts on WP. Will make sure to book mark the mobile version.

Great review, Drew - thanks! I wasn't that interested in the ipad having seen it on TV etc but now I'm not so sure! Argh! Must resist temptation, must resist temptation.... repeat.

Most of the major video hosting providers are working on compatibility scripts to play videos on the iphone/ipad.

Right now it largely depends on the file type that's being played.

.flv's cannot be played on the iphone/ipad at all, but any "flash compatible" h.264 file (typically .mov's and m4v's) that plays in flash will be able to play on these devices, with a small work around.

Here's a basic breakdown of how it's currently being done, with examples.

Players are being made to work both in full browsers and on mobile devices. When you open a page on a website a script is run to determine what browser or device you are using. Based on the results of that script the player is served to your device in a compatible format.

Example 1: David Ulloa's feature page has a flash video player on it. When opened on an iphone you will see a thumbnail with a small play icon. Click on that and the video opens up on the phone.

On the ipad (just went and played with one at the Apple Store. Drew...I will need specific instructions on how to get the wife's approval!) The player will actually play the video without going to full screen, but still has the full screen option if desired.

Where it gets really interesting, and somewhat frustrating at this point, is when the page has a player with multiple videos. In this case, the only video that will play is the first one in the playlist.

Example 2: On the homepage of http://www.underwatervideography.com is a player with multiple videos. If you visit this page on the iphone/ipad, you only see the thumbnail from the latest video and there's no way to scroll or look at the other videos in the player.

The 2nd problem is something that is being worked on, but no working solution as been found yet.

"I would assume for the vast majority of people who hang out on Wetpixel, this will not be a substitute for a computer."

Another thought regarding the iPad being a substitute for a computer, I'd suspect most people would likely want a computer in order to "sync" their iPad...?

Can you add an external drive?

I think if I could do rough editing and saving of photos while on a trip, it would be a lot smaller and lighter than taking a MacPro with me. I'm usually too tired to serious editing until I get home anyway.

Jack

I'm excited about this device for sure. I may actually be more excited about what this device will be able to do in the future. Now that it has been released, all the app designers can go to work, and I believe that some amazing applications for this device are yet to be seen.

In the past Apple has changed the industry with its products (iPod, iPhone), and I think that this product has the potential to have the rest of the industry aying catchup.

By the way, this post brought to you via iPad...

Golly Drew, what a great review!! Thanks!!

I'm getting my car serviced right now, a few miles from the Apple Store..., I resisted their offer to provide me with a rental vehicle :-0

Ho Hm, anyway I want a 3G one so I'll just resist & wait (not my Fav things to do)

Thx again! Carol ;-)

1. How is your battery life?

Been playing around a bit more with it. I shut wireless off and set screen to half-power and just let it go to sleep to see how much the power ran down. It only moved 1% in over a day and a half (not using, just seeing how it slept)

Today I turned it back on, turned on the wi-fi on it, very minor surfing and just played 3 full length movies (didn't watch them, just let them run, would come check to see if they were done from time-to-time then start the next one) and the battery went down 40% (Went from 71% to 31%) The running time of the movies - 5 Hours 40 Minutes

Golly Drew, what a great review!! Thanks!!

I'm getting my car serviced right now, a few miles from the Apple Store..., I resisted their offer to provide me with a rental vehicle :-0

Ho Hm, anyway I want a 3G one so I'll just resist & wait (not my Fav things to do)

Thx again! Carol ;-)

Hey Carol, glad you liked it. Go with the resist and wait, builds charactor. Oh, you can buy a 16 Gig wi-fi in the interim and still build charactor - you are resisting and waiting since you successfully resisted getting a 32 Gig or 64 Gig wi-fi version

Great review, Drew! Thank you for doing that!

Have been playing with the iPad since Saturday and just loving it!

There are some little things I hope Apple will address, but the overwhelming experience is one of not wanting to put it down.

One definite result of spending time with it is that my expectations from news apps, etc., has shifted dramatically. It's no longer enough to have text and small images, I want video and multimedia! I can see this device really raising the bar for publications, and that makes me very happy!

Oh, and the DiveFilm HD Video podcasts at iTunes look fantastic on an iPad!!

That makes me very happy as well--

- Mary Lynn

Great review, Drew! Thank you for doing that!

DiveFilm HD Video podcasts[/url] at iTunes look fantastic on an iPad!!

 

That makes me very happy as well--

 

- Mary Lynn

Made me happy as well (synched some of the Podcasts in the first day, had not downloaded though until just now. Eric & Karen's piece on the Humpbacks. Downloaded quickly and looks great.

I've sure been enjoying mine! One thing that bothered me was the limited book selection (compared to Kindle), but I discovered that there's an iPad Kindle app that lets you download any Kindle book (including Martin Edge's new book!). You can't zoom or change font, but at least it widens the selection of books considerably!

BTW, which photo app(s) are people using to download/back up photos? When I use iTunes to copy some from my PC, it took forever (roughly 4 minutes per Gb), and didn't actually copy the files - it created new (much smaller) "optimized for iPad" versions. I was hoping to use it as a backup for (RAW) files on trips, but am not finding which app lets me do that.

There's a solution for the lack of printing from the iPad

TUAW 2 Second laugh

Jack