Technology Toys

[GASlick]

With all this technology evolving so fast, I was curious if there were any guys on here that just had to have the latest and greatest of anything. iPod touch, iPad, etc.......

Me, not so much.  I still don't own an iPod or an iTunes account, the radio works fine! 
With that said I do have a BlackBerry, which I got just a few months ago and can't imagine life without my smart phone.

Anyway, who has to have the latest of everything?

[TheSlyBear]

I'm posting this from my iPad. It rocks!

I also have an iPod Touch that I use for more iPod-dy things.

But I would certainly not characterize myself as someone who always have to have the latest gadget. My phone is really stupid, for example.

[omegapd]

Not me. I don't have any of that stuff...don't even know what makes them different from each other.

[Mikekoz13]

Though I work in a high technology field...... I leave it mostly at work. I do have an MP3 but no high tech phones, blackberries, etc.

[-Doug-]

I have a 1st gen iPod Touch and use it daily and for more than just music. An iPad will definitely be in my future. I just have to save up the money for it.

As for my phone, I just use a pre-paid T-Mobile phone. I just don't make enough calls to justify more than that.

[D.A.L.U.I.]

I don't equate techo w/ Apple necessarily.  Although Apple has a fine reputation, I've been a PC user since I started, that's user, I can make it do most of what I want w/o going to help too often, except learning Office 2007 has been a bitch.  I have a cell phone,
Verizon, private, and a BB, company on ATT.  I really like the BB, it's my memory, calendar, everything--but ATT coverage sucks so I have my cell phone to fill in the blanks--some of the worst were in Atlanta, and why ATT can't keep Atlanta, its office area, completely covered is just beyond me. 
Other than the computer, cell and BB, I have an iPod and I really like it for the gym and traveling, but I only use the iTunes program and never buy anything from them--strictly take my cd's and load them on.  I really don't see much purpose in my life for an iPad--probably a fine device, but I don't need it.  I don't do Kindle, or whatever it's called bc I like the feeling of a book in my hands and I can read it during takeoff & landing.  
I'm totally dependent on my GPS, just got a new Garmin w/ bluetooth so I don't run afoul of the no hands states when driving.  There are places, such as Houston, where I just can't move without it.  
That's my electronic life pretty much.  

[-Doug-]

I'm totally dependent on my GPS...

Oh yeah! I forgot about my TomTom. I love that thing. I will even use it when I know how to get somewhere, just so I can know what my ETA will be.

[Gambrinus]

I like technology, I just don't like to jump on it before it's proven.  I have a 5th gen iPod 30gb.  And it honestly will be the last Apple product I ever buy.  Apple has this way of charging twice as much for the same thing that everyone else has.  And then they try to convince you that it is better by making everything proprietary to their product.  Plus ITunes sucks up so much memory that I can't leave it running very long.   I am honestly the only person in my area at work that doesn't have an iPhone.  I prefer my Nokia E71,  can't stand touch screen phones.  I guess you would call me the ani-Apple user. 

[MikeM]

I'm posting this from my iPad. It rocks!

I'd be interested in hearing some more of your impressions of the iPad.

I played with one in the store and was really surprisingly impressed.

Even though I work in IT, I tend to be a late adopter of technology and gadgets. I have an iPod I barely use (but that could be more related to my general disinterest in music for the past ten years or so) and the cheapest cell phone imaginable.

My current computer (first release aluminum iMac) is about 2-1/2 years old. I greatly debated at the time whether I wanted a desktop or laptop. In the end I reasoned that I didn't need the mobility. My wife subsequently bought a cheapy (Windows) laptop I hate (she hates the iMac) and I've found it's nice to have that thing floating around the house.

When I do semi-serious computing stuff at home, I'll still need my iMac. I'm thinking of getting iPad in a year or so for two reasons. One is mobility throughout the house for very casual use like browsing, YouTube, letting my older son (almost four right now) watch videos from certain websites, etc. The other reason would be video chatting when either I or the rest of my family is out of town (whoever's away from home takes the iPad). We seem to get much greater interaction with the kids on video chat than on phone calls. I don't want to have to lug a laptop (or even a cheapy netbook) for something like that, and I find video on a phone unsatisfying. Of course, this all depends on the iPad acquiring a forward-facing camera, which I think is likely by the time I'm ready to buy, otherwise that's a dealbreaker for me. For us, the iPad would be a complement to our existing computers, not a replacement of anything.

Have you used any productivity apps on the iPad? Among other things when I fooled at the store, I cranked out a few paragraphs in Pages using the onscreen keyboard and found it totally not awful. Do you know how document storage works (do you have access to a file system)?

Do you find the (current) lack of multitasking an issue? I know this has been a criticism.

[The Noggin]

I'm working for almost 25 years in IT and I am very interested in computers and technology, but I don't like hypes. So generally I'd buy items in the mainstream range that are supposed to work for a couple of years.
When I had to get a new cell phone last year, I chose a Nokia E63, because I can make landline calls with it (VoIP over WLAN) and get rid of the landline phone. I can also check my mails and surf the web (SBG!) without having to turn on the PC. The real QWERTZ keyboard is working very well for me (I'm just typing this on it). I can't stand touchscreens at all. Sure, it isn't sexy at all, but so am I.

[TheSlyBear]

>I'd be interested in hearing some more of your impressions of the iPad.

Someday I'll get around to writing an in-depth review, but for now I can summarize it by saying that I'm surprised how much more useful a device it is than I thought it would be at first.

Everyone's usage will be different. For me, here's principally  how I use it day-to-day:

It's replaced unhooking and lugging my laptop into meetings. We have a daily scrum meeting at 10:00 every morning. We use online tools such as Rally and Bugzilla to track the project and bugs. The iPad is perfect for this. (I can also surf when things get boring!)

As a book-reader, it's fantastic. It's put the fun back into reading for me. I used to read voraciously, and it's tapered off because, well, even with reading glasses, these 52-year-old eyes get easily strained. The fact that I can pump up the fonts, and even choose a sans-serif font (which I prefer for screen reading) is great!

I use both the iBook and Kindle applications for this.

There's a fantastic 3D pinball game that I like to play when I need a break:

Other things I do include: a planetarium application that shows the position of the stars and planets at any point. Check the weather, including real-time radar. Listen to podcasts. Stream Netflix video. Read PDFs. And of course, email and photos.

I plan to get the Pages application to see if I want to use it to take my daily engineering notes (which I currently write down in an Engineering Notebook).

>I'm thinking of getting iPad in a year or so for two reasons. One is mobility throughout the house for
>very casual use like browsing, YouTube, letting my older son (almost four right now) watch videos from
>certain websites, etc.

It'd be really good for that. It's a lot easier to cart around than a laptop, and its wireless connectivity throughout the house is stellar.

>The other reason would be video chatting  ... this all depends on the iPad acquiring a forward-facing
>camera

Right. Rumors put a camera in this thing in the next version. Not a big deal for me, but I can understand how those that use video chat need this.

>Have you used any productivity apps on the iPad?

As noted above. Reports from other users of Pages and other apps is favorable.

>Among other things when I fooled at the store, I cranked out a few paragraphs in Pages using the
>onscreen keyboard and found it totally not awful.

I'm not a touch typist, so pecking away on the virtual keyboard is no problem for me. It's plenty big and the surprisingly good auto-correction takes care of most of my typos.

>Do you know how document storage works (do you have access to a file system)?

The PDF reader keeps its files "somewhere". I'm thinking that each app gets its own sandbox to play in, but am still finding out more. There's no equivalent to Finder to browse a shared file system. I'm not sure what facilities exist for sharing documents between apps.

I've downloaded the Dropbox app to be able to access files in my Dropbox "cloud" but haven't had much time to play with it yet.

>Do you find the (current) lack of multitasking an issue? I know this has been a criticism.

Not in the least. Apps start up almost instantaneously and are good about retaining state, so switching between them is almost indistinguishable from having them constantly running in the background.

There are a few things I'm not thrilled about, but they're minor in the grand scheme of things.

• The way that the Safari app does multi-paging is a bit awkward. I'm not sure why they didn't just go with a tab metaphor.
• Web pages that rely upon hover are hard/impossible to use. That's more a criticism of the web page implementation and touch interfaces than the iPad itself.
• There's no keychain, so Safari doesn't remember logins. Typing in usernames and passwords to the various web sites -- especially tools like Rally that require long credentials, is tedious.
• There's no junk mail filter in the mail app. I'd really like it to sync the well-trained junk mail filtering from my MacBook Pro to the iPad mail app.

And here are just some other random impressions:

• The screen is fantastically sharp and clear.
• It's fast and responsive.
• Battery life is great.
• It's probably going to make me learn Objective C so I can write my own programs for it.

[PowerOfCheese]

A friend has an iPad. It doesn't have a USB port and it's slippery. For me it's pretty much useless.

I'm waiting for Sprint to unveil the HTC Evo phone in the next couple months. Check out these features:

It's 4G (up to 10x faster than 3G and according to the map I'll get perfect coverage.)
4.3 inch screen
Android 2.1 OS
FM Tuner
32 gigs of memory
GPS
Proximity and Motion Sensors
8 Megapixel Camera
Video recording up to 720p
HDMI port
Wifi

Oh yeah, and it's also a phone.

http://now.sprint.com/evo/?id9=SEM_Google_C_Sprint_HTC

[MikeM]

Thanks so much, bootedbear, for your detailed response. I'll look for you future in-depth review.

The fact that I can pump up the fonts, and even choose a sans-serif font (which I prefer for screen reading) is great!

Indeed. Life's too short for serifs.

[regarding lack of multitasking] Apps start up almost instantaneously and are good about retaining state, so switching between them is almost indistinguishable from having them constantly running in the background.

This was my impression too, from my brief demo at the store. I couldn't see what so many folks have been up in arms about, unless there was some essential I was completely missing.

Web pages that rely upon hover are hard/impossible to use. That's more a criticism of the web page implementation and touch interfaces than the iPad itself.

So I'll have to use some other means for getting the second punchline on xkcd.

It's probably going to make me learn Objective C so I can write my own programs for it.

/passes bootedbear a boatload of square brackets: [] [] [] [] []

[TheSlyBear]

So I'll have to use some other means for getting the second punchline on xkcd.

Totally!

[aarrggh]

      I have a rotary phone hanging on the wall of my house...........
               Any upgrades you guys can recommend ?