This stuff is way kool !!!! I wonder how this technology will trickle down into the music industry regarding arranger keyboards and other gear in the near future!! ?

That certainly is a cool device and I look forward to when it is released. I'm assuming it is not available today?

Non-Apple manufacturers have been promising alternatives to the iPad for quite sometime , to date I've yet to see anything actually on the market that I can actually use like I do the iPad. Competition is great if someone releases something better than how the iPad serves me now ,I'll be one of the first in inline.

Closed system on the iPad yes it is! In the meantime, based on how life can sometimes give us unexpected surprises, today I'm alive and enjoying my iPad as a media consumption device, not a day goes by when I don't get a few hours of use of the iPad. Tomorrow I could be dead so why not enjoy what's available today.

It's a bit too expensive to read music off at £1500.00, there are plenty more about bigger than IPAD better than MPP at lower cost.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/acer-iconi...ai&istBid=t

Tablet PC's running Windows have been around for well over 10 years, long before Apple even knew what an iPod was. As for cheap version of them, the Archos 9 was out before the iPad. It costs less, does way more, and it runs Windows 7.

Apple are not doing anything “new” here, they are just good at marketing a device to people who don't follow technology.

Regards
James

No doubt as it would be total overkill too.
But it is damn cool.

James

One more for ya guys...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaiRLpuwDZ0

I actually used this myself at NAMM this year.

Regards
James

James, pardon me, I work and have worked in the tech sector for the last 12 years, I'm the MIS manager of medium size law firm with 3 offices in the greater Boston, Massachusetts area. I have worked for storage giant EMC EMC and also for UPS giant ( uninterruptable power supply) American Power Conversion So I guess I can say I follow technology very closely. Apple may be marketing the device to those who don't follow technology, I'm not one of them.

In civilian life, I'm also a consumer of media and I'm familiar with the Archos, considered purchasing one some time ago, but it didn't appeal to me............and yes tablets have been around for a long time. But it's only the marketing genius of Apple that took the bull by the horns and made the tablet category very successful. I will also admit I'm an Apple fan boy and may be a bit biased........but I also work in a Windows environment at my day job and I've dealt with the vulnerabilities there. If tablets of 10 years ago and forward on Windows were so great why have they not been successful? Why is everyone now chasing Mr. Jobs aka Apple?


I did not purchase the iPad for reading lead sheets. That turned out to be a bonus. And $ for $ I'm getting plenty of use as does my wife from our iPads.


Just a sampling of what I use the iPad for:
Reading Kindle, Nook or iBook electronic books
Reading magazines, PC World, MacWorld, MacLife, PC Magazine, Popular Photograhy, National Geographic
GoodReader for all my owners manuals
Calendaring for keeping track of gigs and other appointments
Contact lists for Assisted Living/Nursing Homes and personal contacts
My Photo Library
Wall Street Journal
New York Times
Scrabble for when I have a few minutes downtime

Training on various software programs via lynda.com. Very convenient I can even watching while stretched out on the couch relaxing.

The list goest on and on........I can only speak for myself and possibly the millions of others who have purchased iPads ( some are members here too LOL) Currently I don't think there is anything better in the form factor that the iPad comes in. And yes in the future I believe Apple will have a fight on it's hands to maintain the market share they enjoy now with the iPad. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy is meeting with some success, it will be interesting to watch the Motorola Xoom as well.

And with that I won't write another word for some reason I'm being drawn into a mine is better than yours contest and I don't enjoying being part of those. To quote my friend DNJ "use whatever you like and enjoy it" I know we are enjoying our iPads.

Do you buy an arranger NOW, or do you wait a year? And you'll be asking the same question in a year's time, too...

Holding off on the iPad, while you wait for a Windows equivalent, with the same ease of use, security and app selection shows a level of restraint I don't see here at SZ too often re. arrangers! I say get what you want NOW, and then, if something demonstrable better, cheaper, more secure and with better apps comes out in a year, get it THEN. (your iPad will have a decent resale value)

That is, unless by then, Apple improve the iPad to at least Windows tablet standards.

Steve,

I think you are right, use what you feel is good for you, I tried the Ipad and it will work and do the job, after the MPP which has gone back to the USA for a fix, it is small, if you buy a stand that will put the IPAD closer to your face you could live with it a bit better. The price is high when you see what's coming, DEL, Fujitsu etc etc, the quality will go up and the price down and you can get almost A4 screen for less than IPAD. I will wait until my MPP comes back, the battery life will always be crap I know that.

Hi Stephen.

Sorry, I didn't know you had a career in IT. Your original reply didn't suggest it either as the original iPad is not even 1 year old and you talk about it as if it's years old and people have been promising tables to compete with it for a long time.

Apple are by no stretch of the imagination ahead of of the game here. The iPad is only 11 months old and Windows Tablets existed for a decade. Archos even had their first ATOM / Windows 7 one on the market many months before Apple had the iPad. There's also a lot of Android Tablets out already that do more for a lot less money.

The main reason why I'm saying the next few months are going to be exciting is purely down to the fact that the industry giants like ASUS, DELL ACER and many others are all on the way with their own tablets, and as far as sales go on computers, these guys outsell Apple many times over in the full desktop OS market. Remember Apple only hold a 5% share in the market and Windows owns 95%.

iOS is not going to compete with a full desktop OS. It will have it's place, but it will be very small in the grand scheme of things as time goes by.



I see this a little differently. They have only seized an opportunity buy taking an old idea, locking it down, and taken away all the decisions the end user needs to make. Effectively simplifying the device to the point were a child can use it. That's all Apples marketing genius is. Simply put....You don't need to know anything about computers and you can use one straight out of the box.

Apple will always have it's customers who are happy to let Apple control their product, but the rest of the world will want the freedom to do what they want.



Good for you too. If it does what you want and your happy with it, then that's all that matters.



Try watching FLASH on it or going to a website that uses JAVA for interactive content, or buying a program for it that does not come from the App Store.

That's not choice is it ? To me it's like your given a list of things your allowed to do, not because the things that you can't do are impossible, but because Apple doesn’t like Adobe any more, or because they only want people to buy software of them and nobody else, and only programs that they approve you are allowed to use.

Sort of like how I control what DVD's my kids watch on TV. Daddy looking out for the kids to make sure they only do what I know about and approve.

Regards
James