Willravel

I think you need to sync an iPad to a PC or Mac for it to work, Jewels. I could be wrong, as I've never toyed with the iPad 2 or the 3G versions, but mine needed to be sync'd before use.

jewels

And I thought you were the Mac King

I never use the sync function and my daughters and I swap from iPod to iTouch to MacBook. Maybe it is a leap that this will work for the iPad, I'm not sure, but not really worried.

And if so, there's always Dropbox which may be limited by 2 GB but could be upgraded.

As for existing docs and worksheets, I already use Dropbox and Google docs for important papers that I want to be able to access from anywhere.

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Jove

I stood in line at Walmart (I know, we all hate Walmart) for about 45 minutes and was the third person in line (the grand total of people waiting in line was 9), so I was able to get a 64GB wi fi. This was an easy and subdued experience.

jewels

Nice, Jove. Can we get a review, once you've had time to play?!?!

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We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain

Craven Morehead

Ordered today, estimated delivery is April 14! Holy crap.

Willravel

Turns out the iPad 2 is much, much faster than the Xoom.

Craven Morehead

Quite interesting, although much of it is over my head. Considering the enormous difference between the iPad2 and the original iPad, I have to believe there will soon be iPad2 only apps that will tap the increase in power (probably games, mostly).

Baraka_Guru

That's quite the margin. I guess it really comes down to the GPU for that kind of thing. You know, kind of like how the PlayStation 3 only has 256 MB of system RAM and 256 MB of video RAM.

It's not just about how many hertzes your CPU has or how many bytes your RAM has: it's how your entire hardware configuration is put together to get the performance you want at the size/power consumption you want.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
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Rekna

Only for GPU computing. While GPU computing is great for many problems there are some that it is not for. One of the things that GPU's are great at is pixel pushing (or rendering) which is what they used for a benchmark. For browsing, email, word processing, and most other productivity apps the GPU doesn't help.

Shauk

I don't really care what anyone says, I can't see myself ever buying a product that connects to the internet and refuses to operate flash content. Period. Same reason I bought my Droid X.

Also worth noting, there was a lot of naysayer/apple fans who said android was too late to the race, and would never catch up. They cited the nexus one as a failure and a sign of the trend.

Now? mashable just confirmed recently that android is the largest platform in the mobile market.

It took a few years but they got there.


Next? they probably have the same fight coming to them on the tablet pc market.

Personally I don't think I'll ever buy or own a tablet PC, basically because I have a fully functional smart phone, media pc with 28" monitor networked to a 46" HDTV via my PS3 media server, and a netbook.

I simply have no use for such a device. If someone can tell me what needs I could possibly fulfill in my digital domain with an iPad 2 given my roster of current hardware... I'm all ears.

kutulu

It should be noted that the Xoom has a higher resolution, therefore comparing renderings isn't quite apples to apples.

Craven Morehead

ars technica review - some comparisons to XOOM and Galaxy tablets

Ars reviews the iPad 2: big performance gains in a slimmer package

Jove

I am drooling over the BookBook iPad2 case. It looks like an old school classic literature leather bound book, but instead of pages, it holds the ipad.

Willravel

This one?


Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

Hotmnkyluv

Review on the ipad2 :
Not really living up to the hype.

Disclaimer : I've only owned it for 12 hours, and only been playing with it for 8 of those but I don't see the big deal...

I used to own the ipad 16gb 3G+wifi, today I got my 16gb 3G+wifi ipad2...
Here are my impartial observations.

- It's smaller. Yeah, I'd say a little less than half as thick, but the extremely beveled edges make it feel more fragile. I'm sure it's rock solid, but it "seems" more delicate. The 1 "feels" better in hand. Edge to the 1.
-It has a camera. While that's a big deal, even though it's smaller than the original, it's still too bulky to be called practical. And you could always just do photo / film editing on the original. Slight edge to the 2.
- It's faster. They SAY that, but I literally set it down next to a model 1 and did things at the same time, except for a 2 second faster load on Words With Friends, all times were identical. I don't really see anyone that needs speed or power using an iPad as a primary device, so this one is a tie.
- Smaller, faster, camera, yada yada at the same price! Not so fast... While it is priced at the original price point, Target dropped the 1's by 100 bucks across the board, and now AT&T had dropped the 1's by 200 dollars AND doing first month data plan for free. Big win for the 1.

Final result... I think the 1 is a better deal.and now that you can own a 32gb 3G iPad for the same price or less than a 16gb wifi ipad2, it almost seems silly to upgrade.
I'm keeping the 2 simply because I'm hoping that something will come along to push the envelope, but if I was on the fence or in the market, I'd buy a 1.

Vaultboy

so, given the amount of time I spend as air freight, I thought about getting an ipad. Playing around with it for a few hours turned me off totally. Its basically a big iTouch. And I had forgotten what originally turned me away from Apple: No file access. I find it infuriating to have to download the same file three times, because I can't share it between apps. Its nonsensical and inefficient, especially in my country, where we still pay a premium for broadband.

So I took it back, and will rather opt for the EEE slate. Its pretty much everything the ipad isn't, but not exactly what I want either, given its size.

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