Does anyone know where I can get an iPad2 in Canberra?

troll-sniffer said :

Can someone who’s not tech-absorbed please try and educate us on exactly what it is that an ipad does for you?

All the things that I find a bit too awkward to do on my smaller iPhone screen, meaning they would get done, as opposed to stacking up waiting for one of those rarer and rarer occasions I sit down in front of one of the ‘real’ PCs at home.

And having ditched the newspaper in favour of a number of RSS feeds on the phone over breakfast, I’d probably read a few more of the articles on the larger screen. (Big ‘like’ for the MobileRSS app.)

Also make it a bit easier to see those darn aliens on X Invasion…

The Apple stores themselves are usually very well stocked – although that wouldn’t help you in Canberra.

As far as the usability of the device is concerned, I don’t have a problem with them at all. I use mine for remote access to my work server, email, checking and editing documents forwarded to me, web browsing and watching movies (especially when travelling if the selection on the plane isn’t any good or you’ve already seen all the movies on offer). At home I can play the stored music via the wireless connection to the stereo and in moments of boredom, the games are a treat. I have a note-book too, but I generally wouldn’t bother taking it on work trips of less than a day or two unless I was expecting to be spending a long time cranking out documents / worksheets.

I like the idea, but with reliance on iTunes and without USB it’s useless to me.

I work in a creative field and it would be beneficial for me to be able to show photos/video/design work to clients on something like an ipad but it’s not convenient for me to do so. Everything has to be linked through iTunes (which is an absolute dog of a program) and there is no easy, simple way to drag and drop photos/design work/video/pdfs onto the device. Syncing a “photo library” is a complete nuisance as the library can’t contain folder structures more than a single layer deep, and any change to the library on the PC are automatically applied to the ipad – no option. Not having access to the file structure on the device is also problematic because it means I can’t delete things without first connecting to a PC, and secondly running iTunes. Just not practical.

That’s why I’ll be waiting until a good Android tablet is released, and why I’ll be upgrading my iphone to an Android phone very soon. The lockdown on Apple products is too much hassle for me to have to adapt to.

That said, I can definitely see why other people like them.

baa baa

as told that Dick smith in Woden still had some and the Mac 1 outlets were expecting to be restocked by Wednesday just passed.

People don take kindly to Ipad folks round these parts, this be pitchfork territory

Not running Flash is a good thing. I have disabled Flash on Firefox and Safari. Its a pointless do nothing geegaw resource hog.

To the OP, you’ll probably have trouble finding one in stock now. I just ordered from the Apple site. Yes it will take a few weeks but I can wait.

You can tell the Apple haters from a mile away. Like ‘OpenYourMind’ I’ve worked in IT since 1986 (programmer, web developer etc) and both the iPhone and iPad are brilliant devices. I use my iPhone 4 constantly not only for leisure but also business. They are brilliant at what they do. I use DropBox to sync files (PDF, DOC etc) between pc/iphone so any file I want to be able to view/edit whilst mobile I can. I can remote desktop to my server or pc from my iPhone. There’s very few things I need to jump to the PC to do and it’s only the more hardcore stuff like programming. I never use my netbook anymore as the iPhone does it better IMO and is always there with me ready to go.

I’ve never owned an Apple product (apart from an Apple II compatible in 1983) until recently so I’m no fanboi. Look past the brand and see what it can do. It’s the most intuitive and easy to use device out there – period. It’s not meant to do all things – but what it does do it does amazingly well.

Plenty of people I know used to bag out the iPhone, but you know what? Now most of them have one after using it and discovering what they can do and how easy it is to use.

troll-sniffer said :

Postalgeek said :

It’s also greatly enhanced my toilet experience. Those with a problem with people buying ipads can gargle my balls.

A fair comment in a normal retail experience, however the incessant stupidity of the Apple buyers makes for wonderful Riot-ACT fodder. The OP has probably spent two full days unproductively searching high and low for something that, in another month, will be as common as frost on the lawn.

No argument from me there.

You’re still thinking like an old school IT person. The iPad isn’t trying to be a desktop computer or a laptop/netbook. It’s a whole new device class.

I own a netbook, a smartphone and a PC. I don’t use the netbook at all and I use my PC for the stuff the iPad isn’t suited to. I wouldn’t use my iPad as a word processing machine, a mass media storage server, or an interface for various USB devices. Those functions are better handled by other IT equipment. But…for the vast bulk of household computing uses, the iPad is perfect.

Like other IT device the way I use the iPad may be very different to other people. As an example, a friend recently had a washing machine repair guy turn up who had all the repair manuals stored on an iPad which was then integrated to a parts ordering system.

Using the example of a non tech-savvy parent, if you gave them a Linux netbook, no matter how well set up, they would say it’s just a laptop, only smaller and more awkward. Give them an iPad and it’s instantly intuitive. It also has a battery that lasts for 10hours, it doesn’t get hot or make noise.

You still may not be convinced, however the market is. They were the most desired electronic device last Christmas.

troll-sniffer said :

Can someone who’s not tech-absorbed please try and educate us on exactly what it is that an ipad does for you?

I think the truly tech-absorbed would be smart enough to stay away. You’re mate sounds more like someone who has to have the newest shiny thing.

“Does anyone know where I can get an iPad2 in Canberra?”
No. And why would you bother?

OpenYourMind said :

I can sit in the couch, pick up the iPad and just use it – no booting up, no virus checking, no upgrade prompts, it’s just there. The user experience is flawless and simple.

But you can’t ‘just use it’. Post #11 mentions three downfalls:
– no flash
– closed (censored) marketplace
– no usb

So while you can “pick it up and just use it”, you can’t do everything on it that you might want to. Frankly, I can’t justify why anyone would want to spend at least $580 (Apple website starting price) when you can do more on a $400 netbook. To retort your points: new netbooks can often boot up within seconds – I believe a $405 Samsung I was looking at quote 3 second boot time. Virus checking is a moot point, it is done in the background these days. Upgrade prompts? Hardly the downfall of a computer operating system.

In addition to doing everything an iPad can, a netbook has: USB, a large (120gb+) hard drive, customisation (without voiding a warranty), ‘apps’, flash, and many more. Think about something as simple as plugging in a USB into a computer, opening up an office document and changing a few words, then saving it back onto USB. How much of that can be done on a iPad?

Personally I think it’s greatest strength lies in the niche applications mentioned in #12, when I heard about that resturant up in Sydney which started using the iPad as a menu and ordering device when they first came out, I thought that was a really good idea. With a regular user, I just laugh and think about how much money they wasted.

johnboy said :

kindle

Definitely, if reading books is all you want to do. They have a screen better suited to displaying text crisply. My housemate has a Sony eReader which is excellent as well. However, they are both black and white and unable to play games, movies, email, web browse etc etc so are not as good as a general purpose tablet.

The blackberry playbook looks like a competitor, but was announced 8 months ago and they have only just given a release date of 19 April 2011. Oh and the screen is smaller.

Postalgeek said :

It’s also greatly enhanced my toilet experience. Those with a problem with people buying ipads can gargle my balls.

A fair comment in a normal retail experience, however the incessant stupidity of the Apple buyers makes for wonderful Riot-ACT fodder. The OP has probably spent two full days unproductively searching high and low for something that, in another month, will be as common as frost on the lawn.

johnboy said :

kindle

logo isn’t as good

kindle

I waited to buy a 2g so I could read umpteen ebooks, journals, newspapers, work documents, and manuals in pdf format in portrait orientation in bed without printing or disturbing my partner, and without having my lap cooked. Then there’s all the other crap it can do.

It’s also greatly enhanced my toilet experience. Those with a problem with people buying ipads can gargle my balls.

These comments are making me laugh; particularly those by people who are more tech savvy yet just don’t get it. I’m a PC person and have worked in IT for 25 years as a programmer, administrator, project manager etc., and I’m far from being an Apple fanboi.

The iPad is a consumer device (and I don’t mean that in the materialistic sense), it allows fast easy consumption of books, music, news, technical information, games, web sites etc. I can sit in the couch, pick up the iPad and just use it – no booting up, no virus checking, no upgrade prompts, it’s just there. The user experience is flawless and simple. My non-technical mother can pick it up and use it straight away, yet she struggles to save a document in Word.

The iPad transcends the laptop/PC paradigm and is a whole new way of delivering information to the information consumer. That’s why it is SO important. That’s why it’s got every manufacturer of computing devices scurrying to copy. If it really was useless, broken, a fad, a toy for Apple-o-philes then other manufacturers wouldn’t be concerned. Instead it’s an ICT game changing device.

One of the interesting things I’ve seen regularly occur with the iPad is takes pride of place in the lounge and ends up being the most commonly used IT device. My wife hasn’t used her laptop in ages, but regularly uses the iPad. Wanna check the TV guide, research on the internet, read a book, read a magazine, check facebook or even check the RiotACT, then the iPad is there ready to instantly spring into action.

The biggest problem I’ve seen with the iPad is usually when one is in the house, everyone is competing to use it.

The people most critical of the iPad sound to me to be more smug than the supposedly smug iPad users are.

troll-sniffer said :

Can someone who’s not tech-absorbed please try and educate us on exactly what it is that an ipad does for you?

Simple: it makes you cool.

troll-sniffer said :

Can someone who’s not tech-absorbed please try and educate us on exactly what it is that an ipad does for you?

*snip out of anti-ipad rant.*

I’m assuming your first question is rhetorical, because the next rant shows you really don’t want an actual answer.

Personally I think the iPad is very useful for a number of reasons:
– Excellent user interface, intuitive and simple to use (just go and youtube and watch all the babies who can use them fluently)
– Good screen for media, movies, web browsing, reading newspapers
– Very slim form factor, making it easy to use in various different situations

Before I get shot down as a “fanboi,” lets get a few things straight: I don’t own an ipad myself and think they have some shortcomings as well. However, I’m yet to see anything which so smoothly does the graphical user interface/hand gestures/slim form factor as well as the iPad.

The sales figures for iPads would suggest I’m not alone in this conclusion.

troll-sniffer said :

Can someone who’s not tech-absorbed please try and educate us on exactly what it is that an ipad does for you?

I’ve had a look at a couple that my techno mates proudly walked around with and I could see that they’re really good for showing people digital photos that they have to pretend to be interested in while they wait to show you Jessica and Caitlin’s 45 similar self-portraits taken at Academy the other night, scrolling backwards and forwards between apps that don’t really add anything to your lifestyle other than the number of apps you have loaded, checking the weather on BOM from deep inside your office rather than wandering outside, sending pointless emails to pointless friends just so they can see ‘Sent from my ipad’ on the bottom, checking what pointless daily drivel your facebook friends have posted on their walls or putting a meaningless ‘Like’ tag on someone’s inane opinion on something, all the while proving itself to be a bulky impediment to a carefree lifestyle.

It’s purely a consumption device, regardless of the marketing. The ergonomics coupled with no file system and problems with file compatibility for Office documents make it useless for much else. It does have some interesting niche possibilities. In medicine, hospitality and education. But for the mass market, it’s an expensive consumption toy.

Most surveys show that users mostly use the iPad for web browsing, email, social networking and… listening to music, the last one been utterly ridiculous.

One thing most of the media doesn’t report on is just how many people put their iPad up for sale after a short time finding it isn’t useful. It’s a high number.
Also not reported often is how many people who are buying iPad 2 are replacing an iPad 1, over 1/3.
Michio Kaku once said that there will be a time where computers become as disposable as paper. These tablets are fast going that way.

creative_canberran said :

Don’t buy it.

enough said really 🙂

– no flash
– closed (censored) marketplace
– no usb

hipsters and fanbois are going to suck the stock dry, so you’re not going to get one for a while.

inb4 fanboi defends ipad

Can someone who’s not tech-absorbed please try and educate us on exactly what it is that an ipad does for you?

I’ve had a look at a couple that my techno mates proudly walked around with and I could see that they’re really good for showing people digital photos that they have to pretend to be interested in while they wait to show you Jessica and Caitlin’s 45 similar self-portraits taken at Academy the other night, scrolling backwards and forwards between apps that don’t really add anything to your lifestyle other than the number of apps you have loaded, checking the weather on BOM from deep inside your office rather than wandering outside, sending pointless emails to pointless friends just so they can see ‘Sent from my ipad’ on the bottom, checking what pointless daily drivel your facebook friends have posted on their walls or putting a meaningless ‘Like’ tag on someone’s inane opinion on something, all the while proving itself to be a bulky impediment to a carefree lifestyle.

Totally useless on anything that even distantly resembles a nice bright healthy sunny day, and even the much vaunted e-reader function is really pretty crappy when compared to the advantages of a crisp clear and detailed paper magazine.

Still, as part of our evolution, a strong innate desire to jump on bandwagons and follow the crowd is in our genes, and the poor Apple tragics obviously have this in a far more lethal form. We should just pity them.

Don’t buy it. Dodgy parts, overpriced and the thing crashes more than Windows 98 on a Dell.
No one has any, there’s no new stock coming into the country for 3 weeks. Even then, only going to pre-order customers.
But seriously, iPad?

Chaz said :

wait a few months for iPad3

then a few more for iPad4

etc

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apple

wait a few months for iPad3

then a few more for iPad4

etc

There’ll be millions of Fondleslab 1s available for a song as Jobsian cultists eschew their previously-worshipped icons for the shiny new minor upgrade that is Fondleslab 2.

Sorry, these are only available to the righteous chosen ones.

Oh so very many of them. The fondleslab *is* sexy.

This is surely an April Fools joke. No one is stupid enough to buy an iPad.

There’s Mac 1 outlets at ANU, Canberra Centre and Fyshwick – have you tired them all? Then I guess try David Jones, JB Hi-Fi etc. Shouldn’t be too hard to work out the retailers who might stock them.

They’ve got them at that shop in the Canberra Centre that also sells unicorn tears.