I have an iPod Touch, or as I now like to call it, an
iPad Nano 
Nice one there mate, nice one!
A pile of unimaginative sh*te!
Someone shares my sentiments on Apple's "new" products, it seems!
That said though, I seem to recall ye recently mentioning that ye had two iPods that obviously Died because Apple told them to (That is to say; The battery and HDD both had pre-defined "use by" dates set on 'em)...So where exactly do ye stand on the Apple problem? 
If Jobs does that with the entire Apple product line, then I'll be glad of it for one reason: It'll "evolve" the Mac Pros' enclosure into a floor standing full height tower case, that'll have plenty of space for multiple RAID-5 arrays and be
perfect for mid-scale server applications! 8)
As long as people consider the iPad one of these two things, they will miss the point and miss the genius of the device.
I'm sorry...But IMO: The only thing "Genius" about the iPad will be the automatic playlist function that's been a part of iTunes since around version 7! :razz:
No-one took mp3 players seriously until Apple launched the iPod and the iTunes Store as a way of selling music, video and apps directly. Suddenly they made sense commercially and weren't a pain to upload music on to.
It really depends on everyone's personal viewpoint, and I know they may differ...But I have to say that my view looks to be the complete opposite of yours.
I bought my first MP3 player (A 128Mb Technika job) around about the time the 3rd gen iPod was doing the rounds, and despite it being my first ever USB device and a very sparsely documented one at that (Basic instructions, no supplied software, had to trace and download drivers to use with Win98 etc.) I found it extremely easy to use...All I had to do was mount the player in Windows, drag/drop music onto the players window in Explorer, and that was it.
Despite the "low" capacity of the device, the ability to mount it with native OS drivers in Win2K/XP (No need to ask network admins to evaluate and install driver software on the network) and ability to store/carry any type of file was a real bonus when it came to transporting work between my home PC and the college network! 8)
On the other hand, I once tried out an iPod on 14-day home approval and was so displeased at the inflexibility and proprietary nature of the device that I sent it back only three days later. Bad enough that the iPod couldn't be mounted in Windows (Or any other OS
including MacOS!) directly as a removable HDD...But I'd also been running a packet trace program on a second machine to allow me to track what iTunes did in terms of bandwidth usage and data transfer, and when I found that iTunes was uploading parts of my music collection to Apple and other iTunes clients
without any form of consent from myself whatsoever, I immediateley Killed all traces of iTunes and implemented a strict "No Apple Software" policy on my network.
hock:
I reckon we'll see the iPad also carving out a niche as a tabletop game pad for social games... family board games, chess etc.
And why would one want or even need an iPad for such purposes? :roll:
We've only had technology of this grade for the past ten years or so (Twenty if ye count basic programs on slower CPUs) yet games like Monopoly and Scrabble have been on the market for over 60 years, or so I believe. Indeed; Chess and Othello have both been played in a number of forms since at least the 10th century! 8)
In my view: If humanity has "progressed" to the state where having a complex and expensive electronic device to hand is necessary to play a game of Poker or Chess, then we've already gone
well past the point at which human existance actually meant something worthwhile. :roll:
I know that I'm a compulsive Internet and computer addict myself, but if the above is true - And I fear it might be - Then I'm really looking forward to the day where the Gods decide that
enough is truly enough, and they simply erase all knowlege of electricity (And thus electronic circuits etc) both from our minds and the annals of History...
I might, not now, but in the future my ibook G4 is going to need replacing (its 5 years old) - its pretty much just used for web browsing, email checking, playing music streamed from the PC and watching the occasional DVD.
Hang on...Ye consider thy iBook to be "in need of replacement" after
only five years?
hock::roll:
I have a Compaq Presario which up until last week had been my main PC since the start of 2006CE, thus it's been in heavy continual use now for at least four long years. Last week, I decided to have a bit of a "network reset" which basically meant backing up data and wiping every machine to make a fresh start from scratch.
When I came to sorting out the Presario, I thought I'd take the opportunity to refurbish it at the same time. Before I started, the machine was
full of dust, the HDD was fragged to heck, and Windows was about as much use as a contraceptive to a Eunuch.
To make a good job of it, I completely tore down and dissected the system into component parts, dusted/cleaned everything, reassembled it again, ran DBAN to completely wipe the HDD, then used the OEM recovery disks to restore everything back to so-called "factory settings".
As a result, I now have a Presario that - Despite being in heavy use for four years - Is in exactly the same pristine state that it was in when I got it, and is once again capable of running on top form for another 4-8 years...And to get it that way, I spent three hours on some simple refurbishment work.
Although I plan to keep this machine alive for at least another 15 years, I could lawfully resell it as "
Refurbished - In 'as new' factory condition" if I wanted to. 8)
So what I'd be interested in is: Given that ye must've paid at least £800 for that iBook, how the heck can ye consider retiring it after such a short space of time?
hock::roll:
