The Apple iPad: Good For Video Stuff Or Not?

[dr_ml422]

Hi chris. Welcome. When you say that at least you don't have to keep 2 versions of the same video are you referring to the 2 formats of PAL and NTSC?

[admin]

The ipad does play 720p video but would scale it down to 1024x576 (same number of horizontal lines as a PAL DVD) so at least you don't have to keep two versions of the same video. I suppose you could watch the video in 4:3 and keep the 720 lines but lose the widescreen.

The reason people were dissapointed with the iPad is that they thought it was going to be a touch screen netbook. If you think about it as a competitor to the Amazon Kindle it starts to make more sense.

The Kindle just reads books; the iPad reads books, plays music and video, browses web etc etc and both cost $400. If i was thinking about buying a Kindle last month I would be buying an iPad this month. Unfortunatly for Apple and Amazon I dont want either.

Good point about the Kindle/iPad comparison, which puts further shame on the fact that iBook (the eBook reader for the iPad) might not be available in Australia or any other non US location at launch.

Some also thought it would also be a tablet version of the MacBook, with full Mac OS X functionalities, but that also didn't happen. It's basically just a big iPod Touch, big enough to make reading books and newspapers feasible.

[dr_ml422]

Guess the critics got it right in the Apple. Nothing more than a big iPod Touch.

[Derree]

A bit of a late post here but thought I would put my two cents in....
I have both an iPod touch as well as an iPad, and granted they both do alot of the same things the (much)bigger screen on the iPad makes the difference, reading comic books as well as regular books is fantastic on the ipad and watching video on it is great, I mean yes the resolution isn't the same as your tv, but try carrying your 1080p with you when you are on a trip or wating in the doctors office etc...The only issue I have had with it is wi-fi dropping now and then, particularly when 'waking' it up...I guess this has been addressed with an update to the OS but seems to take me a long time to back the thing up so haven't upgraded as of yet...