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Who wants an iPad? Almost everyone!

by Steven Sande Jun 17th 2010 at 5:30PM

My wife and I are currently cruising the Baltic aboard the Disney Magic. Of course, two things we couldn't leave at home were our iPhones and iPads. One thing we found immediately was that many of the crew members and passengers on the Magic had never seen an iPad, and they were fascinated with the device.

As an example, Burak, the manager of one of the three restaurants on the ship, had me demo the iPad to his wife. She is on the ship for a few weeks as a guest of the cruise line, and he needed her to "approve" his planned purchase of an iPad. After a short demo of Photos, a few games, and iWork, Burak's wife gave his purchase the thumbs-up. I can now count the restaurant manager as a good friend.
I've spent a lot of time on the cruise doing demos for crew members and passengers. There are a few other passengers with iPads, but they aren't as willing to answer questions or demo apps like this loyal Apple user.

For crew members who want to keep in touch with family and friends back home, stay entertained during their precious off hours, and keep their personal items to a minimum, an iPad seems to be attractive as the perfect intersection of small and functional.

There's only one thing that a couple of crew members are disappointment with, and that's the lack of a front-facing camera. Many crew members like to do Skype video chats with their families far away, so they weren't too happy with the fact that a video camera isn't part of the whole iPad package. Note to developers: write drivers to allow use of inexpensive USB webcams with the iPad through the Camera Connection Kit, and you'll make a lot of people very happy.

Most of our shipmates have heard of the iPad, but for many of them it was their first chance to see one in person. We have been doing daily backups of our digital cameras to the iPad, so a good demo has been to show people photos from the current or previous day. Once they see photos on an iPad, they ask what else the device can do, at which point I demo a variety of apps.

What really hooks 'em is when they ask how much the iPad costs. I've been letting people guess the price, and the usual response is $1,000 or more. They're all pleasantly surprised when I tell them they can get the base 16GB Wi-Fi model for $499.

Needless to say, I know I'm acting as an unpaid salesperson for Apple on this cruise. If anyone from Apple marketing is reading this post, you can send my commission check just as soon as I get back.

(Note to readers and Apple: I'm just kidding about the sales commissions. TUAW bloggers don't accept compensation from outside vendors, in order to preserve our integrity. The site policies are here. )

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My wife and I are currently cruising the Baltic aboard the Disney Magic. Of course, two things we couldn't leave at home were our iPhones...
 

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Maria

This is the worst thing about owning an iPad: being bothered by people who have never seen one every time you pull it out in a public place.

June 29 2010 at 9:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
not2fly1000

A lot of people don't considering there are many advices out now or coming out soon with better functionality and more features. You can check some of them out at http://www.alternatives2ipad.com/

June 21 2010 at 3:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
iBearTouch

Nice toy but where are the
•voice memo app
•weather app
•calculator,
and most surprisingly, the
•clock app!!!???

I can understand if they are making ipad compatible versions of these apps, but still... In many ways my iPod touch is more useful...:-(

June 20 2010 at 6:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to iBearTouch's comment
iBearTouch

I mean I can comprehend Apple's desire to support the app developers, but without these apps the iPad kind of loses some of it's "magical" qualities... ***Segue to an imaginary scene of an Apple branded cyclops wringing an iPad and gallons of unicorn tears spill to the ground!***

June 20 2010 at 7:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Lola

Hey, My daughter, son-in-law and young grandaughter are on the Baltic Cruise as well! If you see a cute 11 month old walking around, tell her GrannyLola said I loveeeeeeeeeeeee youuuuuuuuu!

June 19 2010 at 11:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tom

I recently brought my iPad to a university class. I was early and also didn't want to "show off" so I sat down in a corner of the room to surf the web a little on my iPad. A few mins later when the room started to fill, I heard someone yell "look this guy has an iPad" and suddenly I was surrounded by like 8-10 people or so all wanting to know "if it's really that good". "Yes", I replied, "I really think it's that good". There have also been a few Apple haters who where starting making jokes about it. How foolish. I always wonder what's going on in this people's heads. I mean, I'm also not running around and making jokes about people who bought, let's say, a Sony laptop.

June 18 2010 at 4:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Tom's comment
deluded spider

Though you should have made jokes, because Sony laptops are even more expensive than Apple laptops and they fall apart. ;)

I had a Vaio laptop that died 3 days after I bought it and no one ever knew why. Years later I got a Vaio desktop that worked well, but the motherboard fried itself on three separate occasions. (Finally some tech person realized this was due to a faulty power supply, which fixed it - til the hard drive died.) My boyfriend and another friend have also had Vaios that have gone kaput. Though I will say that Sony products work well until they just won't work anymore.

But yeah, I don't get when people actively hate Apple. I can get being like, "Meh, not for me," (though I think they're missing out), but I know I don't really actively hate PCs until I try to do something in Vista and the layout fights me every step of the way. (God forbid I want to change my resolution or power settings. I miss XP.) I like shiny gadgets, and Apple's gadgets are the shiniest. I don't know how people can like computers and tech gadgets and hate Apple, honestly.

June 18 2010 at 7:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

Well, I'm at a wedding in Ireland right now, and the bride asked me to bring my iPad with me so she could check it out, so there's a lot of interest.

I think some of you are misunderstanding the purpose of the iPad. No way would I have one as my only computer. I have an IMac for all the heavy lifting - photo processing and serious word processing, etc. I was wondering about getting a small laptop for use around the house and when I go traveling, and the iPad won. It's smaller, lighter and has better battery life than any laptop I've found.

June 18 2010 at 3:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
frunkis

I thought about getting one recently but when we learned that the new iPhone will have the forward facing camera, you just know that the next iPad will have one. Now, I think I will try to wait. Would be nice to have on upcoming trips though.

June 18 2010 at 1:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dtflick

I bought two on launch day... 32gb 3G for me and a 16gb wifi for my wife. I use mine for everything. I take it everywhere, use it to follow presentations at school, read books and news feeds, you name it. It has replaced my laptop for at least 98% of the what I do. I don't find it too heavy to read with when I'm in bed, or otherwise awkward. I love it.

My wife, on the other hand, isnt very interested. Hers ended up in my 6 year old daughters hands where she reads dr. Seuss books and uses some of the drawing apps. My daughter just loves it and plays with it constantly. My wife never got into it (because she plays flash-based facebook games) so never got away from her MacBook.

It's not for everyone, that's for sure. It certainly seems like a love it or hate it relationship. I love mine and am very excited for the future to see where this technoloy and mobility leads us.

June 18 2010 at 12:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
IAmMisterX

I like the iPad. I really do. I got my Wife one and she absolutely loves it and takes it everywhere with her. However, until the iPad comes with a front-facing camera and additional productivity apps (iMovie is coming and that helps), I currently cannot justify one for myself. Granted, within a year these issues will most likely be addressed. If so, I'll probably get one for myself then.

June 17 2010 at 11:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
SCY

That large ship only has 3 restaurants...The ship I was on last week had 14 and I know its smaller than the Disney Magic

June 17 2010 at 10:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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