The more people know about the iPad, the less they want to buy one, according to a study released Friday. But, are we expecting too much?
The study seems to confirm the iPad as Apple's least exciting announcement in years. And the company is feeling the backlash that comes from not delivering on the hype.
Retrevo, an online marketplace for consumer electronics, surveyed 1,000 of its customers and found that the iPad's Jan. 27 announcement did more to snuff out customer interest than to spark it.
What Apple has done so well, yet again, is to legitimize the *desire* to own such a product. I can assure you that, after Apple's iPad announcement, the bicycle retail e-list was abuzz regarding the use of tablets as roaming point-of-sale terminals. Prior to this, it was a technology that was available, but risky. Once Apple jumps in, all of a sudden it represents a "safe" investment, something that you almost have to do to keep up.
Presently, nearly every decent point-of-sale system runs on Windows, not Mac computers. That's not likely to change. But dealers across the country are figuring out ways to use the iPad as a remote terminal, easily done with one of several programs currently available for the iPhone (I use WinAdmin)... but the iPhone doesn't have the real estate required.
The biggest drawback to the iPad is battery life. In retail, we need 8 solid hours of battery life, so either the unit's got to hold up that long or have a battery that can be changed out... neither of which the iPad currently has. So many of us are now looking at alternatives that would fit our needs.... something we wouldn't have done prior to Apple's announcement.
Apple's role in legitimizing demand for technologies is dramatically underestimated.
then it's a good thing that it has 10 hours of battery life, and that's quoted as surfing the 'net. it can play music for 140 hours. i doubt you'll need it to be using it for the entire 8 hours, non-stop anyway, and it's not like you can't drop it into a dock at some point either.
"Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music" (from Apple's website).
For the iPhone, Apple says "Internet use: Up to 5 hours on 3G Up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi"
Up to.
I've got a lot of experience with the iPhone 3G. I use it extensively. Marvelous tool, much more than a toy. And those "Up to" figures are about twice real life (for me). Do we have reason to believe it not safe to extrapolate similarly for the iPad?
and if you notice, apple only gives *one* number for the ipad, whereas they give several different numbers for the iphone (talk time, video, audio, etc.).
the ipad is not out yet. at least wait until it ships to find out whether it's suitable.
I've found that a new battery meets or exceeds Apple's published specifications. However, battery operating time deteriorates with Li-Ion batteries as the battery ages. A new Ipod Touch 2G battery will play music for about 10 hours if I let the display go blank, or
1.5 hrs with the wi-fi and display active. My 3 year old battery now plays music for maybe 3 hrs or 0.5 hrs with the wi-fi active. More:
I bought a case cracking tool and a replacement battery, but managed to cut myself on the metal back trying to open the case and gave up.
Battery life also deteriorates more rapidly if you maintain a Li-Ion battery at maximum charge, and bake it inside a laptop or heat generating device. No clue yet how warm the iPad will run. More:
It might also be of interest to know the battery life for the latest Windoze 7 touch screen laptops is claimed at 3 to 5 hours:
Jeff Liebermann wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
It's really too bad the batteries are so hard to change and so cheaply built shoved into the box like they are.
I just bought this:
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BT50 OEM battery for my old MotoROKR Z6m I use on Pageplus for $2.19 from HongKong with FREE SHIPPING! I got 4 of them at this price. They were sealed in the OEM shipping bags their bulk, no bubblepacks, come in from China. Even the Motorola halogram label is on them, the date code was 2 weeks old!
The new batteries were all much better than the one the phone came with, even though it's the same exact battery. They're all really fresh. The sale is closed, now, but I bet they still have them at this price. Delivery took 12 days because of the damned backup at the customs office.
Hopefully better than the camera batteries I've purchased (for a Rebel
350XT). Worked great initially, slightly longer life, but after a couple months wouldn't hold more than about 1/4 of their earlier charge. These clearly weren't the "same exact battery" as the capacity claim was higher.
On the other hand, I purchased a "Kodak" brand replacement battery for my Fuji EX200, cost a fair amount less than the Fuji battery, and has held up great through extended use.
Umm... what are you going to do for printing receipts? In the state of Calif, you're required to give a receipt if you charge sales tax. If the iPad is anything like the iPod Touch, printing is handled by
3rd party applications, usually in some bizarre manner. Others will only do photos, not ASCII text. For example:
Epson and Canon have similar apps.
There's a free test applications for Print Magic which does apparently does ASCII text that's worth trying:
At the Apple Stores, they give you the option to have your receipt emailed. With WiFi, it shouldn't be hard to have a printer hanging off a wireless print server.
Yes, the software will need to cooperate. One would hope that would be part of any good POS system.
I fire up this application at home, and it sees my HP2200dtn printer, with internal Jetdirect card using both IPP and some other protocol. I then drive to the office, try the same test application on the same Ipod Touch, and it doesn't find my office printer, which is exactly the same HP2200dtn and roughly the same Jetdirect card. Yes, the wi-fi is working. Welcome to life in printer hell. I'll figure it out when I have more time.
Non-compliant with FACT laws. Here's a human readable summary:
Bottom line is a printed receipt is required and that the credit card and ID numbers must be obfuscated.
Assumption, the mother of all screwups.
Ummm... I've always assumed that printing was the responsibility of the operating system. It's been that way since Windoze 1.0. Are we now to go back to the bad old daze of MSDOS applications with built in printer drivers? Yech. If the iPad is to be something more than an oversized iPod Touch, then some OS/X features need to included.
nospam wrote in news:080220102219396881% snipped-for-privacy@nospam.invalid:
There's the really scary part. Noone seems to care what Apple does to them. They're all in a kind of trance like zombies in an old movie....standing at the front door all night looking into the store with that blank look on their faces......
I don't see where it requires a printed-on-paper receipt. The article does discuss what needs to be done with card numbers on receipts. It also specifically discusses card numbers on electronic-only receipts:
Works great with Mac OS X on Apple Macs and Apple WiFi gear.
Your comment was:
Given that context, one would expect the POS software (hopefully) not to do something bizarre.
" A very good source for stuff like that. One thing I've noticed is the batteries are much fresher than what I could buy in the U.S..
That store also has one of the best bicycle lights in the world at about 1/5 the price of what a comparable light costs from bicycle accessory companies.
Hmmm... You're correct. I had always assumed that a merchant was required to give a receipt when asked by the customer. I'd also assumed that printed receipts were required for tax purposes. However, a Google search didn't find anything of the sort. Obviously online vendors are not required to provide printed receipts. I'll check with an accountant.
However, I did excavate one interesting item:
Apparently the Feds do not consider an emailed receipt to be a "printed" receipt, and are therefore not covered by various privacy and identity theft protection laws. Very strange.
Sure. Everything works great if you subscribe to an all Apple solution. However, my customers (and I) tend to use a mix of technologies and vendors, which are often not so cooperative. My current mystery with why printing from my iPod Touch to two allegedly identical printers only works with one is a fair example. I also have some experience dealing with IPP (internet printing protocol), which I can only describe and complex, messy, and difficult to troubleshoot.
Sure, but the POS software should not need to include an application which enables printing. The POS software might include recommended
3rd party iPad or iPod Touch applications for printing, which they have tested. It might also include sample setups for wireless printing. However, in my never humble opinion, all that is really the responsibility of the operating system, and not the applications vendor. Besides, it would be rather difficult in an iPod Touch like operating environment, which doesn't allow user application multitasking or background processes. The printing application would thus need to be a seperate program, to be run after the POS application is closed. It will work, but is really clumsy. Now, if Apple included a printing application with the iPad, it could become a background process, which will be much better. However, I've seen no evidence of such an application on the iPad or iPod Touch yet.
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