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@Hiphopopotamus: Agreed, but the dealbreaker for me is whether it will run some version of OSX or just apps from the app store. The latter, coupled with the price tag will render this beautiful piece of technology completely useless.
I guess it depends how much this thing will be able to do. If it runs iPhone OS with the ability to read books etc. I say no. If it runs OSX and can essentially replace a laptop, definitiely worth 1,000.
@justinpe: I don't think anything without a keyboard can truly replace a laptop... Yes you can send emails with a touch screen, but it's never anyone's first choice.
$599 and I'm in. $999 it might be the next AppleTV
Dangit I get so tired of Analysts. They are wrong more than weathermen. Why do we have to listen to them? Can someone please compile a highly scientific chart analyzing how often analysts are wrong?
@NorwoodIsMyHero: I figure since I pay for the house, and all utility's I'm entitled to several secret gadget accounts. She begs me to merge accounts with her, but I'm not crazy! I'd be filing bankruptcy within weeks!
@fryhole: Yeah, if you're a heavy duty reader, and you already look at a computer all day for work, reading more on an LCD screen is not a pleasant thing to look forward to. If work was long and stressful I often purposely avoid TV or the computer for a few hours after work for precisely this reason.
@NorwoodIsMyHero: Totally agree. As a college student I do plenty of everything on my laptop, and I have no desire to move my pleasure reading to it as well.
Part of why books are so great is that you get lost in the fact that you're holding a book, and focus on the story at hand. I can't imagine loosing focus of the fact that I'm staring at bright object who's battery life may become an issue at any time.
Man...I've done way too much ranting on E-reader related posts
@fryhole: I think too many people are worried about new devices filling the same role as a past device (i.e. it's a Kindle Killer! An iPhone Killer! etc).
The market can support different device and usage models. Maybe there are some people that would like a lot of the eReader capabilities of the kindle but aren't willing to live with a lack of color, a poor browser, and an inability to watch video. For those people- this tablet would be perfect.
For people that want a connected eReader with a great screen for text readability and a week of battery life- the Kindle is perfect.
@COCOViper: But at a reasonable price? If you extrapolate from the Crunchpad this thing is probably going to wind up north of $600. I don't know if the market will bear this when there are other products like netbooks that have fuller functionality for a lesser price.
@NorwoodIsMyHero:
Agreed. It will all be about what the tablet brings to the table in terms of content and experience vs. competitors. I mean Balmer said the same thing about the iPhone for $499 and now we all make fun of him for it.
@COCOViper: The iPhone at $499 with the performance it had at the time would have peaked in sales very quickly. It didn't stay that way.
Now the iPhone is faster, has more features and has a cheaper price point,.
The Tablet may get subsidized but there are far fewer places to get that subsidy from and the value to other businesses of subsidizing the Tablet is probably lower than the value to AT&T of subsidizing the iPhone.
@NorwoodIsMyHero:
Right, I'm not saying the iPhone would sell well today at $499. I'm saying it brought new capabilities and speed to the market in 2007.
Presuming that this device is more than just a giant iPod touch in terms of hardware capabilities, content available, etc then that would merit a higher cost.
@COCOViper: It would merit a higher cost than an iPod Touch, but would it merit much more than a top of the line netbook, or one the Dell Vostro laptops?
I guess I just think that the tablet is not really a cost viable product right now, from any provider. I think the FG one will not really do much and I think that unless Apple makes it beefier they won't move very many at a price much higher than your average netbook.
I'm quite conflicted about this device. The hardware looks nice! The internet only OS concept really leaves me wanting more. Sure sometimes I want to check something on the internet real quick on the couch and this would do that well... but $500? To only surf the net? Seems gimped to me. $200-300 internet only fine, I get that. For $500 I'd really like to access all the media on my network. If someone hacks it into a media center extender I'd jump all over this. As it is I'll pass.
@Xeno: Can't you host your files through TVersity then access them through your routerip:tversity port? It has options for how to stream them so I imagine if it can stream flash it'll stream TVersity.
@Xeno: The price point has got to start high... and if you think about it (or when I did anyway) it makes sense. This device will break the "tablet" game wide open. Once there's a decent market for these, I'm sure a number of companies will drop big hardware for much cheaper.
As for whether I'll get one, I'm a small/medium business web developer... while I feel my portfolio stands on its own, showing prospective clients my work on a tablet is sure to wow them. Being gadget savvy always inspires more confidence... (ie tethering my laptop to my G2... seems silly, but clients love that)
@Voidward: Sure there are ways to hack around the device limitations. The problem is that for $500 I shouldn't have to go through the effort. That's enough money to expect some mature features in my opinion.
@madisomi: I understand the price point from a hardware standpoint. As I said the hardware looks real slick. I just take issue with the limited web only philosophy of the thing. This looks purpose made to consume media yet has no storage to hold it, nor ability to access it other than the web.
As a demo for web page device in your business, I'm sure it'll make for impressive demos.
I understand your point. We aren't quite at "cloud" status yet and so this device is limited. However, the "JooJoo" (ugh...) is a big stepping stone in changing the hardware landscape, and when we do get there with the advances of Google and other companies, I don't think local storage will necessarily be all that important.
What I'm saying is: you aren't just paying for hardware, you're paying for an advancement into a new kind of computing. And I understand that for some, the cost isn't justifiable.
I have this thing... it's called a "laptop". It has a nicely sized screen, full sized keyboard, DVD, local storage and processing power to spare. It's really useful.
@Alfisted: And for many of the uses herein, it has a useless weight-adding appendage that makes it unnecessarily thick called a "keyboard" and a "mousepad"...
P@brianmi40: Perhaps, but those features are sufficiently useful for me to not mind bringing them along for the ride. I'm an American, though, and enjoy driving my pickup even when I donKt need to.
As someone that doesn't buy or get newspapers/magazines delivered to the house it seems like a great gadget to have around the house to read online content. But since I can do that with my laptop already I'm not sure about spending $500 specialized device that in all likelihood will not have enough market share to command the development communities attention to build application extensions for it.
I was explaining the CrunchPad story last night and I realized that the party line (that fusion garage screwed arrington) is all backwards. If Fusion Garage really did write their own OS, raise capital and build a nice looking device without Arrington, it just goes to show how unnecessary overpaid executive types are. This is a power to the engineer type story and Gizmodo readership is largely nerds (i.e. people who get shit done on the engineering level) so we should actually be backing Fusion Garage.
People, software can be upgraded later, but you're paying $500 for hardware. Just keep that in mind. I doubt it would be that hard to add a media player and such in the future.
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I guess it depends how much this thing will be able to do. If it runs iPhone OS with the ability to read books etc. I say no. If it runs OSX and can essentially replace a laptop, definitiely worth 1,000.
12/09/09
$599 and I'm in. $999 it might be the next AppleTV
12/09/09
I'm sure it will have an on-screen keyboard and it will most likely be able to be paired with a bluetooth keyboard if you have a lot of typing to do.
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A true girlfriend would never let her man have that much money or spare space on his credit cards.
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This is my personal slant of course, but I'll never replace the bulk of my reading with something as eye-straining as an LCD.
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Part of why books are so great is that you get lost in the fact that you're holding a book, and focus on the story at hand. I can't imagine loosing focus of the fact that I'm staring at bright object who's battery life may become an issue at any time.
Man...I've done way too much ranting on E-reader related posts
12/09/09
The market can support different device and usage models. Maybe there are some people that would like a lot of the eReader capabilities of the kindle but aren't willing to live with a lack of color, a poor browser, and an inability to watch video. For those people- this tablet would be perfect.
For people that want a connected eReader with a great screen for text readability and a week of battery life- the Kindle is perfect.
Both can exist guys...
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Agreed. It will all be about what the tablet brings to the table in terms of content and experience vs. competitors. I mean Balmer said the same thing about the iPhone for $499 and now we all make fun of him for it.
12/09/09
Now the iPhone is faster, has more features and has a cheaper price point,.
The Tablet may get subsidized but there are far fewer places to get that subsidy from and the value to other businesses of subsidizing the Tablet is probably lower than the value to AT&T of subsidizing the iPhone.
12/09/09
Right, I'm not saying the iPhone would sell well today at $499. I'm saying it brought new capabilities and speed to the market in 2007.
Presuming that this device is more than just a giant iPod touch in terms of hardware capabilities, content available, etc then that would merit a higher cost.
12/09/09
I guess I just think that the tablet is not really a cost viable product right now, from any provider. I think the FG one will not really do much and I think that unless Apple makes it beefier they won't move very many at a price much higher than your average netbook.
12/08/09
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12/08/09
As for whether I'll get one, I'm a small/medium business web developer... while I feel my portfolio stands on its own, showing prospective clients my work on a tablet is sure to wow them. Being gadget savvy always inspires more confidence... (ie tethering my laptop to my G2... seems silly, but clients love that)
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12/09/09
As a demo for web page device in your business, I'm sure it'll make for impressive demos.
12/09/09
I understand your point. We aren't quite at "cloud" status yet and so this device is limited. However, the "JooJoo" (ugh...) is a big stepping stone in changing the hardware landscape, and when we do get there with the advances of Google and other companies, I don't think local storage will necessarily be all that important.
What I'm saying is: you aren't just paying for hardware, you're paying for an advancement into a new kind of computing. And I understand that for some, the cost isn't justifiable.
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Now this $500 thing is something else...
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