SWMBO has an iPad, a device that to me seems totally useless and without redeeming value. But there are a lot of people much smarter than I am who think that iPad's are really terrific, so who am I to argue?

Anyway, I think she got it because it was the "in" thing to have, she knows little more about it than I do. But she had me prepare a big group of Mexico pictures to put into the iPad so she can show them when she goes on her trip to Europe. (sample attached)

She leaves tomorrow morning at 3am.

Ummm... the iPad seems to be singularly lacking in USB ports or other devices useful for transferring data. What do I do to move 200+ MB of pictures from my PC into her iPad?

tanstaafl.

iTunes is the normal way of doing it. In your case you will probably be better off with CopyTrans Photo.

And I really couldn't disagree more on your conclusions of how useful an iPad is

Well, it does at least seem useful as a photo viewing device...

Mucking around with the clone tool in your photo editor, again, I see.

No USB??
Doesn't it have an SD card slot or something similar?

Pretty frickin' useless without that, unless one wants to be merely a consumer of other people's content.

Thanks, Andy. That did the trick. But making it work was an exercise in frustration. CopyTrans worked just fine, but fighting the idiosyncrasies of the iPad drove me up the wall.

tanstaafl.

Only a little bit... the picture was a composite of five photos, snapshots, really, without benefit of a tripod, so that there were areas around the edges that had to be clone-filled.

tanstaafl.

My bad. I didn't recognize that long, skinny "iPhone" plug as being USB as well as a charging port.

I just have to keep telling myself, "The iPad is not a computer. The iPad is not a computer..." and I shouldn't expect it to behave like one.

I'm sure that for a lot of people, even most people, the iPad is a wonderful device. To me, for my purposes, it is less useful than a chocolate teapot. (At least I can eat the teapot!)

tanstaafl.

Tablets are wonderful, fantastic media consumption devices, and the iPad in particular...

...BUT... [you knew that was coming]

...I still cannot fathom how anyone considers them a device for productivity.


So that said, your wife should quite enjoy showing off photos to friends. Apple does really well when it comes to photo displaying. I still maintain that this is the best feature of the Apple TV

Yeah, digital photo album seems to be the closest thing to a killer app on tablets, be they RIM Playbooks or those Apple things. Yup, pretty good at showing off photos and saving print costs.

But heavy, expensive, limited connectivity, and no keyboards. Yuck.

Cheers

There is the Apple camera connection kit* that gives you a USB connection and an SD slot for importing photos from cameras. I was guessing that Doug didn't have one of those...

And yes, not having a USB connection/SD slot is a compromise. But of course that is how the world works, hopefully carefully chosen compromises to make up the design of a product as a whole.

Most of my photos get taken when I'm out and about is on my iPhone nowadays, simply because the camera is surprisingly good and I've already got it with me. And creating/editing connect couldn't be easier, I have the amazingly complete iPhoto on the iPhone to retouch and if I want to edit it on a bigger screen I can always squirt a photo wirelessly across to the iPad and use iPhoto there too.

And the "magic" of iCloud means that whenever both my iDevices are on wifi the photos I took on my iPhone get automatically synced onto my iPad.

* not that I've ever felt the need to buy it

Heavy ? Apart from my iPhone the iPad is the lightest computer I own.

Limited connectivity ? Apart from my iPhone the iPad is the best connected computer I own, given it has builtin 3G.

Keyboard ? Has a perfectly usable one thanks.

Take my wife for example. Her iPad has replaced her netbook completely and it actually does more than her netbook did for her.

When she is away for work visits she needs a machine that is:

- as light as possible
- as small as possible (it gets to spend the day in her hand bag)
- is usable for writing up/editing her notes

It meets these criteria well, it takes up less space than the netbook and is a fair bit lighter* . She even prefers the keyboard on the iPad to the cramped netbook one.

But as well as doing what the netbook did, the iPad also does a bunch of stuff that the netbook couldn't. She used to carry a big stack of printouts of the relevant papers when she went away, now she just shoves the PDFs onto the iPad. She also typically doesn't take a book to read, as again she reads on the iPad.

So yes, a tablet really can be a device for improving productivity.

* especially as given the iPad's battery life she doesn't always need to take the PSU with her

Countering my claim that tablets are not good for productivity by saying "they're better at productivity than a netbook" is not a very strong argument And this is coming from someone who liked his netbook quite a bit for a long while.

I define productivity differently, I suppose. I'm thinking of the things I do on a desktop computer, and how they take four times as long, if I could do them on a tablet at all. And yes, reading large amounts of things on a tablet is much nicer, but I completely disagree on the typing part:


I really have to ask what usable means. For a sentence? For a paragraph? For a long email? For a term paper? Personally, anything more than a sentence drives me nuts.

Everyone is going to define productivity differently, different people use computers for different things at different times. I was just describing one way the iPad is a productive device for one person in one situation.

As I said before, every product design/choice is about compromise. My wife could choose to carry around a full size laptop and sure it would be able to do some things better than a netbook/iPad can. But it would come with its own compromises, like being much bigger and heavy for a start. And even then it wouldn't be able to do a bunch of stuff that the iPad can do.

When she gets back to her office she spends most of her time using a desktop PC. But that doesn't diminish the fact that the iPad is extremely productive for her when she is out on the road.



I happily use mine for long emails, forum posts and taking a few pages of notes in meetings, I don't need to write term papers My wife uses it to type up pages and pages of notes when she is travelling.

There is plenty I wouldn't want to type on the iPad, like the majority of my typing, which is code. But then I never claimed that the iPad was a replacement for all my computer related tasks. I still spend most of the day sat in front of a laptop bashing on a physical keyboard.

For me an iPad works in addition to the other computers I use, though there are going to be plenty of people for who the iPad* meets all of their computing needs, including a whole set of people who've never even owned a computer before.

* or even maybe other tablets, if anyone other than Apple ever manages to sell any

And of course one person's compromise is another person's feature.

For example:

To many people the lack of access to the file system on iOS is a massive compromise. To many people the simplicity that it brings is a feature.

My wife hardly ever touches the desktop (mac mini) at home, she pretty much uses her iPad for everything, notes, emails, web browsing.

In fact, when I've gone away with work I'm not even allowed to take it because it's all she uses, so I have to lug the laptop around with me instead - and all I use that for when I'm away with work is web browsing.

Like Andy I use my computer for coding, but then that's the most appropriate device for that particular task, pretty much everything else is done on the iPad (when I have access to it!).

YMMV.

The tablets I've seen have no built-in card slots, no standard USB connection, no ethernet, no keyboard, no VGA out. Many tablets do have HDMI and WiFi, but so do netbooks.

Tablets do have touch screens, and a very sexy UI. +2

They weigh about the same as a decent netbook, but cost more. Battery life is similar: 9-11 hours, not counting standby time.

I've got limited experience with tablets. Some of my pals work for RIM, and have (and Love) PlayBooks. But the only appeal I see from using them are the sexy interface and the awesome photo viewing.

Beyond that, I need a keyboard and pointer to get anything useful done.

I've also got two local buddies with iPads. One was given it for free from a course he took -- he absolutely hates it and has been trying to figure out a use for it. The other guy decided there was so much buzz that "they simply must be great". And has been regretting the waste of money ever since.

On the other hand, my on-line acquaintances (you guys) seem to like these things. Weird. But then, I like netbooks, so that makes me not exactly normal in your view either.

Maybe they appeal a lot more to the would-be wealthy crowd? You know, the folks who buy new smartphones every 2 years or so. For them, a tablet is larger screen for their smartphone? Dunno. Those toys are well beyond my budget range.

I think the tablets are pretty cool and fun to play with, but they just aren't more than a single use (photos) device for me now.

They do not weigh the same as netbooks, unless you have some sort of super light netbook. Taking one at random, the Samsung N110 is 1.2kg from what I can see online. The 3rd generate iPad weighs 0.65kg, quite a difference.

The quoted figures of ~10 hours you'll see for the iPad is while making fairly constant use of wifi. Is your 9-11 hours on the netbook with a similar workload ?

Also, I'm curious, is the 9-11 hours an "out of the box" battery life figure Mark ? Or is it one achieved due your clever "boot to a RAM disk, copy to disk only if something was updated" approach ?

There's a big difference, IMO. On a tablet you're making way more compromises (I also hate not having access to the file system in OSX, BTW). And that's the problem.

I also think that you're reading my posts and every time I say laptop you think I'm talking about a 17" MacBook Pro. I'm actually thinking more along the lines of a MacBook Air. An Air is the same weight as an iPad with a keyboard, but can do so very much more.

And to each his own. You like typing on a tablet and for me it makes me want to punch a wall. How are you typing on it? Like a real keyboard, or thumb typing?

IMO, the most limiting factor of any tablet at this point is storage capacity. The issue is mitigated when you're also using a traditional PC, but as a post-PC device that shouldn't be a requirement. Apple is missing a convenient storage appliance for use with iOS devices from their product mix.

iCloud is not the solution to storing 200GB or 2TB of information.

I should disclose a bias I'm having towards tablets. In general, I'm very concerned about the knee-jerk reaction that everyone seems to be having to the iPad. Don't get me wrong, it's a great device, but I'm worried by all the folks who make it out to be more than it is. It's those people who are influencing companies like Apple and Microsoft to move towards the tabletization of everything and make their desktop operating systems more like tablets.

That scares the crap out of me.

I'm one of the Windows users who will be avoiding Windows 8 like the plague. I know my desktop is still there, but I NEVER want to see that Metro UI on my 30" monitor. And you can laugh and say that it's just Microsoft being reactionary, but from what I've seen it sure looks like Apple is slowly trying to bring the tablet experience into the laptop/desktop world.

And the thing is that for most people: I think it's a good idea. I think half my clients would benefit from a simple computer. But my concern is that these tech companies are so obsessed with the public's reaction to the iPad (selling millions), they don't care if they bulldoze over those of us who want the more powerful desktop experience.

That's why I'm so protective of my "productive" desktop experience. I see it as endangered

I just want to stress again how great I think tablets are for certain things, and I use mine all the time. I just worry that the computer industry thinks it's all or nothing, and that nobody can use a tablet for some things and a real computer for everything else, because if I'm forced to use a tablet operating system for everything I do, I'll go insane. Or start using Linux, which is the same thing (that's for you, Mark)

Sorry for the little rant there. It's something that's been bugging me for a while and I wanted to get it off my chest. I'm interested to hear what you guys think about the issue.

No, on a tablet YOU would have to make more compromises. On a laptop/desktop some (in fact I'd say quite a few) people would be making more compromises than they would on an iPad.

Using a laptop/desktop a user takes on the very burdensome compromises of managing a complex computer setup, dealing with backups and restore, trying not to infect it with malware* etc. This complexity is just as much a compromise to those people as the lack of file system on iOS is to you.

The people I am thinking about who could use the iPad as their only computer are the people at the end of the spectrum where they've never bought a PC/Mac app and have never successfully restored anything successfully from a backup. Such stuff is childs play now in the iPad (the first time you blow away the contents and restore the entire device from an iCloud backup really is compelling).



No, I was certainly not thinking of something as massive as the 17

However, even an iPad + keyboard is a fair lighter than the 13 inch Air + PSU. And that is kind of beside the point, as not a single one of my iPad owning offline friends has felt the need to buy a physical keyboard for it.

We have an external keyboard as I had one for my MacBook, but even though she has played with it, my wife prefers to use the on screen keyboard.



I'm not sure I said I liked typing on the iPad. I said it was usable. Given the choice, with no other factors involved I'd clearly prefer to be typing on a physical keyboard, but of course there are other factors involved.

I type on it like a really keyboard when writing more than a couple of lines, people who are good at it can just about touch type in it, as unlikely as that must sound...

* you're going to say that OSX makes these compromises less painful and yes, it probably does, a bit. But then the people looking to make a $399 iPad their only computer are the people who in the past would have ended up on a $400 PC, not a $1,000 Mac

N.B. in all of these discussions I am talking about an iPad and not a generic tablet. And iPad and other tablets certainly do not bring the same set of benefits and compromises.

It is easy to forget that the iPad has been on the market for less than 2 years...

I share some of your concerns with the tabletization of desktop OSes. Putting Metro as the default UI for laptops/desktops seems like a particularly odd idea.

And if Microsoft are thinking that people are going to use touch screens on laptops/desktops, I think they are badly mistaken.

However, even on the desktop some of the tabletization is clearly the right direction for the sorts of non-technical users we have been talking about. Taking the idiot proof design of the App Store for example is clearly the right thing to do on OSX/Windows.

Just think of the sales the Windows app store could make in the next few years, assuming that Windows users fit an iOS user buying pattern and not an Android user buying pattern

(This is just a quick reply this morning, Andy is doing great at covering most of my position on the subject)


Why don't you have access to your filesystem in OS X? Seems perfectly accessible to me, using Finder or Terminal.


I don't personally see the problem here as long as usability is good. I will say Microsoft does appear to be going too far with Windows 8 and the Metro interface when a keyboard and mouse is present. Too much of it seems to require gestures that aren't very discoverable. But I'll hold off final judgement on the release preview. Been running the Developer and Community betas to keep an eye on the other side. And I do think it works well on a tablet.

As for Apple though, I don't think they are going to far at this point. My OS X machine still mostly works the same as it did when 10.0 came out (or in many ways, much better). Sure, Launchpad is there for users who want an iOS tablet launcher. But it's not forced like what Microsoft is choosing to do. The other "Tablet" features such as auto save and crash recover seem like a good thing to me. And the other tablet feature I can think that they brought over to the Air at least is standby time measured in months. Again, can't really see anything wrong with that. I'm also completely comfortable with the trackpad replacing the mouse for everything outside of gaming on my Mac. That's all I can think of in the way Apple is bringing tablet components to the desktop. They recognize the devices are two separate things, and aren't trying to mash them into one like their competitors.

I'm hoping that the opposite happens with Windows 8. I'm hoping that Windows 8 ultimately gives us usable computers in the tablet form factor: with the full filesystem, functionality, and development environment of a desktop operating system. It's something that Microsoft tried before with pen-screen Windows tablet PCs, but they were bulky, and grafting the regular windows UI onto a pen-input screen sucked. Now they're trying again, and I'm hoping they get it right this time.

I agree that a pure tablet user interface on a full size keyboard/mouse PC is an awful idea, and I'm sure that Metro is going to suck on the desktop for a version or two. But if that's the growing pain, so be it.

Even if Windows 8 crashes and burns in the marketplace, if it at least manages to push someone else (Apple, Android, whoever) to finally make the above possible, then we still come out the winners.




That statement right there cuts to the heart of this whole thing. For many consumers, emails and web browsing are everything. That's why the iPad sells so well. It does the same thing that companies tried to do ten+ years ago with WebTV and the i-Opener, but this time the form factor makes it genuinely convenient and useful for those things.

Me, I want more functionality, because my computer is more than email and web browsing to me. And I'm hoping Windows 8 will eventually let me have that in an iPad-sized box.

I'll say it's actually *most* consumers. Probably by at least an order of magnitude or more. I'd even wager it's above 100 to 1. Who do you think makes up most of Facebook's users for example. And I believe this number is representative strictly of people who were already using a computer.

Now the iPad is opening up computing to people who were not previously using computers, and there have always been more of those. That's enormous potential. I think the numbers over the next two to there years are going to be jaw-dropping.

Windows 8 may very well be reactionary. But MS has seen the writing on the wall and they know that their position in desktop is more than threatened by the iPad. This is a dangerous time for MS, despite their current presence it's not too hard to imagine their near-complete displacement in the next decade.

I love my iPad and use it far more than any other computer, except when I'm at work.

I'll admit, it's mostly for content consumption, but that's what it's designed for, and it turns out is consume more content than I create unless I am at work.

I hardly use my PC anymore at all except to run iTunes and host my video/music library.

Admittedly, I did switch to a PS3 for games or my PC wold get more love (Max Payne 3 today!)

I even steam video through my iPad to my TV using my AppleTV.

Oh, and I'm posting on my iPad right now. It's my primary web browser at work because a lot of my non-work sites are blocked if I use my browser on my dev machine.

I'd love to have an iPad -- I'm willing to pay the postage, if he's willing to ship it to me.

I think this is really the key. I was an iPad naysayer, mostly because I saw it as an overgrown iPhone without any additional functionality, which it mostly is.

About 5 months ago, I took a management job that has me traveling all over the US and eastern Canada, which results in long days and long stretches where I can't use my laptop. I got a case for my iPhone with an extra battery, but it would still be out of battery power before I got to my hotel for the night. Yes, the Blackberry is better on battery, but it doesn't do anything capably except for email. I had one and I despised it.

So, I bought an iPad so I can stand in airport terminals, sky lounges, shuttle busses, taxi cabs, and security lines and do email, trying to keep the amount of work I need to do in my hotel room at night to a somewhat reasonable amount. The iPad battery lasts a whole day, and another benefit is that my iPhone battery now lasts the whole day, because I'm not constantly on the data network.

So that's one definition of "productivity" to consider: can I use otherwise wasted time to get some work done? The iPad definitely lets me do that, where I don't have room to open a laptop. It's very difficult to use even a small laptop/netbook when you're standing and don't have a place to set it.

Since getting it for email, I've found that it's definitely more than just a big iPhone, to my surprise. It's an outstanding reading device, and I can carry a lot of books and technical documentation with me on airplanes and at customers in this tiny little device. Yes, I know that you can technically do this on an iPhone or a small laptop, but it is vastly easier/better on the iPad. I think it's a combination of the aspect ratio (portrait) and ultra-high resolution screen. A lot of what a "knowledge worker" does is consume information, whether in emails, web sites, books, or whatever, and the iPad is a brilliant device for this.

I also have a little adapter and I can plug the iPad into a projector and give presentations or share technical documents with customers.

The keyboard sucks compared to a real buckling-spring, "clackety" keyboard, but so does everything. I'm a fast touch typist on a real keyboard, but with a little practice I can now *almost* touch type on the iPad screen (though not when standing -- that's thumb typing; the iPad has two keyboard modes, the split keyboard for thumb typing is great when standing or riding in cabs). It's adequate. When I'm in my hotel or an office, I open the laptop and go to town.

It's definitely a productivity enhancer for me on the road.

Jim

I thought you played poker for a living?

Baloney. I've seen what you spend on some of your photography toys. It's simply that your perceived value of the device is lower than what you're willing to spend on it. (And you're likely right.)

You'll know when they're out of your budget range when you desperately want one and still cannot find a way to responsibly purchase one. I know about this

Well, I haven't spent money on the Photography hobby for well over six years at this point, other than new batteries and a part to repair a broken lens (EDIT: oh, and a new kit bag). Yes, quite a bit back when I "went digital" but not since then (can't afford it).

Note that a year with a new smartphone would cost me about $1000 or so -- to purchase the phone and pay the monthly fees here in Canada. Ditto for an iPad with a mobile network account.

The 9-11 hours battery life on the netbook is with wifi and a read/write drive. The "ram disk trickery" or whatever makes little if any difference to battery life -- it's more of a quicker boot and safer run environment, but I don't use that any more.

0.65KG is lighter than my 1KG "netbook", and even more lighter than the iPad that I saw and handled here.

Cheers

I guess I should keep my big mouth shut then

Now that I've been living somewhere where 99% of mobile users are on prepaid, I like it so much better. Forces real competition. No contract so you can desert to the other carrier at any time for any reason. They do crazy things like offering "triple up" days, where if I add $25 credit to my phone, I get $75. That's Enough to last me about 2.5-3 months normal use. I can do prepaid data as well. $45USD for 10gig download. I'm sure that for phone and data I'll be under $300 for the year. Wish I could match that in the States.

T-Mobile has a prepaid plan with "unlimited"(*) data with 100 minutes of voice for $30/month.

Admittedly, I talk on the phone much less than virtually anyone else I know, but this is a perfect plan for me.

(*) "Unlimited" = 5GB (per month), after which data is throttled to "2G speeds".

If you had been looking at the 1st generation one it would have been around 0.73kg, but the 2nd gen ones are 601/650kg (with the 3rd gen ones getting slightly heavier, due to the 40% bigger battery needed for that amazing screen).

Wow. Okay. It certainly felt like a brick in one's hands. But without a good postal scale that's all I had to go on.

Not so heavy then.

In this country, the carriers pretty much all require that pre-paid users deposit a minimum amount each month to "maintain their account". Failure to do so forfeits the entire built-up balance. This lets them call it "pre-paid" even when it's more of a (low) monthly fee account.

Speakout Wireless (and I believe Petro Canada) don't require any monthly top-ups. You can buy a voucher that lasts a full year. With Speakout, adding any amount just before the year expires will also let you carry over any unused credits for another year. Rinse, repeat.

There are two kinds of pre-paid in Canada that I've seen, the flat monthly plan which is pretty much the same as the contact plans, and the pay-as-you-go. Speakout and Petro are PAYG. And no one in Canada does PAYG data. It's nearly impossible to find even low fixed price data, the exception being the iPad plans. Which no longer work on non-iPad devices.

You can get a useful amount of data (500mb), no strings attached, for £5 in the UK now...

http://giffgaff.com/goodybags/500MB-mobile-broadband

There are quite a few things about the US/Canada that I like, the crazy mobile tariff situation is not one of them

Never mind the weight, feel the quality

Andy, that's an amazing price. Up here, the cheapest I know of is $15/month for 250MB, iPad-specific.

There is another network (Three) that does 1GB for £7.50, though their stupid website makes it impossible to link to the details.

Yeah, I remember seeing some incredible pre-paid data plans (Europe) when we were preparing for our most recent trip. Almost good enough to temp us to get a smartphone for the trip.

Over here, the backward system still charges the recipients of text messages.. so I have to have that basic feature disabled on my plan to avoid huge charges to read unwanted advertisements.

You need to look at Speakout Mark. No charge for incoming texts.

I love giffgaff, both my wife and I are on it:

£10 per month, 250 minutes, unlimited data*, unlimited texts* free giffgaff to giffgaff calls (up to 60 minutes per call).

Given that I call my wife the most (and vice versa), I actually hardly use any minutes per month.

Her iPad also uses the £10 gigabag, activated when needed. Would do the £5 one, but part of the giffgaff deal is that goodybags/gigabags run for a calendar month. If you happen to use all your allowance in the first day, then you drop onto the pay & go rates, you cannot buy another "bag" until the month is up.

I suppose we should really stockpile a bunch of sims and then swap if one gets overused.

Wish they did tethering though, it could be useful in the odd situation. Although saying that, the "low cost hotel chain" here in the UK has started allowing free 30 minutes of wifi per day......cough..mac address..cough.

I've always wondered (and googled, albeit not that in-depth) whether Mac OS is smart enough to know that your internet is being provided by a mobile network and therefore to not download software updates in the background (as mine is set to do) - I always thought that was a sure fire way to end up confused as to why all your data has gone.

(* unlimited means FUPPED)

OS X won't know what network it's on as far as limited vs unlimited. You can turn off auto downloading, so you just get a prompt to then download when updates are out.

Apple Menu - System Preferences - Software Update - uncheck "Download updates automatically"

Humn, that's the functionality as far as I understood it.

I just wondered that given that they know it's a tethered connection whether software update would automatically not download regardless of that particular update setting.

When I had tethering on my old carrier, I did what you suggested and disabled automatic updates, it just seemed a bit of a "backward" step given that it knows that the connection is tethered.

It's something that I think would be a good feature.

How does it know that it's tethered?

It would know it was an ad-hoc wifi connection rather than an access point managed one. But that obviously isn't the same as knowing it is tethered.

Or at least I assume a wifi network created by things like the iPhone is an ad-hoc network ?

Well, when I had tethering enabled on my iPhone (old carrier) and I tethered by fathers iPad to it it shows a different icon to the normal WiFi one, so it knows that it's connected to an iPhone.

My guess is that it's done by checking the MAC address of the phones WiFi connection.

Yeah, poker and blackjack. I did that for 4 years. Then they made it really difficult to play online poker, which was a really big hit. I didn't want to move to Las Vegas or Tunica, so the travel expenses really hurt me as I was forced to play live.

I still play quite a bit, and it's a decent second income, but without living in Las Vegas, it just isn't practical full time, at least making the kind of living I want to make. So I'm back in the computer software world. Maybe someday we'll be the land of the free again and I'll be able to play online again.

Great experience, though. Believe me, there is very little in the corporate world that stresses me out any more. STRESS having the next 6 house payments riding on a single turn of a card. This is a joke in comparison! :-)

I would think sore losers waiting in the parking lot for you might add to the stress as well.

Yeah, something to be aware of, definitely. I was never mugged, but I only play in casinos, and casinos have very good security. At the stakes I play, many home games get robbed, so I generally avoid them. I would also keep my money on deposit at the cage, using a "casino marker." Security is an issue any time there is a lot of cash. It attracts scum. In fact, I learned that casinos are pretty icky/sleazy places.

Poker is the most fun playing against other skilled, serious players. But it's the most profitable against gamblers, drunks, compulsive people and less intelligent people. So if you're in a great game, you're generally with people who are a bit edgy and not so fun (for me) to be around.

Online poker was fantastic, but that has been essentially outlawed by Big Brother.

I don't gamble (heck, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't chase women, I sold my Porsche... what is wrong with my life ) and I don't understand how the online poker thing works, or used to work as the case may be.

But wouldn't it be possible to cheat outrageously in such a game? For instance, what would prevent you from logging into a game simultaneously as three different players, on three different computers each on a different ISP? Wouldn't it be a huge advantage to know what half the cards in play were and who had them?

tanstaafl.

Yep, especially when the side that could be cheating is also the side running the game. There was no oversight at all into how the games were being run, and a number of fraud issues did occur.

They did. The argument was that this fraud was going to occur at the highest stakes games, so that it was worth it. So if you weren't playing those...

Edit to answer the original question: Yes, it's a potential advantage, but not as much as you think. In Holdem, the most commonly played poker game these days, you only get to see two more cards per player. How it was typically done is two players would put the victim "in the middle", surrounding them with raises. One colluding player would stay in with a weak hand, and force the victim to put extra bets in. It's actually fairly difficult to get any kind of advantage in poker, and that includes from collusion. Most people who get extra advantage from collusion do it by playing soft against each other, as using it to optimize your strategy against others requires a high degree of skill -- enough skill that they can probably beat the game without colluding. Good players will catch on quickly, and then nobody will play with them. The poker world kind of polices itself, and cheaters and deadbeats get reputations quickly.

Now, if you know your *opponent's* cards, then that is a HUGE advantage. There was a case where a software developer put a back door into the poker software so his confederates could see all the cards, including their opponents. But they were caught fairly quickly because their results were so outlandish it was obvious something was going on. Occasionally in a live game, you can sit next to a player who is not protecting their hand and you get to see their hole cards. Since you can play perfectly against them, it doesn't take long to get their money.

The other thing is, you can spot colluding players pretty easily if you know what to look for. Signaling and collusion happens in live games, too. It's like the old saying about if you can't spot the fish, then you are the fish. Those things are concerns, but the games were very good.

I've had an iPad2 in my home for a year now. It is there for work reasons, as I've been skeptical about the Tablet concept itself, and would have not spent the money on it if I did not have to. Since I had it, I forced myself to use it. My findings are:

1. I still would not spend money on it. But that is just because the iPad itself is, as a matter of fact, a mobile phone on steroids, with some differences. But:

2. Hardware quality is superb, as it is for the iPhone 4. That I like. And the display is very nice.

3. I could definitely not, although I tried, replace my netbook with the iPad. Again, as expected (see 1).

4. I am admired to how well Apple is targeting users who had no significant experience with PCs, the Internet, etc. Indeed, the iPad is simple and effective to them. This is very good job, indeed, but also the reason why I feel very much the same as Mark and Doug. I prefer much more my nettop.

5. The most important thing, for me. Form factor. It is super. I would have never said that if I did not own a tablet. I completely underestimated it. As a matter of fact, when on the couch watching TV, it is great to browse the internet on a tablet, and so much more pleasant than with the nettop. Or, carrying the iPad around in your bag and using it as a navigator, or to quickly access to the internet, it is very, vry nice. And, size and weight do make a difference and I completely understand those of you who prefer to carry an iPad rather than a nettop, assuming they can do with the iPad what they need. I'd do the same.

6. I too can't wait for Windows 8 to make a Tablet as powerful as a "real PC". I really hope they do it well.


Unrealted note, Metro on a laptop or desktop.
The idea sounded weird to me as well. But, I happened to work for few weeks on an all-in-one PC by Lenovo with Windows 7 (so, not Win8) and a touch screen. After few hours, I actually started to behave just as MS describes in its famous W8 dev blog: some times I instinctively touched th screen, others I would move the mouse, others the keyboard. Slowly, it went from weird and confusing to ok to natural to actually good. Eventually, i felt I actually was more productive, or quicker in doing what I wanted to do. So, I have to say I suspect actually MS has an interesting point. And, I was on Win7. Windows 8 is actually promising in this regard.

Matt, I don't know about you of course, but I've been using Windows 8 on a desktop of mine which I use quite often, although not my main PC at work, and I really never see Metro on it, nor I need the start button. All the reasons why I use the start button on my Windows 7 are actually carefully listed in the Windows 8 menu you pop up with the right-mouse click where the start used to be.
So, while I think now that Metro on a touch monitor, no matter how bit it is, will possibly be quite good, I am also not at all concerned by Metro on a non-touch. I doube I'd ever have to see it if I don't want to. Probably for a fraction of a second to logoff?

I'll just add to the online poker discussion since I played a LOT as well (though never for a living) and am now reduced to playing live, which I've been doing a lot recently.

I'm not sure how much collusion really went on. It turns out that a LOT of people were making a decent living (70-150K) playing stakes as low as 1/2 grinding multiple tables, and if any collusion was going on it was probably a lot higher stakes than that. The sites were definitely on the lookout for that kind of thing, and there were also sites like pokertableratings (much reviled by good players for a number of reasons I won't go into here) that captured hand histories and make them public so the general population had an eye into what was going on as well (they were not a philanthropic organization, but it did allow for people to examine closely players they thought were winning outside of an established winrate).

Winrates at onoline hold em are MUCH smaller than live, so the only way to make big money is to play a TON of hands (or play higher stakes). If someone is making an abnormally large winrate, people will know and they will be scrutinized.

One of the more intersting problems in poker (and this happens in all games, online and not) is what happens when the games get really tough like they were online (and still are, as far as I know). You end up with 5 players at a table who are very good and know who the other four players are that are good, and one bad player who basically is the reason the game goes. These good players aren't going to play very hard against each other because they know they don't have much of an edge- if you play 100,000 hands against an equally good player you'll both come out losers because you are essentially trading money back and forth with the poker site taking a cut out of every pot.

The pratical implication of this is, unless the bad player (The "fish") is in the pot, the good players (sharks) aren't going to bother, and they aren't going to play that hard against one another. This looks a LOT like collusion, and even though they tehnically aren't, when people get out of the way of each other and target a single player, that looks (and behaves) a heck of a lot like collusion. True they aren't seeing each other's cards, but the reality is they don't really need to. They have a good idea of where each other player is at and where the money is.

I've actually been enjoying playing live quite a bit more than online (the games are much, MUCH softer), but when you run bad you can lose a lot fast (which has happened to me over the last three months). I also struggle a lot with playing 30 hand per hour when I've played several hundred per hour in the past. It takes some getting used to

I use my iPad mainly for media consumption. However, one of our lead engineers here uses his iPad for taking notes and sketches during meetings. I have my plethora of notebooks, depending on the program, he has one iPad and does everything on that.

I was down on a production (or destruction I guess) line looking at parts that were questionable with a couple other folks. One guy had his iPad and was taking notes and pictures directly with it to keep everything in order. The rest of us relied on pencil drawings, copious notes and descriptions and a dedicated camera that we'll have to use to integrate all that stuff into a single document. I think his productivity (and the lead engineer's here) was probably enhanced quite a bit by their iPads. It really depends on what you want to do I guess.

Okay, so a portable computer with webcam helps.
That's not unique to an iPad.

Nope, but it is a lot easier holding a tablet up to take a picture than trying to maneuver a laptop/netbook around to get a picture based on the camera orientation

The killer feature of an iPad is definitely the form factor.

And it's a lot easier typing notes on a real keyboard than on a touchscreen imitation!

But yeah, that sexy form-factor turns heads for sure!

Mark, that depends a great deal on what sort of typist you are.

I am a fairly proficient touch typist (~100 wpm) and if I had to do all my typing on an iPad, I would soon turn it into a Frisbee and go outside and play with the dog.

My wife, marginally a touch typist, is perhaps a fifth my speed, and it probably makes little difference to her whether she is typing on a touch screen or on the holy grail of keyboards, the IBM Selectric typewriter.

The third category is the group that types with two fingers, probably wondering what all the fuss is about. "Screen? Hard keys? What's the difference?"

Is there a fourth category: "Thumbers"?

I'm guessing that you fall into the first category, maybe even at the extreme guru level of being able to use the number keys on the top row of the keyboard without looking at your fingers. I've always been in awe of people who could do that...

tanstaafl.

It also depends on the person and the physical keyboard. For whatever reason I can type more accurately and faster on the iPad keyboard than I can on the physical keyboard of our netbook.

I think part of the reason is the auto correction and auto completion on the iPad, it really does mean you can be a lot less accurate but still end up being accurate. I suspect the netbook keyboard with similar auto correction would be as fast for me as the iPad. Does Windows 8 add any sort of auto correction ?

I'd rather be on a real keyboard, but the form factor of the iPad means I can generally carry it around with me and it's usually within reach. I don't type essays on it, but for a quick post here or there it's much easier than keeping up with a laptop.

But by in large the keyboard is a non-issue, as what I'm using it for doesn't require much keyboard use. I use it to read, surf the web, follow forums, watch movies, stream webcasts to my TV, and check email. These are all things where the size of the iPad makes it a much better experience than my iPhone, but the flat, light form factor makes it more portable than a laptop.

Sure if I'm writing a novel or slinging code I'm going to need my laptop, but for the majority of computer related actives I do the iPad works well enough that the form factor makes it a much more accessible device that a laptop or netbook.

For example, this is posted from my iPad. While I'd rather be typing on a real keyboard, I do alright on the iPad, and the form factor is what is allowing me to sit here next to my mother and son while I post this (I wouldn't have bothered to boot up and mess with my laptop).

First off, it's great to be back. I've been missing you guys (just too much work).

I've had an iPad in my home for quite a long time, so far, and overall I am not a fan of it. I mean, I am really not. I would never spend money on an iPad (I got it for work. Long story). But, the one thing I do like, to my big surprise, is the form factor. I agree a physical keyboard is way better for typing, but all the other benefits of the smaller/lighter/thinner form factor make up for that, in most cases (as far as I am concerned, of course): at home watching TV or in the backpack/bag.

I can't wait for the first tablet-pcs to hit the market (Surface and similar). I'm definitely getting one, specifically for the form factor.