Must. Wait. For. Next. Version.
You know, the smaller one with the front facing camera. So my kids can do FaceTime with their grandparents.
Or the one with a (dare I hope) retina display. I guess that's probably a few versions out.
Video calls are most often made with a desktop computer or laptop. Laptops have a camera at the top of the screen. Most Webcams are attached to the top of monitors. So you are typically eye level with a desktop webcam or just above with a laptop. That's a fairly natural position.
With an iPad it is most often put on a table, your lap, held in your arm on an armrest or your lap or propped up on your lap or chest when lying down.
All of these cases would have a highly unflattering view if using video. "Looking up someone's nostrils" is how I'd describe it. I could see it working in the keyboard dock, if you have that (which I don't) but that mimics a laptop setup.
I'm not saying they won't add a front facing camera but just think about the practicalities of it.
As for Gen 2, I've gotten so much use out of mine that I won't think twice about selling it to buy the new one. I simply use it that much that it's a complete no brainer. Few devices I own, other than my PC, get that much use.
I'd like to see more memory. Not because I need it but because more applications will be possible with it. I'd also like to see digital out. There is a VGA out connector but it's analog and has idiotic restrictions on it like you can't play iTunes video on it, I guess as an appeasement to the idiots at the MPAA.
But front facing camera? For me it's pretty low priority.
As far as form factor goes, there might be a smaller one. Rumours of a 7" iPad persist. I'm frankly unconvinced. Even if there was one I wouldn't buy one. A 10" screen for a portable device is truly wonderful. I'm not going backwards, I don't care how much lighter it might be.
And as far as Android/WebOS/Windows tablets go, my own view is that the competition is AT LEAST two years behind. Sure in the next 6 months you're going to see any number of crappy tablets coming out but it will be at least 1-2 years before they'll have the polish, battery life and especially the ecosystem of the iPad.
Not because I'm utterly convinced of its utility but because for $99 I don't really care if it doesn't meet my expectations.
I agree. It doesn't weight much more than a paper tablet (or at least it doesn't feel like it) and that's one of the things it replaced for me. For me the size is perfect.
What if the camera wasn't fixed in one direction?
I have n iPhone 4 too and will certainly pull that out of my pocket and use it but at home I just prefer the larger screen.
The retina display makes a huge difference for reading, so I tend to use the iPhone for feeds and things, but for anything creative the iPad is the clear winner.
I configured her account so that she got a humble 1024x768 screen, so she could read what appeared on the screen. I know I could just tell X to use twice as many dpi as it wants, but this was a lot simpler.
OTOH, when I have to use her computer, I am always surprised by the endless screen real-estate. And, with the pixel-density properly configured, fonts are exquisitely drawn. And that's on a somewhat big screen. I can only imagine what would happen on a iPad-sized thing.
Those aren't things you can explain — you have to experience using the iPad for several days to understand. It really is a different device from everything we are used to.
A lot of the second group didn't "get it". Once they used it many of them were convinced. Basically, those that haven't tried it tend to be more negative about it as a whole.
There is something about the experience that is hard to articulate. The feel of it, the convenience of it, the fact that's instant on, the UI... just the whole package really.
Today the screen is 132 ppi - taking that up to 326 ppi would make it somewhere in the vicinity of 2528x1896. Would Safari then be blowing up web sites so ~960px width sites don't look tiny on that resolution?
They wouldn't actually do that. They'd "just" double the resolution so the applications can easily be scaled up losslessly, as with the iPhone 4. So you'd get a 2048x1536 screen at 264dpi (one thing to consider is that you'd probably hold your iPad further from your eyes than your iPhone, so the you can have slightly bigger pixels).
Modern hardware absolutely isn't able to provide such pixel densities on such a small surface at an affordable price, and even less able to drive those things using mobile CPUs and GPUs (we're talking about the resolution of your average 30" screen, which still kicks modern GPUs in the teeth)
I see the potential to merge two great internet themes: apple fans and gold bugs. Rather than harken to yesteryear, we should use Apple products as a "store of value"!