Model railroading and the iPad ...
My friend got an iPad this last weekend, and he let me borrow it for an hour. My first impression is - dang, this sucker is fast! Typing on the software-based popup keyboard was easier than I thought it was going to be, and in a short time I was able to type at a pretty good clip with it.
I can easily see how useful this little guy's gonna be. Finally, the laptop has been liberated as a device that is pretty darn portable. Sit in the easy chair, relax in bed with it, take it to the layout room. And from what I've been reading, the battery life exceeds Apple's 10 hour projection by 1-2 hours. Not bad!
I found this amusing anecdote posted on the web by one reviewer ...
Perhaps the most telling part of Silverman's review, though, is when he shared "prior to our iPad's arrival [one person emailed him and] said she didn't understand why anyone would want or need an iPad. Now she just keeps saying, 'No, you can't have it back.'"
I've got my 3GS version on order for the end of this month ... I'm looking forward to putting MRH though its paces on this guy!
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Comments
Here's an Idea
Joe, since MRH is a cutting edge pub anyway, how about an article by one of you rtech savy folks on tablet PCs as a modeling tool . . . I'm looking at the iPad as my next laptop purchase, but I'm not sure i want a touchpad keyboard . . .
Philip H. Chief Everything Officer Baton Rouge Southern Railroad, Mount Rainier Div.
Mine's in Hong Kong right now....
Apple sent me tracking info starting at the factory in Schezuan (sp?). They made no attempt to disguise the fact that it is made in China.
IPads
I look forward to your review Joe; hopefully this is the device many of us have been waiting for.
bkempins wrote:
Pretty much all Apple products are made in China.
Brian S
Model Railroading is not a hobby; it's a symptom.
iPad and MRH
Joe, as you might already know, the iPad's iPhone 3.2 OS (itself a derivative of Max OS X) does not accept any Adobe Flash input, as from a website rich in Flash such as MRH's e-magazine. The absence of Flash is fine for me generally. It is a CPU hog.
Apple is trying to encourage publishers to move to the use of the much more CPU economical html-5 specification for viewing movie type material. YouTube and several news magazines already provide html-5 for movie type material in web pages. Will MRH use that specification in the future?
I got my iPad Saturday April 3 courtesy of UPS and really like it. Eventually I see DecoderPro on an iPad using blue tooth to communicate with my NCE system. How is that for dreaming!
John
More on iPad and MRH
I forgot to mention in my last post that MacOS X works fine itself with Adobe Flash on my laptop and desk top Mac's and I like the rich content of MRH's extended versions. But I would like to view the same multimedia on my iPad, which to me is much handier a device than a laptop, and for that purpose MRH, as I understand Apple's intent, would have to include html-5 (or H-264 codecs for Quicktime) coding to view that multimedia on an iPad. I am not a techie so if my terminology is off, please understand that I am voicing my thoughts as a layman.
John
Heat & the iPad
I saw an article on the internet that suggested there might be a problem with heat. The article suggested that the iPad would stop working if its temperature got above 95 degrees. So Joe, to help with your evaluation, take your iPad downstairs, turn off the fans, and tell us what happens during the April operating session, say around 10pm.
Bob
iPad and MRH
I picked up a 16gig iPad this past Saturday, looking forward for Model Railroad Hobbyist to being available in a iPhone OS compatible format. BYT, I stopped using a PC since the turn of the century, and have no intention of ever using a PC again.
For the Linux users amongst us, Debian runs better on a Mac.
Wayde
would be nice if....
UPS could actually deliver the package, or at least figure out where in Alexandria it is! It made it as close as my front porch before it disappeared into the UPS void.
What can brown do for me?
Non-delivery...
...hopefully they didn't give your neighbor a late Christmas present?
--
Jeff Shultz
http://www.shultzinfosystems.com
The Willamette & Pacific RR - Oregon Electric Branch
Model Railroad Hobbyist Technical Assistant
I've been watching the TV
I've been watching the TV adds for the Ipad for about two weeks and about an hour ago on HDNET CH 258 they had a 20 min show all about the Ipad with 4 people discussing all the apps and the apps it is hopping to incorporate into the next version even though version #1 is just hitting the market Ipad 2 will have twice the function and at a lower price and that should hit the market in 2012 or early 2013. Bernard I saw the ups truck go buy 3 times today here in Winchester Virginia I really think he is lost. I pointed East to Alexandria
Dan
Rio Grande Dan