Just been looking at the Asus 'Transformer'
Is this the best alternative yet, or will it fall by the wayside like all the rest?
I must admit to wanting an iPad, but the usual stuff applies, namely lack of USB & flash player.
What's out there & what's up & coming?
Cheers.
Who gives a toss about Flash on a mobile devise? Flash has historically been an issue on this site, which you ought to be aware of, and as for SD cards, why is that an issue? You can do plenty via wifi and airsharing, and SD cards aren't an issue, I copy pics to and from my iPhone vis SD card, and that doesn't have an SD slot either. If I can do it with my phone, you can do it with an iPad. I'm not going to tell you how, you should be able to work it out as easily as I did.
DELL inspiron duo? No idea what its like but saw an ad for it on the tube the other day and it looks good
Samsung 10".
cz he never mentioned sd cards it was usb he was worried about
wind in the defensive fanboi mode!
look at my tablet thread.
FWIW the Vega is not as good as the iPad by a long way, I've thought about it a lot and ordered an iPad
Have you? I'll need to see it when you get it. Fancy one myself.
You can connect USB devices to an iPad.
ipad is the best one out there by all accounts
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/science-%26-technology/ipad-2-begins-beautifully-designed-journey-towards-landfill-201103283666/
CaptJon, How?
Lack of Flash support is mostly a non issue. I VERY rarely now come across sites that don't fully support the iPad and when I do I just don't bother with them anymore and look for an alternative. I am an Ecommerce consultant and spend huge amounts of time online.
What USB devices would you want to connect? Your camera can connect with it via the memory card, there are USB chargers available for it and a few limited accessories. Its not really a device designed to be your one and only but does cross over with other devices such as laptops and phones quite a bit. As for carrying extra storage or data I do that via Dropbox. Other than that I personally have no need for USB connectivity.
Once you get over the idiotic anti Apple arguments and make peace with the fact that it's just a tool with an Apple logo on it you'll find it's currently the only tablet worth buying. I do hope it gets a competitor soon to push innovation but I do love my iPad.
Who gives a toss about Flash on a mobile devise?
Lack of Flash support is mostly a non issue.
I can't play Virtual Regatta on the iPad/iPhone as it's flash based. I need to be able to access the game at any time of the day which rules out apple solutions. 3g reception in our canteen is also pretty poor on the iphone/pad but for some reason the lads with HTC's don't seem to have a problem even with the same networks. However good the interface is the product is next to useless if you can't get a connection leaving you with a glorified media player.
Still think flash will appear in some form eventually - the competitors are running it, and once something comes close to the ease of use of an ipad the Market will become more competitive, which can only be a good thing.
*puts iPad on high shelf*
I can't play Virtual Regatta on the iPad/iPhone as it's flash based. I need to be able to access the game at any time of the day
Trying to get my head round this.... 
I've read that some of the camera kits for the ipad contain a usb port and its possible to connect keyboards and other things up through it.
iPad's definitely the best of the bunch, but the lack of flash support is a killer - there're loads of Spanish sites that use it, including my work one.
Not bothered about flash but I'd like to be able to connect an external HD to the iPad.
Once you get over the idiotic anti Apple arguments
I thought the OPs concerns were entirely technology based and perfectly valid - not anti-Apple at all.
Nothing yet comes close - cost me 290quid for a 16gb wifi iPad direct from apple.
Ace bit of kit
All the videos on BBC news are flash, no?
@molgrips: not talking about anyone in particular on this thread or another. Just gets on my goat that some people feel a desperate need to hate something. It used to be Bill Gates and it just happens to be Steve Jobs more recently. It is the best product for the moment, who cares who it is made by!?
@SkillWill: Sky News has one of if not the best iPad video apps available. BBC news have been the poor second cousin of anything on the iPhone/iPad. Their execution of news on these devices are pretty poor.
@Doug: can't say anything to that. Maybe just move along, nothing to see here. 
Apple wants to sell products and if Flash was so great they would have put it on the devices. Simple as that. The around 25-30 million iPad's sold, the around 100 million iPhones sold and all the recent Macbook Airs that shipped without flash is some indicator that lack of flash is not a killer for most people.
Yes Flash has already reappeared in some other form, it's called HTML5. 
A hell of a lot of video sites now support HTML5 and works well on the iPad including your most popular porn sites. Flash is a relatively old technology that simply hasn't kept up with mobile as much as they could have and unfortunately in a lot cases hurts the user experience more than it helps it.
I think the average user doesn't care about disputes between Apple and Adobe, Flash or HTML5. The point is that with an iPad I can't watch the videos on BBC News, with other tablets I can, so that is one reason why I won't be buying an iPad. It's an important enough reason for me, and perhaps the OP.
Dunno but was at my neice's yesterday. She's got an HP tablet of some description. It was about 500 miles away from an ipad, not a pleasant experience.
Yes Flash has already reappeared in some other form, it's called HTML5. A hell of a lot of video sites now support HTML5 and works well on the iPad including your most popular porn sites. Flash is a relatively old technology that simply hasn't kept up with mobile as much as they could have and unfortunately in a lot cases hurts the user experience more than it helps it.
I'd trust HTML5 a lot more if it were a closed standard, and the video tag is a joke. Until then Flash support is pretty much (for me at least) a requirement.
Just gets on my goat that some people feel a desperate need to hate something.
It's tribalism isn't it?
Apple wants to sell products and if Flash was so great they would have put it on the devices.
Well not really. Apple is run by a geek type techno-entrepreneur who has ideas about technology more than just marketing and business. So he can make techie decisions like not including Flash based on the tech itself.
I bet you any money that if he retires in the near future, the successor would have Flash all over the i-world in the next firmware update.
Got to be the Blacberry Playbook
Well not really. Apple is run by a geek type techno-entrepreneur who has ideas about technology more than just marketing and business. So he can make techie decisions like not including Flash based on the tech itself.
To be fair, the problems with Flash on mobile devices are pretty well documented: excessive CPU use, security concerns... Enough to justify not including them on the iPhone, for example. But (for me at least) an iPad must be able to access all the web, otherwise it's fatally weakened.
(The cynic in me also wonders whether Flash is banned as it allows you to write games and apps with going through the App Store...)
The point is that with an iPad I can't watch the videos on BBC News, with other tablets I can
Not sure about iPad but for the iPhone there is a dedicated BBC News app which works fine and plays all the videos and presents content in a more "mobile friendly" version than the main BBC site.
Failing that, you can use the Skyfire browser which plays all the videos on the BBC site just fine.
I'd trust HTML5 a lot more if it were a closed standard, and the video tag is a joke.
Big sites like YouTube, Vimeo, mpora etc have been serving up HTML5 video for ages. (and it's better than flash video because it takes less time to download and plays properly full-screen).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s72rGDUn2uo
playbook looks a bit small.
What is the real point of Flash? Most of the time it just pisses me off as it seems a waste of time but thats only my opinion.
I wonder if the Blackberry tablet locks up for no reason like my 8900 phone does requiring the battery to be pulled out.
What is the real point of Flash? Most of the time it just pisses me off as it seems a waste of time but thats only my opinion.
There are some good Flash games out there (check out sites like http://kongregate.com which have hundreds of free games, mainly in flash).
Trouble is that none of these games were designed with a touch screen in mind, so even if Flash was available on an iPhone/iPad (and wasn't a buggy-as-hell battery vampire) most of these games would be unplayable as they are designed for mouse and keyboard input, not touches and gestures.
Big sites like YouTube, Vimeo, mpora etc have been serving up HTML5 video for ages. (and it's better than flash video because it takes less time to download and plays properly full-screen).
That's Google's take on the video codec, but it's still not "standard" HTML5 (mainly cos such a thing doesn't yet exist...)
What is the real point of Flash? Most of the time it just pisses me off as it seems a waste of time but thats only my opinion.
I'm 100% with you on that one, 99 times out of 100 it's just eyecandy, the webdesigner justifying his/her wage and using the technology they're most comfortable with. Unfortunately, there are still too many useful websites out there that use the stuff, it's not going away for a while yet.
The point is that with an iPad I can't watch the videos on BBC News, with other tablets I can, so that is one reason why I won't be buying an iPad.
IIRC the Beeb was slow in providing non-Windows web content before, so no surprise that they have not caught on to the fact that Flash is not a universal format.
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