Apple iPad

[rdale]

Are you sure? I have a iPod Touch (no 3G) but when I'm in WiFi range I have a working GPS inside.

In any case, for chaser use, I would imagine you would be getting the 3G model or having WiFi already in the car. It wouldn't do much good otherwise.

 

[Chris K]

If it doesn't multitask now, just wait until it is jailbroken. Problem solved.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Are you sure? I have a iPod Touch (no 3G) but when I'm in WiFi range I have a working GPS inside.

In any case, for chaser use, I would imagine you would be getting the 3G model or having WiFi already in the car. It wouldn't do much good otherwise.

That's not GPS, that's just the iPod touch using the names of the wifi hotspots and checking them against a database to roughly guess where you are. There is no physical GPS hardware inside an iPod touch.

There's a way to get an external bluetooth GPS unit to work on an iPod, but it requires jailbreaking the iPod.

 

[rdale]

Thanks, I never understood how they did that! So how does the 3G use it for turn-by-turn mapping? Is it a really good guesser? And isn't the end result the same?

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

If you're in a really big city (with lots of wifi everywhere as is usually the case) the results are roughly the same, since wifi hotspots have very little range and triangulation is pretty easy for the iPod to do in such situations. If you're on the plains, say, chasing a tornado, your 3g iPod touch will have no clue where in the world you are.

 

[rdale]

So the GPS on the 3GS is no different than the GPS on the Touch? How do they do all the turn-by-turn stuff (and charge a healthy penny for )?

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

The GPS in the iPhones is actual hardware GPS. Sorry, for some reason I called the iPod touch "3g". a 3g ipod touch would be an iphone.

 

[Warren Faidley]

What a big disappointment!

Why would anyone want an iPhone on Viagra?

I am sure people will buy this just to look cool, but it's a total failure on the practical side. No real keyboard, a rip off price for the one with 3G, difficult to carry/handle, etc., etc. I am betting the price will drop like a rock in 6 months. Like others noted, the ATT coverage, which I use to swear by, is getting worse every year in chasing regions.

Although I still like the Apple system better much better than PC, Apple blew it. I do know for a fact that they were considering a design that included a full keyboard that simply folded over making the iPad a tablet.

For chasing, I've decided to use a Dell Mini-10 with digital TV. This way, I can purchase "pay as you go" Verizon bandwidth using a 760 USB modem.
Paying $50.00 for 500mb (for chasing and emergency work) is much better than a two year plan. (Extreme battery life, Bluetooth and the TV are a real plus for chasing). I also don't have to worry about my $2,500.00 Apple MacBook in the chase unit getting damaged, while using a $329.00 netbook!

W.

 

[John Erwin]

I would only consider buying this if it is not chained to a cell phone provider like a cell phone; to me it should be treated as a laptop type device (with cellphone capabilities). This way I could pick the provider of my choosing (or no provider at all and use wifi if that's my choice).

 

[Tim Purington]

Oh and by the way. The Ipad does not support Flash. Good luck with that.

 

[rdale]

The Ipad does not support Flash.

It's about time... Remember when Microsoft had special ActiveX stuff that you could only view with IE?!? That was a waste. Thank goodness for Apple and their HTML5 support instead.

 

[Scott Hammel]

I'm really excited for this thing and to use it chasing.

I wrote a blog entry up the night it was announced, not going to copy it all up here.

http://www.endlessweather.com/?p=440

Not a apple fan but I will have one this season!

Great write up but I don't get how you are going to be able to still stream with this? It doesn't have a camera on it, nor any inputs to hook a camera up to it? You mention a work around in your blog to which I'm all ears. I want this device to be a chaser tool so badly but in it's current form I don't see how it can be. I am very excited about the ChaserTV iPhone app which will probably make me jump from Severe Studios for this coming up season. Anyway, I'd love to hear about your streaming and the iPad plans for this season. Also, HTML5 is still a few years off as far as being fully integrated online. Flash support in the meantime seems like a no brainer to me.

 

[Jason Foster]

I've been laughing at some of the jokes being made about the iPad. Seems like it's looking to be a flop on intro. Of course, have to see what the sales will be after the next quarterly report that includes these in the sales figures to really assess the 'value' of the iPad.

 

[rdale]

Seems like it's looking to be a flop on intro.

I'm not sure many would agree with you on that...

It all depends on what you want. I have a laptop that takes a minute to boot up, and most of the time when I'm lounging around the house all I want is to read email, hit a few websites, watch some streaming video and read PDFs.

The iPad does all that with a 5 second boot, and much less intrusive than having to open up the laptop and turn it sideways to read in the right direction. My video will play in fullscreen, I can send basic emails, access my desktop with remote access, hit websites and listen to podcasts. It's lighter, it's nowhere near as warm. It can be held in one hand. iPad will do all that and more for me.

If you want this to replace your laptop - then purchasing it will be a flop. I don't think that's what they are trying to sell it as though.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Laptops take a minute to boot, but they take about 3 seconds to come out of sleep, which is the most useful state to leave them in (unless you're not going to use them for a very long time). The iPad (and iPods and iPhones) take about 30 seconds or so to boot. Try it sometime; cycle the power off by pressing and holding the top button and then sliding the software switch that pops up. What the iPod and presumably the iPad does well is come out of sleep quickly, which is where most people leave it.