Top 10 reasons to hate Apple iPad / iPad 2
Top 10 Reasons to Hate Apple iPad / iPad 2
The purpose of this article is not to ridicule iPad, a revolutionary product, at least as far as the sales figures go and as far as the reaction of the people en masse is concerned. But then every product has its merits and demerits. We expect that Apple can work on some of these on future releases of iPad and iPad 2.
1. Apple iPad does not support printing – As compared to a netbook, printing document is never seamless with Apple iPad. There are applications, some of them at $10 or so, that claim to work on wifi printers, but the support for printers is not universal. In this area, the iPad suffers from the same problem the Linux has. In Linux, at least you can try to post your problem and someone from the open source community can come to your help.
2. There is no SD Card slot – Apple charges an extra $100 for 32 GB version iPad in comparison to the 16 GB version. Why not give 16 GB version with a SD slot ? People will buy a 16GB SD card just for $30 from eBay. The SD card slot could be used for seamlessly transferring the data between a camera and the Apple iPad.
3. There is no USB slot – At least not directly. You will need an Apple Dock that sells for $29. It is only then that you get the access to the USB port. Do you know any netbook or a notebook which needs an additional adapter to extend the USB slot.
4. Apple iPad can break easily, mechanically – Apple touts the iPad as thin. However, if you consider the cover that it comes with, its thickness becomes pretty close to some of the thin notebooks around. And if you remove the cover, the iPad will break if it happens to fall on a hard floor.
5. iPad does not come with a Camera - You go to buy a notebook or a netbook under $400 and it does not come with an integrated camera. Will you buy it ? Absolutely no. Integrated camera has become a Universal requirement in almost all the notebook, netbook and it was reasonable to expect one in a $600+ device called iPad.
Update – As pointed by John, the iPad2 does come with camera. However when the first iPad was launched there is no camera.
6. Is there a way you can open two windows in an iPad – True, iPad does support multitasking, in the sense that you can listen to Pandora while browsing safari. But can you really do the multitasking as far as the real world tasks are concerned. Can you browse safari while chatting on AIM ? I would like to know how.
7. No Support for HDMI – Look at the AMD’s fusion E-350 based notebooks and netbooks, these sub $450 netbooks and notebooks come with great leap in graphics performance and almost all of them come with HDMI ouput. All you need is a simple, single inexpensive HDMI cable universally available. Hook it to your HDTV and you are ready to go. Instead, Apple wants you to buy another white box, that they call Apple TV.
8. No real keyboard – This is actually not a very good reason to hate iPad. Its touch interface has been designed in a different way. But think of the Toshiba convertible netbook design – the Toshiba M780, for example. When it folds, its becomes like an iPad, and if you open up, you get a full fledged keyboard.
9. Apple iPad is a closed Ecosystem- Apple does not support any browser other than Safari. Imagine your Windows operating system not allowing any browser other than the internet explorer. Apple is a closed system – it only allows things that it wants. There is some merit in this path, however, we found banning the Google Voice too offensive. It allows only approved applications.
10. The 10th reason will be selected from your comment. So feel free to come up with your own reason to hate Apple iPad. We will select your reason and post here.
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You forgot to mention that Apple does NOT support Flash. There are many browsers that are based upon Flash and Apple does not support them. This is ridiculous.
Several of the these are incorrect.. the most blaring is that the ipad does not support printing. It does.. http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/airprint.html It’s mostly HP printers but it is being developed on to work with other brands as well. Also, the other point you made “iPad does not come with a Camera”. It actually come with two cameras – one on the front and one on the back. Get some background on a product before making a list that lists the negatives of using it.
The ipad and yes I bought one, has as much usefulness out of the box as as real computer without a OS. I paid $835 and had to buy a keyboard because I was tired of a smudge computer. Then it’s endless apps to make it run like my new HP laptop out of the box. My HP costs a lot less and I’m so much happier having a REAL COMPUTER AGAIN. Apple is hype. Windows is real. Save your money, get real.
Hi John,
I had HP Laser printer at my home that I use for occasional printing. I tried hard and could not get it to print on the printer. I had to email the file from the iPad to my own email and then I had to login from a Windows machine which had the printer driver to get the printer going.
If you can print from iPad – it is not straigthforward. I will warn users to check it before they buy iPad.
As far as the camera issue is concerned Apple iPad did not launch with a camera, something they fixed it in the next iteration – iPad2.
Thanks for bringing out the potential issues. I think it is still a great product, but I dropped my plan to buy the iPad after reading it.
Hi John,
Here are excerpts from the link you gave for the printing from ipad
Works with AirPrint-enabled printers.
You’ll find many AirPrint-enabled printers available. Just visit the Apple Online Store or view a list of AirPrint-enabled printers and find one that’s right for you.
- Notice that Apple itself is saying that it will support printing from a small class of printers that are AirPrint enabled.
If you already have a printer and you wish to make use of it to print the document – you are out of luck. Spent another $200 or so to buy an AirPrint enabled printer – just to be able to print from iPad.
The iPad 2 DOES have a camera and also shoots video. You can also take pictures or video either facing away from you or facing towards you. Ever been to an Apple store to try one out? Holy cow!!!
Flash is on its way out. Even MSFT says that there new tablet will not support flash. And Adobe has seen the writing on the wall and is developing HTML5. HTML5 is the future.
Yes you can open two windows in Safari at the same time. When you start working on one the other one minimizes but it is just a button away to switch back.
It sounds to me like you have never touched one, least of all even really used an iPad2.
I had purchased iPad ( as did million other users). And I do not see any Camera or video for that matter. I think we felt cheated that other cheaper Android pads come with camera. I would have preferred an Android based pad.
steve p.,
Tell it to billions of the websites and game sites to change the flash to html5. It is not as simple as you have projected.
Why not just buy an Android based pad.
My 2 cents on printer issue
You may like to wait till the release of the Windows 8 in early 2008. It will have support for All existing printer. The Windows based pads will be free from any of these issues.
11 th reason :
There is a $199 Amazon Kindle – Yes we can get 2 of them and still be left with $100 to buy books, music and video on amazon
12 th reason
We have Asus Transformer Prime – twice as good performance.
13 th reason : Apple stifles competition, when it have violated patents rights of Motorola.
14 th reason : Apple has led widespread unemployment in US by manufacturing the iPad and iPhone outside US. If it would have manufactured these devices in US – it would have created over 67,000 direct jobs and over 200,000 indirect jobs.
15 th reason – If I drop the iPad – it will break. It is gone.
1) but who prints on paper anymore? it’s like you are living in the dark ages. if you want to print, you can always print from any iPad, it’s fully wireless don’t forget.
2) You don’t need SD slots, the iPad is “wireless”, if you still want an SD slot add one for about $20. geesh!
3) Why would you still need USB when it’s wireless? The author of this list is about 10 years behind in technology.
4) No, the iPad is remarkably strong, it can fall from 6 feet, multiple times with no dents or dings. But i’d worry about your floor since the iPad is far stronger.
5) yes, it has 2 cameras.
6) it’s not made for multiple apps on top of each other, you are thinking of laptops which cost over 3 times more for the level of quality of an iPad.
7) Why in the world would you still need HDMI? that died awhile back. the iPad uses “AirPlay’, so you can wirelessly beam video into your TV or music into your Stereo. dude, why do you keep thinking you still need to use cables? Apple is so far ahead of you it’s not funny anymore.
8) no the iPad has a full keyboard, so it seems like you have never touched one. if you want a physical keyboard, just add one wirelessly. there are 100′s to choose from.
9) no, the iPad also supports Opera, and having a slightly closed ecosystem is partly why everyone wants an iPad, it gives you more freedom to explore without worry from viruses or poorly written code. look at the mess that Android & Windows became, nobody wants to repeat that mistake.
10) the author of this list has never used an iPad and is completely clueless about the Apple computing environment. he’s probably still a windows user! he doesn’t even know that usb has been replaced by 802.11n! so is living in a world about 10 years behind apple users.
Can iPad open pdf’s?
No It can not open pdfs.
Yes, the iPad easily opens PDFs, basically anything that is an open standard the iPad will support out of the box.
@Ted
if you want a physical keyboard, just add one wirelessly. there are 100′s to choose from.
- If you really want a keyboard – you may like to get Microsoft Surface.
Apple is a big thief. It literally stole the Swiss clock design from the Swiss Railways. It makes several billion dollars in profit.
Why does it steal other’s design instead of creating one by itself ?
Apple has no respect for the court orders. When it lost the case to Samsung in UK court it was asked to post an apology on its website. Instead of posting apology it did just reverse – posted the fact that the UK judge was wrong.
Apple should be tried for contempt of court and its CEO should be put behind the bar.
Everyone forgot another reason (that’s shared by other tablets, alas). When the battery wears out, the tablet is now junk. I guess Steve Jobs simply scrapped cars when he needed a jump and bought new cars because he was so rich. So, he simply took his own wastefulness and added it to the iEverything. Apple being green? About as green as an oil company.
NOTE: Apple is not the only company to ship jobs to dime an hour China. All the computer companies are guilty. For a $500 iPad, only $8 worth of labor goes in it per ABC News – at an alleged $2/hour. I suspect the ABC News estimate of wages is off. More like the dime.