Best browsing experience I've ever had?

Me, I like my kindle deliveries. Short and sweet and simple - I don't need the fancy text, just the articles. And unlimited access to wikipedia.

I'm not buying it for a while.... let other people sort out the bugs. All of my friends had issues with their newly-released-upon-the-market iphones. I really want an ipad, but am totally willing to wait.

Ha... what if Steve Jobs said that it was only the second best browsing experience he'd ever had? He has to say that.

I had dinner with a bunch of techies last night..the group included a guy who builds fiber optic networks for Verizon and a guy who runs an online flower business who has just launched a new product with NY designer David Beahm(http://www.flora2000.com/) . Both are gung-ho Apple users but they both declared that the ipad will flop because it doesn't offer anything 'new'! Apple-ennui already?

That's really funny, uptowngirl. It's a bad sign for them if the ridicule has started already.

An article in today's NY Times about Steve Jobs' so-called culture of elitism...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/weekinreview/31lohr.html

Okay, so here's how the iPad is wreaking havoc on the prices consumers pay for e-books:

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108723/e-book-pricing-put-into-turmoil

Does anyone know yet how to get their hands on an ipad? My better half seems to want it as a birthday prezzie and since its next to impossible to find him a present that he likes I was happy when he expressed that he would appreciate an ipad. So I trotted off to the fifth avenue Apple store yesterday but the staff had no demo models nor did they have any idea on when they would ship. I know the initial announcements said 60 days before it ships but how does one order it online?

@uraniumfish I think no matter what its critics say the ipad will prevail in this battle over the kindle.. its just the universal appeal that apple seems to have ...

@uptowngirl The numerous emails I received from Apple directed me here: http://www.apple.com/ipad/

@Uraniumfish Those are crazy prices for ebooks. Seems like they should cost a bit less, since there is no actual physical book manufacturing going on....

@BroadwayBk Thanks I signed up for the notify me!

@uptowngirl Of course. You'll have to let me know how your husband likes his iPad... when he finally gets one.

@BroadwayBK of course I will.. though I wonder if it will be functional overseas since we are due to move in a while. Apparently its coming bundled with AT&T and some new kind of sim card..have to find out about that...

I don't know if I will buy one or not. I'm not into Apple stuff. I am into that crazy about spending a ton of cash for something. I am a money saver, not a spender. I only spend my money when I need it, not because I want it.

On the other hand, if the price is good, and it does what I need, I'll think abut buying one.

@BroadwayBK, I try to tell myself the high prices for ebooks go in the pockets of the authors, not the middlemen, but I don't know how convinced I am of this.

@uptowngirl I'm interested if your husband likes the ipad too, uptowngirl. And also if it's usable abroad, which would be an important point.

@Uraniumfish Keep dreaming. I seriously doubt that. Though I don't think the lit world is as crummy as, say, the music industry. I do hope you're right, however.

@uptowngirl I'm also curious about whether it works abroad... I know my AT&T service works worldwide; don't see why the iPad wouldn't.

Ladies I will keep you posted on the ipad purchase and use. Also BroadwayBK aren't AT&T's roaming charges horrendous? Wonder if you have to unlock the ipad like any GSM phone bought in the states to get it to work overseas whatever it is I am sure the techies of the world will soon figure it out.

I read someone that Steve Job is having legal problems with iPad. Has this changed?

hhusted, you might mean because of the name belonging to someone else previously. That's probably a legal snag, but I'm sure they'll figure out some settlement. Steve Jobs is a big boy and I guess if he has to he can pull out the big guns.

You can actually purchase different plans that decrease your international roaming charges. http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/international-roaming.jsp?wtSlotClick=1-0021N8-0-1&WT.svl=calltoaction

But yes, they are horrendous. When I was living in Europe I still had my T-Mobile cell in addition to a local one, and I have to say that they were not much better.

Knowing Steve job, he will win out in the end and will get the iPad made and shipped out.

@BroadwayBK Asia is much better for local telecom rates. For instance in India a monthly data plan which gives you adequate data coverage for a Blackberry or an Anrdoid phone ( dont know about the i-phone) costs as little as $6 a month. Incredible isn't it? On my recent visit there I noticed almost everyone was carrying a personal Blackberry so much so that I actually asked my husband to buy some shares in RIM as I am convinced its market share in Asia is bound to expand dramatically. Similarly we are hoping that the ipad when I buy it will be compatible with foreign sim cards

@uptowngirl That absolutely is incredible. And it makes you wonder why we can't have better rates from our phone companies. That said, they have all the good technology over there. I'd much rather have a souped-up Sony Ericsson than an iPhone... but our cell phone selection is absolute crap compared to whatthey offer in places like Japan.

@BrodwayBK The husband is a Sony Ericsson devotee while I am faithful to my Nokia E51 which has Wi-Fi and Tzones and meets all my current needs. I am stoutly resisting pleas from my family overseas to get a Blackberry only because I dont want to pay hefty data package charges and the various taxes that we have to pay here in the US.

@uptowngirl Our lack of technology is just making me sad now.... I guess as a part of the social networking, internet-crazed generation I feel like it's my duty to own an iPhone. But if they had any of the Sony Ericsson models that I want in the states, I would make the switch so fast...

About ebook prices - I just wanted to alert people to a fun fact. Most classic ebooks - ie, those out of copyright, which means anything early-twentieth-century and earlier - can be found for kindle/ebook readers free online - at feedbooks.com, projectgutenberg, etc. Just download them in mobipocket format and you can have thousands of books without either the Ipad or the Amazon prices. I myself got nearly 600 books for free this way - and I read most of them!

@ajadedidealist I had heard that a lot of ebooks could be obtained for free, but I worried that the selection wouldn't be the best - like what you can stream on Netflix for free or something. That's great though - presumably you can read a lot of classics free of charge. Do you find that reading on a Kindle hurts your eyes at all? It's hard for me to read extensive articles online, but I'm assuming the Kindle is made to be a bit easier on the eyes.

The only problem with getting e-books for free is that if one of them happens to be an e-book that was published in the last 5 or 10 years, and it still in circulation, that means that one particular e-book is being given away illegally. I ran into that myself lately. I have my name set up as a Google Alert. So if someone decides to offer my e-book as an upload to a download site, I can put a stop to it. And this is what happened. This one particular person decided to be stupid and tried to upload my e-book to download sites. I caught him, and now he hasn't done it since. I will not allow anyone to download my e-book for free, since it is being offered by my publisher as a paid e-book.

So the next time you get e-books for free, check them out and make sure they are legitimately free to use.

@everyone just read that the ipad will become available on April 3rd.. can imagine the stampede at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store though its also going to be sold at Best Buy ! http://www.knowyourcell.com/news/433878/apple_ipad_to_become_available_on_april_3_preorders_start_march_12.html
Here's some more info on the device. ..
http://www.knowyourcell.com/news/405791/10_areas_where_the_apple_ipad_is_lacking.html
Also I believe there are rumblings that the ipad may soon be discounted. An Cell network in Australia is already planning to do so-http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/hutchison-austria-to-offer-discounted-ipad-with-2-year-contract/ Wonder if the US networks will follow ?

I wouldn't mind moseying over to the Apple store to see what all the fuss is about. And to see whether it really is all that magical.

@Uraniumfish Since I have to buy one as a prezzie at the end of the month , I am planning to drag along a friend who studies at Columbia to avail of Apple's student discount... apparently its going to replace the netbook..and I am curious as well...

No way! I'm not giving up my shiny, tiny, portable, highly efficient netbook for the world! I love it!

I'm curious to see if the keypad is as annoying as the one on the iPhone? I can never press the buttons I mean to press on that thing. Wait...Apple has a student discount?

I was on the iPad train, but now I'm seriously considering getting one of the Sony Vaio P series. I just want a little computer that I can lug around the city. My current laptop isn't that heavy, but I worry about damaging it if I'm hauling it all around the city. Anyone else have this problem? Maybe it's superfluous to have two laptops, but it will bring me serious peace of mind.

@BroadwayBK makes sense if you work outside the home a lot..the only concern I have with tiny netbooks is that they don't have much space and you have to keep transferring stuff to your backup pen drive/hard drive.. I am useless at taking backups ..in fact I just bought a second laptop.. I am going to use my current one to watch online TV and stuff when I move while the second one will be for work. Actually its also an insurance in case this one packs up.. for last time when I put my laptop through the scanner at JFK the display got all weird for a couple of days.. it righted itself afterward but I was most upset for I didnt know what caused it.!

@uptowngirl The P series is an 8'' notebook with 128GB of space. Not as much as my main laptop, but I think it's enough. I don't really work outside home a lot, but I would really like to start.... I agree; I think it's a great idea to have two laptops lying around, in case of some kind of emergency! I didn't know the airport scanners could harm your computer?!

@BroadwayBK - when I got my netbook, I got a huge monitor cheap for my original laptop, so now I have one portable and one desktop (somehow it felt like spending/wasting less money than just having two laptops). Really worthwhile. My netbook is a tiny, sturdy (I hope) old girl, with great battery life - seven hours of writing!

@ajadedidealist That is a lot of battery life! What kind of netbook is it?

@BoradwayBK It seems perfectly okay to have two computers and it makes sense professionally. If you count on your computer to do your job then the investment in a second, back-up one is the best kind of investment you can make. I have a couple of computers too, one for graphics and film editing, and one for the "everyday."

@BroadwayBK You can never have too many laptops, period.

Ha...thought my wants were a bit excessive, but I guess I am the only person without at least two computers! I'll soon fix that...

@BroadwayBK: I understand your concerns as it relates to your laptop. I am also concerned about lugging my laptop around. Mine is kind of heavy and I am concerned about damaging it. So I thought about buying a netbook to take with me as well.

@Uptowngirl: You can get a netbook with a 120 Gig hard drive. They do come with them. Of course, those models are more expensive, but they are available.

@Uptowngirl: What airport did you go through. I went through them plenty of times with laptops and never had a problem. The system they use is not magnetic but is some kind of laser. It will not harm your equipment. Maybe you had an old laptop with an LCD screen. They do get kind of weird after passing through a laser. That is because they are made of transistors and capacitors. When a laser goes through a path and your laptop happened to be in that path, the laser's molecules also somehow induced a voltage in the transistors and the capacitors got charged as a result.

Since then, the digital displays in laptops are no long made of transistors and capacitors. In fact, most are not LCD. They are built with cells, where light travels through them. No transistors or capacitors.

This link will explain more for you:

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/laptops/index.html

@hhusted I have no idea what screen my Acer Extensa has so wouldnt know. This was on my trip to Hong Kong ..I passed through the scanners in terminal 7 at JFK and when I opened up my laptop in the lounge the display was all screwed up as the screen was red. I rebooted the machine but it didnt help.. I was extremely upset as I hadnt bothered to take a backup and was terrified I had lost my work. However when I powered up the laptop in Hong Kong two days later it was fine. At that point I put in an order for a new Lenovo and will now be traveling with both my machines. I have never had this problem before and was really spooked by the experience,

@Uptowngirl: Did you have trouble with your screen before? A red screen signifies that the video hardware is not firing. Was your laptop manhandled or roughed up when put through scanner? You have an older model that has a primitive CCFL. The CCFL is an integral part of your LCD screen.

Thankfully it booted at the hotel later. Hopefully, your new laptop won't give you any trouble.

@hhusted I have never had a red screen before and this laptop has been through many airport scanners .. its about two years old .. guess its time to replace it anyway.

@Uptowngirl: Laptops are not made like desktops. The parts in laptops go faster. That is why businessmen are often replacing or upgrading their laptops. They just don't last that long. Of course, it depends on the brand. Some brands do last longer than others.

@hhusted yes I think what you say is true my last acer gave me 3 years, this one now two ..let's see how the Lenovo holds up!

@uptowngirl @hhusted My first Sony Vaio survived seven years of use. Of course having such an old laptop became a problem in itself, as computers these days come with a lot more disc space and the newer versions of Windows began to take up a lot more disc space as well. Ultimately, it seems like replacing your laptop every few years is the way to go if you want to keep up to date with technology.

@BroadwayBK I can't imagine what a laptop even looked like 7 years ago! Like Zach Morris' cell phone looks to us now, maybe?

It was a bit thicker than your average modern laptop, yes. And much slower. It was unimaginably slow. But that was before my freelancing days...

@BroadwayBK: I had a Compaq Armada years ago. It was slow booting and slow running. The problem I had with it was the screen. I lived with my girlfriend back then and she had cats. The cats constantly sat on the laptop. Eventually the weight caused damage to the screen. I don't let that happen this time. I put my laptop up at night where the cats can't get to it.

@hhusted That's actually pretty funny. They liked how warm it was, I guess?

@BroadwayBK Seven years ago I was using my husband's handed down IBM ThinkPad which was I think not acclimatized for the tropics for it died on me because of what the technician said was too much moisture accumulation. Don't if the technician was pulling a fast one on me or the laptop had just come to the end of its natural life for nowadays laptops bought in the US seem to work just fine in tropical climes.

@uptowngirl I never actually had a computer die on me (knock on wood), just had one become so completely outdated that it was ridiculous to even think of continuing to use it. That first Sony Vaio (bought it 2001) spent a fair amount of time in tropical locations and it never seemed like the tropical climate had much of an impact, but then again I mostly used it indoors.

@BroadwayBK: I am glad you had that experience with your laptop. I wish I didn't have the same problem. I had three computers die on me in 10 years time. I backup my most important stuff now.