You think 499 is really that ridiculous?

As far as I can tell from what I'm reading about it, yes. But I'm not one who just HAS to have the latest gadget either.

this kinda blew my mind.

What's the time lapse on this thing? That is crazy nuts cool. This guy knows that software pretty darn good. I can't believe I watched the whole thing,

It's cool that you can do that, but I still wish that there would be a good, Apple-supported stylus for these things.

Even though it's possible to create a realist painting like he's doing - with several hours of work and fine-tuning - I don't think you could do any kind of quick sketching on it that would be worth a damn. Notice how loose his base drawing is and how little it resembles his subject until he's chiseled away at it for hours. Even with a screen the size of the iPad, I don't think you can ever get any kind of reasonable line fidelity by drawing on it with your finger. The only way he achieves any detail on this is by zooming in, and you can't constantly be zooming in and out while sketching. You need to be able to draw loosely and quickly but clearly. I mean, maybe with enough practice people could start learning to do that with their fingers, but I really think Apple should try to develop a better drawing solution for the iPad. After all, Mac users are all supposed to be artistically inclined, right?

plus, at the end of the day, you're just some douchebag doing it on an iPad.

But an iPad would be awesome if you could carry it around and use it like a sketchbook.

And shit, I meant "realistic", not "realist", obviously.

Agreed with Drinksy. That would've been an incredible selling point. I wouldn't think that a technology that has been around for 10+ years on Wacom pads would be that out of reach for Apple to integrate onto their OS.

While I agree that this would be cool, the ipad is a machine for the masses not hipsters sketching robots in the park. It really just packs your entertainment into one place that is highly portable.

It's actually quite awesome and I love my wife's.

I don't agree with the sentiment that it would only be for hipsters. Why else would Nintendo DS include a drawing application, or MS Paint? People like to doodle. It would be one more application to set it above a glorified e-reader. For me, being able to play checkers, and browse the web isn't enough. There needs to be a selling point that will immediately set it apart from a laptop, which it hasn't, imo.

I'm also willing to guess that yr wife doesn't have a laptop that she carried around previously.

Clearly, the hipster thing was joke. Are Nin DS and MS paint more sophisticated than the ipad? (Serious question)

My wife and I have probably had about 10 laptops between us both mac and windows, and this is a lot more than a glorified ereader. We rarely touch our laptops aside from work related stuff now.

Of course they're far less sophisticated, which is why it seems like even more of an oversight that they would have such an obviously useful feature that the iPad lacks.

And just because you're never inclined to draw anything doesn't mean that a lot of regular people wouldn't have practical and/or leisurely use for such a feature. I could actually justify buying one as a tool for work if it had serious drawing capabilities. It could do away with the need for any kind of physical notepad just by having the ability to jot down notes and draw rough diagrams. Try doing that shit with your finger in whatever sketch/paint apps it has.

Drinksy hit it. I was just trying to illustrate that a drawing program was on platforms that are geared to the general public, and not limited to niche markets only.

I'm not against the Ipad. On the contrary, I think it has the potential to be an amazing tool. However, I really feel like they dropped the ball on the immediate release. I just don't see who their market is. Most people who are inclined to buy it already own either a smartphone or a laptop. It does nothing extra placed side-by-side to those. That's really my beef with it. It adds nothing to the digital environment.

You keep missing the point. I am John Q. Public when it comes to computers. It's not a work machine and there is no reason for anyone to buy an ipad for work. It's a sheer consumption machine for people who want one device to read books/mags/internet, listen to music, etc. And it does all of that better than any computer I've ever owned.

I'm not asking if the ds is more sophisticated as a machine but whether their sketching app is more useful than the one the homey is using in the above clip.

Nah, the point is if this is if those are such rudimentary tools (DS, MS paint, etc), then why wasn't something like it included. I think my point is those have a higher line fidelity that what appears above. You don't have to include it with the Ipad, just offer it as an extra. An app even.

That's cool that you use it to do all those things, but John Q. Public doesn't have the money to plop down for something their laptop does already, so proclaiming this is "for the masses" isn't really viable here. This is a luxury product. Because to be honest, I can buy a $250 web-book that does a ton of the same features.

I started to accuse you of the same, but I held off, as you should have. I know exactly what the iPad is and what it's being marketed as, but it could incredibly useful, not just fun. And the drawing capabilities are just one more example of this.

As far as whether or not the DS drawing app is more sophisticated than the iPad one that guy is using in that video, without ever having used either I'm sure it's safe to assume that the iPad app is more sophisticated. Sophistication isn't the issue, though. It could be dead simple as long as it let you draw a decent line.

Fair enough. I'm not going to split hairs on what it could be because it's great (actually, the best) at what it is. Sorry, Apple didn't include a free blow job feature on it.

And I'll also add that I didn't want one at all. But my wife did and after having it, I think it's something that is best appreciated through use of it.

I just disagree here. At 499, it's affordable especially for an apple product. Everyone I know has an iphone or similar phone these days. And I'm seeing some version of an e-reader every where I turn. So it's not a stretch for someone to see it's utility and pay that.

You could buy a web-book but it's really not the same. And most web-books I've seen have been absolutely shitty with a few exceptions.

I'm curious...if you had a choice between the iPad or the new iPhone, which would you get now that you have the iPad. I was going to grab the iPad for the wife but now I'm leaning towards the iPhone cause it seems to do most of the stuff the iPad does.

What say you?

I'd honestly go w/ the ipad but that's mainly because I have the old iphone and I don't feel a real need to replace it at this point. And the ipad is a much better experience than my iphone. Not even close.

this thing needs more storage capacity before i buy one.

That's the only thing I don't like about it. Outside of a blowjob machine, my second hope would be that I could store a lot of music and video on it. As it is, I don't have music on it.

the ipad is sexy and fun but in terms of drawing...please.
i'll keep my pen and cocktail napkin.

You have a pretty good system for saving and organizing those cocktail napkins?

pockets. book pages. random wall space.
they're either sketchbook size or eight feet tall.