Verizon Will Sell iPad+MiFi Bundles, Starting Oct 28th 135
wiredmikey quotes from today's much-anticipated announcement from Apple that Verizon is joining the iPad club, which means that: "iPad will be available at over 2,000 Verizon Wireless Stores nationwide beginning Thursday, October 28. Verizon Wireless will offer three bundles, all featuring an iPad Wi-Fi model and a Verizon MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot, for a suggested retail price of $629.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 16GB + MiFi, $729.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 32GB + MiFi and $829.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 64GB + MiFi. Verizon Wireless is offering a monthly access plan to iPad customers of up to 1GB of data for just $20 a month. In addition, Verizon Wireless will also offer all three iPad Wi-Fi models on a stand-alone basis."
Since the Verizon bundles don't seem to offer the kind of subsidy that many phone purchases do, it would make sense to shop around for the same functionality (Wi-Fi iPad + 3G service) from other carriers. For instance, if you live within Sprint's city-centric 3G footprint, and want more than 1GB of data, Virgin Mobile's branded MiFi offers unlimited transfer (within the limit of the network — it's no FiOS, but I've used it with Skype and Google Voice) for $40/month.
Tag article SLASHVERTISEMENT (Score:2, Informative)
Thanks for trying to appeal to th' geeks, but we are awarrrrrrrgggg!!!! of your marketing ploys.
Thank you,
The undersigned.
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Droid + iPad bundle opportunity (Score:3, Informative)
1gb/month (Score:5, Insightful)
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Also, I'm going to take this opportunity to once again state how much of a rip off a 64GB media player is for $830. I can buy a very capable laptop with 3G capability for less than that and it will be useful for more than just browsing pictures and watching youtube. Honestly, my Samsung Epic is just as capable as the iPad for most purposes and costs much less while being a useful phone at the s
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I can buy a very capable laptop with 3G capability for less than that and it will be useful for more than just browsing pictures and watching youtube.
It really is laughable that you think an iPad is just for browsing pictures and watching youtube. But, hey, feel free to keep utterly missing the point. If you're happy with your Samsung Epic, all the more power to you but, I assure you, there are millions of people out there who are happy with their iPads and I also assure you that the majority of them use them for a lot more than pictures and youtube. It may not be the right product for you - the Samsung Epic may well be that product - but that doesn't m
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It is also worth noting that millions of people bought music from Clay Aiken, Sean Paul, and Creed.
A fool and his money...
Re:1gb/month (Score:4, Insightful)
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I was just pointing out that millions of people buying something isn't necessarily indicative of its quality.
You'll see in other parts of this same story, I think the iPad is great to use and has its uses, but given the included hardware isn't worth the cost. Maybe the second-gen, but certainly not the first-gen iteration.
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I would disagree. It's sufficient for what people use it for. In what way is the hardware not good enough?
Sure, it's not cheap, but it's also a fairly high quality product. I am looking forward to all the $100 cheap plastic flimsy Android tablets that will, no doubt, beat the iPad on some ridiculous spec sheet, but I doubt that this will stop people from literally lining up in droves at the Apple store.
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This is the problem, none of the $100 plastic Android tabs even come close to the iPad as far as specs or quality.
Why waste $100 on something that has an outdated OS, is underspecced, and is made of the cheapest components you can get. Half of them use resistive touchscreens, which are horrible.
I really wanted there to be a contender to the iPad, but there isn't. The Galaxy Tab is turning out to be a huge joke, the specs are horrid and the price even more inflated than the iPad.
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I have...a good buddy of mine that lives in our apartment building has one, and I've played around with it for a total of three or four hours over the two months he's had it.
I like the form factor, I like the interface, I like what it's capable of...but the geek in me just won't let me pay that much for it
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Millions of fools bought XBox 360s.
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I have a similar opinion as the GP, but am willing to admit that I am not very imaginative and am probably missing a whole lot of uses for the IPAD.
Since you have so strongly stated that there are many other uses, could you provide some examples, so that I can evaluate myself whether or not the IPAD is a useful device (for myself and others, who may have different needs)?
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It's useful for consuming media (tv shows, movies, etc) while on the go. A good friend of mine that lives in my apartment building enjoys using it if he's gaming while watching something on TV (I prefer a DS/PSP/laptop, but whatever). It also doubles as his e-reader.
They're easy to use and an attractive bit of hardware, but I still don't see the point at this time. I'm one of those people that would rather buy a (much) more powerful laptop for the same price, especially considering the first-gen iPad int
Re:1gb/month (Score:5, Insightful)
Suffice it to say there are a ton of other uses but I'm at work and don't feel like writing a long post on the subject...
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What's an IPAD?
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What's an IPAD?
It's a device that digitally lets you know when to plan the guys night out.
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I bought it as an e-reader. With its large screen it can very nicely handle PDF scientific papers and books, although I admit the supply of scientific e-books is a bit thin at the moment.
There is a Kindle with the same screen size, but it is almost as expensive, and the iPad has a much faster screen. Plus I know and like the iPod touch, the Kindle is hard to buy here in the Netherlands, and I refuse to use the Kindle book store because their ebooks are just as expensive as the paper ones. Then again, the
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This needs to die. When did emissive displays start to cause "eyes burn out"? bullshit
Well, of course they do! Nobody wants to spend hours a day reading from a backlit LCD. And the GP will cheerfully spend the next 12 hours staring at his LCD monitor, reading Slashdot threads on the subject and telling people all about it.
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It is also useful for Words with Friends. So that's browsing pictures, watching youtube, and words with friends.
Of the 3 people sitting next to me with ipads, I think words with friends is the dominant application used.
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I am shocked that this product is doing this well, but I'm not shocked that there are people out there who think that simple popularity is indicative of quality. I take it you also credit Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga with being two of the best musicians of all time thanks to their record sal
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But it is pretty much that. It's primarily a viewer (document,image,video) and web browser. Document viewing and internet communication. But it's not general purpose productivity machine like a normal OS.
Re:1gb/month (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm going to take this opportunity to once again state how much of a rip off a laptop is. I can buy a very capable desktop for less and it will be useful for more than just browsing pictures and watching youtube and running basic applications. Honestly, my Dell Inspiron is just as capable as a laptop for most purposes and costs much less while being a useful gaming machine at the same time.
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That isn't insightful.
A tablet is a laptop with highly limited features in exchange for nothing useful.
A laptop is a desktop with slightly limited features in exchange for portability.
There is nothing you can do on a tablet that can not be done on a laptop instead.
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How about use it for more than a few hours? This is the one big feature that I really got the iPad for. The specs say, "10 hours of HD video playing" but if you are just typing up documents or reading ebooks or doing light web browsing, the iPad runs for 30+ hours on a charge.
So you can't put Quake 4 on there, but who cares?
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laptops are more portable because they close to protect their screen and input methods from damage.
I also happen to have a touch screen laptop.
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Not really a valid comparison, as a laptop is nothing but an underpowered portable PC. It can run the same OS, has support for all the same peripherals, and can do everything a PC can, with the exception of certain performance-limited tasks - and even then, you could build a laptop that has just as much power as a usual desktop. It'd just be as big as a desktop, but that doesn't really matter...
The iPad on the other hand is, well... a billion and one people have said it before me: a big iPod.
If you want a b
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Insightful? Really, slashdot? I can't use my desktop from my easy chair in the living room or the sofas. I can't take the desktop with me when I visit my friends and hang off their wifi for accessing the Internet. I can't take my desktop to Starbucks (or if you hate Starbucks just substitute another public location with free wifi).
Of course you can get a more powerful desktop for the same price as a laptop. This is news? You buy a laptop because you have reasons for needing one that a desktop does not support.
I have to second this. Not to mention the main reason laptops outsell desktops: business travel. It doesn't matter if a desktop is more powerful and lasts longer when it doesn't go where you need it to go.
Apple to Youtube is what AOL to Internet. (Score:1)
Re:1gb/month (Score:5, Insightful)
I can buy a very capable laptop with 3G capability for less than that
which of those laptops has a high-quality 10" screen, is 0.5" thick, and weighs 1.5 lbs?
my Samsung Epic is just as capable as the iPad
Your Samsung Epic has a small screen.
Here's what you have to understand: it's not about raw computing power, and it's not about being able to hack the kernel. The people who bought iPads are interested in usability for certain specific applications. It's a web-browsing appliance, an ebook reader, a document viewer, a picture browser, a giant iPod, and a bunch of other things. Being the right form-factor is essential. If you don't care about the form-factor and usability features, then you aren't its target audience at all.
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And my acer aspire one (which is about 2 years old) does all of those things perfectly fine, possibly with a few accessories. I could upgrade to a 9-cell battery to bump up to 6 hours of charge and they're only about $40. In fact, I can buy as many batteries as I want and have essentially limitless battery life (can't do that with an ipad). The screen is about an inch smaller (8.9), it weighs about 1kg (2.2 pounds - not at all hard to hold) and I estimate about .8" thick - keep in mind that your ipad will n
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And my acer aspire one (which is about 2 years old) does all of those things perfectly fine, possibly with a few accessories.... The screen is about an inch smaller (8.9), it weighs about 1kg (2.2 pounds - not at all hard to hold) and I estimate about .8" thick...
Yeah, but my whole point is that it's not about computing power or even about raw functionality-- it's specifically about the form factor. The iPad is very very light and very thin for a device with such a large screen, which makes it very pleasant to use in certain situations. Even the fact that it's a touchscreen instead of a clamshell form-factor means that it's more accessible in certain situations.
So if your usage doesn't make the form-factor particularly appealing, then the iPad won't be attractive
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a picture browser
The day I can hook my camera up to an iPad is the day I place my order. Till then an iPad is just a fancy front end for plants vs. zombies. I'm holding out a little hope for the next gen to have some sort of USB port but, given Apple's history, they'll just drop a smaller one on us this time around, then, in two more years, come up with the TOTALLY REVOLUTIONARY feature called the iPort...
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There is a camera connection kit. One adapter for usb, one for SD cards.
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I can buy a very capable laptop with 3G capability for less than that and it will be useful for more than just browsing pictures and watching youtube.
The iPad has interesting advantages over a low-cost laptop or netbook involving portability, battery life, screen size, and app availability. Depending on what you want and what you already have, it's value is not clear cut as you're making it out to be.
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My main problem with the first-gen iPad is that, yes, it has all those things...but it costs more (substantially so, depending on which model you get) than a netbook...all while having netbook internals with no keyboard.
The second-gen might be worth buying from a hardware perspective, but I can't justify a $500+ netbook with no keyboard.
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My main problem with the first-gen iPad is that, yes, it has all those things...but it costs more (substantially so, depending on which model you get) than a netbook...all while having netbook internals with no keyboard.
It's also running it's own OS and applications, meaning that the netbook-like-internals don't really mean much as they're being used differently. You're buying 'what it can do' not 'what it is made of'.
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It's the same reason why I refuse to (legitely, anyway) upgrade the 20GB hard drive in my Xbox 360. I'm not paying $100 for a 120 gig hard drive, because that's asinine. Likewise, I'm not paying as much as a laptop for iPhone 4 internals. The geek in me won't let it happen :/
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I'm not paying $100 for a 120 gig hard drive, because that's asinine.
I agree with you, but that's mainly because you could probably buy your own hard drive and put it in. The iPhone and iPad aren't really the same animal. What would make me agree with you is if either of those devices used an off-the-shelf OS. That make sense?
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I missed this part in my first reply:
and app availability
Your other points are valid, but there is no way in hell you're going to convince me that a closed store allows more flexibility and choices for a computer that can run anything from anywhere.
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I didn't say a single word about convenience, and neither did the poster I replied to. He said availability, and I said flexibility and options.
What offers you more choices...Best Buy, or every electronics store in the world?
LAPtop (Score:2)
Yeah, you can get a 3G laptop for less. But then you'd have to use it...
See, the problem with a laptop is the need for a lap. For most practical purposes, you have to set it down, unfold it, and use it with both hands.
The iPad, being a slim tablet less than half the thickness & weight of your laptop, excels at anytime-anywhere use: checking email while walking down a hall, reading ebooks in bed, web browsing on the train, games while curled up on the couch, listening to noise-suppressing music at work,
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I don't think anyone but the most die-hard haters would say the iPad is useless. What they're saying that you're paying more money for the same internal hardware. The form factor is very useful for a variety of things, but when it amounts to a netbook without a keyboard while carrying the possibility of costing twice as much, the price-to-usefulness ratio goes out the window.
I don't care how smooth it runs, I don't care how useful it is...paying up to twice as much for a netbook with half as much hardware
What constitutes equivalent? (Score:5, Insightful)
I could sell you a desktop computer powered by a car battery for even less.
Yes, useful form factor costs extra.
Re:LAPtop (Score:5, Funny)
You might consider upping your Ritalin dose.
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Actually, the iPad is for *anything* at this point. I know quite a few people who use one for taking notes in class, writing papers, making presentations, and so forth.
Coupled with a nice bluetooth keyboard, it's still smaller than most netbooks, and the battery life is of course way, way better. Using the iPad as a typewriter, for example, I get over 30 hours of battery life.
Just because you can view Youtube on the iPad, doesn't mean that you can't type a paper on it too.
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Because, even WITH a bluetooth keyboard, the iPad is still smaller and lighter. And it beats the hell out of all current netbooks for battery life.
*gb/month (Score:3, Funny)
[quietly gloats over $30/mo unlimited]
[quietly laments strangling of XX&X users with subsequent bandwidth-capped service]
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The cheap up front, soak them on bandwidth American telecom paradigm needs to needs now.
NOOOO. They don't need any more needs! Just deliver!
..needs to needs now... (Score:2)
Why? its working out quite well for the pseudo-monopolies.
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The only option for unlimited movie streaming, as far as I can see, is a cricket or sprint plan, 6
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The problem with wifi-only iPad (Score:5, Interesting)
is that it does not have a GPS chip. This makes all the location services not working. Would it work with +myfi?
Somehow Apple did not stress this point in feature difference when it released the iPads. I only found it out a while after I bought the wifi version.
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Re:The problem with wifi-only iPad (Score:4, Informative)
is that it does not have a GPS chip. This makes all the location services not working. Would it work with +myfi?
Somehow Apple did not stress this point in feature difference when it released the iPads. I only found it out a while after I bought the wifi version.
It's in their website. http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/ [apple.com]
Location:
* Wi-Fi
* Digital compass
* Assisted GPS (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
* Cellular (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
I was very clear about this when I got my Wi-Fi iPad. It still can point me in the map, exactly points at my apartment in a cramped up community, something I find very scary given the thing has no GPS. Didn't know you could get that much information out of your Wi-Fi alone.
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Well, to be fair, it's not coming from your wifi, it's coming from more or less a wardriving MAC GPS database.
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I shall answer your questions with another:
If you are going to be using an iPad over only WiFi, why would you care about location services?
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Who says wifi is stationary? I think you're missing the point, but so is Apple.
If you're on stationary wifi, then yes, why do you need location services? But if you're on mobile wifi (tethering, MiFi, etc.), you might want to use it as a GPS or the like. Now, if it supported bluetooth GPS pucks (or nowadays, smartphones that will act as bluetooth GPS pucks) then there shouldn't be as much an issue.
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hmm...hadn't considered the tethering point of view. Touche, good sir!
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hmm...hadn't considered the tethering point of view. Touche, good sir!
You know, since this very article is about Verizon selling a MiFi with an iPad, I'm pretty surprised that anyone overlooked that use-case.
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Meh, I've done worse :p
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Who says wifi is stationary? I think you're missing the point, but so is Apple.
If you're on stationary wifi, then yes, why do you need location services? But if you're on mobile wifi (tethering, MiFi, etc.), you might want to use it as a GPS or the like. Now, if it supported bluetooth GPS pucks (or nowadays, smartphones that will act as bluetooth GPS pucks) then there shouldn't be as much an issue.
The location by Wifi does not just go just by the name of your wifi base station you are connected to but also surrounding stations.
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To be clear: None of them have a GPS chip.
The Wifi ones use the nearby Wifi hotspots to locate you, while the Wifi+3G ones use the hotspots plus the cell towers to find you.
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The WiFi + 3G version has an actual GPS chip in it that works with or without a cell tower in range. "Assisted GPS" means it bootstraps the GPS chip with either WiFi or cell triangulation and time reference to speed up computing the initial GPS solution if they're available, but it is real GPS and works without a cell subscription or if you're not in WiFi or cell coverage.
The GPS chip is built into the 3G chipset though, which is why it's not in the WiFi only version.
I wish they'd add native support for thi
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Actually, this is a common misconception. Assisted GPS itself doesn't use any kind of network triangulation, but rather receives data on the position of satellites in order to find/lock on to them faster. It can also offload computation to servers, but that's not really necessary any more, what with the processors in smartphones and PNDs these days.
Network location is usually used only as an alternative until an actual GPS fix is obtained. This is definitely the way it works on Android devices, iOS may diff
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I don't know where this myth comes from, but the 3G ones DO have a true GPS. Perhaps people think that 'assisted GPS' means 'fake GPS'. Wrong. It just means that the real GPS gets some help from the cellular network to quickly get a first position fix. After that it functions like any other GPS, and without that help it just takes a little longer to get the fix.
Re:The problem with wifi-only iPad (Score:5, Informative)
Probably because there's actually several different levels of Assisted GPS.
First one would be "fake GPS" where it's really a 1-channel GPS receiver and uses the cell network to provide the missing satellites - usually the cell towers do the computation for you and they know your location. Many "dumbphones" do this (remember when you had to pay for locations eervices?).
Another form would be where the cell tower broadcasts the local GPS information and combined with the received satellite signal, the onboard AGPS chip computes your location. Featurephones often use this variant, and most E911 is done this way as well.
The iPad, iPhone and probably every smartphone out there instead uses this third form which is GPS with network bootstrap. In GPS, the module needs to download some data known as the almanac, which details the location of the satellites in the sky. It's a slow download, which is why a GPS cold start can take easily 15 minutes of solid signal (we're talking a few hundred bits per second). A warm start (the GPS has a moderately recent almanac that it can use immediately, plus knows where it was last) means it just has to acquire the satellites and do the calculations, which can take 15-45 seconds while it updates the almanac data in the background. Of course, if you're attached to the cell network, you suddenly have two more pieces of information - the cell network can provide the current almanac at much faster speeds so cold-starting takes much less time, as well as providing initial GPS data (similar to the second form of AGPS above) so you can get a rough fix in seconds. Without this asssistance, it'll work standalone just fine, but with it, it can get a fix extremely quickly and improve on it as it acquires more satellites on its own. Even cold-starting a GPS is relatively quick if it can grab the almanac this way.
The confusion comes because there's many forms of assistance - from just bootstrapping to letting the cell tower figure it out.
Apple takes it one further as well since CoreLocation uses GPS, but also supports WiFi geolocation (if a connection's available) as well as cell-tower geolocation.
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http://www.oldvaloghomes.com/ [oldvaloghomes.com]
I bet it can't load the above page either.
Nothing you cannot already get. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Nothing you cannot already get. (Score:4, Informative)
WSJ article a few days ago indicated that Verizon should have the iPhone in early 2011. Assuming that's true, a good indicator that they're moving that direction is having Verizon bundle the iPad. The MyFi device is probably just a temporary measure to get around the GSM-only hardware for cellular data.
Since the iPad doesn't need to make phone calls, using an adapter for cellular data access makes sense. They'll have to make some physical changes to the iPhone to have it actually work on a non-GSM carrier, so it makes sense to take longer moving in that direction, but using the iPad to get people used to the idea of a break in AT&T exclusivity.
Or maybe I'm reading too much into it. I actually wouldn't mind an iPhone, but I have no reason at all to want an iPad.
Re:Nothing you cannot already get. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not really sure how much of a change they would have to make, considering there was an article earlier this year on how someone removed the 3G unit from their iPad and replaced it with the insides of an.. wait, you guessed it, a MiFi. (article [hackaday.com]) My point being the 3G unit is modular in the iPad (unlike a phone's, which is integrated with the radio which is deeply involved with the phone's operation) and they could probably make a CDMA version.
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The 3G module IS a radio. The iPad #G baseband chip is the Infineon X-Gold 608, according to the data sheet it supports HSDPA, WCDMA, and EDGE. This is the same chip that could be used in a phone to make calls.
There is not "probably" about making a CDMA version. You just need a CDMA chipset instead of the X-GOLD 608 and you would need different drivers in iOS to support the different chip. But I would sus
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A one-off hardhack does not make a shipping product. To prevent against "Son of Antennagate" they'll have to do rigorous testing to make this sale-able. Not to mention cooperation from VZ.
Plus, why not just have VZ network be a feature for iPad v2?
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However, I see this bundle as a net win. With a 3G iPad, you get data on your ipad, and thats it. Unless you jailbreak and use it as a hot spot. If you get the MiFi bundle (which is basically the same cost as an ATT 3G ipad) you get a router that you can connect other devices to besides the iPad. So if you have a laptop and an iPad, you are good on both counts.
Futher, this somewhat future proofs your data setup. You can't swap
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I believe a lot of people are reading too much into this. This isn't anything more than Apple allowing Verizon to sell hardware that you can buy a dozen other places. I could get a mifi through Verizon or any of the other carriers already, and I could buy a wifi iPad already.
??
Is it Verizon just saying that "Hey! Apple doesn't hate us! We're cool too! Oh yeah, they didn't make any hardware yet that will work with our network, but you can buy stuff here and we'll sell you a second thing to carry around
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It's more than that. Verizon is trying to be so cool that they're steeply discounting their mifi service if you buy an ipad from them. $20/GB is a steal compared to the $15/day on a pay up front or a $40/month, 250MB limit plan that they currently offer. It smacks of desperation.
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So you think that the iPad is overpriced but you think that Android tablets will bring the price down? Are you talking about subsidized or unsubsidized prices? The 3G iPad is not subsidized or locked and analysts were expecting that the starting price was going to be around a thousand dollars. The Samsung tab with carrier subsidization costs around the same price as a an iPad without it so I would expect that the unsubsidized price is over a thousand dollars.
Maybe you can get back to us when you decide to j
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Ok. You don't seem to get it. Apple is the largest flash memory consumer in the "WORLD" which means that they can negotiate the lowest price possible which means that they can offer their flash memory based products at a much lower price and still maintain a healthy margin. This buying power also extends to their manufacturing capacity at Foxconn and purchase of other components such as the CPU and cellular radio. Their competitors do not have the same volume purchasing power so it is an uphill battle for t
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Ok. You don't seem to get it. Apple is the largest flash memory consumer in the "WORLD" which means that they can negotiate the lowest price possible which means that they can offer their flash memory based products at a much lower price and still maintain a healthy margin./p>
Nope, it's still you who's missing the salient point. Apple COULD offer those flash memory products (which contain a lot more than flash memory) at a much lower price than they do, but they choose not to, and they get away with it because of the quality of their design (I admit), the cachet of their brand, and the fact that there are few or no competitors with similar products.
When there are equivalent competitors, Apple will be forced to lower prices. That's pretty much the only thing that does make them do that.
If you can't get that, then you're wasting your time fulminating against my opinion. I'm done with this thread, enjoy.
You are absolutely right. They could be just as stupid as everyone else and sacrifice margin in an attempt for marketshare but what would it gain them? Right now, they cannot manufacture enough units to cover the existing demand. Also, without the margins, who would fund the research and innovation? Have you noticed the stagnation in the PC industry? That is caused by razor thin margins because companies don't have the budgets for R&D for innovation but rather is spent on figuring out how to make things
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Sprint had a deal for a week or so for a MiFi like device for $25, then $25 a month. The downside? It checked the MAC address, and only allowed iOS devices to connect.
Best of all worlds? Buy a 3G iPad, and a Clear device (like the Rover Puck.)
Summary Correction: Sprint's 3g footprint (Score:2, Informative)
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Ok, so they're now another iPad retailer (Score:1, Troll)
What's the big deal? You still can't directly use Verzon's network on the iPad.
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Exactly what I thought. I wondered if they gave you a roll of duct tape, too.
This smacks of a bit of desperation. Can you only get the $20 mifi if you buy the iPad? A mifi for $20/mo is the real news. Right now the cheapest monthly plan is $40 for 250MB. Ouch.
Once the data costs go down, I'm in... (Score:2)
The soaking for data has to stop. I have had a cell phone since the early days of the Motorola Teletacs... they were analog which took up a ton more bandwidth and I had a high minute plan with unlimited nights and weekends for $20/month. Then after things went digital and the load on the carrier dropped significantly it became the norm to pay $40-50 for less minutes and the same N/W plan. B.S. Then the new rage of smartphones with the forced $30+ additional per month and it's ridiculous. I refuse to pay it.
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Yes, long distance was no issue, it was nation-wide but there were also far less towers everywhere so roaming was an issue at times but nothing major. The analog phones were also higher-powered so signal was excellent. I was able to get service with my old Teletac in places newer phones have nothing. I'm not saying it was some magical device, they had their limitations too back then, but overall $20 bought far more than current digital plans offer. The phones were also still subsidized back then so that was
Or an even cheaper route... (Score:2)
This endless process of buying the exact same service over and over for different devices has got to stop. ONE wireless data device should be able to serve as your personal data g
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The good thing: a no-contract $20 data plan (Score:4, Interesting)
What intrigued me is the no-contract $20 data plan. I got a spot in the boonies that has no DSL or cable access, but can get VZW (but no other carriers). I don't want to spend $60/month for a MiFi device with a 2-yr commitment. If I read the reports right, this comes with a $20 data plan, and no committments, so perhaps one can turn it on an off as needed. Hoepfully I read that right.
Yeah, Yeah, I know - 1 GB/mo. But that's 1 GB/mo. more than what I got now.
So I'm saying I would buy it for the MiFi and the plan, not for the iPad. Of course the money I save would be eaten up by the iPad cost, but I could sell that on e-bay.
Or did I read one of them there internet articles wrong?
iPad cell phone (Score:2)
Why is Apple succeeding in a "down" economy? (Score:2)
I see a lot of people on here complaining about Apple's margins but I have to ask you all, which hardware company is pushing innovation in the tech industry? The answer is Apple. Apple could follow everyone else in the race to the bottom and possibly sell more units if they could find more manufacturing capacity, more IPS displays and more flash memory but even at the current price point, they are selling every unit they can manufacture. Lower margins only benefit the consumer in the short term and you even