Any of our friends brought the new iPad?

You should wait for the next generation, maybe they will add a few more features especially USB inputs.

Some people have to be "early adopters", Neil. Which, I suppose, is just as well or else the case for innovation would often not easily be made.

Apple et al rely on folk like that. You know, the "have you seen my ..."? And the "must have" gang.

Wiser people (or, at least, those with less money to chuck about) do as you suggest, and wait a while.

The same goes for medical equipment, by the way.

But (thinking about it) perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea for Steve to start work on the iPump (iLab, iSats, whatever).

iEBME

iEBME, No! because you would need people who are computer literate.

It may be a while before I catch up, Neil.

After all, I'm working on (with) a Timeter RT-200 just at the moment!

That's "high tech" enough for me. Appropriate technology, and all that good stuff.

Sounds like you’re at risk of appearing to be scared of new technology or keeping up with it and the times, there Geoff?!

And come on, you need to have the new toys when they first come out, it’s half the fun! I do however agree that in instances like this, it’s often more beneficial to hang on for the next generation model which ‘should’ then have all the requested improvements - plus bugs ironed out. And yes – namely USB inputs, that was a slight oversight wasn’t it.

Now I'm really confused. Was that a yes or a no?

Keeping up with the times? More like wasting money over and over (and over) each time the latest "Gee Whiz ... Wow! Look at that" wonder comes along, I would say.

As I may have mentioned before, British governments are especially good at wasting (my) money in similar fashion.

But surely you're not giving the thumbs down to my beloved RT-200's?

No USB for iPads? That reminds me of the lack of floppy drive for the iMacs. We've only just moved on from the infamous RS232 cables onto USB and Apple is telling us they think USB is outdated???

And medical equipment still has RS-232 on it.......
Is this because with a few bits of wire, the appropriate plugs, a soldering iron and Windows Terminal you can communicate with it rather than having to have the right USB or Bluetooth drivers?

What happened to MIB by-the-way?

Robert

MIB Medical Interface Bus, a supposed universal, manufacturer independant way of medical equipment communicating.

Back to iPads, I notice that Jake of the BBC F1 team has one as a clip board for his (electronic) notes and script. Is that all they are fit for?

Robert

Free product placement and advertising on the BBC - Apple must love it.
I wonder who paid for it Apple, Bernie, the FIA or us licence payers?

Sounds like a cracking design feature to me!

My Z88 doesn't have anything like that!

I bet the bulldog clip for stopping the paper flying away is an expensive optional extra and in some translucent neon colour.
Robert

Apple marketing is arguably the best in the world. Believe it or not Steve Jobs is one of my heroes. But I must admit I have never bought an Apple product myself (although I doubt that Steve misses my couple of quid too badly).

*Wuss-o-rama!

* Acknowledgements to Dave Barry.

They create "must have" products which sell well then sell us lots of things to go with them e.g. iTunes.

It is intersting how Steve Jobs is a hero and Bill Gates is evil. Yet they are both trying to sell us very similar things.

No, Bill is a Good Guy as well. People who slang him off are generally just jumping on the band-wagon. And undoubtedly are happily using Microsoft products as well (even though they may not realise it).

Only problem with iPad is that if you have a 3g model then the downloads are expensive. I see that Apple is now outselling Microsoft $ for $!!

They have a Basic Model then Wi-Fi and 3G, they also use microsim

I have an iPad and its great as field engineer, holds all my service manuals in pdf format. I can create and edit excel spread sheets for service work. Plus I can access multiple email accounts and web browsing etc.

For portabilty and functionality an iPad is much better than a laptop.

How about something like this instead?

It's bound to impress the nurses, surely?

An iPad weighs a few hundred grams that bad boy weighs 18kilos!! Would be good to integrate a current spec pc into it, sure you could get something running an i7 core processor in there.

It's interesting to note that, here we are, one year later, and the guy still has these listed on eBay.

It looks like he still has eleven left, having sold only the one. I guess he's taking the long view of things, then.

Maybe he would shift more (or all) of them if he simply dropped the price!

By the way, his "See other items" page is worth a gander. He has some useful bits and pieces there.

For more guff about EDS (and IARRCIS), see here. Although I must admit that this one looks more like "the biz" to me!