[Ben]

It hasn't taken long for the iPad to be seen as a bit more than a pointless and expensive luxury lifestyle accessory. Just nine weeks - and in that time the hardware spec hasn't changed at all.

But last week's iPhone 4.0 preview, which isn't due on the iPad until autumn, already makes it look much more attractive as a netbook or laptop replacement than it did on Wednesday.

I'll admit I truly loathe netbooks. When the first models emerged at least they had their size going for them. Now they're bigger and more expensive, but mostly dog slow.

Size and weight matters to me, and the iPad has had these advantages from the start. The disadvantages of an iPad over a laptop were many, but the lack of multitasking was the biggest. That's been fixed now - at least well enough so most people don't notice.
continues...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/12/ipad_for_work/

Is the author right? Does OS 4.0 tease enough additional functionality out of our favourite tablet to allow it to replace the netbook?

I also loathe netbooks, they're just too slow to be useful in my book. I'm sure they have their uses but as an every day computer for the masses there's nothing they do well other than be small. I actually think OS 3 would do me over a netbook, but OS 4 definitely brings features to the table that may sway those not quite so lost in Cupertino as myself.

[Hands0n]

I think OS 4 on the iPad will be somewhat awesome. That hardware needs more OS power than 3.x gives it. However, I know that I will be sorely tempted, but I fully intend to wait out iPad 2 with the built-in iSight.

[timothythetim]

continues...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/12/ipad_for_work/

Is the author right? Does OS 4.0 tease enough additional functionality out of our favourite tablet to allow it to replace the netbook?

I also loathe netbooks, they're just too slow to be useful in my book. I'm sure they have their uses but as an every day computer for the masses there's nothing they do well other than be small. I actually think OS 3 would do me over a netbook, but OS 4 definitely brings features to the table that may sway those not quite so lost in Cupertino as myself.

See, I think netbooks are fantastically useful. So much of the computing I do, even for uni, can be done on one. Most of what I do is browsing and emailing. Even C# coding and microcontroller development it copes with fine. It's portability means I have a computer when so often I wouldn't.
I think the iPad looks pretty cool, but I can't see it being used for anything other than for couch browsing in the living room, or perhaps as an ebook reader.

[Ben]

That's just the thing though - browsing on a Netbook is worse, certainly no better, than on a bigger laptop or a computer. Browsing on an iPad, by comparison, promises to be better than all of them.

*Painfully aware of the omission of Flash*

Perhaps I'm just spoilt with my MacBook Air, but if you'd had the displeasure of a Dell Mini 9 you'd know exactly how I feel. :)

[gorilla]

I get along just fine with my advent, it does everything I want or need it to do. If google's state comes out priced around the £250 mark then I think you can say goodbye to the netbook market. I expect the iPad to start at £399 and at that price there will always be a market for netbooks regardless of the real world experience.

Still want an iPad though. Damn you Apple!

[Hands0n]

Digressing for a mo. I think you're a bit harsh on Netbooks Ben :) My own experience of them is not as bad, although I make no pretence that they are on a par with anything else.

In many ways they remind me of the earlier laptops that we used to use, going back to the i486 days :D But somewhat more powerful and flexible.

My own Samsung NC10 has been a dream to use - the Advent 4213 is not my cup of tea because of its tiddly keyboard, and so it gets little use. But back to the NC10, I have done so much with it. My recent Sky+ HD hard drive upgrade from stock 350GB to 1TB was done on the NC10 netbook using Copy+ software. It worked absolutely fine, with plenty of spare CPU to do other stuff if I wanted to.

Then tonight I have been using the NC10 to install the Android SDK (having to load the Java SDK/JRE first). Then use it to manipulate a binary image onto an Android handset to create a Gold Card.

None of these things are particularly arduous I suppose, but the NC10 handled it all in its stride.

I am holding out on the iPad - although I suspect that I may weaken at first sight and "hands on" :D

[Ben]

Yeah... I think for me it really is a case of being spoilt by the MacBook Air.

I think if you need a computer for the sake of it being a computer then a netbook does work. But wouldn't it have been quicker and easier to have performed those tasks on a more capable machine, and to have an iPad for all the things netbooks were really designed for (browsing/email)?

[Hands0n]

See thats the interesting thing. For "real" computing tasks the Netbook is more than adequate. In the examples I give above the NC10 is actually constrained by the hardware, such as the USB caddies I was using to clone the HDD with, and the SD Card that I was using to create the Gold Card with. In CPU terms these devices are positively pedestrian, even for the NC10.

For web browsing and email the Netbook is more than adequate. Where it starts to show its lack of capacity is when it is used for streaming video using Flash, for example YouTube. Here it grinds to a near halt, in fact I have even had to power-cycle both Netbooks to get them back into service before now. But then Flash is a real hog. Watching a USB-connected DVD is absolutely no problem using Media Player or VLC - so it has to be how Flash consumes CPU (maybe Steve Jobs has something there after all). Flash-heavy websites such as The Register can also cause problems - as indeed it does consume CPU (and therefore battery) on even the MacBook Pro where after a short visit the cooling fans are belting away trying to reduce its heat from that sufficient to fry an egg (or a pair of testicles!). HTML5 websites are much better coped with by the Netbook, but these are not quite vogue yet...

So, apart from anything else, I find Netbooks more than capable for the use I put them to. Perhaps if I were to need them to perform these intensive tasks, or were a developer who was building very complex apps using an SDK, or a CAD/CAM designer these little machines would not stay the distance. But I think for "real" computing they are more than sufficient.