People wait in line to purchase Apple iPads during a launch event at the Apple retail store in Berlin, May 28, 2010.TOBIAS SCHWARZ/Reuters
Eager buyers, some of whom had been in line since Thursday evening, finally laid their hands on the Apple iPad after it went on sale across Canada Friday.
Globe tech reporter Omar El Akkad, globetechnology.com editor Michael Snider and telecom reporter Iain Marlow took your questions about the hotly anticipated new device on everything from bandwith to app recommendations.
Read the whole transcript by clicking the gray at the bottom of this page, or read the highlights below. Our full story on the iPad launch is also available here.
Q from Gary: Do you think the iPad will surpass the popularity of the iPhone?
Omar El Akkad: Gary, I talked to an analyst yesterday who thinks tablets will top out at about 100 million units sold within the next two or three years. His thinking is that the iPhone will still do better (at least in the short term) because it has a primary function: you use it to make calls. Now you can argue that a lot of people use the iPhone to do anything but make calls, but I can't think of a similar primary function for the iPad yet (Movies? Games?).
Q from Lynn: What happens if I go to the U.S. with my iPad? Do I need to purchase a SIM card from AT&T and subscribe to their data plan? Or has Rogers/Bell released their roaming plans yet?
Omar El Akkad: Lynn, on the Bell 3G iPad I've got (which my editor temporarily stole), there are roaming settings. I have no idea what Rogers and Bell will be charging (I'll ask our telecom reporter), but I suspect it will be a lot, given how much data this thing eats up.
The 3G model will also handle wi-fi. In fact, when I was downloading apps yesterday, I got a message on a number of occasions telling me my download was bigger than 20 meg, and that I couldn't continue the download until I switched to a wi-fi connection.
Q from Josh: Whoa, do you mean any app over 20 Mb needs to be downloaded over Wi-fi?
Omar El Akkad: Josh, that's what I got from using Bell's 3G version yesterday. No idea if there's a setting to switch that off, or if it's something Rogers does as well.
Michael Snider: Rogers and Bell's 3G iPad plans are identical -- 250 megabytes of data per month for $15 and $35 for 5 gigabytes. But I wouldn't recommend getting the 3G model unless you really need it. There are so many Ways to connect over Wi-Fi (if you're equipped, or allowed) at home, work and public hot-spots. I can see getting the 3G model for anyone who rides the Go train in Toronto, but otherwise I've been pretty content with the bottom-dollar 16GB Wi-Fi-only model.
Q from Hank0: Has Telus released their pricing? I figure it will be in line with Rogers and Bell.
Michael Snider: Hank -- no Telus has not released pricing yet, though the Telus network technically supports the 3G iPad.
Iain Marlow: It will be interesting, as the iPad gains steam and subscribers, to see exactly how Canada's big wireless carriers -- Rogers, Bell and Telus -- differentiate their service. The only one holding their cards close right now seems to be Telus, who confirmed to me last night that it will be offering iPad service (which was totally expected)
Q from AngryChineseDriver: It seems a bit (actually, very) stingy of Rogers and Bell to not offer unlimited data in a world increasingly addicted to data apps
Michael Snider: You'd be surprised at how much 5GB of surfing will get you. I suspect only a few 3G users will push the limit, but yeah, unlimited has nice ring to it. Means you never have to worry about getting dinged with extra charges.
Q from kenuck: I really wonder if the Canadian telcos 'get' the data thing. They say it is their growth area, but overcharge and limit its capability. Lower price, more capacity drives usage meaning more revenue. Their networks can handle it.
Omar El Akkad: Keep in mind that tablets use up considerably more data than smart phones, which used up considerably more data than the kind of devices carriers started out making money with. I think a lot of carriers are afraid of seeing their networks crash under the strain.
Q from Andrea: Why has Apple not released the full iBooks store yet in Canada? At the moment you can purchase the free classics.
Omar El Akkad: I think that has to do with copyright restrictions. Amazon has the same issues with digital books in Canada and other regions. Royalties and restrictions around digital books are a mess, and if often means we wait a lot longer for sellers, publishers and authors to sign agreements before the digital books go on sale here.
Q from Guest: This is surreal. So many people defining their identity by buying a device? I haven't seen this since the false pride people have in people from the same political state. In case you are wondering I am referring to the Olympics
Omar El Akkad: This isn't the first time. Remember the line-ups for the Nintendo Wii? Sometime in the past decade, technology joined those industries where hype is very, very important. And Apple is better than anyone at hype. An analyst speaking to a colleague of mine yesterday said something to the effect of: Apple is very good at making people think they want things they don't really need.
Q from Guest: What about writing with the iPad (I mean something longer that a tweet)? What serves as a keyboard? Will it be possible to touch type or will the user need to use a one- or two-fingered hunt and peck method?
Omar El Akkad: The keyboard is virtual, and pops up on screen whenever you need to type (notes, search bar etc). It orients landscape and portrait. It's not bad, but nowhere near as fast as a real keyboard. I was using hunt-and-peck, but I'm not great on virtual keyboards. It didn't feel all that great: sort of like tapping your fingers against a piece of flat glass (well, exactly like that).
Q from charliewack: I did the pre-order thing a few weeks ago but haven't had much of a chance to check out apps. Can you recommend some must have apps, freebies are nice.
Omar El Akkad: I like Epicurious (I know, I know), because I can't cook to save my life, and it's really easy to use.
Michael Snider: Charliewack -- we've got a series of app recommendations running today, tomorrow and next week. Here's today's, from mobile editor Matt Frehner. Tomorrow's I'll post later today, too. There's also globetech's weekly Hot Apps column that runs every Monday.
Omar El Akkad: Other app recommendations, btw: Flight Control HD is my favourite iPad game so far (it's like a superpowered version of the original one for the iPhone). SoundHound is a service that, among other things, will recognize the name of songs you sing into it, which is great for drunken bar trivia. Dragon Dictate will recognize spoken text and translate into written text, which is very helpful for us journalists...
Q from HatHead: Is the iPad like a Mac where can you create content with tools such as Photoshop, Garage Band, etc or is it like the iPhone where you can only consume?
Michael Snider: It's a consuming device. Apple has actually killed off / rejected some apps that allow people to, you know, create stuff.
Omar El Akkad: HatHead: The short answer is: it's like the iPhone. Apple offers some productivity tools (iWork), but so far the iPad is mostly used as an entertainment consumption device, not a productivity tool.
Iain Marlow: HatHead -- I agree with Mike and Omar. It's for eating stuff, not cooking. The productivity apps are beginning to come out, though, but my guess is that most people will stick to their more powerful desk-chained devices for the real work.
Comment from AC: Hathead, at present there are a limited number of content creation programs; Apple has three--Pages, Numbers, and Keynote--that work well enough given some of the limitations of the device, but we're probably a generation away from having solid content production apps. But it depends on your interests, see Cinemek, for example. Brilliant device.
Q from charliewack: Purely from a technical view with all these new devices connected to the internet where will all the bandwidth come from, seems to me they were screaming not long ago that bandwidth was in short supply?
Iain Marlow: The data crunch is becoming real. It's already killed AT&T in LA and NYC. There is a very real possibility, talked about by very smart people who don't work for these companies, that Toronto is going to be hit at some point in the near future by the sheer volume of data. You may be confusing bandwidth for spectrum, by the way. Big telecom companies love to gripe about how there isn't enough available spectrum, basically licenses to the air. Bandwidth is the capacity of their networks.
Highlights from the iPad launch at the Eaton Centre's Apple Store in Toronto
From Kate Allen on Twitter:
It's 6 a.m. and the lineup outside the Mac store is 30 souls long
Mac staff showed up at 7 with coffee and donuts for the lineup, which now stretches around the entire corridor. Prob 150 people? 200?
Okay now staff are running down the line giving high fives and cheering...feels like summer camp
Delaan has been here since 7 p.m. last night. He slept on Queen St. Finally getting his toy:
Click the gray box below to read our liveblog transcript, or click here to read our mobile version of the liveblog.