IPad

Have you seen TRON: Legacy? You’ll remember the scene where the main character enters the virtual world and gets thrown into an arena battle. Recently my younger brother introduced me to an iOS app called LightBike 2. It’s available for both iPhone and iPad, and you can play online~ It’s technically a racing game, but its gameplay is very fresh and almost identical to the movie. In LightBike, the bike you’re riding leaves a light wall behind it on the ground. If an opponent crashes into a light wall, they’re out. LightBike has two modes: one where the first player to win three rounds wins, and another where you get three lives and whoever keeps their lives the longest wins. ...

Actually, this post was supposed to go up on 7/4. That day I went with some netizen friends to visit the multimedia expo at the World Trade Center in Taipei, and I saw a few things and…. ended up buying them without really planning to. I felt a little heartbroken, but I didn’t feel I’d lost out, since the things are really practical and I didn’t overpay. So what did I buy? The answer: a Bluetooth keyboard and a stand for the iPad. ...

As the title says, this unboxing post is two days late. I bought this iPad on Thursday night (3/10), but then I got so busy that I didn’t have time to write the unboxing post… Actually, I’ve wanted one since the iPad first came out, and I kept saving money until now, when there was a special offer~ So I went for it. Some people asked why I didn’t buy the iPad 2, since it’s cheaper and faster, right? I think the news media may have spread the wrong idea. As soon as the iPad 2 was announced, Apple cut the price of the iPad to a minimum of NT$12,900, while the iPad 2 was expected to cost around NT$16,000. Yes, the iPad 2 does perform better, but my own experience with the iPad 1 is that its performance is already good, and you rarely run into lag or crashes. If only you could turn off iOS multitasking… ...

P.S. Image from the Apple iPad official site The most common tablets on the market right now are the ViewPad (there are the ViewPad 7 and 10; this post covers the ViewPad 7), the Galaxy Tab, and the iPad. The ViewPad and Galaxy Tab both run Android 2.2, and only the iPad runs iOS. Recently the iPad finally went on sale in Taiwan (so exciting!). On launch day I rushed to Apple’s store to try an iPad. Since I still can’t afford one, I could only play with it, lol. I expected the place to be packed, but it was only a bit busier than usual, and I got my turn with the iPad right away. Having played with the iPad today and comparing it with my earlier experience with the ViewPad and Galaxy Tab, I think the iPad will be a long-lasting product, while the ViewPad and Galaxy Tab may fade from people’s attention by next year. Many more tablets will come out next year, so my advice to anyone who wants a tablet is to wait a year or two for more choices and better prices. Personally, I think the iPad will not disappear even if many tablets come out next year, because of Apple’s brand reputation and its customer service. The ViewPad and Galaxy Tab, however, are just short-lived products. I expect everyone will have forgotten about them by next year. ...

A few days ago, the Apple tablet that had been making a lot of noise finally came out! I just read some news about it, and I think the iPad is pretty good: it's cheap, and its battery is said to last ten hours. But I think the iPad has a few drawbacks: No Flash support No support for Traditional Chinese No multitasking (running many programs at the same time) ...