SecondLife on IPad

I wasn't too impressed by the ipad debut but I hope it gets a lot people buying into it. Do you think SL will run on it? Will the touch screen be put to good use?

You may interested in reading this post by NWN.

iPad Will Give Us a Second Life We Can Hold in Our Hands
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2010/01/what-ipad-wil-do-for-second-life.html

i believe iPad will only work with AT&T (so will limit usability). please someone correct me if i'm wrong.

No. There is limited functionality in the iPhone already, and that will run on the iPad out of the box. But there is no 3D GPU to speak of, just an integrated "System on a chip" that does everything. And no true access to the OS: anything you want to develop for this has to go through the Apple App Store until someone jailbreaks this.

The iPad uses an ARM CPU. There is no ARM port of SL. It is possible that the OS X port will compile for the iPad, but since it's a Carbon and not a Cocoa app that's unlikely... and even if it did the performance would be dismal.

In the short term, clearly it would not run on an iPad any better than it currently runs on an iPhone or iPod Touch.

I'm not sure what the point of an iPad is suppose to be. It's a big fat iPhone, but it doesn't have the phone capability. It's more expensive. The only thing I read about it that sets it apart is that its great for e-books. I suppose you could also use it to keep notes in a meeting.

I suspect the market is for net book users and e-reader users. Looks like a good product, but not sure it would fit my current workflow.

It's pitched straight at the 'email - internet - word - eReader' market. Should do handsomely and spawn a bazillion imitators that do it all better, faster and cheaper. No doubt some bright spark in China will sling together an iPad clone running on an Atom CPU with a half-decent low-power GPU. That will be a minor hit with the mobile gamer crowd. Eventually.

We think about getting one for our (RL) real estate business. Imagine having nice presentations with footprints, pictures and descriptions of appartments on an easy to operate, easy to handle, easy to transport and great looking device. Much better than having that on a notebook, you simply give it to potential customers instead of "let me boot my notebook and fire up software xyz, then you can look over my shoulder at what i can offer you".

And $499 for such a tool with a nice big and brillant display - lets just say we were very surprised about this price.

Before my aunt was placed in a nursing home, she used webtv. Since the individual rooms are not wired for internet she has had to do without for 2 years. She's 87 and she loved the internet. She has limited use of her hands and the touch pad would be great and the size of it is perfect because she shares a room and its lightweight. She is wheelchair bound. The ipad is appealing to me because I can just purchase it for her and add the data plan to my existing ATT account.

My question and biggest concern is, what kind of security does it have? I don't want my Aunt's ipad to be used by an unauthorized person. My other worry that it someone with magnetic hands (if you catch my drift) will take it. So that piece I have to figure out.

Thanks Guys for your assistance.

Including the half-dozen or so running Android that have already been announced in the past few months, some of which may actually ship before the iPad.

I was greatly disappointed when I saw it was a bigger version of my iPod Touch. It seems like an expensive e-reader right now more than anything. Maybe after a few generations of development it will be worth replacing my iPod with. Not sure how it could ever run SL though.

I've heard that the IPad will have serious DRM and Apple will have total control over what goes into it and stays on it. I doubt we'll ever see SL on it.

Kinda. The iPad display will be *much* better--in addition to being *much* larger (9.7" vs 3.5", 1024x768 vs 480x320).

Of course the 3G model makes it an iPhone-equivalent in a small tablet form factor (good news for Bluetooth headset makers).

It's a long way from having the graphics power to handle anything like the current SL viewer at anything like tolerable frame rates. [Edit: But a multi-touch viewer might be interesting, someday.]

I'm not sure of all the implications for Apple's strategy. Maybe it shores up the iTunes delivery channel and the iPhone in the face of the Android that's finally starting to look viable with the Nexus One introduction.

(Also vaguely wondering if there might be a full-fledged, OSX-running "iSlate" still waiting in the wings.)

As I understood it, the big problem with Android was the total lack of effective security on their App Store.

"That word... I don't think it means what you think it means"

It just seems like a way to get a foot into that market, while being a potential Kindle-killer (that had to influence where the price was set). It's bound to expand in usefulness, but it already is attractive.

Jobs said the 3G versions come completely unlocked, and will work with any 3G network. The cheapest 3G model is the 16 gig WIFI + 3G model at $629 USD. Although, I don't know how well a bandwidth intense application like SL will work with it. Also, the WIFI connection would work either way. AT&T is offering 250 MB for $15 bucks a month or unlimited for $30, so not a bad deal at all. Combining that with the upcoming Google Voice... who's gonna need a cell phone?

From Cult of Mac:

"The iPad is not for geeks. It’s for ordinary people who want a lightweight computer and are sick of computer headaches. This is a machine you’d buy for your grandmother and not have to worry about tech-support.

The iPad is the first computer for people who are completely computer illiterate — and there’s millions of them."

Define?

So it is for people who check e-mail and surf the web (sites that do not use flash anyway) mostly. I can't wait to try one out but I am pretty certain I will be holding off on buying one until it has a camera and atleast double the storage.

I think it would a great gift for your Aunt. My mother used to have WebTV, and was talking about getting it again. (She got rid of it at one point). I told her a netbook would be a better choice than WebTV, but with the iPad being way better than some cheesy netbook, I'm going to suggest that for her. I'm not sure what you mean by security, but if you mean accessing the unit, It appears to run similar software to the iPhone. I have an iPhone, and you can set it up so you need to enter a 4 digit code to access the unit. As far as the over the air security is concerned, I imagine it would be the same as any other WIFI connection. Also, 3G connections are pretty secure too (if you're thinking of the 3G model, and the AT&T account). You could most likely set her up with the $15/month - 250 mb package from AT&T.

64 Gigs isn't enough for you?

No it isn't. I would like to be able to fit everything i have on it lol.