Comment Evaluate software first - then hardware (Score 1) 1634
How to buy hardware (this has been like that since the beginning of personal computing):
1. See what software you need to run, what problems you want to work with
2. See what hardware/OS setup allows you to do that
3. Get the best performance for the best conditions that you can get
I want to do statistics, work on images, run public domain or commercial software such as LaTeX or Gimp, and so obviously I am very happy with my Windows Vista Netbook that allows me to use compatible software.
If all I want to do is consume pre-packaged goods and just use Apple's software store than I am OK getting an iPod, iPhone, iPad. Nothing wrong with that. But if at step 1 I list other software, why even bother with Apple? Check what other platforms offer and get something else. If there are people that are happy buying iPads, there is obviously a market for these.
Besides, all you wave when jailbreaking these devices is the Apple warranty. After the device has been jailbroken / jailgebraked, you are relatively free to install other software. So purely technically speaking you are not at all bound or tied to the Apple store. You can do with the hardware whatever you see fit. I remember when Apple Powerbook G4s had a laughable wireless signal reception and so first thing to make these halfways useful was to swap the antenna - so, take it apart, change antenna, reassemble. That did not mean that Apple stopped me from having fun with wireless LAN - they just did not feel they had to be responsible for me making their computer at least halfways useful. If you study these issues before jumping into such a purchase you'll not be perplexed.
