Anyone thinking of buying an ipad, might want to hold of until this report is confirmed or denied.

Goldman Sachs analysts say new lighter iPad will include camera and mini-USB port
Apple could be in the process of readying a slimmer, more feature-rich iPad to release to the masses early next year.
According to a report by Bloomberg, a pair of analysts at investment bank Goldman Sachs have reported that the California tech company plans to include both a built-in camera, and a mini-USB port in this rumoured update.

While the device will also be slimmed-down, the analysts say it will still retain the 9.7 inch display size of the original.

There is speculation that the reworked device may be a response to increased competition in the tablet market, particularly from the likes of Dell and BlackBerry.
It is understood that this new iPad will likely continue to be manufactured by Hon Hai Precision, whose subsidiary, Foxconn, was recently hit by a wave of employee anger due to poor working conditions and a number of recent suicides.

The analysts also said that the creation of a rumoured 7-inch version of the iPad had not been finalised.

Apple have yet to comment on the analysts' statements.

Link here:
http://www.news.com.au/technolog ... 061?area=technology

realisically, do people want to take pics with a 7 or 10 inch slate thing? hmmm

well - not necessarily for photo taking - Facetime for Skype or other programmes could benefit as well....

personally...taking pictures with a slate - why not if there is no camera / camera phone at hand

Well, if you use it on a punt, imagine how thrilled the girl would be to see herself on
a decent screen instead of a tiny iPhone display. Could give a boost to bros' chances
of getting pics, especially those with some photo-taking skills.

IMO, Apple has the iPad and the iPhone; it should leave the also-rans to battle it out
in the 7" space, which is neither here nor there.

so that means we better to wait for the new ipad rather than buy it now? personally i think the life cycle for electronic devices are far way too short nowadays. the ipad is just launched and Apple has already planning new ipad few months later.....

[ Last edited by  haroldla at 2-10-2010 02:48 ]

I personally think the ipad is too big to take photos with. not very comfortable. Nevertheless this is a strategy that apple has always thrived upon. They create so much fuss and hype with each release that people want this device now even though they know that there will be a bew and better one in a few months time. The products are mostly great and so they know what they are doing.

bitching apple! so clever in giving an inferior product to start with then improving it bit by bit... suck all the consumers hard earned dollars..

i find the ipad itself a very stupid concept. its like an itouch but a whole lot bigger..
way too overrated
and now they introduce a camera? whats next ? ipad with phone service too?

i humbly disagree... its a great device to have around... it will not replace your phone or your laptop, but its good for movingaround, surfing 141 in between meetings, google maps, etc. while your iphone can do that, imagine if your meeting is delayed for half hour and you had to browse on your iphone...

its a great in-between device

I am waiting to buy mine.  I never buy the first option of these electronic items.  I like the current pad, but a slimmer version which would allow skype would be awesome.  These would be great for kids.  Also an Ipad blows away most current touch screens used in a home theater application.  It is much cheaper, much larger and has tons of software written for it.

slimmer would be good, it does get bulky when you are holding it for an hour to try and read an e-book

I have a feeling sometime in the near future, around 4 to 6 years, they will have something ( device ) that is a laptop, ipad, graphics tablet and cell phone all in one. The size of a computer notebook is about right for this device. It will be small but not too small. Everything is touch screen with an optional keyboard. It will have limited voice activating controls. WiFi that transfer data without wires.

where I am, I am notice more & more people have it on the train.  people don't wanna lug physical newspapers with them.

there is so many people using Ipad in train or MTR... they always use it playing game or reading newspaper.

my boss also get one, he said the font of the newspaper display in ipad is more solid than original

The Ipad is a device looking for an audience.  Once you get past the Fanboi mentality that sold a whole bunch of them up front, very few people really know what to do with it.

It is too delicate of a device to really be used for anything useful commercially.  It is too big to really replace a phone or similar.  It is not really as productive as a real laptop.  It has Apple as the gate keeper as to what is or is not an acceptable app.   You pay a huge premium for the little apple logo on it.

The Ipad will be what the original Palm Pilot or the Apple Newton (you remember that piece of history, right) was, a step in a direction, which was later defined by better products and more focused ideas.  Who needs a palm pilot type device when you have a decent smart phone?  

Check back in about 5 years, when the real needs of the market place will be addressed.

hate apple...look for archos. they have a bunch of tablet pc based on android platform,..and cheaper...also blackberry just announced playbook, which IMHO is a much better device.

Lighter is better.  But how do you carry it around with you unless you've got a backpack or briefcase.  Otherwise a newspaper pm te train is better as you just throw it out. The USB port is good and what about the printing capability--thought one compalont was that you could not print off it

The new release of iPhone OS for iPad in November (4.2) will address the printing complaint - it supports printing via wifi (called AirPrint, i think).

Ten useful Apple iPad tips, tricks
October 12, 2010 - 2:45PM
               
This post was originally published on Mashable.com
Using Apple’s iPad isn’t exactly rocket science, but if you didn’t take the time to read the owner’s manual, here are some quick and neat tips and tricks that can help you get the most out of your tablet.

1. Open Safari links in a new page
Remember that you can have multiple webpages loaded in Safari simultaneously. So if you’re not sure about a link or want to keep your current page open, you can open the link in a new window (a little like tabbed browsing, but without the tabs).
To do this, rather than just tap the link, press and hold it until you see an option to “Open in New Page”, hit this, and Safari will open a new window and load that link.
To manage the pages you have open or to return to another page, look to the top of the browser and there you’ll see an icon that looks like two overlapping boxes or pages. If you press the icon, it will show you all the pages you have open (just like in the graphic below). From here you can tap any of the “X” buttons to close an individual page.

2. Activate AutoFill in Safari
The AutoFill option is a great time saver for anyone who knows and trusts anyone else who might use their iPad, as it automatically remembers your usernames and passwords for services.
To activate it, ensure your details are saved in “Contacts”, then head to “Settings”, choose “Safari”, and click “AutoFill” and then set both options to “On” and select your file from “Contacts” in the “My Info” field.

3. Quick mute your iPad
Although the iPad has no “mute” option, you can still quickly silence your device by pressing and holding the down volume button — this quickly drops the volume down to zero in about two seconds.

4. Make use of the home button
The iPad’s “Home” button will take you to your homepage if pressed once, but it has a few other functions worth knowing about as well.
To access these functions, go to “Settings,” press “General”, then choose “Home”. Here you can select which function you’d like a double press of the button to carry out, such as opening up “Spotlight Search” or accessing the iPod.
From this area in “Settings” you can also set “iPod Controls” to “On”, which will mean when you have music playing and you’re in another program or app, a double press of the “Home” button will bring up basic music controls.

5. Add a website shortcut to your home screen
There is a quick way to add shortcuts to your favorite sites directly to your home screen.
Head to the webpage you want to create the shortcut to, tap the “+” sign at the top of the page and select “Add to Home Screen”. This will then create a shortcut icon offering one-click access to your most-used sites.

6. Make iBooks more user-friendly
The iBooks app’s swipe-to-turn the page function is really nice when you first play with it, but the truth is (and it’s especially true if you’re a fast reader) it gets a little old if you’re settling down to read more than a few pages.
You can tweak iBook’s settings to offer a shortcut to go to the next page, if you simply tap the left margin.
To make this the case, head to “Settings”, then under the “Apps” section, press “iBooks”, then “Tap Left Margin” and make sure “Next Page” is ticked, which will change it from the default option — the previous page.

7. Activate iPod sound check
You know how annoying it is when your songs play at different volume levels, leaving you either scrambling to get across the room to turn it down, or sighing with frustration as an inaudible track comes on? Well there’s a way to stop that from happening.
All you need do is navigate yourself to “Settings”, click “iPod” and then turn “Sound Check” to “On”, which will help regulate volume levels.
Oh, and while you’re there, take note of the “EQ” menu that offers a tonne of different sound options depending on the style of music you’re listening to, or you can regulate sound levels for spoken words to help optimise sound for podcasts or audio-books.

8. Squeeze six apps into the dock
Until iOS4.2 arrives in November, bringing with it the joy of folders, there are a few ways to help organise your apps and make items you use often more accessible.
You can have 11 pages to arrange your apps on, so although there’s no way to make a games folder, for example, you could drag and drop all your games apps onto one page to create a themed “games” page.
Also, the dock can have up to six apps in it, so you can pick two more than the standard layout offers (just touch an app until it wiggles then drag it into the dock to move it) to make more items closer to hand from any screen.

9. Use a space bar trick
In addition to the keyboard shortcuts, tips and tricks previously brought to you for iOS devices, there is one more spacebar trick to share.
The spacebar will create as many spaces as there are fingers on it, so one finger will produce one space, two fingers two spaces and so on.
We can’t see that this is going to be the most useful trick you’ll ever learn, but it’s interesting if for no other reason than to see how the Apple engineers had fun with the display’s multi-touch capabilities.

10. Download the iPad user guide e-book
Did you know you can download the official Apple iPad User Guide as an e-book?
While available in Safari’s pre-loaded bookmarks, for offline access to the guide simply download it for free from the iBooks store, and search for “iPad”.
Download it now, and the next time you have a iPad query and are not hooked up to the internet you’ll be ready to go.
Mashable.com is the world's largest blog focused exclusively on social media news.
Link here:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-li ... 20101012-16h4u.html

I like the concept of the iPad, but there are many things about Apple and the iPad that really annoy me.

No Flash, and bragging about not having Flash like it's a good thing.  
-Sure, Steve Jobs thinks Flash is unstable, but it is also an essential part of many websites.  Perhaps Mr Jobs hates Flash because being able to play Flash games on the iPad/Phone would eat into his Apps store profits

Holding back functionality just to add it back in as a 'new' feature later on
-Remember when the original iPhone was released?  All smartphones had already migrated to 3G, and Apple sought fit to release a 2G phone, just to release an upgraded version a year later.  There was no reason to hold back on that functionality.  No inward facing cam untilthe 4th generation?  What the hell!

Closed ecosystem
-Because my Android apps on my X10 will work on my brother's HTC

This is why I don't want to get an iPad until atleast the 2nd or 3rd generation.  Right now it is too heavy, lacks a lot of functionality.  Theywill add cameras... they will make it lighter... they might even add that wonderful new thing called "USB"... and when they finally run out of feature ideas they'll change the whole range to 16:9 screens so that you can actually watch modern video content properly

OK... rant over... on the other hand iDevices have great touch screens, the app store is good... they are nice devices on the whole.  I just won't worship the ground that the iPad is carried over until they add back in the functionality that it needs.