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Okay, i'm doing my best not to write about the iPad too much this weekend, but believe me its not easy. First impressions, app lists, and talk of accessories seems to have completely dominated the news cycle, but one article I stumbled upon seems to stand out from the rest. The iPad is a good looking piece of hardware, I won't deny it that, but what would it take to kill one? Well according to the guys over at PCWorld not much.
Turns out spilling coffee on the screen and even a few soft bounces on carpet are more than enough to cause serious hardware failure. I'm sure most of us expect a bit more durability out of our mobile gadgets, but hey they said it was magical not droppable right? Either way its a good reminder for new iPad owners that it is probably worth it to pony up for a protective case as one of those two scenarios are bound to happen eventually.
The spilled coffee and dropping on carpet pretty much cover off the normal use case accidents, but if you want to check out the iPad getting submerged, dropped on concrete, and even hit with a baseball you should probably check out the rest of the video for yourself below.
Does the durability of iPad have you concerned?
Comments are closed on this article
Florian
April 05, 2010 at 7:04pm
Don't get offended, apple makes some great products, that most people cannot afford. Don't get upset because you are too cheap to buy apple products......... The iPad.......... Is is a tablet?? Yes.... A larger iPhone/iTouch....... Yes! Worth an arm and a leg..... NO! Does PC have a tablet yet..... NO! The iPad is a cool device but has no practical application, especially if you already have an iPhone and for what it is, it should be more durable. Just quit your complaining about ALL apple products you bunch of whinners! Especially Mr. San Diego, try being a little more professional.......
Ntldr
April 06, 2010 at 7:21am
Technically it is not a tablet. It can't multi task. PCs do have tablet's they had them before Apple did. Maybe before you go on a rant you should do some research and go out on the internet and find things.
dracx619
April 06, 2010 at 5:46am
a little more professional? excuse me mr doesn't have any context to take a jab at my professionalism. if anything im being MORE professional by bringing balance to the apple news we do at the station. all the apple coverage we do here on apple is so one sided its, well, UNprofessional. for some reason, we only report apple praise, long lines at the apple store, a new iphone patch out today, apple releases leopard fixes, lets look at this new app that comes out next week, rumor has it apple will release the iShip next summer...you get my drift, yet no other comparable product getes the same buzz or nothing negative gets brought up about apple. so EXCUSE ME for bringing the balance back in the news with something very important for people to know when they buy their giant ipod touch.
Florian
April 05, 2010 at 7:04pm
Don't get offended, apple makes some great products, that most people cannot afford. Don't get upset because you are too cheap to buy apple products......... The iPad.......... Is is a tablet?? Yes.... A larger iPhone/iTouch....... Yes! Worth an arm and a leg..... NO! Does PC have a tablet yet..... NO! The iPad is a cool device but has no practical application, especially if you already have an iPhone and for what it is, it should be more durable. Just quit your complaining about ALL apple products you bunch of whinners! Especially Mr. San Diego, try being a little more professional.......
dracx619
April 05, 2010 at 6:24am
since i work at local news station here in san diego, i though this would be a good video and story to run and somehow, i got our producers to feature this story and video tomorrow. FINALLY, i get some anti apple stuff to air here. nothin but apple butt kissing, i get so sick of it
Keith E. Whisman
April 05, 2010 at 12:08am
You can't even use it to stop a baseball. Damn this thing is weak. Dropping it from your lap a few feet to a carpeted floor seems reasonable and something that is bound to happen with a device like this and it can survive it. Sounds like it couldn't survive being thrown into my wifes purse the same way she tosses her cell phone into her purse.
It's too weak. As long as it's this fragile then why not use a standard hdd for more storage? Oh yeah I forgot it's not really a tablet computer but an enlarged Ipod touch.
Dexter243
April 04, 2010 at 7:42pm
I would much reather have a netbook then a ipad and i all ready have a acer 1 and my 7 year old loves it and it has held up very well to her use
but with this idem i would not exspect it to last in the hands of a kid
buy the way i love my mac system and i think mac builds a great system but i am sory thay did not hit the target with this idem and i exspect it to fade away soon as the ipad that should have never ben
Florian
April 05, 2010 at 6:53pm
If you are going to post any kind of comment online, you should know how to spell........
Scootiep
April 05, 2010 at 6:36am
Speak english much?
To start press any key...ohh, where's the "Any" key. - Homer Simpson
imagonex
April 04, 2010 at 3:29pm
This video is a bit over the top. However, the drop-on-the-carpet test would worry me especially if one's going to pay $500 or more for one of these overpriced appliances.
Keith E. Whisman
April 04, 2010 at 3:15pm
My G1 phone has withstood far more destructive environments and still lives in my cell phone holder. Ipad sucks. It's barely a modern day TriCorder and definitely not a true tablet computer.
Florian
April 05, 2010 at 6:54pm
if you are going to compare your G1 to something, it should be an iPhone, not an iPad.......
PDX-1337
April 04, 2010 at 3:09pm
Not a fan of Apple at all, but there isn't any tablet or eReader that could survive that...
bikerbub
April 04, 2010 at 2:40pm
I think the stress tests showed how voulnerable the iPad is to breaking really well. I would never get one in a million years, unless somebody gave me one, but the whole carpet thing would scare me.
klue22
April 04, 2010 at 1:44pm
I wanna hack at least 2 of them to run windows 7, then keep one and send the other one to steve jobs.
winmaster
April 04, 2010 at 5:51pm
Last I checked, Windows 7 needs a standard PC processor to run. Hack the iPad all you want, Windows 7 will not run. What do you expect? It can't even run Mac OS.
Linux is a go though.
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Keith E. Whisman
April 04, 2010 at 6:38pm
That's right the Ipad has it's own custom Arm processor. That does not preclude this device from running a Linux distro though.
You would need the Windows 7 source code and then compile it for the Ipad hardware environment.
Instead of making a tablet friendly version Mac OSX they just used the Iphone OS to I guess have a tablet out faster. This just isn't a true tablet computer. Sorry mac lovers.
GMoney86
April 04, 2010 at 11:34am
The best video with an iPad is from Tosh.0 when Daniel Tosh hits one with a golf club.
noobstix
April 04, 2010 at 11:33am
An iPad ---> iTurd with a simple wash or drop (hell, my cell phone is more durable!).
knexkid
April 04, 2010 at 11:02am
I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE seeing Apple products destroyed!
Keith E. Whisman
April 05, 2010 at 2:46am
burn it Beavis and Butthead style... Cook cook cook.. huh huh huh ehh heh heh heh...mmmgh
DBsantos77
April 04, 2010 at 10:28am
I'm still having trouble posting comments. Some 127.0.0.1 error. Funny thing is, this comment will probably make it through.
-Santos
aviaggio
April 04, 2010 at 10:30am
Anyone that buys one of these turds should have coffee spilled on them, dropped-kicked to the concrete and pelted with a baseball.
mralexosborn
April 04, 2010 at 10:09am
This picture warmed my heart. :)
All this coverage on the iPad (on MaximumPC of all places!) really got me angry but this makes up for it.
kjrviking
April 05, 2010 at 6:47am
a portable PC would require that it actually runs a OS... which it doesnt (the iPhone OS does not count as a OS, even though they say it is) and can do basic things that a PC can do, like Flash and multi-task - none of which are present on this thing
Taz0
April 05, 2010 at 9:02am
By your definition, the ye olde DOS (Disk Operating System), which can neither multitask nor run Flash, is not an operating system.
dracx619
April 05, 2010 at 9:46am
by modern standards, i would say dos isn't an os. technically speaking. yes its a an os, and so is what runs on the iphone and ipad, but by basing on what the more robusts systems like windows (even like 3.0 to 7) and mac os the iphone os is not a real full fledged os, its just a lame piece of if code on a small device meant to do very simple things. android and web os work more like full fledged oses, but they have a little more to go to really get there, so to me, those aren't full oses either. bberry is even worse
Taz0
April 06, 2010 at 10:15am
An OS is a piece of software that allows programs to run and interact with the underlying hardware. The iPhone OS fulfills that definition, even by modern standards. You may say that it is not a very good OS. You may say that it is a closed, limited, feature-depraved OS. And I'd probably even agree with you. But you cannot say that it is not an OS, since it allows arbitrary code (apps) to run on it.
dracx619
April 06, 2010 at 3:25pm
thats why i said it technically is an os. but i guess on a personal level, many can consider it so inferior to something like a desktop os that they wouldnt consider it a real os. kinda like calling a pinto a car after driving, well anything that doesn't blow up. youd be like 'damn, it looks like a car, acts like a car, but this thing is more like a bucket with wheels.'
