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http://viewfromtheturret.com/2010/04/08/apple-ipad-review-a-gamers-perspective/

With just a little imagination the uses of the iPad for tabletop gaming are rather amazing. Imagine loading in army lists and then being able to click and drag against your opponent's unit for combat resolution?! Reserve rolls and hidden placement could all be handled by the app. Developers need to get on the stick!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAl28d6tbko

Ahem....

On topic, sounds like a great idea, just a shame the iPad costs such an amount....think the last i saw was £500 and up.

I still prefer to handwrite my army lists then when I'm happy with one, type it out in Excel and print. Keep it in the case, job done. Maybe even take it to work and laminate it on the free so it'll not get damaged over time. Also, dropping a sheet of paper isn't quite as horrifying.

I'd love to get one of those fancy data slates, but they are too expensive plus I don't like those sweaters.

I was thinking that you could play ping pong with them, which is something you can't really do with a PC.

Maybe you can with flat panel screens?

Android tablets start at $155 and are MUCH easier to program for. (android developer here...)

Are Android Tablets already out?

I'm waiting for ChromeOS.

iPad is not the solution for mobile computing.

Its a restricted closed environment from apple.

Just like my iphone, I'd never buy it unless I can get it jailbroken and at a good price.

I just want an affordable data slate that doesn't make me feel like a pretentious dick and is easy to work with.

Yep, there's a couple already out. The android Archos's are due any day and the Nvidia Tegra 2 powered tablets are all slated for August (I totally have to have one of those). There's also a couple of andriod netbooks due for Q3.

Chrome OS could well be awesome - cloud computing for netbooks opens up all sorts of possibilities. More exciting is the (longterm) intention to merge chrome os and android - cloud computing for handhelds!

Edit - BrookM, wait for August there's going to be a rake of tablets, mostly android but a couple of windows and windows ce ones as well plus a bunch of new netbooks.

That sounds OK, but Apple needs to learn to Google a name before using it.

I am rather looking forward to the MS Courier. That´s an double-slate working instrument on also can use for gaming purposes. And it is not as restricted as an Ipad.

Frankly, until one of these gizmoes is as shatter-resistant and easy to replace as a paper notebook, I'll continue to see them as a potential distraction at best, and a serious liability and theft-magnet at the worst.

The thing is a p.o.s epic fail for me... I would have bought one had it been running osx, had usb's, camera and flash.

Now i'm waiting on the hp slate and google to see which tablet gets my cash. I want an open OS where I am not forced to limit my functionality to keep the manufactures ongoing profits up. I want to be able to torrent and manage files, and I want to be able to run and install apps of my choosing. I want to be able to video conference. I want to be able to plug an external drive to it to back up files. I want to be able to use photoshop with it. I want I want I want. What a disappointment.

Love my iPhone, didnt need one for the visually impaired of fat of fingers lol.

tanker wrote:With just a little imagination the uses of the iPad for tabletop gaming are rather amazing. Imagine loading in army lists and then being able to click and drag against your opponent's unit for combat resolution?! Reserve rolls and hidden placement could all be handled by the app. Developers need to get on the stick!

Personally, when playing RTSs, I like to click on my unit once and then click again on the enemy unit for combat resolution. Clicking and dragging is oftentimes reserved for selecting multiple units. I guess iPads don't have RTSs yet, but it's only been out for less than a week. Just wait, and they will come. Inevitably, some of those RTSs will have RPG elements where you can customize your hero with wargear and such.

As for tabletop gaming, some people simply enjoy rolling dice.
As a D&D DM, I once tried to convince my players to try out a laptop-based LAN session system and that wasn't too popular.

I think I'll stick to the printed .xls files, paper and pen.

I just can't believe the fascination with these. Didn't anyone learn their lesson from tablet PCs?

I demo'd one for work. It's my iPhone, only larger and minus the phone, camera and fit-in-my-pocket part. I'd also have to pay at least $130 more for 3G.

I'd call it the iScam.

It's the perfect example of what can be done with hype (just like GW stating the Land Raider as a "massive model" when really, its just a 7" x 5 1/2" x 2 1/2" box". It basically is what you want to believe it is.

I'm fascinated by it, because any tablet/small computer interests me. I don't want one, though...

So how long until we get down to "electric paper"? (wafer thin, flexible computers). 10, 20 years? These things will look like dinosaurs then... can't wait

I think it is a very well hyped device.

What I'd like to see are RF-id tags for the bases on my mini (similar to what has been done with the MS surface & DnD {I know those are optical tags...}) and an app that handles the rules for the games.

Have the iPhone / iPad / Lptop / whatever "ping" each of the models and if an illegal move was made, it'd denote that. Handle combat resolution... Basically, still have the visceral feel of the table top, but remove the cheating and interpretation from the game.

evancich wrote:I think it is a very well hyped device.

What I'd like to see are RF-id tags for the bases on my mini (similar to what has been done with the MS surface & DnD {I know those are optical tags...}) and an app that handles the rules for the games.

Have the iPhone / iPad / Lptop / whatever "ping" each of the models and if an illegal move was made, it'd denote that. Handle combat resolution... Basically, still have the visceral feel of the table top, but remove the cheating and interpretation from the game.

That'd be cool. And battle reports would be easy, and better to follow. You'd see how the dice rolled, etc. If it could handle cover as well. And the next thing you know, you no longer need models, or to be face to face, and you've loaded dawn of war on the computer and are playing via web vs an opponent...

I honestly do like the idea, particularly since I'd like to be able to review my game later for mistakes I might have made, so I can get better. But how far do you go with letting the computer take care of things before you might as well just pack up and play it completely on the computer?

Marushi wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAl28d6tbko

Ahem....

On topic, sounds like a great idea, just a shame the iPad costs such an amount....think the last i saw was £500 and up.

I still prefer to handwrite my army lists then when I'm happy with one, type it out in Excel and print. Keep it in the case, job done. Maybe even take it to work and laminate it on the free so it'll not get damaged over time. Also, dropping a sheet of paper isn't quite as horrifying.

Ahem this....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNozKsh7PHY

sorry i couldn't help it

MajorTom11 - there's a couple of windows tablets and some touchscreen netbooks due out in Q3.

Personally I'm waiting on the android tablets built around the Nvidia Tegra2 processor. That's a huge chunk of processor (more than any of the current netbooks) in a handheld device - the potential for gaming is massive.

OnLive or Gakai game services on tablets will be SWEEET.

Just add a keyboard & mouse input.


BAM.

Cloud Gaming at its finest. lol.

Just need super internet connection..

The idea of scanning every 40K rulebook, codex, FW book and FAQ and having it all easily viewable on a light touch-screen tablet with multi-touch functionality has me actually really, really wanting an iPad all of a sudden. Just being able to carry around that one thing and use it as my 40K 'book' for all occasions just sounds awesome...especially if Lone Wolf comes out with Army Builder for iPad.

The biggest concern i've seen is that (other than synced iTunes content) "local storage" on the iPad is difficult unless unsupported stuff is used.

I'd still like to see it. I have books for some games as legal PDFs and it would make them a bit more useful.

(To me, PDFs are great for short run works that wouldn't get printed otherwise and as a reference when at the computer, but not too useful when at a game.)

yakface wrote:
The idea of scanning every 40K rulebook, codex, FW book and FAQ and having it all easily viewable on a light touch-screen tablet with multi-touch functionality has me actually really, really wanting an iPad all of a sudden. Just being able to carry around that one thing and use it as my 40K 'book' for all occasions just sounds awesome...especially if Lone Wolf comes out with Army Builder for iPad.

I bought a used Toshiba Tablet PC for $250 from eBay. I have Army Builder, all the things you listed above, movies, mp3's, Adode PDF Professional, and Microsoft office. It's great and I don't really care if something happens to it since I got for so little money. I paid an extra $40 bucks to get the RAM to 4gigs and this little guy rocks! I have used it to score a few Rogue Traders and one GT. The iPad is too expensive for what you get and what it can do. I will go buy another Toshiba just to abuse like an unwanted pet and it will still out perform the iPad. That's my two cents on expensive mobile computers.

I'm doing the same with my Toshiba netbook.

Wow, looks like a lot of Apple haters in this forum topic.

I got an iPad because I don't have a laptop and I just wanted something to check email, websurf, youtube etc. I use it when playing 40k and LOVE IT. There's a great PDF viewer called GoodReader that I dumped all my codexes, rule books expansions to. You can make your own bookmarks in these pdfs so it makes finding the rules a lot easier (you all know how disorganized 40k codexes and rulebooks are).

I dont use it to create army lists, i have something better for that (see my Army cards in my picture galleries). But having all my rulebooks in one spot that's easily searchable and bookmarkable is great.

Its basically like a netbook but without trying to run a big clunky OS like Windows or MacOSX.

I bet when Android etc tablets come out you'll see some Apple-hater adoption of tablets in the next year or two . Its fantastic for 40k, fantasy and even all the rulebooks for DnD.

+1 on the netbook. I've got all the codexes, rulebooks, FAQs, etc, and armybuilder on it. Plus, any other Windows app I want. My battery lasts eight hours or so easily - I've never had issues with that. And it cost less than half what they're selling the ipad for.

I don't get the obsession with the tablet format.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

ajefferism wrote:Wow, looks like a lot of Apple haters in this forum topic.

Is this the standard boilerplate apple fanboi response to anything negative about an apple product? We must be haters?

I like some apple products. The iPad, however, is not one of them. If it were priced comparatively to a netbook, then maybe. But for twice the $$, with fewer available apps, several technical limitations, and the inability to run some of the tools I use all the time (like ArmyBuilder), what's the point? Because it has an Apple logo? A general rule of thumb is that you shouldn't pay more for a tool that does less. And that has nothing to do with being a hater.

ajefferism wrote:Wow, looks like a lot of Apple haters in this forum topic.

Sorry no. I do have and like my iPhone. I just think that the iPad is a miss gadget wise and a non starter price-point wise when I can get more capable netbooks now and more capable data pads later. I might even want to get an iPad when it hits third gen and gets the kinks out. Its called subjective criticism.

I will admit though that I am not an apple fashionista. Those fanbois take koolaid drinking to new levels....