Yeah, I've heard this also, more than once now... and despite almost slave labour pay rates, Apple still has the hide to charge absolute top dollar for all its products. 

On top of Jobs' sickening smugness, it's another reason I point blank refuse to buy an iPod/iPhone/iPad.  And what is it with all this iCrap anyhow???   I can understand "iMac" to indicate the more recent Intel architecture, but all this other iCrap is ridiculous.  i this and i that.. it's enough to make i sick

Uh-oh, too bad!!!  I was considering an iMac PC for mid-2011... until i read this.  According to this PCMech article, ALL Apple computers are made in cheaply made in China.   Won't be buying one now, then... will I!!!!

Thing is, how many other companies (Intel, AMD, Gigabyte, etc) have set up operations in China to exploit cheap (almost slave) labour???  It may be that China has edged out many Western nations in manufacturing, but it is the greed of Western corporations that has enabled this... all at the expense of the lowly Chinese worker. At the end of the day, however, if we boycott the companies responsible for such atrocities, what 'll be left for us to buy?

Many of Chines workers suffer sub-human working conditions we wouldn't even subject our worst convicts to, much less an animal... yet very little is said or done within the international community to help improve conditions for them.... we still purchase the products without so much as a by your leave or thank you to oppressed who made them.  More to the point, how many manufacturing jobs in the US UK and Australia, etc, have been permanently lost as a result of companies shifting operations offshore to China??? 

Since the dawn on the industrial revolution, economies without a solid base in manufacturing have struggled, so why is it that developed nations like the US and the UK keep selling off their manufacturing assets??  These counrties suffered extensively during the world financial meltdown... yet China, Taiwan and South Korea were thriving.  Why?  Because they have recognised the importance of having tangible products to trade in a consumerist and tech driven world...instead of trying to create intangible IT wealth, electronically and on paper. 

I'm just a lowly pensioner with just a basic understanding of economics, but it still beats me why treasurers, finance ministers and corporate entities persist with their financial strategies when they clearly have failed.  They need to get back to basics, but I don't see that happening until the major banks and establishments like Wall St are brought to their knees... and large corporations become honest (I won't say again because I don't know they ever were).

I heard there is a class action lawsuit over the new iPhone.

http://mashable.com/2010/07/01/class-action-lawsuit-apple-and-att/

starkers,

the iPad does "work straight out of the box" as Brad pointed out.........as a media/digital consumption device.  Browsing, viewing, listening-to, light content-creation and digital sharing all "work out of the box" as advertised.  It's when you want to do a little bit more with the device that you have to look for paid-for apps.

How exactly is my buying iWork for the iPad any different than my buying MS Office for my PC?  Not to mention that the cost of the iPad + iWork is far far far less than the cost of my PC and MS Office Proffesional! 

Plus, now with a nifty 12-dollar app I can use my iPad to remotely control/admin any/all of my PC, Mac or server computer systems.  My entire business is now only a finger-swipe away (and thanks to the 3G iPad version) pretty much anywhere in the world.

that's absolutely "reasonable usefulness" in my opinion,

the Monk

EDIT:

....and as far as a phone (since you mentioned the iPhone 4 etc.) I've been a Sony Ericsson fan for years now.  My first cell was a Diamond Tel (back in 1993 I believe?), then went to a Nokia, then a Samsung 1998 and then my first Sony Ericsson in 2003.  I've never looked back.  I'm now using an SE Xperia X1 and because I use a phone primarily to make calls and/or to email/text (which the Xperia X1 excels at thanks to the best slide-out qwerty keyboard on the market) I have no desire to move to any of the other available smart-devices (least of all an iPhone). 

The reason I'm telling you this, is to point out that my love for the iPad should not be construed as "apple-fanboi-ism".  I'm all about "the best product for the job".  I do believe the iPad is the "best tablet/thin-client for the job" because in my opinion I've made it more than "reasonably useful" at reasonable cost.  There is nothing else on the market today (or even in the forseeable future imo) that would/could effectively replace (at such a resonable time & money investment) the now very important and powerful role the iPad assumes with regard to my daily IT demands.

starkers,

I'm thinking you need to actually use one of these i-devices you disparage before you continue in this vein.....hehe

You have so much flash to use on a daily basis?  So all of your media is flash?  All of your pictures are flash, your music and all movies you posses are flash?  Besides HTML 5 will make flash/silverlight etc. a moot point! 

Multi-task?  Is there even such a thing?  I run many apps/programs etc. as well on a daily basis but I can't really say that I ever truly "multi-task".  If the app is written well, which most of them are when you click the home button to switch apps and go to another the first app will resume where you left off when you switch back to it again.  How is that any different than switching windows by alt-tabbing?

First, starkers......No one actually wants/chooses to use open/crap-office over MS Office etc.  That's just plain bs.  The ONLY reason you would "prefer" open-office is because it's FREE and you don't want to steal MS Office.  More than 90% of the computer-enabled world uses MS Office (of course to put a number on how many use Office after stealing it would be impossible to discern) because it's the best.

Second, the iWork suite for my iPad from apple cost me exactly $30 in comparison the MS Office suite for my PC cost me $1000. 

In closing.....before we can really continue this "debate" I think you actually really need to USE one of these devices you seem to scorn so much.

the Monk

Huh?

Why I own neither.  my desktop is enough, if I go out to do something, there isn't a need for a computer or its offshoot.  Not even the cellphone but I take it because I have one.  Got along without one for damn near 60 years, so if we didn't have them I wouldn't loose sleep.  But if thats how ya want to spend your money, by all means go for it.  I spend mine for the toys I want.

I'm convinced more than ever that people just don't understand, nor care to, the point of devices like this.

The I-pad is (from what I gather) a superior consumption device. Which it ought to be, given that it's a purpose designed tool for consumption. That doesn't somehow make it superior in general to a general purpose device with vastly more capability.

It's basically a really shiny dumb terminal with no wires. That not new. It's not a bad thing either. But it's not the future of computing because you can't particularly compute on it. If it fun? I bet it is. Is it useful? I'm sure it can be. Is it as useful as a computer? Well if I'm understanding Island Dog's primary usage of it correctly, he's mostly using it as a remote GUI to tell his real computer what to do. Could they do the job without the iPad? Yes. Could the iPad do the job without them? No.

So. The iPad is not and will never be the future of computing. It might be a compelling case for the future of interface devices, if only it could handle sophisticated input as well as one of the teletype dumb terminals for the '70s.

So accept it for what it is, which is fun and of limited utility.

As pointed out in my previous posts.  If I need flash, I can simply remote into one of my Mac's OR PC's using the iPad and play the quick flash video or browse the flash-enabled site.  Unless everything you own/do is flash-enabled how big of a minus could that point really be?  Not to mention, I never aspoused the iPad to be a desktop/notebook replacement, just that it CAN have a more prominent place in one's IT than just some stupid/shiny consumption-device.

Again, why sit at that desktop while it's doing all that shit?  Just do what I do, let the desktop do all of that and go to the summer-house/beach with the iPad.  No where in my posts have I ever suggested that the iPad is a desktop/notebook REPLACEMENT for me.  I've simply stated (in contrast to you) that the iPad in fact IS A VERY USEFUL TOOL and not only a consumption device (as proven by my own IT structure).

Thank you for making my point for me (or don't you even recognize you're doing that?)    You tried to use "well does the iPad run Open Office??"  as a way to point out a fault with the iPad......I countered with " the only reason one would pick Open Office over MS Office etc. is cause it's FREE!" ......you've now confirmed that.   Thanks.

Right.  Completely ignoring my detailed posts previously on how the iPad finds itself nicely entrenched in my IT structure and has PROVEN itself to be so much MORE than just a consumption device, keep on ragging on those ghey commercials and whatever other anti-apple drivel you seem to dredge up. 

As Island Dog so aptly put it.  Some people just refuse to see the potential usefulness of such a device..........even when the proof is staring them straight in the face.

the Monk

@ the monk:

The iPad might be firmly entrenched in your IT structure, and you might find it as useful as all f**k, but I will never find a use for it... EVER.

For 1: it costs far more than I am prepared to pay

For 2: I have NO NEED of one

For 3: I have other IT priorities.

So, no amount of explaining how it makes you feel will alter my position... and frankly, I don't give a rat's arse that you don't like the fact that I don't like or need the iPad.

I have no proof staring me in the face... not that I need proof... whatever that proof may be.  The iPad, for me, is a non-event.  I'm not getting one, so it doesn't matter one iota if you feel there's some relevant proof I've missed/ignored.

Now is there's some part of "It's just not for me" you just don't get?

But that's exactly what it is.

So it works for you and your applications. It would not work for me and it's way too expensive.

I'll tell you what, Monk, I don't give a flying f**k how useful you think the iPad is... IT IS NOT FOR ME!!!!!