Two Weeks of iPad

Here it is! My iPad review. I have now spent two whole weeks with it. The short is I love it. The long is the rest of this entry. For a more condensed review, check out the Weekly Podcast Show #12.
The OS
So let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way. Yes, it runs the iPhone OS. But, I would wager it does it better. Multi-touch on an area large enough for actual multiple points of touching is awesome. The OS impressed me after I got to thinking about it a bit more. This OS is snappy and efficient. The iPad runs a chip at one gigahertz with 256 mb of RAM. These are specs for a computer from a decade ago, yet the iPad is fast. Very fast. I don’t wait for anything. I think this harkens back to Woz’s original Apple ][e in that it’s about using resources the most efficiently. I actually worry about the multi-tasking in the upcoming 4.0 release of the iPhone OS because I wonder if we’re going to sacrifice some of that speed for a feature I’m not sure I need.
Usage
A lot of people aren’t really sure what the iPad is for. The iPad is for those users who have one computer and need to take something else with them to use briefly. It is an extension of your normal computer rather than a second computer. In the two weeks I’ve had it, I find myself using it for a lot of the tasks I was using my laptop for before and enjoying those tasks a lot more. Wake up and check my email while lounging in bed? iPad. Need to quickly look something up? iPad. Have a few minutes to kill before moving on to a new task? iPad. Basically the only thing my iPad doesn’t do that I use my laptop for is grading papers, and that’s simply because Pages doesn’t offer the commenting feature MS Word does.
For those complaining there aren’t any ports on it, USB or otherwise, save for the dock connector, they clearly don’t get the iPad. What do I need to hook up to this??? If the whole point is a lightweight device that extends your computer experience by syncing materials, why would I want to lug around additional hardware? I have nearly every computer peripheral ever made and I can’t think of one I wish I could hook up directly to my iPad. The point of the iPad is the tiny thing to take with you to fill in. It is not content creation – save for minor word processing documents or email – it is content consumption. And it is that idea which leads us to the apps.
Apps
Let’s face it, no hardware is worth anything without programs to run on it. Yes, nearly all your iPhone apps will work on the iPad and they work really well. But, it’s the native apps we care about. I downloaded a bunch, but not a lot. Here’s what I use and why I use them.
Kindle Yes, Apple has its iBooks for your reading pleasure. And it is pretty nice. But, who are we kidding, Amazon’s Kindle is _the_ ebook reader. With Amazon’s native iPad Kindle app, the iPad is a Kindle. It is now a giant, full-color Kindle. And it costs $100 more than a Kindle. And it does internet. And email. And other apps. My predictions is within 3 years the Kindle device is gone and Amazon and Apple turn iBooks into the Kindle in a mega-partnership.
As for the Kindle app itself, reading is awesome on it. I honestly get no eye strain (iStrain?) from the screen and I’ve had to do a lot of reading on it lately for a Shakespeare class I’m in. E-Ink may be cool, but it’s not ready for primetime.
Comixology / Marvel Comics As long as I’m reading stuff, let’s face it, I’m reading comics on the iPad. Marvel’s App is essentially a special Marvel version of Comixology. I love reading comics on the iPad. It feels so natural. The images are bright and sharp. The text is easy to read. Oh, and a lot of comics are really cheap on the iPad – far cheaper than the dead tree version. Currently, I’m reading Matt Wagner’s Mage series – all of it on Comixology with 180+ pages for 2 bucks. That’s the great thing about Comixology, there aren’t just single issues, but collected volumes as well and usually those are far cheaper than the singles. I find myself finally getting to read a lot of comics I’ve always meant to but haven’t been able to pull the trigger on. All purchases for Comixology / Marvel go through your iTunes account, a feature I wish the Kindle app had.
(I also tried iVerse’s app, but I found it lacking, both in content and interface compared to Comixology.)
Pages I could be using the iPad to write stuff. This is a huge deal. The Pages word processor, while feature slim, is only ten bucks and highly useable. I don’t mind the built in multi-touch keyboard for writing. I’ve been working on some stuff on it, side projects, simply because it’s convenient on the iPad. I did find it amusing that Pages was actually more compatible with MS Word than other versions of Pages. Pages on iPad will only open Pages documents from the latest version of the Mac OS version, but will open nearly any .doc file from MS Word. I found this out when I tried to send a Pages file to my iPad from iWork 08 and it just didn’t open. I’m not really sure what Apple is thinking here. Pages ability to both open and save MS Word documents for only 10 bucks makes it an awesome tool. I do think that if I were typing a longer document I would want to use the bluetooth keyboard option for the iPad simply so I can use the full screen for my document.
The End
All in all, I love my iPad. It does fill a niche I was trying to fill poorly with my iPhone. It is a great device for simple tasks. I haven’t watched much video on it or gamed much on it yet, but that’s simply because those aren’t tasks I usually do on a portable device. The internet use and email functions are perfect. I know the 3G enabled version is coming, but I didn’t see myself needing a third internet bill for the few occasions I needed internet somewhere there wasn’t WiFi and my iPhone wasn’t enough. I imagine if this was your only device, the 3G would be nice, but honestly, I need 3G in my iPad as much as I need it in my laptop. And that’s really the point, I’m not sure I need my laptop anymore. The iPad very well could become portable computing. Anyone that dismisses the iPad is incredibly short-sighted. This is the future. Within 5 years, iPad-like devices will be everywhere and everyone will use them to consume their media.

Posted by marvelous patric on April 17, 2010 and filed under: random post!