iPad first impressions
Purchase
I got in line at 8:30 and was out the door with my iPad by 9:15 (actual arrival time at the Apple store was 7:45 in case it was mobbed, but only 50 people were there and it was cold. Lounging in Starbucks was a hell of a lot better).
In the Apple Store they had moved all of their computers and iPods out. Every station had an iPad. Nothing else. It was interesting… The sensation of, “This is the future of computing… This is all you’ll see in the future” was the message I got.
Activate
The iPad required syncing to my laptop before I could unlock it. This was disappointing. I brought my laptop, but keep in mind you can’t use an iPad until connecting it with iTunes.
First use
The battery comes pre-charged to 100% and the sync was taking a while so I ditched the tether to the laptop and bounced around on various sites and downloaded apps. The experience is great. Even on an inundated public access point it was a smooth and a great web experience. If you want to call the iPad a “______ killer”, call it a mouse killer.
Look and feel
It feels good in the hands. It’s a little awkward for me to use the keypad because I’m used to the smaller sized iPhone keypad. It feels a little like a small child using an oversized adult keyboard. I’m sure this will change as one gets used to it.
Something odd… Remember when the iPhone first came out? If I you were in public and had it out people stared and asked, “Is that an iPhone?” While sitting in the Corner Bakery people mostly thought I was making strange gestures to a digital picture frame.
A real pain in the (photo) sync
After browsing around and downloading a bunch of iPad specific apps I went to sync music and photos. The sync of my photo library has been going for almost 2-hours now, and is about 60% complete. Each of the 10,000 images in my library has to be optimized. The good news is that the optimization for the iPad screen is stellar. The bad news is I’ll finish this post before the sync completes.
Reading
The screen quality is fantastic. I’m looking forward to using this as my go-to book reading device. This is a total eBook (device) killer. The Kindle for iPad app and iBooks are sure to be amazing.
Writing
Typing has been awkward. I have a feeling this is just a learning curve for a new keyboard style. It feels very similar to getting used to various ergonomic keyboards. Thumb typing in portrait mode is decent and intuitive. Touch typing in landscape will take some getting used to, but seems feasible.
Summary
A very good experience and device. I’ve expected I’d prefer using the iPad over a laptop for most tasks (email, news, misc. web, spreadsheets, docs, movies). So far that expectation seems to fit. If this is the future of computing, it’s looking to be a good future.
Here are the two best reviews I’ve found thus far:
- PCMag video review (short and sweet 5-minutes by Tim Gideon): http://vimeo.com/10595371
- AllThingsD/WallStreetJournal (Walt Mossberg): http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20100331/apple-ipad-review/
