My Initial iPad Review

I just got back from paying a visit to the Apple Store and got a chance to personally get my hands on the iPad:




Some quick findings from a few minutes of using it at the Germantown Apple Store.

The Feel

It’s a little heavier than I expected but not too much, just enough that it feels durable. Scrolling through the screens feels just like an iPhone or iPod touch yet you feel like you are touching a desktop of a Mac, felt very Minority Report in that regard. You can easily hold it with one hand for a good period of time although I would probably spring for the case that can turn into a stand you can prop on a table or on your lap.

The Apps

iBooks - The first app I launched was iBooks. The pages of the book are crisp and clear. You can choose 5 different fonts and increase or decrease their size. This is going to be on great ebook reader simply because there is already a Kindle app out for it and Barnes & Noble is working on their own app for the iPad so really if you can’t find an ebook on iBooks you can probably find it on the other 2 and vice versa. You can do a search within the book creating your own index, one button press brings up the chapter list so you can jump to any chapter. Pressing the store button basically flips over to the iBooks store which has a very iTunes Store look to it. You can even download a free sample of a book before buying it. Much to my wife’s delight, I searched for “Eclipse” (yes, you Twilight fans out there will be happy to know it is in the store).

MLB At Bat 2010 - If you are a baseball fan then you will love this app! It does a great job utilizing the screen space and I would use it in landscape mode. Instant stats at your fingertips. This would be great to use at the ballpark if you have the 3G model (unless of course the ballpark offers WiFi, I know the San Francisco Giants offer it.)

Photos - Oh My...what a treat this is! Pinching and flicking open photos is fun just in itself not to mention the photo scrolling. No editing really just browsing photos for this app.

Videos - This will play all the videos you have on the device. On the one I was on they had 2-3 movies on it and I watched a few seconds of Step-Brothers. Plays very nice on the screen, given its amazing battery life I can see using the iPad on a long plane ride for watching movies compared to say the battery life of a laptop barring the fact your not on a plane with a charging port in your seat for the laptop.

Safari - Finally I got around to using the web browser. Very nice, I even looked up my own blog on it and minus any Flash content, it displays nicely on it. I really didn’t use any other sites outside of Apple.com which was the default homepage on it.

Email - Nothing really to add here as compared to what is on Apple’s site. One thing of note the virtual keyboard is really easy to use, not one for heavy typing really, for that I would opt for the optional physical keyboard you can connect to it. But for light typing, very usable.

Calendar - This really has the look of a personal organizer in a hi-tech way. You can browse by day, week, or month. Looks very nice and if your using the iPad as a community device within the home, it makes it easy for keeping track of family events.

Summary

Simply put this device does not put out any heat so using it to read a book or browse the web is much easier than plopping a warm laptop on your well, lap. It will comfortably rest on your thigh. I can see where Steve Jobs said this is a device that fits between the iPhone/iPod touch and a laptop. On the one hand, you want a screen bigger than an iPhone/iPod touch but on the flip side, you don’t want your legs really warm after an hour. I think Apple has hit the niche spot perfectly here. Now a few things to note. This is not a laptop replacement. It is more of a media consumption device although you can do some creating on it as well. So am I going to get one? You bet! Just a matter of when and having the cash to get one.