Loading ...It has been exactly one week since I’ve gotten the iPad. And because this is the first product I ever owned and used from apple, i figured my experience may be of interest for many people who are skeptical of the latest hyped gadget. I got the 16g version and with only wifi.
Setting up
Since i am in Canada, and the ipad has not yet released here yet, I needed to setup a different account for the iTunes store in order to download apps. This is my first encounter with iTunes, and I really didn’t like it a lot. It was slow, tried to convert all my files to aac, and it bitched me about the us apps that I downloaded. Painful.
Using it
Many people asks me when would I be using it. My response: any time that I do not need USB support, flash, or camera.
I really enjoy reading on the web and having the tv on in the background showing sports highlight or the game. I used to do that with my laptop so it was a bit heavy after a while. I have a 13″ laptop and it weighs about 2.5 lbs. Still, it’s the form factor that makes it a winner. I can imagine the game shows on tv, say jeopardy, has an app that allows tv viewers to play along.
I also have a dock that i put right next to my laptop. I always have twitter on that gives me real time feeds. I also know that there is an app called iDisplay, that let the ipad be used as a monitor extension. Too bad it only works for Mac osx for now, but this will definitely be the app that I buy.
I downloaded a few game apps, like sudoku and air hockey, and just gave the ipad to my mom. After teaching her how to get back to the home screen and shutting it off,she was off to it for the whole evening. Amazing. I used to train computer illiterates so this is quite an interesting moment.
Reading in bed is great. Aside from the ibookstore, there are other free apps that allow you to download free books. Although those books are mostly the classical literatures, but they are actually that ones that I had always wanted to read but sometimes find it too troublesome to borrow from the library because I don’t know where they are at.
Watching videos is also great. There is the YouTube app, and even a youku app. For those who don’t know, youku is the Chinese version of YouTube, and they were known for lots of copyrighted materials.
I am getting quite good at typing on this iPad. This entire blog post is typed on it.
To answer a few critics:
No USB – it will be nice to be able to hook up memory cards, etc without the attachment. But it hasn’t been a problem for me yet.
No flash – most of the major websites had updated to this html5 format, so it’s not a big deal now. However, I do notice that most Chinese sites are very flash focused, so I’m sure it will be quite a trouble when I start to use it in china.
No camera – again, i have my laptop or cellphone to do this. Not a problem for me yet. Hard to type on – although I’m getting quite good at it, I do find that that are some weird stuff happening at the keyboard. For example, I always typed the z wrong, missing the ‘ , and I actually didn’t realize how many words I typed incorrectly until apple automatically corrects for it. If i typed something wrong, it’s very difficult to tap back to that word or changing a letter of the word. I needed to erase the entire word to change.
No multitasking – os4. That’s all i am hoping for. I really missed it when i cannot do instant messages when i browse. This is the only major problem that i have.
True problems that i found when I’m using it:
ITunes and the whole concept of it – this whole centrally located files concept have got to change. I don’t like to or usually w ant to sync up with my laptop.
Some of my emails aren’t showing up the right encoding- not sure if it’s because the senders encoding has messed up or what, but one in five emails i got in chinese is messed up.
The desktop is too cluttered – i downloaded lots of apps, so i have five different screens and its getting really difficult to find the right app. this I heard is being addressed ini the next big update Finger print smudges – it’s kind of obviously if you view it on the side.
Final thoughts:
I think this is a great device. Although it doesn’t have USB, camera, but that’s why I have my laptop for. I see it as a great companion to the laptop, where I watch tv and can also have the iPad on my lap, browsing or twittering(but not both at the same time due to the lack of multitasking)
For the 500us I think this is the version that makes the most sense. The hardware cost alone is around 250us, so there isn’t much profit margins for apple!
I also think that it is unnecessary to get the higher model because this iPad is meant to be used in a networked environment,like my home or office, or airport or coffeeshops. Pretty much anywhere. So, you can always get contents on the fly, download a new app, etc. Furthermore, I was able to use my nokia phone to tether my 3G connection. I also heard that there are lots of other options, such as verizon’s MiFi card which combines the 3G card with a wifi router in the form of credit card size box.
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