Another iPad review

There are tons of iPad reviews out there. Most written by folks way more technically savvy than I am. Nonetheless I am giving you the low down on this gadget of gadgets, mostly because some of you asked, but also because I think reviews from people we know, our friends, family, co-workers, are a little more meaningful than those of a random stranger, technical prowess or not.

Oh, and for those of you that aren't Apple fans, I will do my best to keep this review impartial. Be forewarned however, I will likely fail as I am a big fan of Job-sy and his minions in Cupertino.

Also, I have the 3G + wi-fi version so my review will cover this model only.

Aesthetics
The iPad is, without a doubt, beautiful in it's simplicity. A delicately curved back make it feel comfortable in your hands and at 1.6 pounds it feels solid without being heavy. Lightly curved corners and super clean lines are form factors borrowed from the iPhone and iPod touch, making this device feel right at home in your hands, and already extremely familiar.

Screen
The screen is super crisp however it is definitely a smudge and fingerprint magnet. If you're planning on buying one of these babies, go ahead and get the Apple Polish cleaning kit. The microfiber cleaning cloth will keep you OCD types happily cleaning the smudges off your screen.

Now while the smudges are really noticeable when the device is off, you can't really see them when it's on and to be quite honest, most of the times I'm looking at the screen, it's because my iPad is on. That being said however, the super glossy screen is difficult to view in direct sunlight as it's highly reflective and if you want to see it, expect to set the brightness level as bright as it will go. This is probably the biggest thing that will keep this device from eating up the eReader competition, in my humble opinion.

Keyboard
I should preface this part of the review by telling you that I love physical keyboards, particularly because I'm a really fast typer. Typist? Whatever, you know what I mean. When the iPhone was first introduced I was loathe to give up the physical keyboard on my smartphone, and it took a long time before I jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. Once I got used to the virtual keyboard however, real keyboards, on smartphones anyway, felt clunky to me. While I can't say the virtual keyboard on the iPad will ever be a full replacement for my physical keyboard, I can tell you that typing on it is quite easy, and, for me anyway, completely delightful. And almost as fast as typing on my physical keyboard, but with the added bonus of auto-correction and a keyboard that gets "smarter" the more I use it, adapting to my keystrokes.

Innards
Ok, so as I mentioned before, there are plenty of iPad reviews out there, most providing a much more technical breakdown than anything I have to offer. What I can tell you about the processing speed of this thing is that it is fast. I loaded all four gigabytes of my NYC photos and started flipping through them using the native Photos app, and good grief, this device was able to keep up with me. I could skim through all the photos and land on one, and my iPad would load and crystallize it within a second.

Surfing the web is also a lovely experience on the iPad, whether on 3G or on wi-fi. I was able to catch up on all of my ABC shows without nary a hiccup in the streaming feed.

Missing Stuff
Much ado has been made about the things the iPad lacks; Flash support, multi-tasking, a camera. Let's tackle each of these, shall we?

Flash Support
I have not really felt the lack of Flash support, mostly because I don't use sites like hulu.com much, however I'd be lying if I told you I didn't miss Flash at all. There are a few sites I occasionally browse that apparently use Flash, and it's a real pain that Apple can't learn to play nicely with Adobe.

Multi-tasking
After almost two years of using the iPhone, a lack of multi-tasking is something I just don't notice. At all. Seriously. Most of what I do on my iPad is single threaded, and when I do need to switch between apps, the responsiveness is so immediate that I hardly notice that I had to leave one app to get to another. That being said, I am thrilled that Apple has figured out a way to introduce some level of multi-tasking without compromising the speed and stability of their OS, and look forward to its release for both my iPhone and iPad later this year.

Camera
I never did understand why the lack of a camera was a big deal for the iPad. After all, would you want to hold a 1.6 pound magazine sized camera up in front of your face to take photos? Yeah. Me neither. But I will tell you that the lack of a forward facing camera for video conferencing is a huge miss on Apple's part. This device is made for video conferencing, and a forward facing camera should have been included. I know they probably omitted it intentionally, will add it to the second gen iPad, and pity us early adopter fools. To this I say, "Shame on you Apple. Shame on you."

Other Stuff
I think I've covered all the big ticket items on the iPad, both included and missed, and after nearly a month with it, I can honestly say I love it. There are, however, a few things I'd like to see changed on it, some that I think will be covered when OS 4.0 is released. Here's a quick overview of my iPad wish list of improvements:

- Merged calendars
- Merged mailboxes
- Wireless sync to both my Macbook and my iPhone
- Ability to create folders or group apps and web pages
- Ability to store books in the cloud, for free (like Amazon's Kindle)
- Ability to "flip" pages on my calendar, like a book (this one is such a no brainer! I can't believe Apple didn't design the calendar to do this!!)
- Forward facing camera

All in all, I think the iPad is a beautiful piece of innovation, and while it is well thought out and beautifully put together, it is still a device in its infancy. To those contemplating buying one, I would say ask yourself what your intended use is first. Do not expect this lovely device to be a full on replacement of your computer, unless of course your computer is used primarily to consume media and the web. If you're looking for a great entertainment device, something portable and easily used by everyone in the family, then I highly recommend the Apple iPad.

I hope you found this review to be helpful and if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them, just post a comment in the comments section and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. And whatever you decide to make your media consumption gadget of choice, happy surfing, Facebooking, Twittering, movie-watching, eBook reading, photo viewing to all!

Here's to innovation and technology!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone