A few months ago, I posted a blog with my “I’ll happily give Apple my $600 dollars if the iPad is this…” wish list. The list was small because I honestly had high intentions of the product that Apple would release. I’ll say that I haven’t been disappointed at all, with the reasons coming later. So, about a month and a half into owing an iPad, what are Joel’s thoughts? Well, I’ll start by telling you guys what I actually use my iPad for besides watching The Big Bang Theory and Office Space.
1. Productivity
I’d be lying if I said I solely bought the iPad to use it as a productivity machine. However, using applications such as Evernote paired with a stand (twelve south’s Book Arc) and a bluetooth keyboard, the iPad transforms into a netbook/laptop hybrid. Those combination of accessories alone are enough to sell me on the device but add to that the fact that I presently am without a laptop and I’m quickly finding that I really don’t need a laptop to be mobile.
As a person that is trying to get a consulting company off the ground, I’m learning that using the iPad as a business tool is super easy. With the iPad, I’ve been able to do demos of software we’ve written using Citrix’s GoToMeeting, which allows clients the ability to see my screen and vice versa. That is huge for me, huge! Apple themselves offer a suite of productivity apps branded with their known iWork programs, though I haven’t used them personally. I’ll say this about everything that I point out in this review, once developers have more time to really focus on apps for this thing, the sky is the limit. Revision 2, year 2 will be the real indicator of where it stands.
2. Entertainment
The first apps that I downloaded the day the iPad came out was the ABC and Netflix video players. What these two companies have done is hit homeruns on what video on mobile devices should be like. The quality of video on both players is stunning, though the Netflix app does decrease quality based off of your network connection, which is understandable. Watching Lost and Modern Family while doing anything at home or being anywhere in range of WI-FI is awesome. Did I mention the quality is great?!?
Now those are third party apps, so what about the apps that come pre-installed on the device? Just like using the aforementioned video apps, Apple has done an excellent job with their Videos player. I’ve personally encoded all of my videos into 1080p H.264 rips scaled down to 1024×576 resolution. For those that don’t understand last sentence, it basically means that the videos that I’m syncing with my iPad are of the highest quality that it’ll allow.
Next are books. Apple really should have just built their Books app into the iPad directly (though it is in a way) without having to download it, but I’m guessing the reason for doing this was to brag about the number of users that did download it. Ok, off that soapbox and onto the actual experience. Back in February, I bought Rebecca a Nook for her birthday and a few days later I bought one for myself because it was so easy to use and read on. Then the iPad came out. Now, the Nook is still a great E-book reader but reading on it isn’t fun. The UI (user experience) for the iPad is pretty incredible but add the new forms of content that publishers are putting into traditional books and you have something completely new in your hands. I was afraid that reading on an LCD screen with be difficult on my eyes but that isn’t the case at all. One drawback however is weight. The iPad comes in at 1.5lbs and after reading for an hour or so, you will start to feel the “nerd burn” in your forearms if you’re holding it up. I grant all of you permission to use nerd burn also, enjoy.
Last but not least are games. Like I said at the end of number 1, this is a first gen device at a still, very early stage. Developers have already put out some amazing apps but my hope for gaming on the iPad is in the future of what we will see. I’ve played some RPG’s (role playing games), bowling, air hockey and others and all of them are nice. A quick note of some of my favorites are, 10 Pin Shuffle (bowling), Dragon – The Bruce Lee Story (think Tekken but with BRUCE LEE!!!) and Scrabble. The latter is probably my most played. The guys who published it really understood the potential of the iPad and the game is gorgeous.
3. Social Media/Web Content
This post is getting long so I wanted to combine these two. Like I said in books, reading on the iPad is a treat. So often, I would graze over articles on my iPhone or save them to Instapaper to read later when I was in front of my desktop due to the size of the iPhone’s screen. That’s not the case any longer. I’m tempted to say that the screen size on the iPad is perfect but that would make me sound like a fanboy and you all know that isn’t true. However, if it isn’t perfect, it’s very close. I find myself reading A LOT more than I use to. Most of the popular newspapers (USA Today, NY Times, Wall Street Journal) are still free in the app store and using them are a piece of cake.
True to the rumors, you don’t get the full web on the iPad and any Mac Head that disagrees is an idiot. The absence of Adobe’s flash is a big disappoint (I would really like HULU) but from experience, flash is slow and buggy and it causes Safari on my iMac to lock up too many times to ever say a nice word about it. If polled, a lot of people would say that no flash on a device is a deal breaker. To them I say, well don’t buy it then. No one is twisting anyone’s arm to spend $500 – $830 if they choose not to. Boy that felt good to say. Ok, so as far as social media goes, Twitter is a big winner. There are some really good twitter clients available in the app store and they work very well. I personally use Twitterific & TweetDeck as I was use to both of them on the iPhone. There isn’t a true app for Facebook yet, but the web version works great for me, though some may complain over not having Facebook’s chat.
Those are really my main focus points and what I use my iPad for daily. I opted for the WI-FI version because I felt that an extra $30 on top of my already expensive iPhone plan wasn’t worth it. I sit in front of a computer all day, so information is readily there when I choose to get it. There are those however, that have commutes on buses or in carpools that would benefit more from having 3G wherever they are. Another point not to be excluded is how amazing the battery life is. (Did I end that sentence with a preposition?!?) The battery in the iPad is a huge win for Apple. There have been spans of days, with normal to heavy use, that I’ve gone without charges. It really is reasons like the battery, portability, user interface/experience and content that shows why Apple has already sold over a million iPads.
And my stock keeps going up too 🙂
Joel's Weblog of Wonders 