I was among the many thousands of people who got their hands on a new Apple iPad a couple of days ago when they were finally released internationally. I’d pre-ordered mine back at the beginning of May so I received mine by courier on May 28, the day they were released.
I was very impressed when I first got my hands on my WiFi + 3G model. As well as being an elegant looking device, as you’d expect from Apple, the brightness and clarity of the display was just amazing. Images look amazingly crisp and bright and even pages of text are extremely easy to read. Most of the apps that I have installed are ones that I currently have on my iPhone. The majority of these are still native iPhones apps so at their “std” resolution, appear the same size on the iPad as what they do on the iPhone. Once an app like this is started though, there is a small button at the bottom of the display that you can press to enlarge the app so as to fill the larger iPad screen. Some apps don’t look too bad when enlarged, others… not quite as good. There are heaps of apps that have been optimized for displaying on the larger iPad display though. A couple that come to mind are WordPress, Evernote, Dropbox, eWallet, Marvel Comics and AirVideo. These apps, as well as the native iPad apps, look stunning on the larger display. So far I’ve only downloaded a few native iPad apps; Adobe Ideas, Twitterific and Smule Magic Piano. As mentioned, they look amazing.
Originally, I was planning on writing this whole post on the iPad. It soon became obvious that wasn’t going to happen. There’s a couple of reasons for this. The first being that I wanted the post to be consistent with the rest of the posts on my site. This meant that it would need a header image and a thumbnail image. Not having any apps on my iPad where I could create images at specific sizes (eg. 600x150px for my header img) made it obvious that I was going to have to put the finishing touches to the post using my pc. I was also not able to assign a “Post Thumbnail” using either the WordPress app or using the WordPress Dashboard within Safari. (I think this is more of a case of lack of functionality in the WP app though) I found that using the WP Dashboard within Safari, I was also unable to type in the actual text editing field, which kinda makes it a little hard to write posts! I was able to enter text when it was in “HTML View” though. I reverted to using the WordPress app to write all this content.
Am I disappointed in the above? Not really. It was never my intention to get an iPad in the hope that it would replace my laptop. What it does, it does really well but for me, it certainly couldn’t replace the functionality you get with a laptop. So far I’ve had fun using all the apps and it’s also lots more convenient browsing the web or Tweeting using the iPad than it is using a laptop, especially whilst relaxing on the couch. I even streamed an episode of Chuck from my Media Centre PC last night using AirVideo, whilst lying in bed. Beats having a heavy laptop sitting on top of you! Much like my iPhone, I can now say I love my iPad 😉
Have you got an iPad yet or thinking of getting one? What do you think of them? Let me know, I’d love to hear your comments 🙂
Hello Anthony,
to be honest, I enjoyed the read. It seems like a true, honest and not
I like that your review reveals both the good and the bad parts of the iPadand while I understand and appreciate it, I can’t help but bulge my eyes out when I see the price for this thing.
I’m going to wait a bit until some other companies get in on the whole tablet game and go for a cheaper variant.
On the other hand, if the competition is going to release products that are far less feature filled or less reliable, then I’ll most likely be looking into getting an iPad.
Yeah, they’re not exactly the cheapest devices! Originally, I was going to wait for v2 to be released before I bought one. I guess that didn’t really work out did it! Will be interesting to see what other bring out to try to compete with the iPad. So far there’s been lots of talk but not much action. Thanks for the comment Radu.
Sorry, I fell asleep and my head hit the keyboard.. no, just kidding, I send it by accident.
This sounds like an honest review. To be honest, I’m really thinking about buying one, but I don’t know what to use it for yet.. I’m not blogging (yet), and I have an iPhone.. I’ll just wait.. haven’t really made up my mind yet.
Greetings,
Miles.
lol. Thanks for your comment Milos. I find it really convenient even just to browse the web or tweet. It saves having to turn on my laptop when I’m not at my desk and it’s also a lot more convenient to hold as well. I’ve got an iPhone as well and yep, it does pretty much the same thing with regards to apps and browsing, the iPad just give you a bigger screen to do it on. Certainly makes browsing websites a lot easier than on the iPhone. 🙂
P.S.: Too many “yet”s.. I should really get some sleep, good lord.
Your findings are as good as mine. I also immediately tried if I can find a way to make a post from my iPad and the image resizing presented a problem. But then again the iPad really is a marvel specially in digital magazines and comics. You should try reading an issue of Time and Wired magazines thru their apps and I assure you the experience will be so immersive you’ll find it hard to put down the iPad. Enjoy!
Hi Charles. I’m a member of NAPP (http://www.photoshopuser.com) and they put out a regular magazine called Photoshop User. It uses a digital reader app from Zinio (http://www.zinio.com). They’ve got an iPad version as well and it certainly makes it nice ‘n easy to read the magazines. They have a PC version of the app also but I find it quite slow and it’s never really convenient reading the mags when I’m at my desk. I’m imagining the iPad will make it lots easier to read them when it’s more convenient. I haven’t tried the Time or Wired mags yet so I’ll have to give them a go as well. Thanks for the comment 🙂