So I’ve had my iPad for a few hours and it’s time to give you my first impressions. Apple fanboy, though I am, I can still be objective. First off, the negatives:
(1) Apple has jacked-up ebook prices. I wanted to try the kindle app on my iPad to see if I really could use it for reading without eye-strain. I confess I haven’t bought a kindle book in a while, but I was peeved to discover that the ebook I wanted was more expensive than the paperback! The whole reason my wife and I got ebook readers was because we ran out of shelf space and kindle books were generally cheaper than their paper counterparts. I personally thought Amazon had it right. Spending more for the ebook then the real thing seems wrong, especially considering the cost of the readers.
(2) Typing is awkward. As i write this post, I’m constantly using my hands to adjust the position of the iPad to make sure I can hit the keys correctly. That being said, I can still type with relatively few errors. I’m also getting faster, so this is partly due to it being new. They did change the layout a bit so the keys I expect from my iPhone don’t always seem to be there. It’s cool that they implemented a real shift key, but it can take some getting used to. I’m hoping this will get better when my case arrives, which has a built in stand. If I could find a comfortable way to hold the device while typing, it might almost be ergonomic (though i wouldn’t plan on writing any papers with the onscreen keyboard.)
(3) It seems slow to charge. Now this might be a matter of perception. My iPhone seems to charge pretty quickly, but the iPad took a while to recover 30% of it’s charge. If we consider that the battery is a higher capacity, then maybe this isn’t a negative. It just seems that way.
(4) Not Apple’s fault at all, but the interface for the Netflix app (one of the apps I am really geeked about) sucks.
(5) Heavy, yet light at the same time. One handed use is going to get uncomfortable after a while. I haven’t tried to read an ebook for an extended period of time yet, but I can imagine having to shuffle between hands to reduce strain. It feels lighter than my MacBook Air, but heavier than my kindle.
(6) iPhone compatibility is nice, but a bit of a joke. Only a few apps look reasonable at 2x zoom. Bejeweled looked good, but the rest didn’t. This presents the true negative, unless the developers release a universal app that supports both iPhone and iPad, I’ll have to spend money to replace my existing apps for use on the iPad. (Seeing some of this already.)
So enough of the negatives for now, how about some positives:
(1) Everything is just snappy. No noticeable delays in anything. Most impressive example is in Maps with Street View. Zooming in and out is really fast. I have a iPhone 3G running 3.1.3 and there are considerable lags, even after a clean shutdown and restart. This is an important issue considering that iPhone OS is largely single-task. If they open up the iPad to multi-tasking, at least we are starting from a good position.
(2) Web browsing is great. I loved the iPhone because the browser was unmatched (until Android.) The iPad maintains the strong browsing experience, and makes it better. I intentionally saved a bill to pay online. This is something I would never attempt with my iPhone because of my banks web interface. It was the first thing I tried online with the iPad and it worked like a charm. No more booting up the desktop or laptop just to pay bills. Every site I’ve been to works great, minus the Flash, but I’m used to that.
(3) Who new I needed wallpaper so bad? It is a small but very enjoyable feature. Definitely a good addition.
(4) The Kindle app was available at launch. Kudos to Apple for promoting competition and letting me test reading on the iPad thoroughly before investing any money in iBooks. (Though Amazon still seems to hold a marginal edge over Apple in book prices. So that switch may not happen.)
(5) The Netflix app was available at launch. Again kudos for promoting competition. I watched some 24 and it looked great!
(6) Videos is great. I tested my digital copy of Star Trek, and no surprise, it looks great. I was nervous about my homemade digital copies. I tried District B13, which I encoded with both English and French audio tracks, as well as English subtitles. It worked like a charm. I’ve loaded up Smallville Season 8 and a bunch of movies.
(7) 64GB was definitely the way to go. I have a full season of a 45-min/episode show plus 10 movies, several music videos, and a very small sample of my music and I have 27GB left. This is going to be awesome for traveling.
(8) Mail on the bigger screen is also a plus. Navigating your inbox while viewing a message is a common task that was lost on the iPhone.
(9) Maps with Street View is beyond cool!!!!!!!! It took me some time to figure out how to activate it, but once I did, I couldn’t get enough of it. It’s fast and fun to use. This was something that was never on the iPhone so it’s a great add to what was already a good app.
All in all, I’m in love with my iPad. There are some negatives that I will hopefully overcome or get used to. Of course, I don’t know what the honeymoon period on this device is so the negatives may eventually outweigh the positives. On the other hand, they may not. Time will tell. I plan to post again in one weeks time, so stay tuned for “iPad, Day Seven”