My brother and I carefully opened the packaging and turned it on for the first time, and wow, it was pretty awesome. My dad had ordered the iPad for the family to use, but mostly for my brother to do minimal computing such as typing papers and surfing the web. He's been using an older iBook for about 2 years. We got the 16GB Wi-Fi model, and my 11 year old brother actually financed the whole thing with only some of his savings money from my dad helping him sell his previous computer and some other stuff...quite the young businessman I have to say.
How I digress, onward!
What I like:
- The screen - It's wicked sharp and clear. Star Trek came installed on it and it looks almost real life.
- Touch/accelerometer - The screen can go in any orientation with a simple shake, it's slightly more elegant than it's iPod and iPhone brothers. The games that are currently out use an on-screen controller to operate. It's a little hard to get used to but once you do, it's a lot of fun.
- Music - it looks like iTunes rather than an iPod, much easier to use and search.
- ergonomics - This is big. You can sit in a chair with the iPad in your lap in the horizontal orientation and easily type on it. You do have to look at it, but everything on the screen is visible all at once.
The Bads:
- No flash - This means pretty much no streaming video, or online games as of right now.
- Internet Woes - The internet on some secured networks can be wonky sometimes. It works great on mass networks like BSCunplugged, but struggles connecting to WPA Personal networks.
- Low res apps look like crap, but that should be fixed soon.
- No printer capability...yet.
As with any new device, it has it's issues. Overall, I think it's pretty cool. I really can't chalk it up to more than a big iTouch, it just doesn't offer enough new features. We'll see what Apple comes up with for the next generation.
I'm surprised there aren't more features on this. Like you said it is nothing more than a big iTouch, which is the same approach I had regarding it when I saw and heard about it. I'm surprised it doesn't have printer capability or flash capabilities. I feel like those two things alone could make the iPad a whole lot better. We'll just have to wait and see how they update it and come out with new items for it as time passes.
ReplyDeleteLike most apple products these days, I felt the iPad had "gimmick" written all over it. Although I've yet to get my hands on one, I've heard and read a lot of good things about it, much to my surprise. Perhaps I've been sipping on too much Hateorade towards Apple lately. Maybe I still haven't forgiven them for the whole Snow Leopard fiasco.
ReplyDeleteIt's just a big itouch right? Why would you ever willingly buy one of these things? It kind of reminds me of the old "running pad" thing you could buy for your nintendo.
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