4 weeks into my iPad ownership i felt it worth a quick review on how I am finding it.
Firstly I am not a Mac fanboy. I do like my iPhone but am a long term PC user, and frankly have no need or reason to change that. Not sure if that makes me more objective in evaluating the iPad or not. Who cares. This blog is about what ireckon anyway 
My iPad arrived on day 1 in Australia which was a Friday and two days before I flew out to the USA for a week long trip.
My goal for the trip, get enough useful things on it to use it while away.
Things I got before the trip:
- Autodesk sketchbook pro
- Borders Kobo Reader and 3 books, as I tend to read a lot on flights
- The Australian App
- Things ( a task management application apparently common on Macs)
- Marvel Comic App
- Numerous games
- Drop Box for iPad
- Twittelator
- Office 2 HD
- Foxel Guide
My busy little home screen
I managed to successfully sync everything up easily to my Itunes, load all my music onto the device and basically got on the plane wondering exactly how the thing might work.
From the moment I got to the airport I realised this could be a new friend. While I would usually use my iphone or take my laptop out of my bag, all I did was use the iPad.
Second point of interest was how would the battery stack up. I had brought with me a US double plug and two Apple plugs for charging:
NB: the iPad will not charge without an official Apple charger which is different to how the iPhone behaves, nor will it charge off your laptop (well not my laptop anyway)
VAustralia Premium Economy flights have power plugs so I figured I would be okay. To be honest the iPad didn’t really need it, whereas the iPhone did. The iPad just ran and ran and ran.
Throughout the flight I would have had it on for approx 5-6 hours and wouldn’t have used more than 60% of the battery at most.
All week I found it a complete replacement for day to day communication and entertainment. I still sued my laptop for full web work, like content management and full document work.
On my return home I quickly added a few more applications including goodreader and an upgraded version of SSH and started to actually start using the iPad for more and more. I am still using all those original apps so thanks to those people who recomended them over twitter.
I now take it and only it into meetings, where i take notes, can draft wireframes and workflow charts easily with my finger, email, tweet, browse and can demonstrate designs and other things we do.
Things that I can’t believe it doesn’t do like multi tasking and proper file management seem antiquated given the whole premise of the device is a new future. I am now waiting to see how the upcoming OS changes for iPad will improve on that. In my opinion it should have been built that way from the start.
a snapshot of twittelator for ipad
Some things don’t stack up. I just found WordPress doesn’t quite work right in iPad Safari. Which is quite bizarre, but it doesn’t recognise the main content text area as a content area, and thus the keyboard won’t show up and I can’t add content. That might be user error, but so far no good. When I added the 3G micro-sim it didn’t just work, and required a whole lot of dicking around to get it right. The charging thing is frustrating. I have multiple chargers and a brand new laptop, just let me use it how I want stop controlling every little thing.
Overall though, for me and my type of work day, the iPad is an awesome new tool, and now i have to buy a 2nd, because I am not giving this up for the office to use.The UI is simple and anyone can use it. The responsiveness is brilliant and as of yet I haven’t had any crashes or issues with how the O/S functions for everything except the previous couple of items.
My rating summary is: Don’t judge it until you have worked out what apps and how it can work for you. I can see lots of people who would never need one or get the same level of satisfaction from one. However for me, I wish I had one years ago. I am definitely an iPad fanboy.
Well that’s what Ireckon anyway!
I’ve just come to accept like many other computing enthusiasts that I’m just not a part of the target audience. It looks like a great toy that I would get a lot of use out of but 700$AU -though justified by it’s sexy screen – is just a bit to pricey for a media tool that I have to fight tooth and nail for control over the OS.
In summary, yes, it’s awesome but the price tag is what is holding me back, price aside the tech is 8/10. lovely experience that is just a bit too controlled for my liking.
I am ever so glad I read your blog post esp in re WordPress as that would frustrate me to know end considering my whole website is a WP site.
I personally am waiting for the iPhone 4 to be released as whilst the iPad would suit me esp. its portability.. the fact that the iPhone 4 will allow me to do a lot more of the things I want to do as well as be a phone is what works for me.
I’ll wait another year or two before I might buy one.
Have you tried the WordPress for iPad application?
No because a web page should work natively. But i will
You can install the word press app though, for me it was more a criticism of how it should work given safari is a web browser