our new iPad

I've not been doing many blogs lately, and those that I have done have mostly been book reviews.

Got my daughter an iPad a while ago, I had pre-ordered one, and then the official release date came and went, and went a bit more. My hopes were significantly raised when I heard that the iPad had been dispatched from the factory, until I realised that the factory was in China and the iPad would still take an age to arrive.

But eventually it did turn up, one daughter had guessed that we had ordered one, but the other, the recipient, had not. So it was a huge surprise for her. There was a pleasant, oohhhh factor as you opened up the box, and setting it up, was as simple as connecting it to iTunes.

We have all had a little play with it, but it is essentially my daughter's, so she has it set up with her stuff and uses it as she wants to.

I have had a go with The Elements, which is pretty impressive, but overpriced. The rest of the family seem to enjoy Angry Birds and Labyrinth.

When it comes to web browsing it seems pretty unsatisfactory to me. My finger is too fat to work on a crowded menu, and most websites seem really badly laid out for the iPad. Either the menus are too small, or you keep on going down cul-de-sacs, and retracing your steps. I find web-browsing on my laptop a far more compelling waste of time.

However, it should be easy enough for websites to be reconfigured with iPad friendly versions, and some of this is just down my inbuilt preference for whatever I am familiar with.

If I did have my own iPad, then I would probably use it for watching TED Talks on my commute, and anything else that did not need much typing. I don't see it replacing a desktop computer or a laptop, it is just a new category of device, and more importantly a new way to consume media.

Of course I don't have my own iPad, my daughter does, and she is virtually inseparable from it. It is on the go all day long. So it is just as well you get a day's worth of charge with the battery, because it is well used every day.

If the iPad cost could come down by half, then they would become totally ubiquitous. It is attractive, easy to use, and can only get more useful.