my new iPad

Just posting some first impressions of my new iPad. Although I am a huge fan of all things Apple, I was not convinced on the merits of the iPad. My daughter has one, and uses it fairly regularly, often for games, but she was finding it limited and of late she has been tending to use her laptop more often.

My few attempts at using her iPad were a mixed bag, I was impressed with how easy it was to set up, I was less impressed with trying to navigate the web, fat fingers syndrome, but more impressed with some of the games and apps, such as Elements, and of course Angry Birds. All in all my impression was that it was an interesting device, but fell short of something that was actually particularly useful.

I also have been to the Apple Store a few times and been impressed by the futuristic way in which the staff wander around with an iPad keying in details.

With the advent of the iPad 2, I was convinced that previous models of the iPad would start selling at a good discount on the Apple Refurb Store, so I decided to bite the bullet and get one. The main selling point for me was that the iPad runs on a solid state drive, getting an Apple laptop running on a solid state drive would cost nearly a thousand pounds. Much of my computer/IT usage is actually while commuting, basically passing the time. I might be paranoid but I really do not like the idea of using a laptop with a hard drive on a rattly old train.

Anyway, sure enough there was a hefty discount on iPads and I ordered a wifi model with 32gb of solid state drive capacity. Unpacking the thing was impressive, it looked gorgeous, with decent heft, but practical and portable, it certainly felt like something expensive and usable. After an initial hiccup or two, it was reasonably easy to set up, and using it was a real pleasure. However it quickly became apparent that my iPad had hardware problems. It crashed regularly and creatively, often only running for half and hour before crashing. I ran the limited number of diagnostics and fixes that are available, to no effect. I gave Apple a phone, and they agreed that it was a replacement job, so I simply agreed a Genius Bar appointment at the nearest Apple Store. The appointment took a few minutes, they accepted my story, gave me a replacement from the cage, and I signed something on the Genius's iPhone. And off I went home with my new iPad. Setting up this one was trouble free - almost.

Being a worry wart by nature, it is worth enumerating the small number of things that were of concern

# my headphone jack did not instantly fit into the socket, leading me to think that I might need specific iPad headphones, but checking the internet it was a standard jack, and giving it a bit more of a shove did the trick.

# I could not set up my Demon email account on the iPad, I had to online chat with Demon technical support and they talked me through it.

# there was a bit of a loop registering for iTunes, it wanted me to confirm financial details, but did not provide the relevant screen. Got there eventually.

# if you are not internet connected, then the functionality is very curtailed. We are an always connected culture now.

# the Apps are a mixed bag, some are great, some are rather poor ports from the iPhone and can be rather blocky. Not every application lends itself to what is basically a pointing interface. A better way of finding good Apps is overdue, but by and large they are cheap and mostly work.

These are pretty small niggles for a device that is so different and cutting edge.

The other impressions are overwhelmingly, wow, that is amazing.

# it boots up pretty quickly, not instant on from off, but vastly quicker than a laptop.

# it is so easy to use, you really don't need a manual, you can just figure it out.

# the email is a real joy, it is a pleasure to access all my email accounts on the same application, and be able to send and file emails for the account too.

# the apps can be downloaded repeatedly from the App Store, so if like me, you paid for something, but the iPad crashed and it was lost, even if you have not backed it up to a computer, then it can just be downloaded again.

# the screen is a real pleasure to use, compared to an iPod Touch it is vast.

Overall, the iPad is a very personal device, it is like having a notebook or favourite book that you can carry about everywhere. I use it all the time now, albeit in a passive way, browsing emails and my RSS feeds. Serious text input really requires my laptop.

In terms of whether someone should buy one, it really depends on what you spend your time doing. The fact that you are limited to using a finger or two for an input device, means that highly featured and technical applications often do not translate down to an iPad.

Some applications work really well on an iPad, playing light games works well, Angry Birds and logic games work well.

Browse and click stuff like emails and RSS feeds work well too.

Where you are reading something feature rich, like the Phaidon Design Classics or Elements, it is great, just reading a plain vanilla book, you would be better off with an ebook reader or even dare I say paper.

It lacks a CD/DVD drive, so you are limited in what you can watch, there is plenty of freely downloaded content on iTunes but stocking up on stuff to watch will likely lead to you buying stuff on iTunes that you might otherwise have watched for free.

My final point is that amazing as all the hardware is, it is the software that makes the iPad great. It is incredibly easy to use, you are barely aware that you are down to using a few fat fingers as input devices, the machine is so capable and responsive.