So, after much anticipation my iPad finally arrived and I got go play with it on my 21st Birthday which was yesterday. I have since had a whole day to experiment with it and have decided to post my first impressions of it as promised. I would also like to note that I will be typing this entire blog entry upon the device.
The first thing I noted about the iPad was that it was somewhat a little bit smaller than I expected, however I think that works in it's favour as I feel if it was even sightly bigger, it could potentially make typing on the device a little harder.
With that being said, many reviews have slated the iPad's on screen keyboard as suitable only for short passages and note taking however I do not feel that this is the case. I have found that the transition from a normal keyboard to the onscreen keyboard used in the landscape mode of the device is almost non-existent and I can type at roughly the same speed as on a physical keyboard already. I do however avoid typing in the portrait mode as the keyboard is a little more awkward to type on, though not impossible.
One of the biggest criticisms of the iPad is that it is merely just a big iPod touch to which I say "well yes, but in most ways that's the entire point." one of the devices best features is in fact it's screen. I tested out BBC iplayer yesterday using this weeks episode of doctor who and I was blown away by how crisp the picture quality was. I would go so far as to say that it was as close to HD as you could get without actually having an HD screen. Also with the added screen real-estate on this device there is so much more that it can do that would have been impossible or at least incredibly irritating in the small touch screen of the iPhone or iPod touch.
One of the biggest selling points for me however is the portability of the iPad. As I have mentioned before, carrying around my laptop can after a while cause great discomfort in regards to my shoulders. The iPad however ways considerably less and is considerably smaller in size also. I have been saying to people since I started playing with the iPad yesterday that the iPad will become my new laptop in respect to having a mobile computer whilst my laptop will become my desktop computer.
Since I've been using my iPad, my laptop, which was possibly my last biggest spend before my iPad has been sitting, getting dusty and unfortunately very little attention except for when I have had to access something which I have not yet put on my iPad or when I have had to sync my iPad with it.
I do however only have the entry model iPad so am limited to 16GB of storage which is of course where my laptops main new use will be. Most of my personal data and media will be stored on that as well as my external hard drive, meaning that my iPad will remain a slave to it, and my iPad will have all the files transferred to it that I may need for my desired time frame (kind of like packing your bag for school the night before). So although my iPad will have over taken laptop as my primary computer, it will be more of an extension of it than a separate entity. I guess the iPad is (as far as my uses for it are concerned) Apple's response to the net book.
I do not yet know if the iPad is worthy of the often used adjective of "magical" but I would certainly accept the word "revolutionary" and "friggin' AWESOME!!!!"
