Back in April I wrote a post on my first impressions of the iPad on the day the 16gb version was released to the public. In that post I was fairly critical of a number of decisions that we’re made regarding it’s design and configuration, and questioned what niche the iPad was designed to fill. In the months since that initial post, I have since changed my mind regarding a number of those earlier criticisms (not all), and have even obtained an iPad of my own as a tool to use in teaching and public speaking. I have eaten my crow, and now would like to share my updated impressions as an iPad owner and user.
Lightening Fast – This is the iPad’s killer feature. In my initial review I noted my disappointment that the iPad was running the same OS as the iPhone and not full blown OS X. However, now I realize this decision along with some pretty solid hardware specs has resulted in a device that is ridiculously fast. For years there has been talk of the “instant on” computer, and the iPad pretty well fits this description. Even though my netbook will allow me to do more related to content creation, it is also very slow comparatively speaking. With the impending release of iOS4 for the iPad, some of the OS limitations will be resolved, such as multitasking.
Better than Expected Keyboard – my initial reaction to the on-screen keyboard was that it was usable, but would be a bit of a struggle. However, I’m finding it to be even more usable than I originally suspected. So much so that I’m actually writing this post using my iPad. In my first week of using the keyboard, I’ve become proficient enough to type with all fingers in landscape mode, and have even been able to take notes in business meetings. As I originally noted, typing in portrait mode is still painful. It is too wide to use your thumbs, and too narrow to use all fingers.
Battery Life – as of right now, I have been using my iPad for about 3 hours, and my battery meter is still at 78%. This is way better than either of my netbooks, and miles better than any laptop I’ve ever owned. Honestly, it’s better than my iPhone as well. This makes the iPad great for travel and really long meetings (which are both common for me).
Size – the size is perfect for carrying around or placing in your lap during a flight. True that it is heavier than the dedicated eReaders like the Kindle, but this device is so much more than just a reader. The screen is also large enough that it works well for web browsing, viewing e-mail, documents, pictures etc.
Web Browsing – from the moment the iPad was introduced by Steve Jobs I have been very critical that Flash was not included. It is purported that up to 85% of mainstream web sites use Flash, and I saw it’s absence as a major hole in the potential Internet experience. However, after using the iPad for a while, I can honestly say that I barely miss it. Some of this is because I can see what an impact Flash can have on mobile performance (e.g. Flash on Android), but mostly this has to do with many mainstream sites offering iPad optimized versions of their sites, or even separate apps for viewing web content (e.g. Netflix and ABC.com). I will occasionally run across a video that I cannot watch without Flash, but this has been the exception, not the rule.
Email – as I noted in my initial impressions, the email app on the iPad is hindered by the lack of a universal inbox and the 4 taps required to switch between mailboxes. However, this will be resolved once iOS4 is released for the iPad. Otherwise, the mail app on the iPad is fantastic, especially in landscape view. I find it to be a better experience than using my laptop or desktop.
Books – the iBook application and store are really elegantly designed, and the iPad is a fantastic device for illustrated children’s books, or any other illustrated text. Reading on the iPad in a non-glare environment is really very pleasant, but reading under direct light or in sunlight is next to impossible. I you simply want a reading device, nothing compares to the Kindle or Nook, but the iPad is about so much more than just eBooks. The iBook application is what I use to store and view all of my PDF notes for teaching classes and preaching sermons. It really is an excellent PDF viewer, and the interface makes it easy to organize your files. As a side note, the Kindle app for the iPad is quite beautiful, and since my wife has a Kindle, I will mostly likely us this app should I choose to purchase a standard novel, biography, etc.
iWork – my initial observation was that the iWork suite of apps were unintuitive and difficult to use. I have backed off from that a little bit, but they still have two critical flaws. (1) the inability to directly access cloud-based file services such as Dropbox, Sugarsync, or Mobile Me iDisk. While I realize that you can use the Dropbox, Sugarsync or iDisk apps to open files in iWork, I do not know of a way to save them back. (2) the inability to save/export Numbers or Keynotes files to Excel or Powerpoint format. This makes those two apps almost unusable from a business perspective. If I create a new spreadsheet in numbers and then send it to myself or a client, we would have no way to open it. Fatal flaw
As an alternative, I highly recommend Documents to Go (14.99 from Dataviz) which allows access to an array of cloud based services, and allows you to work natively with MS Office file formats.
Apps – I plan to write some additional posts reviewing some of the apps that I find most useful for iPad. In general, I don’t understand why Apple failed to include some of the base apps that are in the iPhone such as Clock, Weather, Calculator, etc. As I noted before, existing iPhone apps that have not been ported to the iPad look really bad. Native iPad apps such as Pulse, ABC Player, and Bloomberg are very elegant, but it will be a while before the selection of native iPad apps is in the same league as the iPhone.
All in all the iPad is a killer media and data consumption device and is better at content creation than my initial observations. It is a much better business tool than I could have conceived. Tomorrow I have a 2 hour meeting with a very important client in NYC. Do I put the iPad to the ultimate business test and leave my laptop behind? Time to see how proficient I can be at taking notes on the iPad.
What are your thoughts on the iPad?