A boy and his iPad – a Review

I told myself I was going to hold out for generation 2 of the iPad. Last Saturday I went into the Apple Store to see what all the fuss was about. I wanted to hold the mighty iPad, see how it worked compared to my iPhone. I knew better when I did this, but I asked one of the Apple reps if they had any left. He said “Yes, which do you want?” “The big one!” 5 minutes later I had a new toy.

It has been a week almost since I’ve had the iPad. Has itdrasticallychanged my life? Not really. I already had an iPhone, so the interface was familiar, checking my email and surfing the web with my finger tip was familiar, not a lot on it was new to me. it sounds like I’m disappointed in the iPad, but that could not be further from the truth.

The truth is that the iPad is helping me regain control over my life outside of the office. So often when I leave the office with my MacBook Pro I take it home, and as I catch up on news, facebook and Twitter, Iinadvertentlyend up working on something. The next thing I knew it is midnight and I’ve put in another 16 hour day. With the iPad I’m able to check email, and that is about it. I can’t use Photoshop, I can’t use Illustrator, Coda, or any of the other apps I use to create our wonderful graphics design and web design / development projects. All I can do is read the news and play around the net. I could do that on my iPhone, but the screen size is too small for any prolonged use.

I don’t want to sell the iPad short, even in its first week it is very diverse in what it can do. It has what you’d expect: a quick webrowser, avery nice email client, an iPod, calendar and notes. Additionally, the Netflix app let’s me stream any of the content I have

available to me via my Netflix account, all at my finger tips (I fell asleep watching Batman Returns the first night!). Epicurious let’s me flick through many recipes and helps create a shopping list for me, which has really inspired me to start cooking again. GQ and other magazines, with more on the way, are at my finger tips, many for cheaper than you can buy on news stands.

I’ve had people ask, “Why did you get the WIFI version and not the iPad equipped with 3G?”. The short answer is that I already have a device in my pocket that has 3G, so I don’t feel like I need another. WIFI is almost EVERYWHERE, and I am really banking on AT&T allowing some kind of iPhone tethering sooner or later. I pay for enough internet as it is, I don’t need another subscription. Besides, what would I need 3G for? I’m certainly not going to surf while driving, or use it for navigation.

For the rareoccasionthat I’ll be taking a ride or flight I have the Instapaper app, which syncs any articles I want to read and caches them for offline use.

So to conclude, is the iPad a life changer? It could be, it depends on what you’re currently doing. For this guy, it made things easier, so I am glad I got it. If you have a desktop and don’t want to shell out for a full fledge computer, and think netbooks are too small for prolonged use, go grab an iPad. I think you’ll be glad you did.