iPad First Thoughts
I have been using the Apple iPad for 2 1/2 weeks now and thought it was time that I write down some of my thoughts. Overall I love the iPad. Since receiving it I have not used my laptop except in the office. I’ve stopped even bringing my laptop home during the week. On weekends I still pack it up but it hasn’t made it out of the bag. I have found very few things that I am not able to do with the iPad. Here are my thoughts:
- Keyboard: I have grown to love it. I am using it now even though I have a bluetooth keyboard in my bag. It does take some getting used to but once you do it is easy to type over 30 words/minute on it.
- Size: The size makes it feel a lot like a book. I don’t like carrying it around without a case. It seems like it could easily slip out of my hand. The screen size makes it very easy to browse the web and read books. I haven’t found myself wishing it was a different size.
- Reading: I have enjoyed reading books on the iPad. This comes from someone who though it was an ok experience reading a complete book on the iPhone. The iPad has quickly become my preferred ebook reader.
- Battery Life: It’s incredible. You really can use the iPad for over 10 hours without charging it. It makes it far better than a laptop for travel.
- Web Browsing: Not having flash is still a bummer. It is getting better but there are still too many sights that use flash. This is not a deal breaker for me but it would be nice. Other than flash I prefer to use the iPad for basic web browsing. It feels very natural to use the touch screen. I’ve also noticed that because of the size apps are not as important. On the smaller screen the app was needed, on the iPad the web app usually works fine.
- Productivity Software: Pages, Numbers and Keynote are all very capable tools. They have a way to go before they match the desktop tools but for most work they are fine. My biggest issue is Google Docs. You can not edit docs or presentations. You can edit spreadsheets but not very well.
Email: The built in mail app is great. With the coming unified inbox in the next release it will be even better. I still like Google’s Gmail interface the best but this is a close second.
Overall I have enjoyed the iPad more each day. It is an excellent computer for media consumption and a capable tool for creation.
Do you know or do you use your iPad to login to a renweb school? I am looking at one for my sister-in-law who’s a teacher at a school that uses RenWeb. Thanks, great blog!
RenWeb parents web works fine on the iPad but the faculty web app does not work at all. RenWeb’s desktop application is Windows only. I would not count on being able to access RenWeb from the iPad. Thanks for the question!