Out of the Box

One thing I have always liked about Apple products is that they are ready to go out of the box and that is the same even here with the iPad. Once you take it out of the box and hit the switch it immediatley powers on and then all you need to do is set it up. No inputting serial numbers or setting up an OS.


Setup

It's a breeze with this device. If you are already familiar with the iPhone and iPod Touch then it's 2nd nature to set up. Turn on iTunes, register your device and then start filling it up with your apps and other media.

Usage

This is what I was really impressed about. Not so much the intuitive touchscreen but by the way everything is very snappy here. Websites don't take a lot of time to load, apps start up fairly quickly as well as any movies or video. I had not problems synching my headphones on here either. The battery life is unbelievable. I spent most of yesterday putting it thru its [aces from around 6 am to 4pm watching video, listening to podcasts, letting my frineds play around with it, and reading comics on it and by the time I got home, it was only down to 50% battery charge! I am impressed! I have been through mayn PMPs before and the only other device that comes close to this is my Cowon A2...but it didn't have wireless access...hehe! I also think back to just 5 years ago, I had bought one of the first "slim" portable DVD players...ha! I was lucky to get 4 hrs of battery life out of it and still had to carry around extra cases with DVDs. Not here. with 64gbs, I can load as many movies on here without the extra weight!

There is an app for that...

Some of the apps that have been released so far are really great! Netflix and ABC are big winners in providing streaming content. The Marvel app is a great comic reader but comixology gives more in the sense that they offer different comics from other publishers. The eBook readers are great to work with also and a few of my co workers who toyed with it love the adjustable fonts as well as the adjustable brightness of the screen. I also loved the USA Today, AP and New York Times apps as you can download content and still read even if not on a wifi connection. You have as much news that you can use between wifi hotspots. Gaming is pretty cool and some of the old games i had on my iPhone transitioned pretty well here. What Apple could do to make this better is if you already purchased a gome for the iPhone that they either give the optimized iPad version for free or at a very low cost as long as you have record of purchasing the original game.

So what do I use this for?

Some people are still asking this question. For me it's because I like to remain low profile and also not have to lug a laptop with me everywhere I go. It does just what I want with protable media without drawing a lot of attention and having the worry of sucking up too much juice. This is great for a casual user who is into portable media.

Are there any complaints?

Very few. The onscreen keyboard can be a bit of a pain at times and it's in need of a TAB button. Hopefully this will get fixed in an update. While multitasking ins't a big issue for me, I do wish that you could back out of a program and come back in where you left off. This too I hear is in the next update supposedly. The case that Apple makes (and sells separately) for this device while somewhat sturdy, lacks a latch or a snap to keep it shut. Outside of that, I really don't have anything bad I can say about this device.

I find that people are going to complain regardless because they either hate Apple's philosphy of trying to be innovative or the 'lack of freedom' they have using their products or because of this notion that any device made today must be an 'all in one' device.

So before I recommend buying it, weigh out the pros and cons of what you want to use it for. I don't necessarily recommend this for new PC users but give it a shot anyway. You may find something you like.