iLove the iPad!

As promised, it's now time to talk about Thing 2. If you don't follow me on Twitter, you should (#shamelessplug), but if you do then you probably already knee that Thing 2 which was a bit of a gift to myself as well as a bit of a birthday gift from my parental units is the iPad!


Ok, the picture is slightly creepy, I know. But let's be honest, if you had an iPad you'd be fine being a little creepy with it too!

I have to say that although I know a lot of people see the iPad as simply an overgrown iPhone, this has not been my experience with it all, at least not yet. I think that the iPad can serve a great function in-between the iPhone and the computer. One of the great things that I loved about the iPhone was that it consolidated a lot of things into one place. I could use my phone as an iPod or conversely I was able to use my iPod as a phone. Let me tell you what dudes and dudettes, going from carrying around a phone and an iPod to simply carrying around the iPhone was the best thing to happen in a long time. Pulling out my BlackBerry to tweet or check emails while needing to fast forward to a new song was a hassle and a half. The iPhone was a great way to consolidate those two world. Of course the apps didn't hurt either and flawless integration with my MacBook Pro also won it brownie points, but that's another story.

The iPad serves a similar function. It incorporates some of my favorite features of the iPhone, mostly the apps and such, with some really nice computer power and functionality. Although the iPhone can and does play videos, the iPad really picks up on that and takes it to a new place. The iPad really has a good sized screen for mobile video viewing. It's not huge but it's certainly better proportioned than the iPhone and much better quality thanks to it's power. Also the iPad is much MUCH better for viewing and editing documents than either the iPhone or BlackBerry could have ever hoped to be. It helps that the iPad is naturally about the size of a piece of paper. What better size coulee there be for working on documents?

The keyboard is of course more accessible than the iPhone's though it still isn't the best. As people have said, the touchpad keyboard is great and serves a very specific purpose, but it will never replace the grounded feeling and physical feedback that you get from feeing your fingers fly across raised keys on a real keyboard. Sure, the letters on the touch keyboard are positioned in the same places which obviously is the big thing and while definitely help make it easy to get accustomed to, but you have to kind of believe that you're touching the right place and you only get confirmation from at based on the words that show up. There's very little spatiotemporal reassurance from touching the keys or to know that you've made a mistake.

That aside, the iPad runs like a dream. There aren't really any hang ups and even most of your iPhone apps will work on it. Some of them may not perform optimally and some do crash, but every day hundreds of apps are being added solely for the iPad. Remember, it's less than 3 months old. The iPhone has had years to build up an app base and since most of the apps are written by 3rd parties and not by Apple, it will just take longer for apps to emerge, but they're only limited by the needs of people. If there's an app that people need, it'll probably be made.


The other thing that I really enjoy about the iPad is the book reader. All I can say is that if you're even remotely considering buying a Kindle or, God forbid, a Nook (Barnes and Noble's feeble attempt to get on the ebook gravy train), pass them up and just go straight for the iPad, even if it's just the basic 16GB wi-fi version. By googling the Kindle, the price for it comes up on Amazon as $259. It has wi-fi as well as 3G capability (though these seem to be only to get you to the books) and a PDF reader. Now all of that sounds great right? It's not too terribly expensive and has some neat capabilities (including an interesting text-to-speech feature). However, the Kindle has only a 6" display which as far as I can tell has no backlighting (if I'm wrong about this someone let me know). That alone might not be enough to sink the ship, but there are a couple of other things to keep in mind. Although the Kindle is wi-fi and 3G capable, there's not much that you can do with that functionality except to find books on the go. Before we tackle the other aspects of why it's better to choose an iPad, let's simply start with the ebook functionality of the iPad. Exhibit A:


You see those apps at the top? Those are the iBooks, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble apps respectively. Each of them is free (F-R-E-E, free!) and provides access to the respective book libraries. That's right. All those books that you can buy with the Kindle? You can buy them with the iPad too. This isn't to say that you can't buy most of your books out of the iBook bookstore because you can, but Apple probably hasn't established rites with all of the publishing companies yet to get a hold of all of the copyrighted material necessary to have all of the same ebooks that Amazon does. But with the Kindle app, who cares? Between these three apps, if it exists as an ebook you're going to be able to get it on your iPad. Here's a look at the iBook app:


It's all very simple. You just click the Store button at the top, search for the book you want, purchase it with your iTunes store account, and download. Then once it shows up on your bookshelf you just click to start reading. From there you just tap on the sides of the screen to flip the page, or you can actually drag your finger as though you're flipping a real page, just for the added experience. I would show you a screenshot of the book that I'm reading right now Naturally Thin: Unleash Your Inner Skinnygirl and Free Yourself From a Lifetime of Dieting by the completely awesome Bethenny Frankel, but because of the copyright, I'm really reluctant to do so. I'll see if I can find some reassurance on doing that. Until then, just know that the books read flawlessly, are backlit exceptionally well, and blow the Kindle out of the water.

That alone is almost enough to really justify the iPad over the Kindle. That being said, even the low end iPad starts at $500, almost twice the cost of the Kindle. That might be enough to make some people balk, but remember what it is that you're getting. Really this is a mini computer. Remember all of that talk about consolidation? Here is one of the best ways you could possibly do that. The iPad can serve as a movie viewer, iPod, ebook reader, digital picture frame, surf the internet, has access to thousands of apps, can produce and edit documents with those apps, access and store your calendars and contacts, and so on and so on. The iPad is really only limited by the imagination of those who are making apps. The Kindle is NEVER going to move past being an eReader.

Now will the iPad replace your iPhone or your MacBook Pro? Highly unlikely. But it can definitely supplement them. Yes, having a laptop is great but it's really not all it's cracked up to be in the sense that it's hard to use on the go. Yes, it can GO from one place to another, but using it on the subway is definitely difficult as is trying to use it on a plane if you're not lucky enough to be in First Class since there is zero room. The iPad can work in those environments really well though because of it's size while still having some oomph behind it. If you want to travel but not carry your entire office with you, the iPad might be a good way to go. Like I said, the iPad is only limited by the apps that are made for it. It's up to your imagination to make it work for you, and it can! So in closing, all I can say is that if you're thinking about even maybe potentially considering getting an iPad, go and check it out in the Apple store, you won't be disappointed. They will probably have to reserve you one because they can't keep them in the store before they fly off the shelves. On the bright side, this may help to keep you from impulse buying as you'll have a few days to think it over before you have to pay for it. Now, go enjoy the shiny toy and be super envious of Thing 2 =)


Note: I typed this entire blog post in my iPad using the BlogPress app. It took still roughly 2 hours to do which really isn't substantially longer than I usually take with other posts, though going back and forth from one kind of keyboard to the other sucks donkey balls.