I didn’t expect to get an iPad in the first generation. When I realized I had the opportunity, I didn’t leap at the chance to do so – I hemmed and hawed, discussed it with co-workers, friends, and my wife. My biggest fear was that it would end up like so many other gadgets – quickly relegated to gathering dust. Then the wife admitted she was planning on buying one later in the summer, so an early gift would make more sense. A trip to the Apple Store, a swipe of the credit card, and a 16GB Wi-fi model leaves the store with us.
The hardware itself has been reviewed by many others, more in depth and eloquently than I. I don’t aim to replicate that effort – my interest is largely to compile my experiences and observations after a week a a two days of using the iPad as part of my daily life.
The iPad has become my primary computing device at home – e-mail, Twitter, web surfing, listening to podcasts, etc. At the high level, this worked very well – my laptop leaves my bag most often to provide a charging point for my iPad this past week.
The virtual keyboard provides fast typing, but with the auto-correct, typos can slip in unnoticed. A few e-mails sent for work have garnered comments regarding strange words popping out of the auto-correct. My biggest problem has been the spacebar – hitting the other keys doesn’t present much problem, but I tend to tap the unresponsive border of the iPad instead of the spacebar, resulting in missed spaces throwing auto-correction into conniption fits. The lack of tactile feedback, much like the iPhone, isn’t a major handicap. The only time when it is missed are the rare occasions when I am typing longer pieces of text and watching something (such as now, when I am typing this out while watching the Penguins play hockey.) In that scenario, I can take my eyes off the screen entirely for significant periods of time using only tactile feedback – impossible with the iPad.
Most of the tasks I perform on my computer feel more natural and focused while using the iPad. I think this is due to having only a single app in the display at any given moment – when I’m reading my RSS feeds, for instance (using Newsrack) the entire display is dedicated to processing my RSS feeds. For that brief time, the device becomes a single-focus appliance – no visual clutter in the background producing distractions, and no bouncing or blinking interruptions. It reminds me of Merlin Mann’s concept of processing in dashses, and I like the effect it has on my work.
I also prefer the interfaces for many of my normal activities in apps as opposed to websites. Weather, RSS, restaurant reviews – all of them are significantly better with a dedicated app. Interfaces typically feel more responsive and more rich in information – the Weatherbug app, for instance, provides a detailed (and animated) radar view, hourly predictions, local weather cams, and several detailed stats widgets in a single intuitive interface. The webpage equivalent isn’t nearly as dense or pleasurable to use.
For a device so capable of replacing a laptop for everyday work, there are a few frustrating limitations currently limiting the ability to use the device as a sole computer. The iPad is terrible for keeping up with podcasts – in order to update a list of podcasts, you must go to each one individually, press “Get more episodes” to launch iTunes, and manually determine (and download) any new podcasts. I can’t believe someone didn’t look at this, compare it to iTunes, and realize that having the system update all podcasts at once is key for any serious podcast listener.
Similarly, Safari can only have 9 tabs open at once. Open another tab, or click on a link which will, and a tab will be closed automatically to make way for the new one. That produces a really nasty surprise if you are opening a bunch of pages to compare products on Amazon, and suddenly tabs start disappearing. This keeps the browser fast, I’m sure, but it does leave the user with a nasty shock.
A final issue is that the wireless freaks out periodically. In both cases, WPA2 is being used for encryption – everything works fine, until at random the wireless will stop working until I turn it off and on in the settings. Annoying, but this seems like something easily ironed out in a software update. For now, however, it is a downer.
Overall, the iPad has done an amazing job replacing my laptop for 99% of my daily use. There are several very positive surprises, and a few issues which need to be worked out. I’d try to write more analysis as opposed to observations, but using this laptop makes me itch to get back to the iPad instead – so for now, I’ll go back to using it and keeping a list of observations.
