I never wanted an iPad. When they first came out I thought they would be fun but not useful. It made sense to me that something that might be sitting in your lap ought to be touch friendly. But maybe that’s a guy thing. In any case, I never expected to have one fall into my lap. And then one did. So now, after a couple of months of use, I can offer some thoughts.
A lot of people will tell you that the iPad is not a laptop or desktop replacement. Those people are right. This is a product with some distinct limitations. So let’s get those out of the way off the top. Printing is pretty much a write-off. Storage is limited (if tens of gigabytes is limited). Editing MS Office documents in anything like a serious way is effectively a non-starter. Some websites built primarily with flash are effectively inaccessible. Okay, so those are the limitations. I say, let’s just set them aside and look at what the iPad actually does do, and do well.
First, connectivity to wireless is a breeze. That’s not surprising for a Mac; I’m just confirming it. Access to email (thought not necessarily full editing and storage manipulation) is straightforward. Websites (the ones that are not entirely built in flash) load quickly and look beautiful. Once you figure out that the idea of tabs in a browser is not really there, you can bounce around the web about as quickly as you can with any other browser. Oh, and when you get on a plane, switching to Airplane Mode is painlessly simple.
Second, there are lots of apps available for the iPad. For the most part I have only been using those apps that are free. But there are even lots of those. I like the iBook app, and the IMDB app, and the NFB (National Film Board of Canada) app, and BBC news app. Maps, which comes pre-installed, is really useful. And even the Skype app works satisfactorily.
Third, the display is beautiful. Photos, videos, and even movies look great. The latter beat the sad “personal entertainment” screen on the back of the airplane seat hands down. I also bought a splitter for the earphone jack, so my wife and I were able to watch a couple of films together on the plane – films I rented from iTunes for 30 days for 99 cents each.
It is light and (seemingly) sturdy and the battery goes and goes and goes.
The iPad doesn’t do everything. So if you want something that does everything, then you need to look elsewhere, and good luck to you. But within its limitations, I have found the iPad to be an excellent travelling companion during more than 4 weeks on the road in the past couple of months.