iPad Demo Thoughts
I played with an iPad on display at Best Buy today, and I’ve got to say, I don’t hate it. After reading about it, I bashed it for the same reasons I bashed the iPhone/iPod Touch, not to mention that in my not-so-humble opinion, it is an awful ebook reader and won’t hold a candle to the Kindle. See my thoughts after the break.
- The keyboard is way better than I thought it would be. Typing landscape was really easy. Portrait was a different story
- The interface is pretty much have I expected it to be.
- The screen is amazing. It looks really  great.
- It’s a bit heavier than I expected.
- I went to all my “check daily” sites- GMail, Twitter, Facebook, and Reader. Everything was fine. The GMail iPad interface is really nice. Really nice.
- The iBook application is nice, and page turning is cool, but I can’t see myself reading books on it.
My Prognosis
It’s not an ebook reader, and shouldn’t be marketed as one. Since it’s back-lit (the way laptop screens are), it will be tough on the eyes, and tougher to read in the sun or bright lights. It’s not a netbook, and shouldn’t be marketed as “the solution” to netbooks. So, what is it?
It’s the perfect cell phone-laptop hybrid. I can see myself using it for the same things I use my cell phone for, plus watching movies (the screen is really nice). It’s definitely not a replacement for either- it’s too big (and doesn’t natively make phone calls) to replace a cell phone, and doesn’t do enough to replace a laptop. I’d say If I didn’t have a smart phone, I might be able to justify buying it; but even so, I can’t see myself bringing this everywhere with me like I do my droid. It would be great for travel, day trips, or even going out for a few hours. Â What got me interested was Alex King’s tweet about it replacing his laptop for his morning triage (which I’m assuming is the sites he check daily). I can definitely see myself using it for just that, but I can’t justify $500+ for just that. If I find myself bringing my laptop around more and more for non-work related things, I will probably pick one up. But until then, my Droid will do just fine.
I think it has some bumps to smooth over first and for most, it needs to be more like a lap top running mac snow leopard or a formidable “lighter” version. They aren’t marketing it as a reader and I thank God they are, they just say that’s a portion of what it can do. For every thing else it can do why not through their own reader on it kind of thing. I can see it working in companies where they have to carry their laptops and such. Like a high tech piece of paper if you will. All in all it looks cool and neat but with out enormous wealth that I wouldn’t know what to do with I wont get one while the price tag is at $500 for a base model that hasn’t even proven it self yet. All I can say know is if Apple thinks they’ll sell like the iPod or iPhone, I think they’re sadly misunderstood. Hopefully they’ll pump it up to compete with lap tops and then is when I’ll take real notice and think about spending those big bucks on it.
i am planning to buy an iPad since it looks lighter than a regular desknote and i don not use much of the features of a laptop.`–