I've had my iPad now for well over a month and a half and it's getting to be a worthwhile addition to my kit.
The only time I don't use it and go to my Macbook is when I have to tighten a blog post. This is more due to the nuances of the blogging interfaces than the iPad itself.
Otherwise, it's become my main computing device.
Not bad for a new device.
I used to have a netbook computer, but it's replaced that very quickly, especially because the netbook couldn't quite match it in a number of areas listed above. While the netbook did well for the time I had it, the fact it didn't come with onboard 3G eventually consigned it to lack of use.
Big deal that the iPad doesn't use Flash. I can't say there's been many websites where not having Flash has been that big a problem.
I find what it can do outweighs the things it can't do.
It's small wonder the iPad has changed the computing landscape in so short a time.
Put up your hands if your grandmother is totally enjoying the iPad. Put up your hands again if your two-year-old is handling it with ease. This has always been the point of the ipad. It works for what you need and is something those scared of computers and OSes find great fun to use.
Believe it or not, there's quite a few people who just want a computing device that works.
And I still think its masochism to accept any OS that has you wasting time fixing stupid glitches instead of being productive.
So it's been a winner sales-wise in its first two months. From what I've seen on Twitter this week, it's even been sold-out almost here in Australia.
The apps are especially starting to be great once they've been updated for universal installation on iPhones and iPads.
This morning I checked the latest update to EyeTV's iPhone/iPad app and got a pleasant surprise. It's now full-screen, works in portrait mode as well as the original landscape AND you can see the channels a lot easier now. Even in the iPhone version, it still had quite a good picture when piped from my Macbook over wifi. Portrait or landscape, that's one use I bet a few people didn't think of, that an iPad could be a wifi-served TV.
Of course, I'm still waiting for the Facebook app to go universal, but I expect that won't be too far off.
Admittedly, it's not open-source. Technically, as everyone keeps saying, it's a walled garden. On the other hand...all the formats I use are still the same ones I can open on a Windows computer. It still works using any .doc format, any .png and jpg format and it's fantastic to have note programs on it that mail off as .pdf.
Something else I also took a look at today. As a games platform...well, it's taken a bite out of Nintendo's and Sony's steam.
The DSi and PSP really are starting to look old now. And I'm still waiting to see Nintendo do something better with their own online store. The DSi store looks almost bare.
Whatever else you can say, Apple have set the pace for the whole industry and gotten their competitors to be less complacent. And some of those competitors needed a disruptive technology to get them to do something really imaginative.
Seriously...Windows Mobile was starting to get boring. And the Zune was a snooze.
Yep, it got Microsoft thinking anyway. And Windows Phone 7 is a positive forward step.
On the other hand, Microsoft really need to rethink their netbook/tablet strategy.
Windows 7 won't beat iOS at all in the mobile computer space, especially not with the boot time. An iPad user could have already typed up a note or document and mailed it off as a .pdf by the time a Windows 7 tablet/convertible booted.
I do, however, want to see what an Android tablet is like to really contrast and compare to an iPad. At least Android is closer competition.
So how is everyone else enjoying their iPad?
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