Device report: iPad

[fbhjr]

I’ve had the iPad for just over a month and this weekend was the first big
trip I’ve taken with it.  Normally on these trips I take my laptop.  This
time I just brought the iPad to see if I could do what I wanted with just
that.  For the most part I could.
So far, these are the pros and cons I’ve seen.

Pros:
Email and web access everywhere.  I know AT&T has a bad rep, but I have yet
to go anyplace I couldn’t get a signal to get my email or web access.  Yes,
in the hotel room the signal wasn’t the strongest and I used their wifi as
the connection instead.  But, it still got through when I disconnected the
wifi.  Also, I had a very strong connection while on their front porch.
So, I suspect there was something blocking it in the room.
At the faire, we saw some swords we had been trying to order, but couldn’t
find.  I asked the person where he ordered them from, he told me, I sat
down and ordered them from our booth at the faire.  No worries about
remembering the name, remembering to order or anything like that.  Instant
connection when I needed it.

A keyboard.  Yes, it does cost extra.  The biggest reason I never broke
down and got an iPhone was that they had no keyboard support.  The iPad has
a built in screen one and two different ways to add external ones.  I’ve
tried both, both work well.  I type fairly quickly and having a real
keyboard helps.  I would not want to type much more than a couple of
sentences without a real keyboard.  I just like the feel of the keys under
my fingers.  I learned to type on an old manual typewriter, then an
electric typewriter.  Old habits die hard.

Big screen.  Saturday I input the pictures from my camera and was able to
show them to everyone on the big screen.  Having looked at pictures on the
iPhone and my Palm, this is a lot better.

Photo editing:  I’m not a huge editor.  Most of what I do it cropping and
minor adjustments to contrast.  I had to find an app for doing that, but I
have found one that is easy to use and works well.  Yes, the connector to
load photos does cost extra. But, once you can get FedEx to deliver it, it
works really easily.

Maps displaying traffic.  On the way home last night we were told traffic
was a problem.  The map feature built into the iPad has a traffic display
option.  We were able to check the route we wanted to take, find it wasn’t
as bad as the way others were going and plan backups just in case.  Usually
on these trips I have to guess at which way traffic will be better based on
pervious experience.  It’s nice to be able to see which way is going well
before hand.  It was good enough that red spots of bad traffic showed up a
places on the Garden State Parkway.  “Those are the toll booths,” I said,
and I was right.  So, the resolution is pretty good.
The other good thing of the maps is it ties right into the address book.
If I tap on someone’s address it switches over to maps and shows me where
it is.  I’ve always been a huge map geek, so that is really cool for me.
It also does GPS stuff.  But, I’m not a big fan of that.  It’s cool to see
our blue dot moving down the road, but I’m not so much on it telling me
where to drive.

Presentations.  Yes, you have to have a projector, pay for the video
connector and have an App that allows the external display.  But, being
able to run a presentation off the iPad instead of a laptop or copying
files around to other computers is very useful.  Keynote, the presentation
app, reads Powerpoint files directly and works quite well.

Watching video.  It gives a better image then my TV.

Games.  The only game I have on it is Auditorium.  But, that is fantastic
on the touch screen.

Reading.  I’ve only read two books so far on it.  It does look like most of
the books I was planning to read this spring are not yet available for it.
But, I remember when iTunes didn’t have much in the way of music.  That
changed.  This probably will too.
I do find it easy to read and had no problem using it for reading.

Word processing: the “Pages” word process App works really well.  I have
been able to write up multipage notes from meetings, troupe planning or
other things without problem.  I can mail the files out as Word documents
right from the App without any problem.


Cons:
Batch picture upload.  I’m sure you’ve noticed I like to put up a lot of
pictures.  I’m still having trouble putting up more then 1 at a time with
the iPad.  (So, I’ve waited to put up any from this weekend until I can do
it from my laptop.)  I did buy and App for doing it, but am still having
trouble getting it to work.
I don’t blame the iPad so much for this as our ISP.  Last year when our
site was hacked again and again, we switched to a site with much tighter
security.  Even with the laptops, you have to enter everything exactly
right or it won’t work.  This is why sometimes my posts have blanks instead
of pictures until I fix it.  Usually it is because I had a letter somewhere
in CAPS and it expected non caps and it won’t load it.  With the site that
sensitive, I think there is some setting on the iPad I’m missing to do the
upload, I just have figured out what yet.  And, the site hasn’t been hacked
again, so I don’t want to loosen that end of it either.
But, I had hoped to be able to upload the batches.  I haven’t given up yet,
but it is a con.
EDIT: I did work this out and can now upload photos. It was indeed a security setting I had to adjust.

Touch resolution.  I have fairly big fingers and sometimes hit things other
then what I wanted to hit.  The most common is on my LJ homepage the
“logout” button is next to the “post” button.  I hit that “logout” by
mistake at least once a day.
Also, while playing Auditorium, it is very each to hit the “choose level”
button while moving other things around the screen.
It’s not a problem.  But, you do have to learn that causal touches to the
screen can change what it is doing.

Music.  The iPod application on it plays music like an iPod.  But, I don’t
like the user interface as much as on an actual iPod.  You can create
playlists, but not sort them by the ways I like to sort them.  The good
news is it is a multitasking app, so you can listen to music while doing
anything else on the iPad.  I guess UI isn’t the biggest problem.  But, I
would still prefer a bit more to it.

Spreadsheet.  I don’t like “numbers” the Apple spreadsheet program/app.  I
don’t like it on the Mac’s either.  That’s why my Macs have Excel on them.
The iPad app version is no worse then the full program version.  But, I’d
love an Excel app…


Overall, I am very happy with it.  With few exceptions it does everything I
had hoped for.  And, I am still hopefully of solutions for the batch photo
upload issue which is the only serious con I’ve got with it.