My iPad review – Part II
This morning as I made my way up to the metropolis known as the Mall of Georgia, I took a second to check my email. I was quite surprised to see numerous replies concerning my initial review of the iPad.
Most of the emails contained various questions that I felt could best be answered here instead of replying individually.
So, here we go.
OVERALL DESIGN
Holding the iPad was very comfortable. It weighs approx 1.5 pounds so it is heavier than an iPhone, but still not too heavy.
It has the same orientation sensor that is built into the iPod touch and the iPhone, so you can switch between regular and landscape. You can even rotate the device 90 degrees placing the HOME button on the top, instead of the bottom.
The built in keyboard is of course bigger than the iPod touch. Typing felt ok except when you were in landscape mode. I had to stretch my thumbs a bit in order to hit certain letters so I pretty much stayed in the horizontal position.
Even though the keyboard is bigger, typing anything more than a sentence or two will be a challenge. If you plan on responding to emails, I’d buy the external keyboard docking pad.
The picture quality is very good. Viewing videos in Netflix and iTunes were very close in detail to DVD. According to Apple, a 10 hour battery life is common. I didn’t have a chance to test that, but I’m a bit skeptical of that statement.
The screen does a very good job is showing you every fingerprint that has come into contact with the unit. I’d plan on carrying a small box of tissue paper to clean the screen when needed. Also, I would definitely consider purchasing some type of carrying case to prevent any scratches from occurring during day to day use.
APPS
When it was introduced during MacWorld, Jobs said that it would run all of the iPhone/iPod apps currently out. He was correct. But, there are plenty of bugs that crop up when running on an iPad. For example, on my iPod I have a remote desktop client that I use to remote into my vista workstation in my office. I was able to install it to the iPad, but when I tried to login using the keyboard, for some reason the caps lock was enabled and I couldn’t disable it. So, I wasn’t able to login.
I’m sure that bug fixes and enhancements will be forthcoming soon so I’m not too worried.
When you launch an iPhone/iPod app on the iPad, the window size is the same as an iPhone. If you look at the lower right hand corner of the screen you’ll see a circle with 2X inside. Pressing this expands the app to full screen. If the app is image intensive, you’ll notice some blurring and display issues. Like I said, I’m sure these will be fixed soon.
One thing that I was real pleased with is that iTunes treats this as a completely separate device. So it was possible to have both my iPod and iPad sync on the same iTunes install. All of my apps and songs were synced with the iPad with no problem. However, syncing the iPad took a bit longer than my iPod. Synching 10 apps and 50 songs took about 3 minutes. I noticed that an iTunes update was available as of late Friday evening so maybe this will be addressed.
FLASH? Nope.
The default browser on the iPad is Safari. This version of Safari supports HTML 5 natively so there is no Flash installed. The iPod, iPhone and now the iPad have no Flash installed and I don’t see any in the future given recent comments by Apple. I don’t know what has warranted this type of response from Apple, maybe some Adobe executive ran over Steve Jobs dog or something, but the only way I see Flash support is:
- Adobe and Apple make up. (Or, perhaps we could see Microsoft’s SilverLight on the iPad)
- An engineer figures out a way to install Flash.
OVERHEATING
After I had sent my initial review to Local-L, I began the process of packing up the iPad so I could return it. When I picked it up, it was extremely hot. I pressed the HOME button and red the following message:
IPad needs to cool down before you can use it.
So, there appears to be some cooling issues. I found the following page that discusses this issue.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Techies-Fume-Over-iPad’s-Hidden-Weakness-3098
EXCHANGE
An Exchange client is built into the iPad, so I was able to setup my email account relatively quickly. It took three attempts because setup screen kept defaulting to the server name of owa2010.emory.edu, when it should be owa.emory.edu. I don’t know if I typed this in myself by mistake, or it’s a bug, but on the third try it worked. A Gmail client and Mobile Me client are also included.
SOUND
I wasn’t expecting to be impressed with the sound quality, but I was. I played samples of one movie and 3 separate songs and I really liked what I heard. It’s definitely better than the iPod, but not as good as external speakers.
WEB
I wanted to separate this part from the above Flash topic because it focuses primarily on web issues.
For the web designers/developers that are reading this, I think that the iPad will open the door to new opportunities in web design.
I’ve already read a few forum posts about web designers reworking there sites to display differently when viewed by the iPad. As for myself, I’ve already installed the User Agent plug-in for Firefox and configured it for iPad. I plan on doing some experiments on this myself. One developer said that he was going to “touch enable” his site so that more features were available on the iPad version. Who knows, perhaps a year from now a high school student could be using their iPad to research colleges and come across a “touch enabled” version of emory.edu.
DECISION TIME
The overall questions of each email hinted at the following one, “Should I buy the iPad?” If you read my previous review, you’ll know about the various Wi-Fi issues that are causing some pretty serious connection issues. There is also the price of $499 which is pretty expensive.
Also, the idea of being an early adopter of an Apple product should be considered. I remember breathing a sigh of relief when I held off on the purchase of the original iPhone only to see a price drop and new version shortly thereafter. My advice is as follows:
- If you have $500 just sitting around and don’t mind being an early adopter, buy it. For all its flaws, it is revolutionary and could spur the explosion of the tablet era.
- If you think that you’ll throw away your current laptop after purchasing this, don’t bother. This device will not be replacing your laptop anytime soon.
LINKS
I’m going to include some YouTube links that I’ve found since Saturday concerning the iPad. The one showing the 2 year old girl is priceless.
DEMO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JPTaoDwOz4
REVIEW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Luj263H_56A
FIREFOX iPad SETUP
http://lifehacker.com/5508260/how-to-use-gmails-attractive-new-tablet+friendly-interface-on-your-regular-old-computer
2 YEAR OLD GIRL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT4EbM7dCMs
Well, I think that covers everything. I hope I’ve answered everyone’s questions. If not, please feel free to email me directly at rmethod@emory.edu.
Oh, by the way, one last thing. When I returned the iPad to the Apple store, they charged me a 10% “restocking” fee. Go figure.