The iPad has been out in the US for a couple of months now, and many of the SDMB have bought one. What’s the verdict?
Do you use it a lot? What do you use it for?
Does it have the potential to be an indispensable tool, or is it a toy looking for a niche?
I don’t live in the US nor am I an Apple fan, so have not seen one to try out, though I have played with an iPhone and think they’re very cool.
I believe that it represents the next phase of the computer revolution - hand held touch devices.
Reading - eBooks and Web, game playing, photo album, email. This will be the device I travel with - it can replace a briefcase full of papers and manuals as well as giving me usable net access.
Yes. It is not a toy - it is, however, a computer accessory, not a general purpose computer. It can stand in for a computer in some cases, but does not replace a desktop or laptop.
I am a semi-retired boomer and have been in the computer industry for 30 years - 22 as a PC developer. The reactions to the iPad remind me of the IT reaction to PCs 30 years ago. Not worthy of the IT department, but at the same time every Accounting department was buying them to run Visicalc.
Its real market is in the home, to non-professionals. I can barely pry ours from my wife’s hands. She is not a techie but set up her own email and is buying programs - things she never did on our other computers. eBooks are her other great use of the iPad.
I’ve been looking for a replacement for my daily newspaper for a long time now. I think the iPad may be it. I think I’d still prefer something larger and more paper-like, but this is close.
Laptops are too bulky, netbooks are too small (and bulky) cell phones are too small.
Add in all the other cool stuff it does, an iPad-like device is clearly in my future.
I don’t mind using my cell phone and home computer for actually getting work done, but I need a ‘media consumption device’ that gets rid of my physical libraries (CDs, DVDs, books, etc). I think this is it.
jasg - any comment on the iWorks programs? I have an iPhone, and disagree strongly with the complaints people have about touchscreen keyboards - but my 10 minutes with an iPad at Best Buy really soured my opinion of doing any sort of word processing beyond one-paragraph e-mails. How’s the learning curve?
Can’t really say it - is my wife’s iPad and she has no need for the iWork programs. Also, I don’t have enough time on it to really say what the learning curve might be. You do need to learn to not rest your fingers on the keys. I think I would get used to it quite quickly, but there is always the Bluetooth keyboard which works very well.
(typed on an iPad)
So, does that mean you’ll travel with both laptop and iPad? Or that you don’t need a general purpose computer when you travel?
wow. That’s a blast from the past!
I’m also interested in everyone’s experience…I’m trying to decide whether to go for a Kindle or an iPad. I’m leaning towards the iPad but hesitate to be an early adopter.
I rarely travel for business these days, but have been taking a laptop on pleasure trips for several years now. The iPad covers all travel needs for us - plus my wife is oddly excited about using it to watch videos during flights.
kbear-
A Kindle was in the running for us, but I balked at a single use device. My wife now says she likes the iPad because reading works in low light. It is the weight of a ‘trade’ paperback, so the Kindle wins there. I am rarely an early adopter, but in this case - it worked out ok.
Love mine. Similar to jasg, I’m going to use mine as my primary travel device. It will be great to have only one device to drag along that’s lightweight, easy to use, and performs better than my netbook (and I’ve always hated that tiny netbook screen).
I don’t see using it to create long documents, spreadsheets, or presentations. The keyboard is fine for email, or a quick comment to someone else’s document, but I can’t see doing extensive work on it.
However, when I travel on business, I don’t create my own documents. Mostly I read other people’s pieces and comment on them or answer emails. If I did need to create lot of my own stuff, I’d probably bring the laptop.
It’s still missing that ‘Killer App’ that puts it over the top but I’m liking it so far (four days). There are a lot of useful apps and it good for books, audio-books and movies. As stated I still have to use my laptop for any real work.
TeamViewer has an app that may save my sanity one day 
I have no plans to get one, but thinking about all the limitations it has helped to solidify my vague desire to get my mom a netbook/small laptop for Christmas into a potential plan. So, at the very least I can thank it for giving me an idea for a Christmas gift.
My wife got one and she loves it. I’m also finding myself using it a lot too, so I might end up picking one up as well.
Love a lot of the entertainment apps. I can stream my media locally or from the internet to it, and I like a lot of the note taking/brainstorming apps available.
I’m actually thinking about picking up objective C, dual booting Mac OSX and developing for it. I’ve got a couple of cool ideas I want to try out.
A D&D map and charter sheet app anyone ?
It’s not indispensable, but much more useful than I’d envisioned. Primarily, I use it to surf the web while watching TV and while spending ‘alone time’ in the bathroom. However, I’ve started playing games on it, something I never seemed to do on my iPhone or my (Windows or Mac) computers. I also seem to doodle a lot, using both paint and vector drawing programs.
The on-screen keyboard is okay for URLs and searches, but I tend to use voice recognition when writing larger amounts of text. I actually like the iPhone on-screen keyboard more because I can use it one-handed.
Streaming video, from either my Mac (encoding in real-time, via WiFi) or using Netflix, is really neat, but it’s not going to replace my flat-screen. If I had a slightly different lifestyle, maybe 3G streaming video might fit in, but I don’t see a need ATM. I’m sure something will eventually compel me to upgrade to a 3G, though.
I think it’s going to find a million uses - someone noted online that it isn’t a large iPod Touch; the iPod Touch is a miniature iPad. I’ve already started treating it as roughly as my iPhone (tossing it around, dropping it, etc.), whereas I treat my laptop with kid gloves. The thing is - they have such drawing power that developers know the iPad will provide a new, enthusiastic market for their wares. It’s a chicken and egg problem, but Apple cleverly started laying the eggs three years ago with the iPhone.
With a critical mass of developers, there are a lot of clever people out there dreaming up uses for it that probably don’t make much sense right now. With the iPhone, I wanted a Palm replacement, but it vaulted way past that to where I can carry spreadsheets around in my pocket (QuickOffice), actually make stock trades in my chiropractor’s waiting room, look up real estate info while driving around and convince stores to give me a price that’s competitive with Amazon (I only did that once, though). The reference to Visicalc is appropriate – no one knew how much they needed a spreadsheet program until someone wrote a spreadsheet program.
An odd example: they still don’t have good handwriting recognition (see the WritePad app), but the way things have worked out, it’s easier to record what you’re saying, upload it to a more powerful computer, have that computer do voice recognition & send it back as text to the iPhone (Dragon Dictation). That might not have seemed like a sensible option several years ago.
Yup, give me the D&D DDI and the rules on an iPad and it would be a huge plus.
As I said in a previous thread, my boss bought one. He has to do a lot of tasks via company web sites, and a lot of employee evaluation through those same sites. In the past, he’d do things on paper at your desk while speaking to you, then go back to his own desk to key them in. Now he walks around with his iPad and can key things in while he speaks to you about it, saving himself a lot of time and movement. When we recently moved desks, he was able to map it out and make changes on the fly via the iPad.
The other day I spoke to a truck driver who was thinking of getting a 3G model to carry in his truck, because it would be more readable/usable than an iPhone (without the iPhone BILL) and more portable and concealable than a laptop. Said he really didn’t need a full blown computer that could run 8 million things, he just needed to get to some websites for his work, do some email, and wanted to be able to watch movies and play the occasional game.
I’m withholding my judgment on the iPad until I decide whether or not this internet thing is going to catch on!
I didn’t get one, but I think apple is going in the wrong direction. It’s all about size, smaller the better.
They would be far better off adding a full size keyboard and screen to the iTouch/Phone.
They hit the ball out of the park with this one.
I was a scoffer, saying “Why would I want an overgrown iPod touch?” like everyone else. Then I walked into an Apple store, to sneer at the devices. Five minutes later I walked out with my new iPad in hand.
I played with it for a month before finally wiping it clean and giving it over to my wife. She loves it.
It fits into her computer usage lifestyle perfectly. She uses her MacBook for email, light web browsing, watching old friends from Brazil on YouTube, Skype, and a few other things.
In other words, she uses her laptop as a computing appliance. She never wants to install patches and never reboots it. She just wants it to turn on when she hits the button.
Now, she can curl up in bed with the iPad and not have to endure the thigh-searing temperatures of the MacBook Pro nor its bulk in order to do a few Sudoko games before bed.
Munch asked about the iWork suite… I bought Pages, since I use that on my iMac. These apps are slightly watered-down versions of the desktop apps.
They put a lot of work into making them work with the touchscreen. I was peeved that Pages on the iPad is not compatible with iWork '08 and vice-versa. In other words, you need iWork '09 to read iPad docs, and iPad can’t read the old iWork '08 docs.
There are two serious flaws with iWork on the iPad: file management and printing.
The file management is exceedingly cumbersome, requiring you to use iTunes and a cable to copy files to and from iWork applications, or you can use e-mail. This mechanism is a blemish on the Apple-ness of the product.
And you can’t print. There are apps out there that allow printing, but the lack of integration between apps makes it a clunky process.
With an external keyboard, it is really cool. I already have the Apple BT keyboard and it was easy to pair that with the iPad. The only challenge then is to figure out how to prop up the iPad while you type. And no, it doesn’t feel like reinventing the [del]wheel[/del] laptop; it really seems like a useful setup because the iPad is an instant-on computing appliance.
I think that this is exactly why they ‘hit the ball out of the park’. This type of device is perfect for those who don’t want to adopt a computer as a hobby or a profession. The limitations that are seen when compared to netbook/laptop devices simply do not matter to many.
I recently saw this type of device described as ‘very personal computers’ and I think that is perfect. It is a computer you Hold and Touch rather than just point at…
I expect to see similar devices running Android, WebOS (from HP) and Windows Phone operating systems in the next year.
Agreed. I think that this is where the App developers are going to come to the rescue - and perhaps printer manufacturers with a way to print via WiFi without a device resident print driver.
I refuse to buy anything from Apple because of their proprietary hardware and attitude (and yes, this is probably unreasonable and semi-religious, but that is just the way I am).
When a competitor comes out with something like this that runs Android and open-source applications (and multitasks), then I will be onboard with it. The form factor seems dead on and the touch interface is the wave of the future (please add echoey sound effects).
I’m curious about internet speed. My iPhone 3Gs hangs up a little at the very end of loading a page (usually the page header or ads). Does the iPad do this?
Also, with my iPhone, Safari has the reload and stop button as one. Normally I just hit the stop button during the freeze, but if I hit it just as the freeze ends, the button converts to reload and the damn page reloads (grrrr).