A Slight Review of the Anticipated iPad.

Yes, like other fools, I've bought the iPad if you did not know already.

After all, I did make my countdown to the iPad very very discreet. If you knew and followed up, that means that.. Well, you've been following my blog too efficiently.

The iPad.

Mine's the 64GB Wi-Fi model (Non-3G, mind you) and I must say, like any other iPhone-related product, it's well built, and it's well made as well.

The key here is that you don't adapt to the iPad, but the iPad adapts to the way you want it to be.

On a high-power consumption basis, I faced the first problem after getting it out from the box. It does not charge via USB 2.0 ports on laptops. I believe that the newer Mac products are prepared for this as this consumes about 10W from a USB port, and normal laptops (like my HP Pavillion dv2000t 2007 make) is unable to support. So that breaks the first tradition of iPhones and iPod Touches. It does not charge while you sync your stuff with iTunes.

Great, huh?

The weight, feels light at first. But I was walking from my place to NextByte (which is about a 10 minute walk), it began to take a toll on me. Although it may be light at first, but I think it's a bit too heavy. Regardless of it is, compared to any 10inch notebooks or netbooks out there, I think it's just convenient to carry about.

Apple iPad Case - It's way below my expectations. I'd give it a 3/10. Firstly, it's made out of a majority of latex. So it feels flimsy, and it doesn't even feel right. Easily dirtied as it's that sort of a material, and it feels dirty at some point as well. The only upside of it that it's extremely handy when you need to start typing on your iPad as the casing allows you to raise it a few degrees higher.

Now, on the applications. They're more souped up. At least they look so much more different yet having the same basic functions of how the iPod Touches/iPhone has, but even at a more deadlier approach. With its on-screen life-size keyboard and multi-touch (up to 11 fingers I heard?) makes it so realistic. Just that you don't hear the clicking or tapping on conventional keyboards.

It takes quite a bit to get used to it because of the symbols, but that's a entirely different issue.

The iPad is responsive. If you're unsure about which direction or what position to put it in place, it adapts quickly and never misses a single turn.

The design for the applications are just superb as well. Since I just started purchasing applications off the AppStore, I'll share some that I'm using at the moment.

FaceBook - There's no iPad version, so you'll have to deal with the pixelated version when you zoom in 2x compared to its original resolution.

IM+ - Paid for. Probably 3.99 I think, and the iPad version is pretty awesome. In its landscape position, you are able to view your contact lists, see your currently active chat windows, and also surf a light web browser to check on other things without accessing Safari. The only problem I faced is that I couldn't view my Skype contact list when I'm signed into MSN, although I'm online in both accounts?

Need for Speed: Shift - ... Haven't really played it yet, but auto-accelleration really sucks.

AccuWeather - Probably one of the most hilarious weather-forecasting applications I've come across. Available both free, and at $3.99. I'm not sure if it's as accurate as it is, but it has an offline feature where it saves the weather forecast as at when it was last online. Besides that, it has other misc stuff explaining about the things you can do and might fall sick from (e.g. probabilities of getting sinuses, walking your dog, weather for jogging, etc)

PDF Pro - Oh hell yes. I don't need to explain much about this application. One thing bad about this app is that it does not view bookmarks or page titles that you might find important.

BlogPress - That hosts plenty of other blogsites and allows you to blog on the go. The ability to upload photos is hopeless though. Besides that, everything's based in HTML. So if you know how to link pictures and you have THAT effort to do so on an iPad, this might be the programme for you. Heh.

TweetDeck for iPad - I only got it because it was free, and it had a better view for the iPad. Other than that, it sucks because it doesn't push notifications towards you. Gotta check it once in a while.

Pianist Pro - The midi programme that I've been blogging about, and I have still no idea on how to sync it to my laptop to get things up and ready for Reason 4.0. Sigh.




Anyways, here's how it goes. I have two hands on typing stuff on my normal laptop, and I get my left hand to do all the link-tapping and responding to Facebook on my left!



I tell you, it's just so much more fun now. Except the fact that the iPad additional accessories costs me up to $189, excluding applications I bought for the AppStore.