Hello iPad

In IPad
06/04/10
1 Comments

The product has been a joy so far. Apples usual details in everything from packaging to how start up the device is marvelous. And I know all of you have read a zillion reviews already and I’m in no way going to outdo astounding reviews done by Gruber and Arstechnica. I’ll share with you my 2 cents on the product and overall experience.

I must be one of the few lucky people to have an Ipad on the 5th of April here in Pakistan. There is a special place in heaven for the person who brought it We were up and running in no time; the Ipad synced with itunes, hooking it up with the doc station and some free apps from the Appstore (ibooks was the first one). Apple product design mastery was reminiscent in every detail. So now what you can do with the ipad:

Web:
El Jobso was so right, the web felt a new with the Ipad. These are the same sites you run everyday but its completely a totally new experience. Lately, I haven’t been a big fan of Flash therefore I never missed anything there. Also, all the major sites, which matter are changing into HTML 5, so no issues.

EBooks:
I wasn’t initiated into the ebook world honestly until Ipad. iBooks is an extremely powerful product and one can only imagine if the interactivity of Alice on Ipad will start coming into other books, what will happen to the static print world. People who have used Kindle and Nook tell me that iPad is soo much better than the rest of the ebook crowd.

Games:
There a literally thousands of iphone apps ready to be played on 2x. Native iPad games are coming quickly as well. Besides all the free ones available, I’ve purchased Real Racing HD for iPad. This game demonstrates the abilities of the platform and makes you ask whats next. I haven’t been a big games user for a while, but the iPad provides the apps, the hardware and most importantly the fun element to get hooked to it again.

Productivity:
Apple has answered this segment themselves by providing iPad native versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Besides that there are other products coming in quickly to fill the void. Cloud based services like Google Docs are again extremely easy to use on the iPad. The full size keyboard is a joy to use. The first draft of this post was written entirely on the ipad using WordPress for Ipad app.

Video & Media:
Video playback is wonderful. I have played some HD versions of the episodes available on Itunes and its a joy to watch them on the iPad. No more difficult screen angles on the laptop and screen glare to worry about. iPad lets you enjoy the media the way you like it. And then like the iphone, there is an app for everything, you just need to find it.

Misc:
This device is made to save the print media from oblivion. I’m waiting for some cool mags like Wired to come out on the ipad. The native apps for Reuters and NPR are extremely well designed and fun to use.

Users:
My son (2 years old) loves it. And now he wants every other computer, laptop, phone, TV to be touch operated. My mother who despises computers, as difficult things to operate and learn, just fell in love with the iPad. it took her like 5 minutes to use the iphoto app to see pictures of the family and she was extremely pleased to read the Quran on the iPad.

I use it for all my media consumption now instead of of the laptop. News, Videos, Facebook, Twitter, books, you name it and I get it all done through the iPad.

In office, it serves as a quick info gathering device. Easy to carry around in meetings, note taking etc.

Conclusion:
Where it stands today, iPad version 1 is a great Media & Content Consumption device. Content Creation is very much possible, but definitely not a replacement for anything.

One more very important thing, people are obsessed with comparing the iPad with netbooks, notebooks, superphones and then the toaster in the kitchen. Its a new platform, a new form, a new philosophy. Just like what iPhone did for the mobile industry, the Ipad will do for the computational industry. Lets give some time and see what the future holds for us.

Bookmark It