So this is just another post on first impressions after testing new Apple iPad. Though there are a lot of posts on the net already, I consider quite most of them trying to be as critical as possible and so find issues not existing actually. Today iPad sale has started in Germany and as a software developer I didn’t hesitate any moment to place my pre-order on Apple Store a few days before. I won’t repeat to tell you things you. might have read all over the net for weeks and months now. Though I’d like to falsify some facts others have promoted recently. First of all, don’t compare iPad to normal Notebooks or Netbooks. Maybe you would consider iPad being similar to previously sold TabletPC, however those didn’t come with a special UI design successfully tested for years now (as on iPhone). Yes, iPad comes without USB port, and yes, you can’t print directly from your iPad using included core operating system. But there are a lot of things you can do on your iPad quite easily and even more easily as with any usual notebook. Checking your mails, organize your online calendars, doing internet research, reading news, editing documents and spreadsheets are just a few major tasks iPad is nearly perfectly suited for.
People say, that they can do all these things with their handys or don’t have any problems in using notebooks for such tasks, e.g. as those provide keyboard suitable for fast typing. Even though I’m far from being world champion in fast typing I feel very familiar with onscreen keyboard within hours and it takes similar time compared to my notebook to type in this text using a perfect WordPress app for iPad in fullsize. And even Mr. Jobs wouldn’t claim to be first in managing those tasks by introducing iPad. But iPad’s size makes it different from iPhone. It’s instant-on feature and it’s very little weight proofs it as a eligible replacement for your notebook.
People say, that it’s batteries are too weak to keep running for more than a day of heavy use. What about your notebook’s cells?
People say, that other products might be preferrable over this device for some particular reasons. Most competitors’ devices, though, imitate iPhone and iPad UI in some situations, but fall back to their own usual UI in most others and thus add odds to their benefits such as having a USB interface or providing free software installation support.
And people say, that iPad is too expensive to buy one. Well, so many people didn’t hesitate to pay 70-90% of its price for an iPhone, which by the way looks a lot less compared to iPad. How many multi-page documents have you written there. What was the average word count of mails sent by iPhone? Well, with iPad you might enjoy a much easier input of text and thus start writing longer mails to your friends and partners then. Repeating my words above it’s possible to type with at least two finger simultaneously having up to 7-10 characters per second. With a bit more train you might enhance that by using more than two fingers – it’s multi-touch, not two-touch. Can you do that with your ancient Tablet-PC using Stylus? Or do you get that rate on your iPhone.
You don’t even need to have external keyboard for that. But I’d advise you to buy the Apple iPad case as it’s supporting typing by putting your iPad in an ascending position. And it’s keeping scratches from your oh so expensive mini computer.
Well, nerds won’t be convinced as they are used to reject anything evil from evil companies what is trying to block their expert skills, but if you don’t care that much about what’s inside your tools and how they made, if you want something stable with a functionality focusing on productivity quite instantly available everywhere, you shouldn’t care that much about what others say but give it a try. But don’t drop your iPhone, or have you ever seen anyone on the road using notebook to answer incoming calls? (NOTE! Apps like Skype are available on iPad as well.)
Typing this post took about 20-30 minutes including previewing and editing. Top this speed with your cellular and with as little typos as possible.
