When I picked up Jenn from work last Friday, I noticed that there were 3 iPads lined up next to each other in her office. They were recently purchased, and the IT department there had bought them to test them and see what they could do with them. Lew, the sysadmin, offered me to take one home for the weekend, and of course I accepted the offer.
This gave me a first hand opportunity to see if the iPad is as cool as it is claimed. Well, is it? At first glance it's actually hard to not be impressed by this little shiny thing with the fancy look, the fancy touch screen features and the excellent quality screen. Watching youTube videos was great, and controlling everything through the touch screen worked better than expected. Even the on-screen keyboard worked great.
But what can this thing do? Can it do anything more than actually display nice stuff? Can any serious computing be done with this thing? The answer is no. This is NOT the device you sit down and create stuff with. The only text editor I found is a virtual notepad, with pages that flips over. The notes can be saved, but I am not sure what format it is, and where they are saved. I am born and raised in the Microsoft world, so the lack of the ability to create something as simple as a plain .txt document makes life hard for me. I guess you can probably buy some applications from the famous Apple application store that enables you to do some more here. Which is another problem. The fact that everything has to be bought through Apples store. No room for any freeware or experimenting with random downloaded applications here. If Steve Jobs don't like it, then you can't buy it..
This was the analytical part of it. If we stick to the basic facts, we see some other limitations. This thing has an Apple A4 1 Ghz processor, 256Mb of RAM and according to the description on the back, 16GB of space. So the general specifications and especially the storage capabilities are limited. Poor "local" resources. On the outside shell, the only connectors are a headphone jack and a huge proprietary connector. I really miss a USB port, as the lack of this very standard and useful interface, really limits what you can connect to the iPad. Except if you, once again, buy some port replicator from the Apple store or other equipment, especially made for the iPad.
The iPad. A very clean design and a beautiful screen. A nice gadget.
So basically, like one of my wife's workmates said to me: The iPad is meant for consuming content, and not creating it. His description couldn't be much more true. A fun toy. And this is most likely also the intent of the iPad.
So, would I like to have one? Yes, I would probably like that. Particularly the day I could find a used one for half the price of a new one. But I would never buy any applications for it, and after the first sensation had worn off, my iPad would probably ended up gathering dust in the pile of gadgets. The pile of stuff that is nice and interesting to have, but not really useful. The lack of capabilities to do other things than fun stuff, would be annoying in the long run. It's small, light weight and very portable. Good and well; but would I leave my notebook, the Lenovo S10-2, a fully capable computer back home in favor of the iPad if I went somewhere? I guess not. And if I really needed the touch screen capability, what can the iPad do that a Thinkpad tablet can't do?
Another downside for a tech nerd is that you can not change the battery your self. Yes, you are right: The iPad needs to be shipped back to Apple so they can do it.. I am however pretty sure that the day the battery died, I would open my iPad up, with the danger of actually breaking the whole iPad, to replace the battery my self. Luckily there are people who have already taken one apart and put instructions on the internet. To be honest: To manage an operation like that, would probably be one of the things that would bring me the most satisfaction with owning a iPad.
