Sunday, April 4, 2010

I Love my iPad--Another Game Changer from Apple

Unboxing my new iPad.

During my lifetime, I've been truly blown away more times by Apple than any other company. They've done it to me five times now.

I can still remember the very first time I ran each of these devices from Apple: Apple IIe, iPod/iTunes, iPhone, and the Mac. Each time I was completely blown away, giddy even, with the sizable leap in innovation with each of these products. Well, it happened to be again yesterday, when my iPad was delivered to my home. I spent a good portion of the day using it. And I have to say, I love it. It exceeded my expectations.

Sure, I expected it to be nice, but in a way my expectations were kept in check, given I have owned the iPhone since the day it came out. I guess in a way I was expecting it to be just an iPhone, only bigger. I found it to be so much more. The larger screen allows iPad apps to be much nicer than their iPhone counterpart. They aren't just marginally better and easier to use, but a magnitude better.

With a few taps I was streaming full-length TV shows in beautiful clarity. Photo viewing, web browsing and email have never been so enjoyable. Games are amazing. It's the ideal device to use while watching TV, laying in bed, and certainly to watch movies while traveling.

It's not perfect, no 1st generation product is. Just like with the iPhone, I'm sure it will improve each year. But, this first product is far enough along for me to already know I wouldn't want to not have one. Anyone who waits for the next generation of the iPad will miss out on all the amazing things it can do right now.

For those of you skeptical about "do I really need a device between my iPhone and laptop?" You'll see. You do. And you will be getting an iPad. The iPad will be big. That's my prediction.

Apple has done it again.

Kevin

PS: As some of you may know, my company has five different apps in the Top 100 of the iPhone app store (social networking). We just submitted our first iPad-optimized app, CLIPish for iPad, and it should be available any day in the app store. Look for it.

4 comments:

Spinfusor said...

What size iPad did you get?

I went to my local Apple Store on launch day; it was a madhouse. I played with one of the demo units for a few hours. I loved the iPad and was particularly impressed by the iWork apps. The games looked amazing; I played some Real Racing HD with another guy (I kicked his ass). Everyone at the store seemed surprised by how good they found the iPad to be.

I had a reservation for a 32GB unit, but I didn't buy it. It's because of Safari:
- There's a nine-tab limitation.
- Tabs almost always reload when you switch them.
- When nine tabs are open and you open a link in a new tab, it closes one of nine tabs and opens the link in its place without warning and without choice of which tab to close.

These probably don't matter to most people, but I always browse with tons of tabs open. If Apple approves third-party browsers(Opera!) or changes Safari, I'll go and buy an iPad the same day.

Kevin Carmony said...

I got the 64GB one, since one of the main things I plan on using it for is movies when on long plane rides.

Yes, Safari has the same tab limitation that it does on the iPhone. It would be nice if Apple would also let the tabs lay across the top of the browser, just like they do on a PC, given the bigger screen (vs having them pop up in small boxes like they need to do on the smaller screen iPhone). Maybe they'll adjust that.

I too end up with a TON of tabs open on my Mac, but it's usually only the last handful that I'm really still active with. In a way, it's sort of a good thing it scrolls them off after 9. I actually find myself closing down my browser on my Mac now and then, just to clear out all the tons of tabs I had collected.

Kevin

Anonymous said...

Spinfusor, I have two questions regarding your comments.

First, does iPhone OS 4 multitasking appear to be suitable for you when it's rolled out to iPad? If I understand it, the page reloads you refer to would likely be reduced or eliminated altogether.

Secondly, how did you manage to hold onto a demo iPad for two hours on launch day and survive?

Anonymous said...

I think i will buy a Notion Ink Adam instead of an ipad because:
It has a pixel qi screen (so good for reading books)
Android OS
Flash support
Better Battery life
And Its Way cheaper