Ten Things You Should Know About the iPad in the Real World
Here’s what I have found after a few months with my iPad.
1. It will not replace my Macbook Pro. I do too many things on that device that simply can’t be done on an iPad. But for some folks, it really can be a laptop replacement.
2. It is great for reading. I can download books from Amazon in seconds for less money than the printed version. I can make notes and underline to my heart’s content. Four of the five textbooks for my last course were available in Kindle version. It’s great for reading in bed at night, but it’s lousy for reading in sunlight. Yes, my beach scene is a fantasy, not a reality. I’d like to know if any of those glare-reducing screen covers actually work. Feel free to send me one to try out!
3. Web access over WiFi has been equal to my experience with my Mac. No Flash support has proven to be almost a non-issue in my experience. The huge number of iPads and iPod touches in circulation have required Web designers to work without it, and to be honest, many of the Flash applications that are used on the Web are more annoying than useful.
4. Using the iPad is basically a no-brainer. It works they way I expect it to work. There are a few tricks that may be unexpected. (It’s not terribly intuitive that pressing the “home” and “sleep” button simultaneously would create a screen shot, but it is a useful feature.) If you have ever used an iPhone or iPod Touch you know how intuitive they are, and you already know almost everything about how to use an iPad.
5. Pages is an extremely useful and capable word processor and the virtual keyboard is pretty darn useful and responsive, particularly when used in landscape mode where it’s nearly as large as a full-size keyboard.
