iPad first impressions
Having now had about a week to get to know the iPad in different situations, it is a good time as any to provide a first impressions report. I’ll start by saying that the three weeks I had to wait to get my hands on it after it had been bought was probably the longest three weeks of my adult life, such was the level of expectation. Of course I read every piece of material I could find about the thing, and (as usual) was quite sceptical about the overall effect described. When I first got it in my hands, I was amazed at how small it is in reality. I excpected bigger based on the photos I’d seen.
One week in, I remain astonished about the immersibility of the thing. I had read about it, but I didn’t believe it until I experienced it. The iPad really becomes the thing you do with it: browsing the web, it becomes the web; reading a book, it becomes the book. The device itself fades away leaving only what you are doing visible. There are no distractions, as there only is a single app open at any time. I found myself lounging on the couch reading news with Reeder (viewer app for Google Reader accounts), or magazines with iBooks (I have six months worth of Autosport magazine downloaded as PDF files, just waiting for a way to read them…) for hours on end. Doing the same on my MacBook Pro I’m constantly interrupted by something, anything. Probably that’s my own fault, having gotten used to “doing” multiple things at the same time.
One thing that really is handy is the emerging e-magazine market. Already Wired and Popular Science have produced beautiful, if somewhat lacking in function, applications with which one can buy new issues, download them straight to the iPad and read the articles combined with some multimedia. I’ve seen some whining in the US about the price of the individual issues being too high, but that is not a factor in Europe: if you can get those magazines at all, they’ll cost up to 10, even 15 euros per issue. Electronically downloaded issues are about 3 euros at the moment, with subscription deals coming. I went looking for Popular Science in Academic Bookstore in Turku earlier this week, and couldn’t find it at any price. Now, hopefully The New Yorker provides its own app soon.
However, to really appreciate the usability and usefulness of the iPad requires constant Internet connection. That’s why I’m really glad I specified the WiFi+3G model. I decided not to open 3G account for it until I’m back in Finland (early November) to avoid huge costs living abroad, but I might be tempted to get a local 3G account for use in here. I didn’t really notice the need for always-on Internet at home, where I have a good WiFi signal and a fast ADSL connection. Here at it is a bit problematic, as WiFi reception in my room is a bit bad and the outside lines are sometimes flaky. And there’s lots of other people using the same lines!
The real test of the device will be how well it suffices as the only computer on the road. Now I can always fall back to using the laptop if I need to. I’ll report more when I know more…
