So I’ve had my iPad for a few weeks now and even had a chance to travel with it to a conference. There’s already been a sea of reviews posted but I thought I’d go ahead and give it my own 2 cents.
Content creation
It seems like the number one myth I’ve read in just about every review is that the iPad is a content delivery device and not a content creation device. The way the unit ships out of the box this might be true. But as someone who makes my living doing creative work and understands creative process, I find the iPad perfect for content creation.
Sure you won’t be editing video or replacing Photoshop – but the iPad makes it easy and fun to capture ideas which is at the heart of creative work – if that’s what you actually do. And the touch interface itself opens up a whole new world of possibilities that as the hardware becomes more powerful, will realize a serious advantage to the traditional desktop design for doing work – particularly creating it. Sure the apps are a little crude but at the very least the iPad already has the power of an awesome sketchbook for ideas.
A quick word about third party software – just like the iPhone, apps really define the possibilities of the iPad and are at least half the reason you’ll want one. Having said that the unit has only been out in the US for a few weeks. I’d expect the next few months we will finally see some innovative and powerful stuff released. For the moment though there are already a few gems.
iWork
Apple offers iPad versions of Numbers, Pages and Keynote. I personally feel like these should come with the iPad but either way the are fantastic. I actually think there are some aspects of having a touch interface that make these stronger than their desktop versions. I’ll admit that I did not use iPad Keynote for my presentations last week in fear or crashing or other technical concerns, but I should say that I used my laptop for my own unfamiliarity – not the units reliability. I saw reviews of people who gave presentations the day they got it. This folks, is unprofessional, risky and stupid. If you’ve been hired to speak, you have to be on your game. If I had a few weeks to learn the unit first I might have gone for it, but I didn’t.
Drawing Apps
Adobe has a wonderful simple app called Adobe Sketchbook that allows you to do sketches and save them in a notebook fashion. A little wonky to get your images out of it, but for a free app its quite brilliant. There is also a wonderful app called Freeform that supports vector drawing much like Adobe Illustrator. While it’s not nearly as deep or powerful as Illustrator it certainly gives you the ability to capture ideas and export them later for further editing. If you need bitmap capabilities, apps like Art Studio are excellent for capturing ideas. And I’d also suggest picking up a $6 pogo pen if you like to draw. Something weird about finger painting everything.
Photo editing
I think you’ll seen some powerful stuff in the coming months, but already there are some outstanding apps being offered. TiltShift Generator was great on the iPhone and now has a nice iPad version. Filterstorm is a really nice photo color manipulation app with cool brush masking ability and it’s free. One downside is the photos app the iPad comes with. Fun for viewing, but you can’t create folders or edit. Everything must be synced in iTunes which is lame.
Battery life
It’s as awesome as they say. Easily 10 hrs and the unit never gets hot.
How does the keyboard feel?
I actually like it just fine. I got the Bluetooth keyboard thinking I’d need it but honestly I’ve used it once. I’m writing this article on my iPad.
Frustrations
Apple, can you please reconsider iTunes? The store needs a massive redesign and why am I syncing everything through a music app anyway? Apple desperately needs to rethink this. I know it’s branded as the go to app but it drives me crazy. I’d like to see more done in the cloud with the $100 I waste every year on the near useless Mobile Me. This would be perfect to clean up and use with the iPad.
Does the iPad replace my laptop?
When traveling – yes. It is a wonderful alternative and the size is perfect. If you need to do any serious photo or video editing, you’ll want a laptop, but personally I don’t want to do that kind of stuff on the road anyway.
Conclusion
If you even think you want one buy it. It is one of the most exciting products that’s come along in a while and with apps being developed and the 4.0 software coming this fall it’s only going to get better.