iPad 2 review: After 20 hours

My employer has given me an iPad 2 🙂 🙂

Here is my review after less than a day in my hands. I wonder if it will change after a week.

Immediate thoughts:

• Wow, this is way bigger than my iPhone
• Wow, my iPhone text looks really tiny after looking at an iPad.
• This is heavier than I thought it would be.
• I’m very afraid to drop this.
• Wow, this is the future. I feel like I’m using a device 20 years before it’s time. Like I’m on an old episode of Star Trek and I’m running ship diagnostics as I walk the hallway.

My plan was to update it to the latest iOS 5 before I did anything. But that meant I had to re-download iOS 5 for the iPad in iTunes. It was taking forever!! And I couldn’t control my excitement, so I went ahead and started customizing it, setting it up, and downloading apps.

The Apple cover for it was back-ordered, so I’m cover-less. Last night we were in New Glasgow for the evening, so I went to New Glasgow and bought a neoprene like slip cover for it so it can be safely transported in my bag from work to home and back. I also bought a new microfibre cloth so I can keep my iPhone and iPad clean from fingerprints.

I was disappointed that although the iPad can go on the Philips Fidelio speaker dock that Jeff bought me for Christmas, it doesn’t charge the iPad 2 so I still have to plug it in. And the USBs on the front of my work computer don’t put out enough required power (10W) to charge it up via USB, so I have to plug it into a wall outlet.

There are apps that are different on the iPad from the iPhone and I’m liking the new colour, layout, graphics. Although I will admit just wanting text, show me text! when I’m looking at some screens on the CTV and CNN news apps.

I’m trying out FlipBoard, due to all the rave reviews. I don’t like it yet, but hopefully I can customize it more. It builds a newspaper looking interface out of the news you may want to read, and it is very visually appealing, but to read more than the first paragraph you have to click through and few the original anyway. I suspect I’ll come to like this app once I use it more. Here is FlipBoard showing CBC’s latest news:

I love the Philips Fidelio app that ties in with the speaker dock I have. The speaker dock came with a little iPad stand (glad I kept it) so it holds the iPad propped up. Then I can use the Fidelio app to show the current weather, time, and it works like an alarm clock. It also has radio built in – looks like just about any radio station that is broadcast online. Here is what it looks like if I click “Local Radio”. (it uses the geo features of the iPad to know exactly where I am to show me the local stations, and the local weather.)

I love the multi-finger gestures. Were these new in iOS 5 or did the iPad always have them. Instead of hitting the home button all the time, I can just put 4 or 5 fingers on the screen and pinch them inwards. Slick, real slick.

Syncing

With the latest iOS and the iCloud, I can easily sync items between my iPhone and my iPad – like photos, contacts, songs, etc. I don’t think I will use it for my photos, but I’m currently syncing my contacts, and my Reminders sync on both devices. I’m not sure when I wouldn’t have both within arms reach, unless one was charging, so who knows if I really even need to sync it all, but this way everything is literally at my fingertips.

Who needs an iPad?

Definitely if you are more of a consumer than a producer. Meaning you do a lot of surfing, social media, reading, game playing. I can set it flat and use the keyboard with my regular typing method, but I just have no where near the accuracy of a real keyboard. So if you are a producer and do a lot of writing, I wouldn’t through out the laptop just yet – or get a keyboard that can be used with your iPad.

I thought it would be awkward to hold on the couch, unlike my little iPhone or a laptop you can sit on your lap. But last night I tried it while I was stretched out on the couch and I found myself just resting the edge of it on my chest. I tried it out in bed too and it was good.

I’m not sure I’d personally spend the money until they have the next one out, the iPad 3, which should have the incredible display that the iPhone has (much higher resolution so you can’t see the individual pixels). But then again, why wait, this is really fun.

iPad on my desk at work:

Quick Update

I’m just realizing that there are some features of the iPhone that aren’t on the iPad. So far I’ve really missed the built in weather (that shows in the pulldown on the iPhone) and there is no calculator!