iPad

So, I stopped in to Best Buy on my way to Target this afternoon to see if I could get my hands on the new iPad and play a little. I was pleasantly surprised to find Best Buy had four demo models laid out on the Apple table.

Time to answer the big question if was still an 'if' I'll get one?

As a great lover of my iPod Touch, I knew I was going to like the iPad, but I wasn't expecting to like it so much. It was lighter and thinner than I expected, and the picture quality was incredible. Since the OS is based on the OS for the iPhone & Touch, I was quickly flipping through various settings.

Once the initial awe faded a bit, I wondered if it would be something I would actually use, verses my perception of the iPad being just a larger iPhone.

I turned to the Notes app as I used to use that to write blog entries. (It looks like a tiny legal pad) In portrait mode it was identical to the iPhone, but so much better larger. The keyboard is decent, definitely easier to type on the the Touch! I then turned the iPad to landscape mode and loved how part of the left hand of the screen turns into a list of notes while the remainder of the screen was the note pad. Very slick. I didn't test the keyboard with two hands pending recovery, but it seemed just a touch smaller than my netbook keyboard; I'll adapt!

I was so excited I decided to login to my webmail and send my non-loving tech wife an email. Popped open Safari, type in my URL, login in to webmail. Ready.

Everything was working great until I tried to type the body of the message. If I could even get in the body area it wanted to type all capital letters, but I couldn't backspace/delete text either. I was kind of annoyed.

Granted, I wouldn't need to use webmail if I owned the iPad, but I still felt that has the potential to cause problems with other sites I frequent. Sometimes I have to login to a server and use a similar interface to fix minor emergencies, so that could be a problem. More testing needed...

Now the awe was fading more. Not deterred, I decided to open the Weather Channel app hoping for a bigger interface. Nope. It was the version in my pocket, and the app only filled as much of the screen as the size of an iPhone. 2x? Sure, but that causes image distortion. Another bummer, but not all that big a deal.

I then turned to Books app. That was cool. Granted there was only a few sample books with a few same pages, but the interface was crisp, the pages flipped nice with a slight swipe of the finger and it looked good in either portrait or landscape.

I will write more about the iPad over the next week or two as I am sure to go play with it several more times! Heck, I haven't even played a game on it yet!

There was one little odd thing I will mention last. I noticed is that when I typed ipad in to the iPad, it automatically changed the p to a capital; obviously this iPod Touch has a dictionary update coming... Hopefully with multitasking.

How exciting. Overall I am pretty sure the iPad went from a 'if' I'll get one to 'when'. I look forward to its evolution over the next year or so, but until then, I'll just have to make do with the mini version in my hand for now!

Or will I...