I'm going to stick to my main few initial thoughts and perhaps revisit some of the more esoteric things about it later on. I'll try where possible to stick to business applications if I can too.
General Feel and user interface (UI)
As most people know this is a 9.7inch touch-screen device using the basic Iphone/ipod touch UI which is proven to work pretty well and enables software/application developers to use additional buttons that don't require the device to have lots of physical knobs and levers. The device then itself is a simple sleek metal and glass sheet with only an orientation lock, volume slider, power switch and home button as it's actual buttons. Every thing else is done by touch on screen.
The ipad weighs in at 1.5 pounds and is a little heavier than expected but sits well in the hands and quickly becomes quite immersive - more so than any laptop or net pad - this is possibly the Ipads first victory - in a few minutes, once you're used to the UI it's almost like you're holding the internet (if you're in safari) rather than looking at a device which is displaying the internet. To give an example that really happened last night - we needed a pizza takeaway menu and it really was quicker to go into safari and find their website and display the menu than to go and dig out the paper version I know we have somewhere. I was then able to put the tablet on a table and let the kids run through the options on the menu - easy, fun and quicker than paper.
The device has an inch thick black bezel running around the screen and a number of commentators have moaned about this. In fact this edging gives your thumbs somewhere to rest while holding it so you don't partially obscure the screen.
It uses a 1Ghz A4 processor and as I'll discuss later it fairly whizzs along on the interwebs - I went for the 16GB wifi only model. There's a lot of discussion about memory size and wifi versus 3G on the interwebs and moy thoughts are that given this is a composite entertainment/productivity device I think 16GB is fine especially as each time you sync it with your pc or mac you can change the content to fit that days pleasure or work. It doesn't need 500GB of memory like my Mac or 150 gig like my laptop as it isn't designed to do the same things. On the question of 3g - I simply went for the cheaper option, rather than going for two data packages (i.e. phone and ipad) - I've managed on this basis with my ipod touch for over two years and think it won't be a problem with the ipad either. One option I'm considering for travel in bigger cities is a wifi deal with BT - they offer a pretty good wifi network in towns and cities for £ 5 a month.
Last thing, it quickly gets covered in fingerprints - really visible when switched off or looking at darker sites - I'd suggest investing in a good spectacle cleaning dry wipe as nothing comes in the pack to cover this issue.
Having read a lot about the device and viewing lots of You Tube reviews etc. I thought I knew what to expect but in real life the Ipad is more sturdy and user friendly than I expected - it feels real and built to last in a way that some net books really aren't.
Typing/practical use :
One of the main concerns I had was reference ability to type and I've quite quickly gotten used to typing in both portrait and landscape (the device has a similar accelerometer to the Iphone and Touch that enables you to rotate the device to see more or access different features in each of the orientations). As a pretty good touch typist I find it possible to touch type in both orientations - obviously this is easier in landscape but by no means impossible in portrait. A word of warning here though, between the machinations of orientation switch and a possibly uncomfortable typing position (resting on your knees on the sofa for example) it is possible to end up working in some silly positions. I invested in the Apple case for mine and it folds backwards on itself to provide a really comfy typing position in landscape mode - I used this to catch up with my e-mails yesterday evening and found no back aching type problems.
So in terms of tasking and fitting this into your working life I found the Ipad even better than expected.
The email user interface is a variant of the current mac standard and offers a listing to the left with larger individual mail pane on the right which flips in portrait to show the whole email in isolation. I'm still getting to grips with the format but it seems to work well. Setting up accounts takes a couple of minutes, the main snag is that gmail isn't a push service but retrieval takes two or three seconds once you go into the app. Setting up MS outlook is also possible - at the moment however I'm leaving my OL account on my blackberry.
Productivity Apps
The main iworks apps are all available as £ 5.99 downloads and I haven't yet partaken although I do fancy a play with Pages which would then enable me to tie work in with my imac more easily.
In terms of productivity the notes app is perfectly acceptable, given the typing works so well as I outline above I've already converted my rather archaic paper To Do list onto notes on the Ipad given that I'll have it with me on all business occasions now.
Note taking in meetings
Notes (or Pages) I suspect may become the norm for the Ipad user rather than paper and I'm certainly planning to use the advent of my Ipad as a vehicle for using less paper in my office at home.
Safari
To me speed of access is important. Having played around at it for a couple of years with my touch I wanted a device where I can get on line instantly in the commercial breaks of House or Flash Forward and the Ipad does not disappoint. The 1Ghz processor fairly whizzes along and accessing mobile sites like google reader, Amazon Kindle etc is almost instant. Even large standard pages load within four to five seconds so it's virtually as fast as my imac. The UI works well here with Google search perching in the top left and as I mentioned it very quickly becomes a case of feeling as if the internet is sat on top of your hands - there really is no barrier between you and the web here.
Replacing Newspapers
I've been a rabid consumer of on-line media for a couple of years now and basically get my daily news fix from the net. The ipad enables me to hit the web over breakfast (my main quiet time) in a really new and exciting way. I've configured my home page apps to give me access to Sky News, The Telegraph and (sadly) comic apps (to pick up the daily releases of free content) instantly in the morning over my cuppa and cereal - something I kind of did on the touch but the ipad gives more speed of access, dimension and physicality to the process somehow. The BBC are apparently about to release their iplayer as an app and this will also give me extra options in addition to my daily BBC News e-mail.
Portability
Yes it's another device to lug about. This is a clear drawback and now with the touch (let's face it the ipad isn't going in my back pocket for random ipod playing is it ?), my personal phone, business Blackberry and now the Ipad i'm walking about everywhere with over £ 1,000 of consumer electronics to be robbed of. But lets be realistic. On business the laptop bag goes everywhere anyway. With Key Note loaded onto the Ipad you don't need the lappy which weighs three times more than the ipad. Blackberry diverts onto the personal mobile (or vice versa) if you don't want to take both and when I invest in the Iphone the touch gets donated to Little Ms Localventure (aged 10) and I'm down to iphone and ipad in most cases.
Just taking the ipad out on it's own to the coffee shop or out in the car on appointments makes sense - even without wifi connection it's still possible to be productive and one of my biggest bug bears for years has been arriving at a meeting early and either not taking the laptop or not being able to bother booting it up for the sake of 10 minutes of work is again sorted by instant access to e-mail, notes, pages etc on the ipad.
Cost benefit ad fun-ness
Well I spent £ 459 on mine including the case. I've used it for around 8 hours solid since yesterday and it's running at 21% power now so clearly it's not going to charge me out of house and home. I've found practical uses for it already (including whilst running on my treadmill at home which I haven't had space to mention here) and I can see nothing but positives so far. I suppose an argument could be made that I, like other fans of Apple tech are shoehorning a digital entertainment device into my productivity/work life but I think the immediacy of the Ipad and it's flexibility make this process of blurring the line between work and fun an exciting and interesting one.
I've only had mine for 24 hours as I type this up and already it feels like I've had it forever. Do you need one, well no, but then again technically we don't need anything but food water and shelter as a species, but when you get one I think you'll instantly forget the 400 odd quid you've spent and begin planning the fun ways you can invent to get the most out of it.
I'd really welcome comments and feedback - take care
Phil
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