My iPad arrives! A little trouble, as we were away from Captain Lord Mansion when it arrived, and for security UPS wouldn’t leave it – I realize now that I could have “pre-signed” for it online which might have solved the issue, but luckily we were just a few minutes away, Captain Lord called us (thanks, Michelle!), and the UPS truck driver was prepared to wait a short time (many thanks to that mystery man) …
I do think it’s strange, wrong even, that you can’t do anything with the iPad unless you have a computer to connect it to, and run iTunes – seems like a significant error in Apple’s concept there; maybe non-computer owners get the chance to set it up in the Apple store if they purchase there. Luckily, I did bring my Macbook Pro with me.
Right now, iTunes is busy syncing Apps, music and photos – but I can’t use the iPad while that’s going on; so instead I’m posting here 🙂
The iPad looks lovely, feels much lighter than a Macbook Pro, but rather too heavy to hold for long in one hand. The screen is much too reflective, so it’s nowhere near as easy to read as it should be, sitting here with an open window behind me.
Also, I’m still shocked that Apple didn’t change the screen layout to put more than four Apps across – as you see in the screen shot above, there’s a lot of wasted space. Finally in the “not magical” list, that background picture is awful once you realize that those scratches on the screen are just star streaks!
On the plus side, I can’t say much yet since sync’ing continues … the iPad successfully picked up WiFi and has visited my websites, so it’s all working fine …
Further thoughts:
I’m getting on fine typing one fingered on the virtual keyboard in portrait mode, sneaking a thumb in on the space bar. For a while I was hitting shift instead of delete, because I’m used to the iPhone version.
Just tried two hands and it was poor!
But lets try two fingers in landscape mode – yes, thats much better. I can type at full speed without neding to check what im doing. And see ere jysta. A few errors!
Or, there’s just a few errors.
What’s weird is that the auto correct to insert ‘ marks doesn’t seem to work when typing with both hands – do I overrun the corrections with new keys?
Apps tried so far; some iPad ones are really not good, while a few are very nice. In the free ones tried so far, I’m very impressed with the innovative styling of AP News. Still trying to figure which weather App is best, either Weather.com or WUnderground I think.
Oh, and this iPad version of WordPress is excellent 🙂
Another small annoyance – iTunes doesn’t continue downloads if you exit to another App … Did I hear someone say “multi-tasking”?!
M&I / GBMINI 
The line of people outside my neighborhood Apple store was about 50 yards long when I was walking the dog this morning (not like the huge lines at each iPhone release). By the afternoon, there was no line and I went in to check it out.
I was very impressed by the quality of the display and the wide viewing angle. It felt much heavier than I expected. You’d definitely want to rest it on something if you use it for any reasonable length of time.
Overall, I like it a lot. I’m not ready to commit but I could see it being very handy to use at home and I expect to get one eventually.
Richard
Apple is still missing the boat of making these self-contained computers.
But reading reports, they will activate them in the apple stores by syncing them with itunes on one of the macs there.
I’m still shocked it has the same app number limit as the iphone. I guess they want you to see the pretty background image so spread out the app icons.
It would be much nicer to optionally have all of your apps on one home screen..resizing dynamically like your mac’s dock.
One reason for the short queues is, like me, you could get the iPad delivered to you! Also, some people have to wait a few weeks, for the 3G version.
I’m with Josh, the first time I saw the screen in Steve’s hands I thought what a waste of screen real estate – the buttons look really small and lonely on the big screen.
I’m a big Apple fan but they’re losing me with the iPad. This increasing drive to produce machines that can only run software that they allow (and can change their mind on a whim) upsets me. Does look cool though. Looking forward to seeing how your opinion goes after using it more.
Loving the iPad as a game console 🙂
Can’t type on my iPhone any more! Too cramped, comma missing, etc!