Share your experience with Apple's iPad (1st generation)

Grover

Grover

Well-known member
Hi,

Since I dearly love my iPhone 3GS so much, I am interested in finding out if an iPad will be an useful piece of equipment for me. I just touched (what's in a word ;)) the iPad briefly in a Saturn shop in Cologne (Germany) a few months ago and I wasn't too impressed actually.

An example: I am so used to the great [tab]-functionality (opening webpages in different tabs) that comes with today's browsers, that I felt almost 'disabled' using the iPad, because I couldn't figure out how to use [tabs] in the Safari browser in iOS.

Just a little example that made me hesitate buying one really. But I would love to hear in this discussion the experiences of fellow XenForo community members with their iPad. How do you use it? What do you love about it? What do you miss? How does it work for your compared to your laptop? Etc.

Please share. In April 2011 (presumingly) the second generation will be released, so I have 6 more months to delve into this discussion to prepare myself ;).
 
I don't have one, will get the second generation - But I did play with one quite a bit. And loving it.
 
Too many obvious reasons, excellent simplistic user interface, lightweight, easy to take with you and has excellent looking applications on it. Everything I want out of being on the road, including having google maps with me to see clearly where i am where to go, and access to all my data: a must - and awesome. It's easy to read, big enough screen for my bad eyes, and if there are pictures - it's a professional digital picture frame, and so much fun handing off to others who browse through them with you. Having something around the house for quick access, especially with instant on and the amount of battery life it has, etc .. while also being a book reader basically (it is very doable), and of course for in the ktichen for recipes, .. oh so many things. I even had fun taking it to the store as my grocery list - which was live updated when family member asked me to get stuff for them and remote added to the list. Yes, i felt dorky for walking around with it - it got some looks - but i can't help it that analogue people aren't digital people.

Oh too much to mention.
 
I liked the UI when I played with one and it seemed like a sleek bit of kit but I would never buy one.

No Flash support, no HD resolution, it's not even 16:9 standard widescreen, no HDMI or USB port to name but a few.
 
Grover said:
An example: I am so used to the great [tab]-functionality (opening webpages in different tabs) that comes with today's browsers, that I felt almost 'disabled' using the iPad, because I couldn't figure out how to use [tabs] in the Safari browser in iOS.
Click to expand...
Click and hold on a link to get the option to Open in a New Tab.

Grover said:
How do you use it?
Click to expand...
Same way as the iPhone, but a bigger screen so easier to consume content such as PDFs and videos. The iPad is great for consuming and enjoying existing content.

Grover said:
What do you miss? How does it work for your compared to your laptop?
Click to expand...
The absolute weakness of the iPad is in content creation. The iPad, and indeed iOS are designed to consume content, not create it. If I'm on a train and I think of an idea, I can't start creating it, putting photos together for it, writing an article with pictures or video, etc. The OS is too disjointed and simplistic for that. The best I can really do is fire up Notepad and write an outline of the work I'll do when I get home.

Microsoft could have totally blown away the iPad with their Microsoft Courier dual-pane Tablet prototype:

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With the Microsoft Courier, I could have actually started creating content on the train and started building my article, or website, or documents and made substantial progress. Unfortunately, with the exception of the Xbox and XBox 360, Microsoft's culture stamps out creativity, so the Courier was cancelled shortly after these videos premiered.

Other drawbacks of the iPad are the lack of a proper USB port and all those limitations of iOS like no proper file structure for pushing files to the device. There are apps like FileApp which make it easy to push files to your iPhone or iPad, but then once they're there, most apps don't know what to do with them. Apple fought the idea of the iOS having this shared file system. I mean, you can't even create folders in the Photos app on the iPhone. You have to use a third party program, or go buy a Mac and use iPhoto.

Despite all that RAM, and 1024 x 768 display, the web browser is still limited to just 8 tabs or open documents. If you try to open more, it closes the oldest one.

Despite having 8, 16, or 32GB of storage, there is no way to adjust refresh times or cache size on Safari or Google Maps. Load up your Google Maps to bring up a map of your current location. Now scroll over to your destination. As soon as you get out of WiFi range, Google Maps will forget most of the maps you've been looking at, leaving you stranded until you find another WiFi network, or 3G (if you bought the more expensive iPad). It is inexcusable that we cannot increase the cache on Google Maps from the default of 100-200kb to 1MB or more.

Worse is Safari, which faithfully respects the refresh times specified by websites. If I visit a website in Safari on the iPad and that website has a refresh time of 30 minutes, then the next time I open up Safari to that page, even if I don't have WiFi or other access, the page will reload as a blank page and then advise me that no network connection is available.

Someone forgot that WiFi and 3G are sporadic and not universal. And this is applicable not only to the USA but Europe. You'd think with a 50-60% income tax and 15-25% VAT, that most major European cities would provide free WiFi, and that the EU would require mobile carriers to allow roaming on their networks at a reasonable rate. Not so. $20/megabyte, and 50 cents per minute phone calls if you are in a different EU country than your sim card is from, even if you are roaming on the Germany 3 Network and you have a Denmark 3 Network account.

The iPad is just limiting all around. You can't just grab AVIs off the internet, write them to a thumb drive, and stick them in an iPad to play them. You have to re-render movies to watch them using a program like Handbrake. Then you have to push them to the iPad using a program like FileApp which is a WiFi/FTP setup.

What the iPad could be, and what it is, are two different things.
 
What I really want is to be able to use it as a presentational device, but it's a bit difficult at the moment, as powerpoint presentations fail (don't use Keynote at home)
 
feldon30 said:
I agree. Wait, what are we talking about? ;)
Click to expand...

Importing PPT -> Keynote makes the text and everything go skewy. Very Skewy. But that's an app problem. The problem I have with the iPad is that I just can't use it to write essays. It's gets horrible. Tried using a keyboard/dock, the long screen annoys me.
 
Goodreader makes my life better.

I mainly use mine to read class notes or listen to recorded lectures rather than hauling my 17' laptop every where with me. I let my grandma play casino games on it and she really enjoys being able to sit in her chair without having to get up and use a mouse with her arthritis being so bad. I'm pretty sure it's to the point where she won't let me in her house unless I bring it and only invites me over to play some slots
 
Another useless bit of kit from Apple imho. While starting to like the desktop and notebooks, have to say they still produce a load of rubbish with the extra products they are at best fashion accessories.
 
As soon as I found out it was going to be based on the iPhone operating system and not OS X I decided to pass. I have a phone, I have an iPod and I have a laptop...why do I need this
 
By taking 5 minutes out of my day after watching the uk ipad commercial I was interested I then commenced in reading up the reviews and specs and knew right then I wouldn't be purchasing it. I can see why many have purchased upon just watching the commercial. It is thin, it is beatifulful but it's also has limitations.

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​
 
I do want to add that there is no better device (short of an LCD/DLP projector) for sharing photos with a small group of people either at a party or just out on the street. The iPad includes adapters for SD cards and is also compatible with some digital cameras by connecting with USB. You can load either all the pictures on your SD card, or pick and choose photos, and then show them to people with the built-in viewer.

It's very useful if you are covering a live event and want to reassure other people that you're getting good photos. If you have an EyeFi card in your camera, and install the EyeFi app on your iPad, you don't even need to remove the SD card. The camera will push each new photo directly to the iPad and display it on the screen.

The iPad is also an excellent reader, including PDFs, books, documents, etc. And it's very good for viewing movies. With the entire back of the unit being a humongous battery, you get some 10 hours of browsing time, and 4-5 hours of movie playback.
 
I was reluctant as I hadn't owned an Apple device before. I strongly dislike the "wall of China" approach they have to business and so I always supported more open platforms. Saying that, I loved the thinness, portablility and pure sexiness of the iPad so after buying one for my sons 18th and having a good play with it - I decided to cave in and I am glad I did.

As mentioned earlier, it isn't a great product to generate and create content with, but more than makes up for that weakness when consuming it. When I am out and about or just lounging around the house I am usually not creating presentations, worksheets or drafting letters. I am reading email, surfing the web, dorking around with apps and games, etc...

So for me, it is a really great addition to the family :)
 

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