I got a brief hands on experience with an Apple iPad recently – which seems to be essential to understand this new device.  I also had my wife take a look at it and play with it – as she’s not a nerd like I am – but a normal person who uses devices for their usefulness (not just to drool over).

It’s a beautiful device – with a good screen.  Photos look great on the thing – the process of viewing photos is also excellent.  I checked out the book application and can see how it would be enjoyable to read books on the thing – as it feels natural. 

My wife and I also used the web browser – as we we’re looking for something on toysurus.com (Amazon) for my daughter.  My wife had a little trouble clicking just the right way (small buttons) - but the on-screen keyboard wasn’t too bad.  The home button is also useful – for if you don’t know what to do click on that and you can start over.

I tried a few other applications – but nothing took my breath away.  I did enjoy the action of flipping through the apps – as screen gestures (swiping, pinching, expanding, etc.) seem an intuitive way of interacting with a touch screen.  I found these gestures to be similar to those I use on my Palm Pre – I don’t know if that’s because of the engineers at Palm being from Apple or just that they’re a logical concept for a touch screen.

I couldn’t help comparing the iPad to my Palm Pre and one thing was obviously missing – the ability to mult-task.  I’ve never had much experience with an iPhone – but “grew’ up on Palm devices.  The problem is now that I’m hooked on multi-tasking – of not having to close applications.  Maybe that’s also why I have so many tabs open in Chrome on my laptop…  Then again, the iPad wakes up much, much quicker than my laptop….

I had my wife play with the iPad to see what she thought – as she’s more normal than I am.  At first she was a little unsure what do I do (again no iPhone experience).  Overall she didn’t seem to interested in the thing – but then again she’s not into new gadgets.  This is what my wife does on a computer:

  • She edits a set of simple word documents daily and prints them (this was a break for the usage of the iPad)
  • She checks her e-mail (currently through Outlook, but I’m trying to get her to go to Gmail as I have a funky setup to have Outlook work with the same data file on multiple computers)
  • She logs into Facebook
  • She uses Quickbooks to invoice her clients (also printed) and keep here business books
  • She pays bills online
  • She does some online shopping – at various sites – which includes printing the online confirmation page

This does not translate into a heavy computer user (like me who keeps getting frustrated with slowness after having multiple apps open) – but it’s more than what an iPad can do now.  She also indicated she likes the physical keyboard – which might mean a notebook could work – but except that the screens are too small for Quickbooks to be effective.

If the iPad was maybe $150 for an extra device I might be interested in it – to read books, quick web surfing, photos, etc.  It would be more functional than a Kindle (i.e. it can do more) and likely more ability for a rich experience.  What I would really like would be a tablet like device to read on – but would be more functional.  Have rich content, linking to web pages (in parallel to my reading – not replacing) AND would have longer battery life.   The iPad itself is a little on the heavy side to hold with one hand (I’m still thinking about those pads in Star Trek).  I can’t justify now spending money on what is more of an entertainment device (a content consumption device) vs. what is a productive device (more of creation than just consumption).  If you’re looking for something to consume content it could be a great buy – but understand what you are buying.

So for me the iPad is not there yet – but it captures my attention and imagination.  I did my test with my wife and right now it doesn’t make sense.  Maybe also for the fact that I can get a basic laptop (probably better than what I have now) for about as much money – which represents more value to me.

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