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.

Maybe computerare getting closer to something like a smartphone purchase.  For a phone it’s hard to write a review as the user experience is so unique – and somewhat personal.  Of course the irony of that statement is that the iPad is based on a phone OS and I wrote most of this post on my Palm Pre.

Have things changed that much – that it’s not about the specs – but about the experience?  Makes it hard to make recommendations – but maybe thatls what the crowd is for…

Some iPad review links:

http://gear.ign.com/articles/108/1082190p1.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaW_K3i7vUs

http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q110-ipad-review/

Overall I was a little underwhelmed by the iPad – except for the price.  I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t as expensive as I thought it might be – going from $499 to $899 – based on memory and 3G capability.  This price point may actually be reasonable – considering the device essentially compares to the netbook niche.  That’s what I see this as – as Apple’s positioning between a smartphone and a laptop.  For that price you may actually get some sales – more than just Apple addicts – but for people who just want to surf the web, check their e-mail, read a book, listen to music, watch a movie – not a full computer but something easy to use.

I don’t know how much of an advantage their own chip has – it might depend on how much it cost – versus how much better it is than Atom or ARM based chips.  It is an interesting trend  toward power efficient processors – after the era of chips being a fire hazard.  I think that’s where windows mobile as always had a problem – as it’s not very power efficient – vs. the old Palm phone I have.  This tells you something about Apple – they made it themselves instead of using someone’s technology -because they could.  It’s something Google would do (oh wait – they made their own phone hardware and OS).  It definitely has a better cool factor than a Chrome based PC – even though those might be more functional in some core ways – but the “thinner” device seems to be in now…

Here are a few links related to the A4:

http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2010/01/27/ipad-debuts-apples-custombuilt-a4-systemonachip/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10442684-64.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_A4