I have to confess; Bob got an iPad. I *almost* bought it for him for Valentine's Day, mentioned it that night, and he high-tailed it back to the store the next day and got one.
My impressions so far are that it is a lot of fun, but not a real computer. :-) However, after playing a couple of the free games he downloaded for a while, when I put the iPad down and turned on my laptop I got this overwhelming sense of "dinosaur!"
The iPad is small, light, needs no accessories, is intuitive to use (my Dad picked up on it right away), and the battery lasts forever. When you push the button it is ready to go - less than 1 second boot time. It is quiet, doesn't get hot, and can be operated from any direction (turn it upside down and the picture rotates to accommodate you). Bob plugged it in to his desktop and was able to copy all his music with just a little effort. We are still unsure about other possibilities in using it with the desktop.
My only real complaint so far is that the pop-up (on screen) keyboard doesn't have arrow keys, so when I'm typing and see a mistake, I have to click on the place (which hasn't worked for me so far) or erase all the way back to the mistake.
I still like the (wireless) mouse approach to desktop use, as that enables a lot of freedom of movement. But for a laptop, touch screen just makes sense. So, while I hope my laptop lasts many more moons, I admit it's not the height of fashion or technology.
2 comments:
"My impressions so far are that it is a lot of fun, but not a real computer"
Interestingly, when digging into the Apple forums, the company eventually admits this: it's supposed to be purchased *in addition to* a computer. Yet in the ads, it's insinuated that it is meant to replace them...
I hope you guys have fun with it. One huge advantage I can see is the ability to store/display photos on the go. :-)
(But if I understand it correctly, you have to get the images either through a connection to the desktop or online, there's no way to directly plug in your memory card... Correct me if I'm wrong.)
Wil, I don't know that I've seen any ads for the thing... Bob's uncle had one, and we checked out the in-store displays before buying.
It does have a neat "app" to show Flickr pictures in a slideshow, but I suppose you have to be online to use it.
The ipad came with a single cord, one end of which plugs into the pad, and the other end is a USB port. Bob used this to hook up with his computer. You can buy a camera connector kit that comes with a USB cable and an SD card reader. Bob already has a card reader, so we didn't buy it, but it looks like we need something to connect the two "male" USB plugs. hmmm. If we are both still capable of thought tonight I will ask him about it.
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