iPad

Jun. 17th, 2010 06:01 pm
rbandrews: (review)
[personal profile] rbandrews
So I bought this thing. As to why I did, well, partly it was retail therapy, partly it was my birthday, and well, I like shiny electronics.

So that positions me as an iPad owner who doesn't feel a need to justify it in terms of "revolutionizing computing forever!!!1one". I feel like I can give a pretty unbiased depiction of what you can expect if you buy one.

First of all, you'll be lucky to find a store which has one in stock. I wasn't able to anywhere in the state of Texas. So you'll have to order it, and they'll ship it to you, FedEx, literally from the iPad factory in China. If you're anything like me you already have a sense of dread, because FedEx deliveries have never, ever gone well for me. So expect about two weeks of waiting followed by an annoying drive across town to pick it up.

Once you have it, well, it's actually pretty cool. Most of the problems with the iPhone OS are due to the small screen and you having to poke at it with your fat meat-stubs. Making the whole thing four times the size is actually a good way to make it usable. Also, it's a lot more responsive, so things like viewing web pages is nowhere near the hassle it is on an iPhone. The apps also cost on average a bit more, but they're actually useful: the Dropbox app is a handy PDF reader, for example. The games are nifty as well, but I'll get to that.

Mine is a 3G one, because I figured it was worth the extra money on the off chance I'd want to sign up for service. As it turns out, the service is about as painless as it gets: no contract, you sign up right from the iPad, it starts working immediately. Very slick, and worth it just for the maps: Google Maps on this thing, with the GPS, is amazing. On a phone it's really cool, on this thing it's way better.

Other stuff... Netflix streaming works, there is an app from Marvel comics that displays comics (really well) for $2 an issue, or you can get reasonably-priced or free CBR readers. Comics are a really good use for it.

So that pretty much covers consuming content. Creating content is a little slimmer: editing Google Docs from the iPad doesn't work, but there's a free app called Simplenote that does mostly the same thing. I can use the keyboard no problem at all for logging into things or typing in URLs, but you'll want a real keyboard for typing, say, something the length of this post. However, it works with Bluetooth keyboards, and I had a cute little Apple one already, so that problem is solved.

Unfortunately, even with a keyboard, it's still not a laptop. There's one vital component missing: the hinge. It's physically impossible to hold the iPad at an angle you can read it while typing on a wireless keyboard. I just picked up a little folding wooden book stand from Books-a-Million for $20, which might as well have been designed for this. In fact, if you're reading this, That Company Called 'if', I recommend that you change the name of your product to "Solid Oak iPad Stand" and double the price. Trust me.

So, excellent for consuming media on a couch or armchair or airplane. Passable for creating text, with some accessories and a table (but not as good as a laptop). What else is there? Games.

iPhone games always reminded me of the game boy. You have this platform ideally suited to cute little puzzle games, and these people are trying to make 3D racing games for it or whatever. Most of the games for the iPhone were technically very impressive, but (because of screen size and control) totally unplayable, at least to me. I picked up a few cheap puzzle games, got addicted, and that was that.

The iPad has almost the same problem. I'm not sure how well it could do with action games, because you still find yourself tilting it or dragging your hand across the screen to do things. But, the larger screen does make it totally excellent at one genre: strategy games. There's a version of Civilization Revolution, of Battle for Wesnoth, of Smallworld, and some others. They're all really well-designed and fun. I think it's what I'll end up doing the most on my iPad.

So, you have a little tablet that's excellent at reading comics, playing strategy games, and looking at maps. It's pretty good at web browsing and email. It's able to write on (only being able to run one thing at a time does make writing easier, I'll give it that), but not as well as the laptop you're probably reading this on. Is that worth $500-$700 to you? If you're me, totally. If you're not me, maybe not.

There are a couple of problems with it that only time will solve:

1. There's no good Meebo app. There's the iPhone app, but running iPhone apps on it is ugly.

2. You look like a dork carrying it around. I felt the same way about my iPhone for the first few months, until suddenly everyone had one. I think this is why a lot of people buy cases for them, more than to protect the screen: in a case, it looks like an organizer. Alone, it looks like a nerd toy.

3. The App Store sucks. I don't mean their policy of rejecting cool things or being control freaks, I mean the actual design of the store. It gives you very few ways to look for things: you can search by name, look at the top selling or top grossing apps, or look at the top apps in a given category. You can't look for, say, 4X games, or the top-selling free music apps, or all apps tagged as "puzzle". All these would be excellent things for them to add, and they'll eventually have to add at least some of that, or revenue will drop off as nobody can find anything to buy. Until then, I've had good luck just googling for what I want and then searching by name in the store (use the store only to buy, not to find).

Date: 2010-06-18 01:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] uilos.livejournal.com
There's a case (I'll get the company name from Scott tonight) that does a hinged cover that allows you to prop the iPad up at various angles. It's pretty sweet.

Date: 2010-06-18 07:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] uilos.livejournal.com
That's my opinion on iPhone cases, mostly because I carry mine in my pocket and want to carry as little as possible.

I'm suprised I haven't gone on at you about GelaSkins: http://www.gelaskins.com/ My only problem buying one was picking which awesome art I really wanted the most.

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