After all the hype, I have an Ipad and have not beat it with a baseball bat or microwaved it. I preordered an Apple Ipad online expecting weeks of stalking the Apple store and significant scarcity, only to find I could walk straight into the Apple store and buy one on Friday afternoon and then cancel my preorder which was due for delivery sometime in June. In fact I think I have one prior to many folk who pre ordered their Ipads for the 28th may and still have not received them due to TNT being “overwhelmed”, What, no one told them they would have to deliver 7,800 Ipads in one day? I just feel sorry for the poor kid who had been waiting 2 months for his Mecano set and the sceduled delivery was Friday.
I then also purchased a second Ipad on Saturday morning on behalf of a friend from JB Hi Fi in Chatswood after discovering not all JB Hi Fi’s are equal and that the inner west of Sydney was not considered an Ipad buying belt. I was in relatively early due to kids and by 11:030 had some hurried looking guys my age asking me where I had bought them, as the Apple Store, David Jones and Myer were all out of stock. I did’nt mention the big yellow JB Hi logo on the plastic bag I was holding and merilly sent them off to, yes JB Hi Fi, they were in a rush and almost started running as I mentioned the name. Crazy. I was tempted to send them to Babies Galore but was worried they would come back and find me.
The Sydney Apple Store
The Apple store buying experience is also carefully engineered to keep as many people lined up on the street for as long as possible, while there is actually plenty of room inside. So keep your customers cold and behind barriers seems to be the motto. As someone who has a day job and who has to dress is business wear and who has a lot on, the thought of standing in a cue with buskers and fluffers is not appealing. But then I thought, who is actually going to by this thing? Students? People with no jobs who can spend the day in the cue? They must be a lot wealthier these days. Definite mismatch in the experience. Anyway I was fortunate to be on my way back from a meeting and see a lull in the cue, in fact there was no cue, I walked straight in and out. Had I known David Jones or JB Hi Fi would also have been an option. Must mention that in the 5 minutes I was inside, a cue had formed again, unreal.
Anyway I have Ipad and am still waiting for the great epiphany. Nothing has happened, other than me becoming more anti social. Hopefully the lightning bolt of change and hope for all mankind will strike soon so I can realise there is justice in the world and that the Ipad is magical and revolutionary.
Ipad, some details you won’t in the user guide
After that rant, I must say it is a pretty cool device. Some things I would like to have known for the set up include:
- On first connection to Itunes, if you have an Iphone it will think you should have a sim card installed and will not let you do anything. Restart Itunes, connect, disconnect, ensure your Ipad is turned on and you will be on your way. Also ensure you have the latest Itunes software installed. No sim card is required to connect to Itunes with the 3G Ipad. Maybe this is obvious but it is not explicitly mentioned anywhere in the user guide.
- The Iphone apps, while they may work, render in a smaller resolution. You can upsize them to 2X, but they look blurred on the larger screen, so you will need to buy or download Ipad apps, of just use your iphone for some of them. It’s not great with a large screen and a little Iphone size screen of data in the middle.
- The email and other similar listings work differently to the Iphone in what I think is a less efficient manner. There is always an email open, but you have a new drop down menu to use, May take some time to get used to. Was not natural after using the Iphone. So for example if you sync your notes and open the notes app, it looks empty until you click on the little notes button at the top then the list of all your notes drops down. Could not also find a setting to change this.
- Finding the Mobileme settings aint easy, in fact I still haven’t found them, maybe its just me
- The Apps from your Iphone will load onto the Ipad but with no settings, of course. So every feed, URL etc will need to be reloaded. Set aside an hour or so depending on your apps to reload and set up everything. I just hope it does not crash and lasts for 20 years, it is a pain.
- It comes with a charger for the wall socket, not just USB charger. I would recommend the dock as well, so it stands upright. Can then also be used a photo frame.
- Movies are awesome to watch. $25 from the Itunes store for a movie is however ludicrous. In fact there is not much fro free in the Itunes store these days. Not like the good old days.
- Ipad apps are much more expensive and fewer, so if you want a paid app on both, you will need the Ipad version to render properly, and you will need to buy it again
- The sim cards are only available on prepaid, unless you in certain cases you are a business user. So while there is a lot of noise around this for that data, it is a circus to get a post paid sim unless you have an account and with certain providers are a business. Prepaid may well be better anyway. Telstra offer an extra 2GB free with their $30 for 1GB free is you activate before 30th June, but be aware the data only lasts 30 days and the sim around 6 months without activation. Welcome to more little monthly payments.
Other than that it is a big ass Iphone. Very neat, nice screen, heavier than I imagined. The plastic buttons on the side are a bit tacky compared to the Iphone and look budget.
I intend to use the Ipad for work, so no kids Apps on this one. As I work in an ever changing technical environment being on top of all changes continuously is critical. I belive the Ipad is going to be a big help here, given screen size and portability, allowing me to get access to updates, tools, website monitoring and other data quickly and easily.
I think there is a big “want it” factor but many will find this a useful tool, especially those of us who work online. Many niche business apps are also appearing for certain industries like estate agents and tradesman. Well done Apple, like your work.
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