Impressive.
Here are my first reactions after a couple of hours of use.
Unboxing: The instructions are on one small card. If you know how to use an iPhone there is very little to learn.
Charging: No need. It ships 100% charged.
Sync: I use MobileMe and recommend it unreservedly. Six minutes to sync Contacts, Calendars and Email after spending one minute getting the iPad to recognize the wireless network. Syncing apps, music and photos took a few more minutes and apps had to be synced thrice before they all came over.
Screen: Glossy. Ugh! What is it with Jobs? Matte does not show fingerprints and is far easier to use. At least the screen is not so large that it’s difficult to avoid the worst reflections. Definition is no better than with my hacked MSI Wind net book, meaning its great.
Typing on the virtual keyboard: Very easy and fast in landscape mode, so-so in portrait. Auto-correction is a blessing.
Bluetooth keyboard: My aluminum 3-battery Apple BT keyboard reluctantly paired after a minute; it refuses to pair with any other device in the home.
iPod: Simply a perfect touchscreen implementation.
iPhoto: More later.
WSJ: Bog slow. Forget it and save your money.
Netflix On Demand: Perfectly implemented. Nice large screen makes watching movies easy.
Books: Ships with a lovely version of “Winnie the Pooh” and iBooks is beautifully implemented. You can read for hours.
Heat: I gave up on Apple laptops because of heat and poor longevity. Heat is not an issue – cool after two hours of hard use.
Multitasking: None, but not an issue as app switching is so fast.
Sound: Surprisingly decent from the mono speaker, excellent on my Sennheiser PX100 headphones. Standard mini-jack.
Email and Safari: Like on the iPhone but easier owing to the larger screen.
Numbers app: More later.
Pandora radio: No issues.
Kindle: No issues. iBooks is better.
Project Gutenberg free books: Have yet to figure out how to get them downloaded to iBooks.
Battery life: One word. Awesome!
Speed: On the above it’s comparable to the 2.83 gHz Core2Quad CPU running OS 10.6.3 on my desktop machine.
Weight with charger: 1.6 lbs. Netbook: 3.3 lbs.
Finally, quality: I have only owned three other devices with a comparable quality feel. An SME pick-up arm for LPs, my Leica M2 and M3 cameras, and my Patek Philippe wristwatch. All three are obsolete and all but the last have been sold. The watch goes to my son when I check out or when he graduates Harvard, whichever comes sooner!
Typed on my iPad using the WordPress iPad app.
Delighted to hear that your ‘early adopter’ experience with a brand new piece of Apple hardware appears to be such an unreserved success! Trusting your judgement on such things, I guess I will just have to indulge as well – as soon as they release this to the colonies (at some vastly inflated price no doubt).
It never ceases to amaze me how much Apple hardware is marked up in Europe., but I do believe that Steve Jobs has created another winner here.
Glad to hear your impressions of the iPad. I, frankly, was content with the iPhone. Now, I will checkout the iPad at the apple store.