Apple iPadI took delivery of an Apple iPad Wifi/3G this Thursday so I thought I’d share a few first impressions of both the iPod and the ordering/delivery process while it’s fresh on my mind.

1. Apple: I placed the order via the on-line Apple Store for one of their Wifi/3G models and at the time of the order was told it should be delivered between five and 10 days. They were absolutely accurate in their estimate with delivery in seven.

2. FedEx: Cudo’s to the excellent job these guys do. The iPad departed China on Tuesday, arrived in Memphis, TN, Wednesday, cleared Int’l Shipments, and was delivered to my home in NC on Thursday about noon — I doubt someone could make that trip as fast using commercial airlines. FedEx (as well as UPS) has a wonderful package tracking system, I knew where it was at every step and they delivered a day earlier then promised.

To rant a few moments — why can’t the United States Postal Service provide decent tracking for packages? You’re lucky with USPS packages to know it’s been shipped and later perhaps delivered — and that’s usually only available the day after delivery.

3. Apple: Packaging — simple, smart and secure — no wasted bulk.

4. My iPad’s battery was almost fully charged. iPads want to sync to iTunes when you first turn them on. More about iTunes later.

5. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch you’re already familiar with the interface but the resulting experience is greatly magnified on the iPad — fast and as smooth as butter on hot toast. You can actually see things on the wonderfully sharp larger screen and the whole touch experience is greatly enriched.

6. Applications: There’s a good number of applications already and more being created each day. Some of the advanced ones, which have been custom written for the iPad, give a hint to the future promise and capabilities of this little device. There should be some “killer” apps in the next year or two.

7. First functional impressions, it’s a wonderful device for consuming information but not as good at creating it. For example, I enjoy reading my RSS feeds, visiting sites and checking emails on the iPad, probably as much, or more, as on a laptop or desktop. But when the time comes to create a document, email or media…things slow down.

Don’t get me wrong, the built in virtual keyboard works better then I expected, but it’s not as functional as a physical keyboard and mouse, at least for me. Using a bluetooth keyboard would help a lot but then you’re loosing some of the “pad benefits.”

As far as what I’ve “created” with the iPad thus far; a number of comments, emails, messages and on-line banking transactions. Do-able.

8. Photography: Photos look pretty good on the iPad, the screen is beautiful, but the default process of getting them there through iTunes sucks. I’m currently using an application called “Photo Transfer App” ($2.99) that makes the process easier. You use a browser and the devices IP address, it works over USB or Wifi placing the photos in the correct place to be viewed using the iPad Photo app. — simple. It can also transfer both ways and is fast.

I should be receiving the Camera Connection Kit next week and will be interested to see how well it works for importing photos directly into the iPad.

Humm…I wonder about calibrating the screen for accurate colors?

Opinion: I don’t see this version of iPad as being used in any meaningful way for processing photos…not enough screen, not enough fine control and doesn’t support a pen at this point.

However, if somewhere down the road there was a larger screen version that included the functionality of a pen and Wacom “Cintiq” with a decent photo editing application, that would indeed be interesting. Apple and developers, feel free to run with that idea. :-)

There is an interesting iPad application for general photo editing that may hold some promise…”Photogene.”

Overall, I’m impressed with the iPad and find it useful and just plain fun! And one shouldn’t underestimate that “fun” factor. I’ve had no errors or problems In the short time I’ve had it.

In time, I’ll share more matured impressions and experiences.**

** I’d love to hear the opinions of those photographers (Mark G., Chris K., anyone else) who’ve had an iPad a little longer.

11 Comments

  1. A fine job of describing your experience of getting and using the IPad. I received mine on the 30th.
    I agree with all of your opinions including its present limited production capability. It’s certainly
    lots of fun and a great way to take pictures and show them at a good size immediately.

    • don, thanks. I didn’t realize you had an iPad but I’m glad to see my first impressions so closely align with your own experience. It is fun and I’m wanting to explore with the right applications how function it can be.

  2. I tend to agree with your initial impressions Earl. I think the display is quite brilliant and accurate for photos. I much prefer typing on the keyboard in landscape mode than portrait. I am able to use multiple fingers that way versus hunting and pecking in portrait.

    I don’t like how you cannot create your own albums on the iPad in the Photo app and move things around. There is a lot of room for improvement here, which I am sure will come in time. My camera connection kit is also on order. I’ll have to check out that transfer app you suggested.

    I have read that printing functionality is coming via the Apple rumor sites.

    • Mark, The typing is much easier when landscape mode…perhaps I just haven’t used it enough yet to get the proper feel of it. I give it more time.

      I hadn’t thought about local album management yet. The photo transfer app. I mentioned doesn’t address this problem either, it creates an album called “saved photos” automatically — that may eventually be a greater disadvantage then doing it through iTunes. The only way I can see currently doing it is from the PC side using folders and then iTunes Sync. :-(

      According to delivery tracking, my camera connection kit is to be delivered by next Weds.

  3. Thanks for the information but I still cannot afford one yet. I wonder what it will look like a year from now?

    • I’ve been saying for years that I wanted Apple to make a tablet so when they introduced the iPad I knew it would only be a matter of time. I’m sure there will be more features and functionality a year from now…hopefully, most of them will be available as upgrades for this one.

  4. Thank you Earl, your review of the iPad is very imformative and helpful. I’m hoping to get one by the end of summer, still waiting for the next software release after the initial bugs are worked out. There will always be bugs in the initial release.
    Thank you again.
    Alan

    • Hi Alan, The iPad is a whole new category of device and I think it’s uses will only increase with time. I’m happy to report the bugs seem to be few in this version…at least that’s been my experience.

  5. I agree that the ‘looking at Media’ part of the iPad is great.It fits nicely into the universe of devices in that sense. Now I don’t have to clutter up the living room with a laptop just to check my email. And my online photos have never looked as great. I wish, however, that it had handwriting recognition so I could effectively take notes on it, and if there were an app to edit photos on it, that would be awesome. As a vision of the future, it’s great, but not as useful to me now as I would have preferred.

    • Hi Chris, It’s become my living room email/Internet computer as well.

      There are a couple of voice to text applications available that you might check out for notes. Also the application “Photogene” seems to be the best photo editing software available thus far.