First Week With The iPad

So unless you have been living under a rock for the past month, you know that the rest of the world got access to the iPad on May 28, 2010. I guess I was one of the "lucky ones" who got one (32 GB 3G + WiFi), though I did not find it that difficult, check FutureShop store stock online, went to the store and was in and out in less than 15 minutes with a shiny new iPad. The store had about 20-30 iPads running the model gamut.

I have not yet activated a 3G data plan yet, just WiFi for the last week, and overall I think that WiFi would satisfy most users.

Setup was relatively painless, though iTunes did complain about the 3G model having no SIM card installed at first, but then it moved on. I already have a MobileMe account so after connecting that I had all my contacts and calendar information on my iPad. Some other set-up to connect my other e-mail accounts, all of them IMAP so I have instant access to all my e-mail.

The mail application on the iPad is how e-mail should be read. It is faster to read/wade through the daily e-mail deluge on the iPad than on my desktop/laptop. This is one thing the Apple really got right on the iPad.

Once I got the iPad setup I got to use it for an hour or so then we were heading out to the lake for the weekend and my kids "confiscated" it for the car ride, and basically the rest of the weekend (as it was raining most of the weekend). I had managed to grab a couple of iPad specific apps before leaving home and I had a number of iPhone/iPad dual applications already.

My iPad application picks:

• Plants vs. Zombies HD - BE WARNED, you will lose many, MANY hours if you purchase this (my kids are addicted)
• National Geographic HD World Atlas - All the world maps you could ever want to look at
• Kindle - Amazon's book reader, way better on the iPad than the iPhone
• TangoRemote - Allows you to control iPhone playback from the iPad or iPad from iPhone
• Twitterific - I had used this on the iPhone, 100% better on the iPad
• BlogWriter - Used to write this post, can handle almost any blogging system
• PhotoPad - Do some minor editing of photos on your iPad
• Instapaper - Save web articles for later reading, Twitterific allows you to link your account for direct saving
• Epicurious - Cool app, 1000's of recipes at your finger tips
• Lonely Planet 1000 Experiences - Cool app consisting of 100 categories, each containing 10 places to visit.

There are some other apps on my "wish" list to check out.

One thing that my wife said "Hey, there is no Facebook application", I was like true, but then you don;t really need one, you just open Safari and go to Facebook an use the full site, well, other than the Flash games (but you won't have any time for those anyway as you have installed PvZ HD).

I also picked up a Bluetooth Apple keyboard, there was only 1 of these in the store when I was there, and if you plan on doing more than a bit of typing on the iPad this is a good accessory to have. It is a quality keyboard, and in typical Apple fashion, it even comes with the 2 AA batteries, Energizer no less not some cheap off brand.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad