TouchScreen

Touchscreen on iPad is beautiful and more importantly it responds without any delay. As iPhone users already know, sensitivity on screen is perfect and it allows applications to trace minor amount of pressure. Who can forget cool demo of touchscreen in Modern Family episode where character blows candles on iPad.

Touchscreen allows you a completely different way of experiencing a device compared to what we are used to with a keyboard and mouse. I find touchscreen is perfect for kids and grandparents because they do not need to learn operating alien interfaces. Touchscreen allows us a tactile experience which adds to your intimate experience.

Though touchscreen is good for most cases, I as a digital immigrant find myself sometimes lost in new applications. I do not know what I am supposed to do. Should I push it or should I drag it. In some cases, we need to tilt the device but that is not always apparent to me.

Other disadvantage of touchscreen is that not everything on web is designed for touching by fingers. If you visit an existing website using your iPad browser, many times text is tiny and if you try to touch a link, you may press a row at top or bottom. Of course, you can enlarge and press right link but that requires more extra steps.

I strongly wish that Apple would have added a stylus to iPad. Stylus would allow us to control exactly where we want to press and allow us to precisely touch a smaller object. Currently App developers need to design App keeping finger sizes in mind. With a larger finger size, you lose control over any kind of drawing that you do on iPad. Drawing can not be very precise because fingers are covering a larger part of screen. Stylus could have been completely optional and users could have used it nly when required, but it would have added to a smoother experience for certain tasks. Well, we can wait till next generation when hopefully Apple listens to its user base.

Overall, I love tactile experience with a touchscreen but I strongly miss a stylus. I think that was a simple addition that Apple missed.

iPad Size

By now, everyone knows that iPad is smaller in size than laptops, but you will still be surprised to see how small it actually is, till you see it for first time. It is almost as big as an A4 size paper and really light. Infact, during first week we have to be really careful that it is kept safe. Kids have been keeping it on sofa after their use and not putting it back in a safe place. Due to its size, I always worry that someday, if it is covered by somrthing, someone may not see it and just sit on it.

I think size is perfect for most cases because any bigger and it will weigh more and require more energy. Any smaller and it won't be a good platform for browsing. This size is perfect for watching videos and I have found it good enough for most of browsing needs. This size allows you to easily hold it in one hand and play games easily. I have seen kids holding it in one hand and moving around house.
One disadvantage of size is that keyboard layout on screen is little smaller than a regular keyboard and you need to get used to typing on a smaller keyboard.
Overall, I think iPad size represents an optimum compromise between our desire for bigger screens and weight, energy and portability constraints. It works well for adults as well and kids and allows you an intimacy with device which a larger size device might not have allowed.

Apple Ecosystem and iPad

iPad is taking us one step closer to an Apple Ecosystem in which hardware is made on Apple G4 chip, operating system used is a version of iPhone and Apple is collecting information on media consumption ( any movies, videos or photos all available only through iTunes). This is far more than any other tech company had reached earlier. If iPad use grows, this dominance will start becoming a factor.

  Currently my personal information about is mostly with Google, Microsoft has a dominance of OS platform and hardward is dominated by Intel/AMD. With a closed system like iPad all these aspects are falling under one company. Apple, which had not penetrated mass market till now, has entered our homes through iPhone. Many of us are becoming more familiar with an Apple OS and in last 2 years, iPhone has revolutionalized smart phone platform. iPad is next step in consumers having a more closer relationship with Apple.

  With iPad, Apple has the potential to become primary medium through which we consume media. Apple can dictate terms to any media producing company including music, video, books or gaming.  Although, I love my iPad till now, this aspect of complete Apple dominance worries me. 

Always On

The feature that I love about iPad. Always On. On my laptop or desktop, I have to keep them always on, because it take 2-3 minutes for it to come up. When I have a quick question, I don't wat to waste 2-3 min waiting for it to boot. iPad is on as soon as you switch it on. To me, this is the biggest difference between a Windows machine and iPad and it increases my usability of iPad by a huge factor. I use it more times in the day and then turn it off. 

I could potentially do same thing if I had an iTouch or Blackberry but searching for some things on a small screen is not same experience as in iPad. It has a much bigger keyboard and more area available to see result.

To me, this is a huge difference.

iPad - hardware

I am still amazed by looking at iPad. It is very light compared to any other laptops that I have. Screen clarity is amazing and overall it has a design elegance like other Apple products. 

Most impressive feature to me has been processor speed. Till now, my web browsing or gaming experience has been amazingly fast. After spending a lot of time with Windows machine, that has been my biggest surprise. I know, critics have complained about lack of multitasking on iPad but I don't see this as a deal breaker. It does the task that I am concenterating.

I will note some minor quibbles. One, lack of back lighting on Home button. Home button is used consistently during iPad use but it is not backlit. Since there is no up or down for iPad, without back lighting, user does not know where Home button is located in low light situation.

Second some white marks that I see on Home screen. Though these marks are not visible when we are using any applications, but they concern me. It looks like something is scratched when I start up iPad.

Overall, I think iPad design is elegant and its hardware very powerful. It serves all purposes that it is designed for.

Welcome to my iPad Blog

Welcome to my iPad blog. I will be reviewing my experiences with different aspects of Apple iPad. 

First, to be clear, I am not an Apple devotee. This is my first Apple device. I don't even have an iPhone but something about iPad really excited me. It promised me flexibility of touch input and a very light device that I could use anywhere in house. Though I am savvy with softwares, I consider myself more of a regular user. I get stuck on features that are complicated. I want something that is easy to use.

A little background about my setup. I have a desktop as well as an additional laptop at home. I bought this iPad as a 2nd laptop that my family could use for casual web browsing. Both of my existing machines are Windows. So this is a completely new experience for me. In next few days, I expect to blog about different aspects of iPad and how my family is using it.