iPad Love

My name is Carlos, I love my iPad and it has been 21 days since I browsed the web on my laptop.

It's been hanging around my house for about 3 weeks now and I don't know how I ever lived without it, "I love my iPad!". I've only fallen truly in love with 3 gadgets in my life. First it was my PSP, then came the iPhone and now the iPad. I don't think I'm an Apple fan boy though I do have an iPod Touch, a shuffle, an iPhone, Mac mini, a nano and now The iPad...

The Good

It is truly a joy to use. I've never been keen on using my laptop on the sofa. Apart from roasting my nads off from the heat it generates it also felt awkward and clumsy. However browsing the web on the iPad while the wife watches the latest Gok episode feels almost natural, if not necessary. I've also never more actively Facebooked and Tweeted than since The iPad came into my life.

I have the 64Gb Wifi version and so was pleasantly surprised to see it had a microphone. Paired with a Mifi wireless router from Three it turns into a comically large mobile phone! Browsing the App store is like being a kid in a sweet shop. It's too easy to buy stuff and there are so many cool apps to choose from. My favourites for the moment are Flipboard and Pages (am using it to draft this post). Browsing websites is a most pleasurable experience and reading Pdfs and books in iBooks is much more enjoyable than I had anticipated.

The Bad

The two things that most people complain about are the lack of multitasking and Flash compatibility. The multitasking issue is supposedly going to be sorted out in the autumn while the Flash issue never. Not being able to quickly switch between apps is a pain, particularly when writing and researching on the web. Personally not being able to view Flash isn't such a big issue for me though I do get quite cross when I can't watch the embedded videos on the BBC website.

The Ugly

My current bugbear with the iPad is not being able to do any in-page searching. Now that I'm able to happily read long web pages on this lovely device it would also be handy to be able to jump to the part I was looking for. Another issue I have is not bring able to use WYSIWYG editors on web pages. Take for instance this blog post. I'm now going to have to email this to myself so that I can upload it from my laptop. Arse!

That's my brief yet heartfelt review of the iPad. It's a TV, a music player, a photo frame, a productivity tool, a telephone.. a baby sitter (my 19 month old son could play on it for hours). I would be very interested to know what you think about this truly game changing gadget!