I received my iPad 2 in the mail today and I’ve been feeling quite flustered — almost stunned.
That’s a little strange, since today certainly isn’t the first time I’ve used an iPad. I’ve had some hands-on time at the local Best Buy and I also made sure to play with it at friends’ places whenever I had the chance. But I suppose that nothing beats having your own little tablet to customize (and cuddle — when nobody is watching).
I’ve been staving off the impulse to simply curl up into a ball holding this aluminum and leather marvel to my chest so that I could share some first-day thoughts in the paragraphs below. You and I, and likely your grandmother, have already read numerous pieces about how fast, light, and “magical” the device is, so this piece will assume that that is the case and discuss a few other aspects instead.
iOS on a tablet screen
One of the first things that grabbed me is how much more orientation-friendly the whole OS feels. Many first and third party apps support landscape by default, and it still surprises me to see the whole home screen flip over when I turn the device. Locking in portrait makes sense on the iPhone, but I’m glad Apple thought differently with the iPad. The fact that my iPad should stay “right side up” even if I decide to enter a spontaneous cartwheel is comforting (or something).
Unfortunately, the iPad could still afford to drop a few bad UI habits that belong to its iPhone predecessor, and I was very sorry to see the very same obtrusive in-your-face push notifications popping up on the 9.7″ screen. Again, this really shouldn’t have come as any surprise. I know that the iPad notification system is the exact same one as on the iPhone, but, before today, I had no idea how alien and displaced those little boxes would look on this huge tablet screen. Now I do, and they really do suck. They’re usable, but they’re intrusive, comically small, and would work a lot better if they were shaped differently and jammed in a corner.
The last little iPad OS observation I have from today are a few thoughts on the software keyboard. I’m a pretty darn good iPhone typist in both landscape and portrait, but I’m not sure how I feel about this one just yet. The portrait mode keyboard feels like it wants to be thumbed like a Blackberry, but it’s just too wide and far down the device for that to be plausible. The landscape keyboard is definitely usable, but I have trouble touch typing right now, and instead find myself awkwardly pecking at keys with my index and middle finger. I’m also not quite sure what to do with auto-correct (which is now under control on my iPhone!). The smart correction system has already made itself useful during these first few hours, but it can be dreadfully annoying when I have my Apple Bluetooth Keyboard paired.
The Tablet Itself
Most people think of the iPad 2 as a mobile device, but when I plugged mine into my MacBook for the first time earlier today, I thought it would be stuck forever. My fellow iSource writers weren’t kidding when they said that the new dock connector is, well, craptastic, and it took me two minutes and a lot of worrying to extricate the cable. I’ve synced a couple of times since then and have had no problems, but Apple could really improve upon this connector design for the iPad 3.
My iPad 2 is only a few hours old, but it already has all the grubby fingerprints of a glass pane at the museum. Part of it is probably the damp early summer weather, but I have a feeling that carrying this device around will be like holding a $500 billboard that says “Hi, my name is Sweaty Hands — I mean, Thomas”.
Despite the fog of fingerprints, the display appears crystal clear from basically any angle. This is fantastic not just for videos, but for typing in upright landscape mode, since it means that the screen tilt doesn’t matter nearly as much as it would on my MacBook Pro. I usually have to tilt the MBP screen all the way back to see the full colour gamut, but the iPad 2 seems just fine sitting right on the desk, two feet in front of me, tilted at around 80 degrees.
Another pleasant hardware-related surprise is how much I seem to enjoy using a hardware keyboard in conjunction with the iPad. Typing on this Apple keyboard and reaching forward to tap the screen or press the home button isn’t exactly natural, but it’s not awkward either. I really wouldn’t mind some Cmd-Tab support to bring up the multitasking bar, though.
The first day of owning a new device is always the *worst* for battery life testing, but here is my non-scientific report: I used the iPad with wi-fi on for about 8 hours today and dropped from 94% to 21% (at which point I plugged it in). Most of this time was spent writing and surfing, but four of those hours were spent with Home Sharing streaming music from my MacBook Pro to the iPad (which must drain more battery than local playback).
So, yes, count me in with the “this machine is a beast” crowd.
[Incidentally, I’m also glad that this beast came with the option of an umbilical cord: I love how the iPad power brick is compatible with the extension cord that came with my MacBook Pro, so that I can sit at the dining room table and charge from the AC outlet that’s five feet away.]
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