TechWire: Hands on review: iPad (16GB, wi-fi only)

So I finally got my hands on an iPad. I had it most of last week.

As a replacement for a laptop, I would have serious reservations about the machine. It doesn't play movies and it's tricky to connect to a camera, a printer or an external hard drive. It has very little memory of its own and doesn't come with any of the typical software applications you'd expect to find on a laptop.
It also has very limited power compared to most laptops, reflected in the fact that it can't really handle running more than one application at any one time.
In effect, this is a big iPhone (without being able to make calls).
But as a digital toy, it's attractive and fun.

Here are the device's main pros and cons.

Design
The iPad is quite a small device. With its nine-inch screen, it is has roughly the radius of a small netbook or a very large hardback book. It's very slim, at no more than a centimetre thick. However, it's quite heavy [0.8 kg]. Not so you would need a strap, but heavy enough for it to become an issue holding ip up while you read or watch something for more than two minutes. That means that its pattern of use is a lot closer to a conventional laptop than you'd think at first. It needs to be placed or rested on something, such as a table-top or a lap.
The screen is quite robust and didn't succumb to scratching when items such as keys or mobile phones were placed on top of it.
On the rim of the device is a volume button, an on/off switch, a 3.5mm earphone jack and an Apple-only connection port.
The version I used was the entry-level, 16GB, wi-fi only device.

What the iPad doesn't have
The iPad has a couple of drawbacks. The main one is the lack of a USB port. This cuts out the ability to easily connect the iPad to accessories such as cameras, camcorders, printers, external hard drives and 3G broadband dongles. (There is an Apple 'docking port', but it's far, far more restrictive than a USB port.) All of these items are increasingly part of modern leisure computing.
At the moment, it cannot multi-task. However, it should soon be able to do this when the next operating system update goes live.
The iPad has no DVD or CD player, which means that watching movies properly is awkward to set up and can only be done (in Ireland) by violating copyright law.

Using the iPad
By now, we're all used to some form of touchscreen format on our mobile phones. The iPad's touchscreen is as effective and as flawless as the iPhone's. You simply swipe and tap your way around its operating system, with very little error.
Other than iTunes, the iPad does not have any of the iLife software features (iWeb, iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand) that even entry-level Apple Macs provide.
One of the most positive surprises about the device - both web-browsing and in writing documents - is the effectiveness of its typing. As someone who types for a living, a keyboard is crucial to me. While the touchscreen keyboard won't quite keep pace with a physical specimen, I found very few errors occurring in my typing. (This is just as well, as the lack of a USB port does not allow for the connection of an external keyboard.)

Apps
The iPad is capable of using all 170,000 iPhone apps. In general, though, this is a poor experience. While all of the apps we tried worked perfectly on the iPad, the resolution and pixellation of the services on the iPad is shabby. This is especially noticeable with games. Put simply, these apps were built for a 3.5 inch screen. Stretching them out three-fold makes them look very poor.
However, there are some apps that are already developed specifically for the ipad. Within about 30 minutes of switching the machine on for the first time, I had downloaded about 20 of these. By and large, these are very good. The BBC's iPad app is a joy to use.
Unfortunately, there's a bit of profiteering going on. I saw many iPad apps that I would have downloaded (and paid for) but for the steep price. For instance, Time magazine was selling a single edition of its iPad app for $5 (e3.20). The print edition costs $3. At that rate, it won't sell many copies, especially when rivals newspapers (such as USA Today and parts of the New York Times) are free. As is Time's own website, which is accessible with a few clicks through the iPad's web browser.

Using the web
Without question, using the internet is the single biggest use for the iPad. Its web browser is fast and easy to use. Web pages -- both text and images -- render very clearly. The touch system of navigation works flawlessly, too.
The main snag is that it will not display pages or graphics rendered using Adobe Flash, which is a significant (though not fatal) downside to browsing on the iPad. You'll have to be satisfied with Safari for the moment: Apple is reluctant to allow rivals onto their machine just yet, although Opera is close to gaining acceptance as an alternative browser.

iBooks
The software and execution of iBooks is flawless. The store, from which you must source your digital books, is an extension of the iTunes store. As such it is clean and familiar. I found most of the current best-sellers available, although all of them were priced at the same level as the print editions, which was enough to put me off making a single purchase. Handily, the store also offers a list of free classics, taken from the Gutenberg project. They're the usuals from the likes of Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Lewis Carroll.
Reading an iBook is a different matter. While the software beautifully presents and guides you through books - the swishing through pages is very nicely performed - it all takes place on a computer screen. The problem with that is the flicker, however minute. After about 30 minutes reading The Art Of War, my eyes began to get tired in a way that they do not with a paper edition. Perhaps that is just my eyes and, perhaps, there is a multitude of people that are used to looking at screens a lot. For them, there may be no such problem.

Video
Getting video onto the iPad is largely a matter of using its iTunes Store. Sadly, there is still very little for Irish iTunes customers to download as of today. Because of the iPad's lack of peripheral ports as yet there is very little way to transfer your own movies cleanly onto the device. What you have to do is to save a film or video into an MP4 file format and drop it into iTunes. Then the video can be accessed through iTunes. It is possible to crack the iPad (as it is the iPhone and iPod) to import movies, but I didn't try that.

YouTube
The lack of video content available leaves you with video services such as YouTube, Megavideo and DailyMotion. The quality reproduced on the iPad isn't great. On YouTube, it's distinctly poor.

Photos
Macs are reknowned for their compatibility with cameras. Unfortunately, the iPad shirks the topic. It does not come with any decent photo software and there is no way of connecting your camera to it (unless you are attempting to connect a cameraphone via Bluetooth).

Battery life
The iPad's battery life is good. I got over six hours heavy use of the device. That's not quite the 10 hours that's advertised, but it's enough not to have to worry about charging.

Conclusion
Based on a week's use, my initial conclusion is that the iPad is a toy, rather than a tool. It is an internet tablet with a few extra uses pegged onto it. It is good for web-browsing or tweeting in the living room, kitchen or bedroom. But the model I had is sub-par for watching videos, playing with photos or connecting online when on the road. It is an 'arsing around' device for the home. When it is launched in Ireland, it would be recommended to consider the 3G version rather than the wi-fi only version, give the high cost and low availability of wi-fi in Ireland.

Availability: The iPad will not be launched in Ireland until the end of May. It is currently priced from $500 in the US (wi-fi only version).

Comments

And now our genius Minister Eamon Ryan has floated the idea of licensing iPads and iPhones - to protect mainstream media's advertising revenue!! Brilliant!!
http://www.thepost.ie/story/text/eyidqlauau/

Posted by: Hugh | April 20, 2010 at 10:20 AM