iPad acquired

[Keith]

Well the deed is done iPad has been duly purchased

The reservation and purchase process was problematic, and this was almost entirely down to some less than stellar service from a couple of apple store staff. I'll comment on that to apple via their comments link so moving on swiftly

The apple stores were all extremely busy with people asking about ipad and accessories. When I say busy, read manic. All demo ipads in two local stores were being used with people queuing to try them.

The device itself is simply stunning. It's actually not as large in my hands as I expected it to be, I believe it COULD Work as a carry everywhere filofax, for those of us who remember the 80s, device It is heavier than would feel optimal though, although the weight adds to the solid feel of the device.

Nothing on startup other than a sync to itunes screen. Literally, you can do nothing with it out of the store until it's linked up, it's a brick. I've no real idea why it must be so but ok.

Turns on instantly like the iphone and even faster than a macbook, which is quite a feat, way faster than a windows device. That feels more important than I'd expected since I've taken to reading tech manuals on it already and immediate switch on is important.

The apps are great. One immediate observation, iphone apps do NOT cut it on the ipad. Natively they look too tiny, at 2x they look silly. App developers will have to code for ipad and if there was an app I wanted to buy now, I probably wouldnt unless it had an ipad version.

Web browsing works great, as you'd expect However no support for flash as we know, but also no support for full Java. This counts out some java games and other things on the web. There IS of course full javascript support which is heck, 100% essential.

The app that surprised me most perhaps is the book reader. I listened to others really wanting that and thought hmmm maybe but I probably wont love it. Well I love it for those waiting for it I think you'll love it too! I know kindle owners have this already but Ive now got a ton of books on here, all searchable, easily readable, bookmarkable down to the word and so on. I'm impressed. I can see kids interactive books, books where you take on the role of the character and the plot changes, books with videos, books with dynamically updated sections from the internet and so on. Books are changing

Mail is beautiful. I run an email company so this is close to our hearts and its well just fantastic. Theyve been very clever the way they get the mailbox views out of the way and devote the screen to your email.

Much more to say but it's worth the wait. It's worth the hassle. It's a little bit of the future here today

[Deafjeff]

I now so cannot wait!

[Britchick]

Instant switch on is very important to me, which one did you get in the end?

[daveann]

It is the best invention since sliced bread
Glad you got it which did you get in the end?

[Skywatcher]

Without wishing to step on his toes as he is on HOLIDAY at the moment

I believe he went for the 64gb Wi Fi as it was the only one he could get his mitts on

Thanks for the review mate

really cannot wait

[daveann]

I have read that the 3 g models are slightly thicker wondered if he had gone for that one.

I'm off to Southampton apple store to see if they have any cases this morning

[Skywatcher]

remember mouse on the move



I think I'm a bit 'sad'

[catrancher]

The app that surprised me most perhaps is the book reader. I listened to others really wanting that and thought hmmm maybe but I probably wont love it. Well I love it for those waiting for it I think you'll love it too! I know kindle owners have this already but Ive now got a ton of books on here, all searchable, easily readable, bookmarkable down to the word and so on. I'm impressed. I can see kids interactive books, books where you take on the role of the character and the plot changes, books with videos, books with dynamically updated sections from the internet and so on. Books are changing

Absolutely! But, you can also get the Kindle app for iPad. No, it doesn't interface with your "book shelf", it's got it's own, but if the book you want isn't available in the iTunes book store, you might be able to find a Kindle version. I had to do this with the "Hitchiker's Guide". Wasn't available yet in the iTunes book store but was available in a Kindle version. All that being said, if it suddenly shows up in the iBook store, I'll probably just purchase a copy from there so I can have it with the rest of my books.

Now, oddly enough, there's no good way to do things like read PDF's. Unless they're buried in web pages. The iWork suite supports them (Pages) but you've got to get them to it. So, what I did was purchase an application called "Air Sharing HD". It let's me mount my iPad as a disk to my Mac wirelessly or mount my .me iDisk to my iPad so I can load my iPad with PDF's, RTF, RTFD, images, etc. It then has a viewer in it that allows me to read those files that I've loaded onto my iPad. And lots more. The point is, it can be done relatively easily.

Mail is beautiful. I run an email company so this is close to our hearts and its well just fantastic. Theyve been very clever the way they get the mailbox views out of the way and devote the screen to your email.:

What Keith said!

Glad you got it mate!

Welcome to the club. Remind me to teach you the super secret handshake!

Tom (... another one bites the dust!)

[daveann]

remember get your accessories before you come home cause there not released here until ipad release date just been to the apple store

[josh.p.]