iPad arrives in Switzerland

27/05/10 Filed in: Apple

My iPad arrived in today’s mail, a little ahead of schedule. Although it is a little smaller and heavier than I thought it is responsive and quick. A shame that many of my iPhone applications need to be repurchased to take advantage of the larger screen but apparently that is a developer choice and most are choosing to make their customers pay. My unofficial review as follows.

Overall it is positive, it does well what it says it can do. We skipped the 3G stuff since we really only see using it from the home.

There are a bunch of small issues:

My MacBook running 10.6.3 is not new enough to charge it, it needs a USB port that has more voltage so I must plug it into the wall
No printing
I had to sync immediately with itunes to use it or else nothing would work
It takes a long time to sync, and I’ve only got the 16GB version, I cannot imagine a higher version
There was no way to know which of my apps had iPad versions so I had to search each one I wanted and see, most did have a separate version for the iPad only that I could purchase
My son thought I had a new iPhone
Video output only seems to work for keynotes, photos and videos. I can not browse online and use the VGA output
My warranty is only for 1 year and I do not think that coves a battery replacement... no idea how much it will cost for the battery to be replaced.
Those application icons everywhere makes the desktop space look kinda messy
Don’t know how easy it will be to use for someone with long fingernails.
no user accounts, I mean, if I enter in my email information I do not want my kids or anyone being able to dig through my things or delete the applications that I use. Not easy to even let just a guest use it since it is so customized for a single user.
I would have thought the calendar application was easier to use, like being able to drag and drop events or resize them
You quickly see that a lot of sites use flash content since that will not render
I could not find a way to organize my photos into albums

As for the good things

It arrived fully charged
I can block stuff with a 4 digit passcode, like those marvel comics that look really scary. Only works for applications that have ratings on them though.
ibooks allows me to highlight text but I could not figure out how to leave a note anywhere.
the keyboard could keep up pretty well.
It makes a great mirror
it is pretty snappy for what it does
I could make new playlists

Now if only I could find a nice wifi robot with camera to control.

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