The iPad and me

It's very rare that I buy new things. If you know me well, you'll know that I have never bought a new car, never bought a new phone (my 2G iPhone was donated by Sherry to replace the other 2G iPhone that I lost, donated by my brother), even this Macbook Pro came out of a friendly Nicaraguan guy's raincoat in Hillsdale mall's Starbucks. [I later discovered that it had Apple Care - something that he didn't know. I know it wasn't raining on Feb 11, 2008, the day I picked it up].

I have therefore taken a very uncharacteristic move in buying not just one, but two iPads on launch day, and reserving them on the day they were offered for pre-ordering.

But first, I'd like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the frenzy surrounding the product launch yesterday. I exchanged knowing smiles with the brave souls camped outside Palo Alto's Apple Store, and tried to fit into the frame of the KTVU Channel 9's camera as the channel interviewed them for the evening news. But failed, I think.

This morning, I realized that I had to be at TedX in Berkeley all day. My brother and his entourage waited almost an hour at Hillsdale's Apple Store and picked up my order for me. They even got served coffee and donuts while waiting in line.

OK I'll get to the meat soon. But first I'll say that I am grateful to my brother for buying me a neoprene iPad case which I didn't expect :)

Now, let's get down to business.

The name: it never even crossed my mind that i"Pad" was inappropriate for women, until I talked to my friend Anna-Marie.

Aesthetics: the device is reminiscent of the unibody Macbook pro. The buttons on the side look the same - squared, notchy (not wedgy) and click just right.

Screen: crisp and bright. Fonts seems incredibly smooth - more book-like and less computer-like

Sound: Mono speaker ports at bottom (3 grilles).

Controls: Volume up/down on right, similar to iPhone. New "Lock orientation" switch just above it. Very useful when you're in bed.

On/Off switch: behaves similar to iPhone's.

Headphone jack: in same place as iPhone.


On screen keyboard: huge keys. You seem to want to "peck" with two fingers, not touch type. Even so, you spend a disproportionate amount of time backspacing. Or I do.

Notes: Interesting overlay, like an HTML layer, with an index of all your notes, so you can keep the current note in view while browsing for another.




YouTube: super smooth. I love the new tracking functionality: you can scroll through the movie by whole minutes by dragging on the time bar, or seconds by scrolling far away from the time bar.

iBooks:just look




I don't know what it is about this device. But it just feels "right". reading the WSJ feels like I'm reading the actual newspaper, not just a web-page rendition. It's so comfortable. I don't have to FIGHT this computer. This is 1984. Bad hairstyles and all. I am very eager to download my favourite apps (NoteApp, MuniApp, Tap-Tap (yes, I do play occasionally), Google Earth, Google Voice (for the fun of it), and soon, iWork.) I do think that this is a content creation device as much as the iPhone is an email device (people have started sending more, shorter mobile emails, imperfect as it is, it's a blessing after T9)



This will be everywhere. Entire communities will skip the laptop and jump straight into the iPad. Medicine will be different. Research will be different. And of course, reading will be different.

Good night from CA.