iPad: One Month

One month (or so) has passed since we bought an iPad, and I thought you might be curious to know how that is working our for us. I think mine will join many other bloggers writing about this, but I am not them, so here we go.

Confession: the iPad is not my constant companion. I don’t take it everywhere, nor do I use it all the time. I suppose there are people out there who use theirs all the time, but really I don’t find myself in situations where the iPad is useful all the time.

More specifically, what do I use it for?

Over the past two weeks, I have used it most every morning to read the news. The New York Times app is wonderful, and brings me a selection of headlines that change as the day progresses. I think others might lament that you cannot see the whole paper, but I prefer having someone curate the articles beforehand, so there is less to choose from. I realize that this is a bit like our grandparents reading the paper every morning over breakfast, and on some level, that appeals to me as well. The key difference (or advantage) for me is twofold: that the iconic graphic identity of the Times is preserved, and reading articles on the iPad is far preferable to reading them on a traditional computer, regardless of if they are in a reader, or their native website. Here is a screenshot of what I was reading yesterday:


I also love watching video podcasts and videos in general on the iPad. They look wonderful, and it’s great to be able to have the video wherever you want it. I have watched many TEDTalks on this, and plan to continue doing so!

When we do take the iPad places, it is excellent for sharing photos. The ability to utilize faces and places from both iPhoto and Aperture is wonderful, and our grandparents (who normally have a hard time with this stuff) loved seeing photos on it, and had no problem seeing them.

I would say I use the iPad about an hour a day at this point, though that might change as time goes on.

What are my complaints? Well, wifi reception is pretty awful. In our living room I get spotty reception, and that is not very far from our router. Hopefully, Apple will be able to improve this with a software update. Also, Facebook needs an iPad app.

Do you have an iPad? What do you think about it? Any questions for me? Let me hear from you!