Up front I’ll just state that I’ve been a fan of tablet computers for years, having used a Fujitsu Stylistic since 2003. The form factor, handwriting recognition, pen interface — all good. So I’ve been more than eager for a tablet Mac since coming back over to this side a year ago. And of course…the iPad is not a tablet, which is disappointing but I’m getting over. Still, I didn’t expect to like it and my initial impressions have been somewhat sour.

There are a few things I really don’t like about it (the iPad) including:

  • Closed, closed, closed. You mostly have to talk to it through iTunes, you can’t just mount it and copy to it, you can’t put an app you wrote onto it, etc. It’s a peripheral, folks. It’s a fat-a** iPod. Pricey, too.
  • There’s no USB port, which is a big clue.
  • It’s all about one app at a time. Halting between them bugs me. My Android phone does better.

Now for the good, since I’m finally starting to find things I genuinely like about it:

  • It’s a really nice reader for PDFs and e-books. I just read some Winnie-the-Pooh to my daughter at bedside and it was a pleasure. Bright, self-lit, crisp images in full color, wonderful.
  • The battery life is nice and long, depending on usage of course.
  • Now that I am using Dropbox+GoodReader, I have a reasonable way to get PDFs from my laptop onto it for reading, and that’s really nice. Stuffing tons of reading material in there makes sense and I love that unlike my bag it doesn’t get thicker or heavier.
  • Showing pictures to friends is pretty fantastic, too. Even once they get over the ooh-ahh reaction.
  • Having quick/easy access to email and web seems to fill a little niche, too, around the house.
  • And I do love the touch interface, just for the simplicity of pointing at what you want. Beats keyboard+mouse for several classes of activities.

So now I guess I’m just waiting to get to the point where I’ll feel comfortable whipping it out on the subway. At which point, I will be really happy to have my mail to browse, the morning Times to look through, and some tech PDFs to read. It’s enough to make me start buying my O’Reilly’s in e-form, and finally stop piling up once-read 3-month half-life tech tracts.

Alright, I am finding some things to like about it. But it’s not a general-purpose computer and I wish that it was more of one. It does feel pretty futuristic, though.

No related posts.