The iPad 2 I ordered arrived recently, about a week before it was expected and I haven't had a moment yet to regret my purchase. I got a black one with 16 GB of storage and 3G connectivity and it's still a little amazing to me to be sitting in a public place surfing the 'net and watching YouTube videos on the thing. Here are some random thoughts about the device…
- I just got the Logitech Zagg keyboard case which seems like a good keyboard and a bad case and I'm playing around with that.
- I need to figure out what the best app is for working with Microsoft Word files from my PC. I've been using Docs2Go and while it's OK for raw text, it loses a lot of the page formatting including my footnotes. I gather from browsing iPad discussion sites, there is as yet no perfect app in this regard.
- I don't seem to be getting the kind of battery life they talked about. Even with 3G turned off, it depletes faster than I'd expected. When I had this complaint about my iPhone, I took it into an Apple Store and one of the geniuses at the Genius Bar tested it, said nothing was technically amiss, then discovered I had some unnecessary program turned on that was draining power for no good reason…though not at a rate that made a huge difference. I don't think that's the case with my iPad but I keep browsing through Settings, looking for things that are on that shouldn't be.
- Also, it's annoying that unlike my iPhone, it won't charge when connected to the USB port on my computer or to the charger I have in my car.
- Then again, it is fun just to put the magnetized cover on and take it off and put it on and take it off.
- The little Mute switch on my iPad doesn't seem to work. This may be one of those things that's too much trouble to fix but I'm going to take the device in one of these days and ask if I'm missing something and if something is amiss, how big a deal it would be to correct.
- Speaking of audio, it would be nice if every app that plays music had a volume control on it. The iPod app does and I frequently have to dive into it to adjust the level while using some other app.
- Far be it from me to tell Steve Jobs how to run his business since he's more than three times as successful as I am…but I was surprised the iPad didn't come with a manual or a little video tutorial that ran when you first turned it on. There seems to be some sort of conceit with Apple products that they want to say, "We're so simple that any idiot can figure out how to use it without instructions." And this idiot, who rarely consults the manual on anything he buys, did. But I still felt like something was missing from the box and I wonder if I'm missing some feature or command that I should know about.
- The camera is really good for taking photos of Hot Turkey Sandwiches. This is very important. I wouldn't want one if it couldn't take a decent picture of a Hot Turkey Sandwich.
- The amount of work time I will lose over the next year playing Sudoku games will in effect double what I paid for my iPad.
- I was sure I couldn't get used to reading books via the Kindle app but I did. It took about a minute and a half.
- Lastly for now: Via the Internet, I bought a Kensington brand stylus that is also a ball point pen and I like using it a lot more than I like using my finger on the screen. Best of all, the Kensington stylus has a clip on it so you can put it in your shirt pocket and it stays where you put it. Every stylus I saw at the Apple Store did not have a clip on it and neither do any of my fingers.
As you can see, none of my complaints are that big a deal and I expect my iPad will, overall, make life a lot more productive. If it just helps me get something written during the many times I'm sitting in a waiting room, it will pay for itself. I'll update this in a week or three. Right now, I have to go take more photos of Hot Turkey Sandwiches. That's really the only thing I bought it for.