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It seems a long time since Apple truly focused its efforts on desktop computing. The vast majority of headlines about the company seem to focus on its range of smartphones and other mobile devices, rather than its desktop computers which often play second fiddle to the latest iPads and iPhones.
I’ll admit right here and now that my decision to get an iPad 2 was down to 2 reasons. The first being one being that of pure curiosity developed after months of iPad hype and the hyperbole surrounding the svelte tablet on the market.
The 2nd was missing out on a HP touchpad and then just deciding that sod it, EssentialMac reviews all things Mac and the iPad is part of that ethos (yes that’s a case of self justification if ever there was one).
So off I searched for a iPad2 and settled on a wifi 16gb version. Why? Well i have a mobile dongle and the jump between 32 and 16 was massive and lets face it, the resale value of these things is great so reselling for a 32gb one isn’t beyond the realms of impossibility.
Tuesday Morning.
Waking up with a hangover, bleary eyed and boderline dehydration (I get one night off every 2 weeks so I make the most of it) was made all the more easier with the anticipation of the postman bringing me my newest asset.
After a familiar tap on the door and a moments later there it was in my hands, another Apple product. It’s with a mixture of boyish excitement and the adult side of me being intrigued I start to peel back the all to familiar thought out packaging around the apple.
Opening up the box and it’s a case of bam. There she is and quite unashamedly looking up from her box waiting to be powered on in a matter of moments. Simple apple elegance as always. Instant on for me is a new feature. To go from nothing to browsing instantly does give you a partial wow factor. My trusty MBP is almost as fast but this is just pure gratification.
Off to the apple store or app store, whatever you call it these days, to register and setup is the simple process and familiar to that off setting up my phone and in moment’s the fobdle slab is now registered to my account.
Typing so far is an odd experience. I can almost get up to speed on this out of the box but the odd angle means that I doubt messaging apps will find its way onto here. I can see why people go for seperate keyboards but then doesn’t that hit cross over territory. Sure I can blog with the WordPress app or even just rough draft stuff but it reminds me of a till I have at work. It’s very stabby and even with the auto correct spelling grammer nazi enabled there were still loads of errors.
Justin.TV found it’s way on to my iPad giving me the first experience of scaling up applications. Some of them just don’t look pretty at all such as the case as this.
In this apps instance it;s always been flawed, claiming that the server is overloaded when streaming yet plays perfectly well moments later.
So, here we are one week later after receiving my iPad. As of right now my feelings are honestly mixed about the usefulness of the iPad. Admittedly I haven’t really t taken it out into the wild for some proper testing and it became more of a night time browsing/reading/watching device than the missing third device that people keep harking on about.
Do I regret spending £360? Do I have buyers remorse? Not yet, but it’s close, but like I said at the beginning of this article I really wasn’t sure where the iPad would fit into my lifestyle. Yes it’s great to have a tablet for browsing and mutational BBC I player but at the back of my mind there’s always the voice going on at me about the fact it costs so much to do relatively little so far.
So the next week the iPad will be going with me everywhere, on the road, to the pub and if I can find one, a copy shop that supports free Wi-Fi.
The kind folks at MacAlly have sent us the
MagStand2, Magnetic Cabinet Mount and Viewing Stand (pictured above)
Protective Snap on case designed for use with the Apple SmartCover.
Both of these are welcomed additions to the home of Essentialmac as they are shaping up to be rather, well, essential.
Tuesday, 2 October
Well since the new release of DragonDictate, which features more localisation fixes, my interaction with the iPod has taken on a whole new release of life.
For example, this very text, I am dictating instead of typing which is grades being able to do this sort of stuff whilst lazing around on my sofa.
In the last few minutes I have been able to successfully dictate three e-mails, update this very blog, and generally become more impressed with the processing power of the A5 chip.
With the Apple press conference scheduled for Tuesday I do have a new phone sense of hope that voice integration may not suck as bad as some of my previous testing has shown. I still have reservations about how well the whole room invoice assistant system will work as 99% of the errors come from being in a loud or noisy environment so I can’t see many people turning off the TV on the radio or pulling over in their car to make it nice and quiet just to use simple voice features .
Browsing wise opera is definitely my browser of choice. It simply feels leaps and
bounds faster and smoother than the built in Safari engine and that’s not to mention the nice user interface tweaks which really do make it an essential browser.
The downside is that one of my favourite streaming TV applications, Justin.TV, pretty much refuses to work half the time on my iPod but will work properly on my iPhone.
I have still yet to get over my social anxiety of taking my iPad out in public but I have promised myself I will at least take it with me on my next venture into civilisation.
