iSuccumbed – Errol’s iPad Review

Just to let you know, I am going to rip on the iPad in this review. I’ve had the thing for two weeks now. I have barely put it down. My wife could attest to that. She says there are some things that couples should do together without the iPad. I disagreed but that is another story.

I’ve had it for two weeks and I love this thing. I love turning it on and typing in my password. I love iflicking it casually. I love wiping it down after a long days ride.

Thing is, I knew I would love it. I knew it would fit my needs, and so I bought it for my birthday. It isn’t for everyone, so this review will talk of what I use it for and what annoys me. Yes, it is 90% joy when I use it, but I won’t really focus on that.

I use the iPad for email and web. When Google came out with it’s OS, it made the argument that we use our computer for only those two things 90% of the time. I certainly agreed, but i didn’t have a USB key with 4 gigs that I could test it on, and I was too lazy to go out and buy one.

But that’s what the iPad does for me. It fulfills those two needs almost completely. And added to that, I have increased the number of useless things I do with my time because I have an iPad. There’s a free texting app which sends even more cryptic texts than phones normally get (textPlus App).  You know those social check-in sites where you can not only advertise what you are eating for lunch but also have it track where you are as well? Well, I installed the Gowalla app just to make life easier for whatever P.I. Keren decides to investigate me with. Rest assured, the only mistress I have are gaming consoles. And you know what else I find exciting? Sorting my contacts. I go in there, and now that my contacts are linked to the texting app, the Skype App, I can’t help myself. All those emails where you tried to send me your updated contact information I actually care about now. And I’ve even converted my movies and am anxiously awaiting a long trip just so I can watch them! (I would have embedded Ong Bak 2‘s trailer, but they didn’t allow it on youtube. So you get a link. They added more elephants, how could it go wrong?)

iPad Annoyances

So, what annoys me? Well, let’s start with the app store on the iPad. It’s very easy to install apps. But you know, it only shows you a page of apps at a time and you cant iflick in the app store so I have to resort to that old fashion button pushing thing. And if you go through enough pages and then hit install, you know what? It forgets your place. So now I have to press the button ten or so times just to find where I left off!

And speaking of apps, you know what it doesn’t have? A decent To Do list App. Look, I’m not paying $5 for a stupid to do list. I don’t want it to do everything for me. I just want a list where I can put things on it, and then cross it off. The other To Do lists look complicated and go all Super Nanny on you. I don’t want it to run my life, I just want to put things on it. Funny, I don’t even keep to do lists, but now that I have this iPad thing, I feel compelled to keep one because it’s on me at all times. It’s controlling my mind. I know it.

Same thing with the calendar. I don’t usually put anything down in a calendar. My wife is my calendar. But now that I have it, heck I put on alarms to remind me when my parking is up. I love this thing. Maybe I should employ it for babysitting.

I have problems with a To Do list. I may have an awesome To Do item to put in my iPad, but then I get distracted (probably from iflicking) and I forget to put it in. It’s like going to Facebook. I initially plan to find a phone number or stalk you or something, but then I see I have a few notifications and before you know it, I’m creeping another friend’s wall and asking them why they are ignoring me again.

But I don’t like cutting and pasting. How do you cut and paste? Well you tap a word, and then eventually, it will pop up something asking if you wish to select something.

This works for some web sites and definitely works in the notepad thing. But when on gmail mobile, it goes all squirrely on me. In fact, if it does select, it will select a whole paragraph and I can’t select just part of it. And can I even select an email address in the header? No! How am I going to keep up with my newfound contact organization hobby if gmail isn’t helping me? It’s awful.

I did write this review in the notepad. I got used to typing on the thing. Of course, I do make a lot of mistakes and I don’t bother with the apostrophe because most of the time, it puts it in for me. No wonder people out there are losing their skills. But you know what it doesn’t have easily accessible? It doesn’t have an easy accessible ‘*’. You have to hit the number key, and then you have to hit a another key to get to the symbols on top of the number. That’s two button presses that I can easily screw up. And all I want to do is write *laugh* because that was how I learned how to do it until the much more popular and overused ‘lol’ came along. Back in my day, we spelled out our emotions!

Furthermore, I’m formatting the text and all the pics on an actually computer. I don’t think it would be easy to do that on the iPad. I have a lot of useless pics, as you can see. And I don’t know how to get them all done on an iPad.

And, as you know, there is no multitasking. So that means if I am failing again at cutting and pasting a contact, I can’t just do a split screen thing and read off the number or email while typing it into the contacts. Actually, gmail allows you to just click on the number and it puts it into contacts. But not the email. Funny… that.

Gmail has this cool feature on its web based email where you can combine emails of one person into one account. This is great because a lot of you have five or more emails. Quit that! That just confuses me! I’m a simple man! I wish the iPad contacts had that feature. It doesn’t. Darn you multiple e-mail people. Darn you!

Oh, and there are no arrow keys, so while I’m typing, and I want to move somewhere, I have to use my finger to find where exactly I want to go in the document. A little magnifying glass comes up to help me position better, but it’s not the most easiest thing to use. If I’m in the flow of writing, I don’t want to play ‘Place the cursor’.

I haven’t had to reboot the thing that much, but I did when I first installed Civ. Civ crashed on me. I don’t normally reboot the iPad, but after I install a large app, I may get into the habit of rebooting it, just in case.

In gmail mobile, I can’t figure out if an attachment is attached. I don’t even know if you can add attachments. And you can’t edit documents in gmail docs. I can open and read them, but I can’t edit them. I should find an app that helps me edit documents.

Also, sometimes gmail crashes. I don’t know why. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. Gmail also won’t let me choose groups in their mobile. And Facebook won’t let me type in names when I want to message them. It’s like the internets has become self aware and knows you people would rather not hear from me.

One last thing. You know there is no flash, so that keeps my productivity a bit higher than normal if they allowed me to go to Kongregate.

I Still Love You iPad!

But I love the thing, and here are a few reasons why.

• It lasts for about 10 hours. I kept it on without it going to sleep. I did minor things on it, like email and web, but I’ll have to do music listening and movie watching to see how long it lasts
• My guitarist can’t remember anything. So during music practice, I realized I could record us with Quickvoice. And so I did. And then on Sunday, when Mark needed to play it, he just listened to what we had
• I have started keeping to do lists as I said. Now I can feel even more guilty when I don’t do them
• Now that I can text, I’m a texting fiend. Apologies in advance…
• Bought a game (Mü) to play with Dan. He bought it for his iPhone. So we set it up on Bluetooth, and although it was wonky ( we had to reboot after turning blue tooth on) it worked rather well and he utterly trounced me.
• Frotz. How utterly cool is that?
• I have all these e-books I need to read. I have been doing that so far, and I can highlight and keep notes and everything. Wunnerful.

I could go on about how I love the convenience of this thing, but I will stop.

Conclusion

I love this thing after two weeks. I don’t know what it will be like in a month, but I bring it with me everywhere. Maybe it’s because I don’t have one of those iPod Touch things. Nor do I have a phone. But this fits my needs and I can love it and pet it and call it George.