iCaved

Sat, 29 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I did it. I said I wouldn’t. I said I will hold out for purely ethical reasons, but it is very hard to resist the iPad. The first impression in-store is simply – awesome. This of course is not a surprise and is something that one can expect from apple these days.

Warning: This is a long post ..

Here are some thoughts, after a day of use:

It’s fast. Much faster than the iPhone 3GS. This is good news for the upcoming iPhone.
The battery lasts a really long time. It was around 80% and I used it for incessantly until it died 7/8 hours later. The a4 processor is at this point THE chip to kill for. If you have any samsung shares, I would dump them now, and load up on apple (although they are a tad pricy these days)
iPhone apps are useless and look ugly on the iPad. Don’t bother synching any of them
The keyboard is a lot more usable that I thought it would be. I’m typing this post at about 60-70% of my usual typing speed. (Only true if inclined at an proper angle – the perfect angle: the one you get with the iPad case).
I missed the universal back button. I’ve been spoiled by the freedom-toting nexus one robot ;)
Other small annoyances include URL copy pasting between apps, and how the app store lists apps. Exiting the app store every time I install an app is also mind-numbing. I know I can use a Mac and install all apps at one go, but I didn’t spend a 1000 dollars for workarounds.
Although I could type very well, creating a blog post is not this device’s forte. For one, all the switching back and forth, is a nightmare, and there is simply no way to get the links to apps for instance from the ipad. Adding images is a pain as well (which is why this is a purely text-only post). It is really nice until you want to go beyond its function as a consumption device. Even a little, and it makes you want to get to a mac/pc in a hurry.
Some apps are just stellar, that make it worthwhile go through the above mentioned niggles.

I don’t feel any remorse at having bought it, but at the same time, I’m not floored by everything either. That is actually the strength of the device. It is the first time a computing device completely disappears and you interact with data. The experience depends on the app that you are using. Instapaper does a great job, so does the gmail web app.

Apps on Shivanand Velmurugan — Product leader. Systems thinker.

iCaved