Apple IPAD Owner's Thread

[TheForce]

Picked up a 64Gb ipad a few minutes ago. Went to Best Buy to get a better ( ever so slightly) deal ( Reward zone)

I spent 15 minutes with it and was blown away by the video quality as well as how easy it worked.

The Best Buy had 6 sales reps plus one Apple Rep working 3 units on display. It was nice because there were only about 20 people waiting to play with them when I was there. The Apple store in the Town Center was standing room only and like a zoo.


I also picked up a VGA accessory for the screen to input to my Home Theater PJ.

 

[JTBenson]

My wife is thinking about getting one, but I have heard that they don't have Flash and she is concerned about that. What is your experience with sights that require Flash?

 

[DodgerKing]

Listening to Leo Leporte right now and he just had 4 delivered to his office while on the air.

Personally, I do not see the fascination with these things. Smart phones can do more and they are a lot easier to carry around. Small laptops can do more and they are just as easy to carry around.

To each his own.

For those that do get one, congrats, and let us know what you think.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

So, the truth comes out Don. You really are an apple fanboy, huh? All that Winmobile love was just a cover story.

Enjoy your new expensive toy.

Seriously, I look forward to a report of how well it works out in the bright Florida sunshine, with the ibook reader. my gut says it will do no better than my Droid (or the iphones I have seen outside).

And I am particularly curious about real-world battery life; after breaking-it-in over the next couple weeks.

 

[meStevo]

I look forward to hearing how it goes for you Don, have you tried charging it at all yet? Apparently some reports that many PC USB and powered USB hubs don't provide enough power, you have to either use the AC or an Apple computer.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/03/apple-ipad-charging-woes-usb-hubs-non-macs-and-weak-ports-not/

I guess that won't be a massive problem, as the lions share of early adopters are probably the minority that own Apple computers.

 

[TheForce]

First impressions-

Ok, had to put a charge on it and was surprised that the ipad does not come loaded ready to go. Requires a PC or Mac to set it up. So, I'm now downloading itunes to my Dell Laptop. It is taking a long time to install itunes. This is not a good way to sell these things. Once itunes is fully installed, I am to plug the USB cable into the PC and then the install for ipad is to commence.

JTBenson- I'll let you know how that goes. Could be disappointing for me. Probably depends on the particular web site you must use.

I observed at Best Buy, 80% of the crowd there were older people, I'd say 50-60's plus a half dozen kids with bored parents.

 

[tigerfan33]

Went to Apple Store today to play with one.......left without one.
Will wait to see what the HP Slate is all about.

 

[DodgerKing]

The next generation iPad is supposed to have LAN and 3G support.

 

[JAG72]

The next generation iPad is supposed to have LAN and 3G support.

The first generation iPad will have 3G support and to be honest I would never want the iPad to have a LAN connection. WiFi is good enough for me in that aspect.

 

[DodgerKing]

I noticed the latest iTunes updates separates your apps into iPhone, iPod touch, iPad group and a separate iPhone, iPod touch group. Out of the 30+ apps that I have, only 2 are available on the iPad (I am sure this will change as time goes on). The two are my elevation pro hiking app (don't ask me why someone would want to take this thing hiking), and the zillow app.

 

[DodgerKing]

The first generation iPad will have 3G support.

They currently don't.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

First impressions-

Ok, had to put a charge on it and was surprised that the ipad does not come loaded ready to go. Requires a PC or Mac to set it up. So, I'm now downloading itunes to my Dell Laptop. It is taking a long time to install itunes. This is not a good way to sell these things. Once itunes is fully installed, I am to plug the USB cable into the PC and then the install for ipad is to commence.

JTBenson- I'll let you know how that goes. Could be disappointing for me. Probably depends on the particular web site you must use.

I observed at Best Buy, 80% of the crowd there were older people, I'd say 50-60's plus a half dozen kids with bored parents.

Don't you hate that - you buy a device and have to let it sit for a few hours to charge. Totally bogus.

It was one thing I was impressed with the kindle. It arrived fully charged, and setup with my name on it already; Amazon did all of the leg-work, all I had to do was hit the power button. (Granted its different when you buy online like I did, but still). But the Kindle was an exception, and not the rule. The norm - is a device with barely any charge. Ok, one other device came mostly charged - the Droid; but even then, it probably only had a half-charge on it.

 

[lakebum431]

They currently don't.

Right, the 3G ones don't come out until the end of the month.

I have to admit, I'm pretty interested in this thing. I am far from an Apple fan boy and the only other Apple product I have is an Ipod. However, I think I'm going to wait for the one that is compatible with the ATT 3G network and add that on as well. Let us know how you like it after you have played more Don.

 

[mperdue]

Don't you hate that - you buy a device and have to let it sit for a few hours to charge. Totally bogus.

Mine had a 99% charge when I pulled it out of the box. So far, I'm very impressed.

 

[JAG72]

They currently don't.

3G support is available this month. It is just a few weeks delayed compared to the WiFi only version.

 

[DodgerKing]

3G support is available this month. It is just a few weeks delayed compared to the WiFi only version.

Thanks for the info.

 

[DodgerKing]

Now if it could make calls, support navigation, and take pictures, it would be getting close to half as good as most smart phones.

 

[TheForce]

I have a MacBook Pro but hate the thing. The reason is I have a Dell XPSM1210 which runs rings around it. Right now, the battery indicates full as it is syncing the content on my Dell with my ipad.

OK after 2 hours of running unplugged, it shows 85% power left. I took it outside by the pool and the glare is bad in direct sunlight. However, under a shade tree it is perfect! The sound is also quite good quality. Not loud enough in a noisy environment but plenty loud outside to hear the videos just fine.

I downloaded the book store app ( a bookshelf) and then downloaded a dozen free books for the start of a descent set of books. I'm not much into reading but this ipad integration with the web surfing for easy reference and lookups is nice.

Got my email working and it has a nice look to it. I was happy that it allows me to download my email and leave everything on the server so my pop account can download to the main computer and delete from the server then.


I was concerned about the keyboard. I can type about as fast as I can on my standard desktop KB so that is nice. In fact it rivals my Dell small KB and has the additional feature of spell check on the fly. I tried the voice over feature for typing but I think Apple has some work to do on that. It may be OK for a blind person but then why would a blind person want to use a visual device like this? I won't go into details but lets just say that feature kind of sucks because it is very slow.

More later...

 

[tigerfan33]

3G support is available this month. It is just a few weeks delayed compared to the WiFi only version.

Yea. For $15-$30 a month. No thank you. I was just not that impressed with the iPad. I guess because I have the iPhone. No flash and having to wait for apps to be upated is a big negative. The positive were how fast it was and how good hd video looked.

 

[TheForce]

Mine had a 99% charge when I pulled it out of the box. So far, I'm very impressed.

Slight correction to my prior confusing post on the charge- I thought it didn't have the battery fully charged but it was. I've only had it on the wall charger for about 5 minutes when I discovered it indicated full 100%. What I meant was the ipad required software setup with itunes and I had to install that first, then sync everything with my laptop. Now I have all the music, videos and pictures on the ipad. That took about an hour.


Some of the apps that are for ipod or iphone need to be rewritten for the ipad and larger screen. NY Times is like that, While you can expand to full screen the pinch zoom features don't wort but double tap does.


Having some issues with wifi out by my pool and patio. While the Dell Laptop works out there with weak signal, the ipad loses connection. Looks like I'm going to need to configure an additional wifi hotspot for the patio.