Arrival of the iPad

Apple iPad. The revolutionary gadget with the controversial name, which is bound to change the way we use technology was launched to us mere mortals on April 3rd, 2010. Prior to its arrival, it had garnered a fair bit of buzz in the digital world, though most were jokes about its name – probably not the kind of publicity  Steve Jobs had in mind!

At present, the iPad is not yet available outside of the US, supposedly due to overwhelming demand in Apple’s home country. However, this did not stop our Digital Strategy Director, Ben Israel from getting his hands on the coveted gadget — where there’s a will, there’s a way!

Here’s the people at Integricity crowding around the iPad upon its arrival, fresh from its box!

After spending two weeks with the iPad, Ben shares with us his take on it.

1.  What do you use your iPad for? Does it enhance productivity, and does it act as a laptop replacement?
I primarily use the iPad at home, at which it has almost totally replaced my laptop. Instead of booting up my laptop to read the news / Google Reader in the morning or evening, I now use the iPad – and it boots up in a second. It’s a great tool for reading – skimming through articles and even emails, and no doubt playing games. Unfortunately, because it is so new, we are still waiting for other applications to catch up. Twitter doesn’t have a decent tool for the iPad yet, and Facebook does not have an iPad app yet. Once all these tools are present in the apps store, this device will be quite hard to put down.

2.  What is the greatest satisfaction the iPad brings you? What do you dislike about it?
What’s there not to love about the iPad? The design is nice, it has a great form factor, the battery is amazing (I charge it once every three days!)… if there were anything else I would ask for, it would be a stylus. Call me old-fashioned, but I cannot for the life of me write or draw with my fat, wobbly fingers – and there are so many amazing apps that would work so well with a stylus.

3.  Do you face difficulties getting used to the user interface?
The best choice Apple made was to use the iPhone OS on the iPad. Because I am already so familiar with the iPhone interface, it completely removes the learning curve for me and I can jump straight to using the device. Even for people who are new to the iPhone experience, the learning curve isn’t steep, and you’d be swiping away in no time.

4.  What are the top 5 apps you’d recommend?

1. Feedler RSS Reader – great RSS reader and Google Reader client.
2. Pages – word processing applications. Create new documents, import from emails or sync from desktop.
3. Worms HD – this turn-based game was made for the iPad, the large form factor makes this game extremely fun.
4. Desktop – allows you to run two applications at the same time, on the same screen.
5. Air Video (my favourite iPad app): stream videos from your computer and convert videos on the fly.

5.  People have mentioned that the iPad’s Wi-Fi signals are weak. Is this true?
Haven’t had a problem yet, but again, I use it mainly at home.

6.  Is it worth the price? =P
Every single penny… =)

7.  Do you have anything else to add?
If you don’t plan to buy one, don’t touch one. Once you’ve touched it…

Thank you for sharing, Ben. Anyone out there hear an iPad calling out to you now? :D