iPad: Week Three, Four
The past two weeks saw the use of the iPad as a traveling companion, in lieu of a MacBook.
The iPad really kicked ass on the long, five hour plane ride. Its small size was a clear advantage over a lap top proper; no need to drop the seat tray. The battery life also proved amazing; I watched a movie, played games, and read a book, yet still had a 70% charge several hours later. The awesome battery life has crossed a mental threshold — one can stop worrying about it, which is a huge relief, as battery life is a constant struggle with my iPhone.
Second is the solid state RAM storage, making applications and file loading lightning fast. I look forward to the day I can afford a Mac proper with solid state memory. And without a clicking hard drive or even a fan, the ipad is dead silent.
This is not to say the trip wasn’t without some glitches. Beyond email and light writing, the iPad didn’t fare well in doing website updates. Even administering the back end, which didn’t require much typing, proved slower than a traditional keyboard and mouse. It’s actually quicker to use a mouse scroll wheel or click and drag a window scroll bar than swipe say, twenty times on the iPad screen.
The screen also gets prohibitively smudgy; am wiping the screen down daily.
Multi-touch is cool and fun, like any new gadget, but there is a reason we still use a keyboard and mouse most of the time. Let us not forget that touch has been around for a very long time… we didn’t see people dropping the keyboard and mouse for their loved PDA and we won’t see it any time soon, but these multi-touch gadgets are great and fun for consumption. They will need a proper dock (with mouse) in order to replace our laptops, netbooks, or even possibly the desktop. But in time with better hardware that will all come about, hopefully. And then we might even get real applications that allow for true productivity
Mouse can go away (many already use trackpads instead of mice), but the keyboard is a harder nut to crack.
Am trying to get WordPress for iPhone working — not that I blog anymore, but if I ever did decide to, an interface besides the PHP-based backend would be easier.
The WordPress app for iPhone / iPad is okay for answering comments and writing short posts, but in other ways seriously lacking… still have to write a review on it.