Whuffo's Journal: iPad - How it works for me.

I've had my iPad for a couple of weeks now and I'm very pleased with it. I won't go into feature lists; that's been done too many times already. And I'm not complaining about it missing ports and stuff - it's not a general purpose computer and I didn't buy it to use like one. So why did I buy one?

 

It's going to be my portable personal library; 64 Gigs of storage holds a lot. The first thing to go into that 64 GB was my music library; about 400 CDs worth. That's over 5,000 tunes. Next, I tried using it as an ebook reader. It does this very, very well - the screen is clear and sharp and the automatic backlight control makes it readable without eye strain almost anywhere; outdoors on sunny days is a bit difficult due to reflections. Considering the size of the average ebook, I could load 10,000 or more books and still have room for more.

 

I hadn't unpacked my library (real books) since I last moved and now that I've seen what this little wonder can do, those books and the shelves that used to hold them are headed for recycle land. No more dusty books for me. Some have complained about some things - like wi-fi problems and the difficulty in holding it up to read from; that 1.5 pounds starts to get difficult very quickly - mostly because the iPad isn't shaped to provide a good grip. After getting the case for the iPad this problem is solved for me; now I can hold it like a book and extended reading sessions are no problem. The only thing about the wi-fi I find awkward is the way the iPad shuts the wi-fi radio down after a while when you're not using it (to save power). When the wi-fi is restarted, there's a little delay before the connection is usable - so if I drop out of reading a book and launch a app that needs network access I'll sometimes get an error. Not a big deal; dismiss the error and try again and it'll work. The wi-fi range is surprisingly good, especially for something like this where it's in a metal case.

 

For me, having all of my "media" available in one place and ready to enjoy any time was worth the price and then some.