iPad, therefore iAm

tastewar — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:50:18 +0000

I ordered an iPad the first day that Apple was taking orders. I thought (still think…) it will make a great internet appliance for my elderly mom, who has no real experience with computers. Some of those characteristics that are perceived as negatives for techies I think will be positives for her. It has a great web browser, for an almost full internet experience (I will have to steer her away from addictinggames.com, of course), a perfectly good email application, and there are already a bunch of apps for news, which she is feeling out of touch with. Having played with it for a day and a half (on and off), I am pretty impressed. On the down side, it feels a little heavy (compared to my iPod touch. What was I expecting?), and it won’t sync wirelessly, which is a shame, because she and my dad live downstairs, and that would make it just that much easier. On the plus side, it doesn’t multi-task . The touchscreen is much easier to adapt to than a mouse. It just feels much simpler than a PC/Mac, which for my use case is a decided plus. I am now waiting for the keyboard dock, which should make it more comfortable to sit and type at before I give it to her, but I have added some music, photos, contacts, apps, etc. The on-screen keyboard is definitely usable, but the lack of tactile feedback is noticeable. We shall see…

Here are the obligatory, goofy un-boxing photos:

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iPad, therefore iAm