Apple Thoughts: My Month With The iPad

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

My Month With The iPad

Posted by Jeff Campbell in "Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad" @ 06:00 AM

It's Not All About Video

Figure 7: iBook screenshot from my iPad.

This is really the reason I bought the iPad, for the eBook ability. But not only eBook but eMagazine if you will. I have owned both versions of the Kindle and this is by far the better eBook reader in my opinion. Partially for the asthetics of the interface, but also because of the flexibility in what you can read. While not all the magazines I subscribe to can be purchased on the iPad, I can get Readers Digest, Macworld, and a few others that I subscribe to via the free Zinio app made especially for the iPad (there is also one for the iPhone). The rendering of the pages for magazines takes a second or two, but it isn't all that annoying and very tolerable. Some have mentioned to me (my friends with Kindles and the Nook from Barnes & Noble) that they are concerned about the backlighting and the eye fatigue. Personally, I haven't experienced any eye fatigue. I don't think it is that big of a concern (my wife has read several books on my iPad and she was also concerned but had no ill effects), but if you know you are susceptible to such things, this may not be the reader for you. In that case the Kindle or Nook with a book light may be a better option for you.

My favorite feature is the bookmark feature. With the Kindle it was the whole page. With iBook I can just highlight the text I want to remember and hit the bookmark option that comes up after selection. The bookmarks can be reviewed anytime by simply touching on the table of contents button, the button to the right of the library button upper left corner of the left page.

Figure 8: Barnes & Noble iPhone app used on iPad. The difference between this and iBook is obvious.

The iBook app and the Kindle app work great on the iPad, but for Barnes & Noble app it's a different story. This is because, at the time of this writing, their app was an iPhone app that also "worked" on the iPad. This brings up a point about using iPhone apps on the iPad. I didn't list this as a con per se, since I didn't expect them to work like they do on the iPhone, however it deserves pointing out that the iPad specific apps look so much better on the iPad. So once Barnes & Noble come out with their iPad app, I will be checking it out. I'm hopeful since the iPhone version works so well that they will transfer that to the iPad app.

Figure 9: USA Today app on the iPad, simple but oh so functional.

One last media type that I have experimented with on my iPad is the news, and I don't think any newspaper out there has, so far, come close to what USA Today has done with their free app. This is very well done, easy to navigate, and unlike some sites out there that don't give you all the stories they have in their print versions, it appears that USA Today puts out most if not all of them on to their app. Touch on a headline and a new window pops up within the app with the full story. Click on the upper right corner with the icon of the paper and it goes back to the main page. Simple and functional and perfect for the iPad.

What Else Can You Do?

Figure 10: NBA Game Time Courtside Playoffs 2010 in all it's glory on the iPad

Sports junkies this iPad is for you. While the MLB at Bat 2010 app for the iPad is a must have if you like baseball, it does cost a few bucks ($14.99 USD) to get the full featured version. It's a whole new ballgame, so to speak, when you upgrade to it from the free lite version of MLB at Bat 2010, since it adds pitch-by-pitch, box scores and live game day audio, as well as video highlights and the ability to watch one game a day (if you have subscription to MLB.TV you can watch more than one game). The NBA also has a great free app to keep track of the playoffs (the iPhone version is $2.99 USD but gives you coverage throughout the season.). It even has options for push notifications for updates from all the games so you don't miss any scores. This is a well done app, which I hope will become more like the iPhone app and include season-wide coverage. I also hope other sports such as the NFL will get "in the game" so to speak to provide something similar.

Figure 11: Real Racing HD on the iPad

I haven't even touched on the gaming aspect of the iPad, because I've geared this to what I use it for and how I've found it during my interactions. However I would be remiss not to at least mention some other options such as gaming. You can get a quick idea of what else you can do with the iPad from the "Apps for iPad" page at Apple. They go through some of the apps that might interest any number of you from comic book apps to the game apps such as Scrabble or Real Racing HD. I've seen these in action in the Apple Store and they look fantastic. If you are into games on your iPhones, they make the transition to the iPad even better.


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