Derrick Shields Blog

My 3yr old son showing me his game collection

So like about 300,000 others on Saturday, a shiny new Apple iPad made it’s way into my hands.  I chose the low end model for use around the home with the expectation that if I liked it enough, I’d grab the 3G version for business/office use + traveling.  

My Unbiased Disclaimer

I am not a typical Apple fanboy by any means; I’ve ditched my iPhone in favor of a more useful, better-equipped, multi-tasking Droid, and I actually prefer Win7 to OS X. The computer I “work” on at home is a Gateway Win7 Touchscreen. And my office machine computer is a 27” iMac - but I’m running Win7 Professional.

First Thoughts

After about 2.5 days of use, all I can say is this thing is friggin’ sweet.  It’s also  crazy fast.  It’s the device that never knew I needed, and I now fully expect it to become my primary conduit to to reading blogs, articles, the internet in general really.

I don’t expect it to replace my work computer, but I definitely won’t be buying a laptop again anytime in the foreseeable future; the iPad is that versatile.  It works great out of the box and allows me to do everything that I would previously do on my laptop, only smarter.

Safari is reason enough alone to buy the iPad.  It’s just simply the most pleasant way to consume internet content, bar none.  The other apps are also great - iPod/Videos app is much better than the iPhone version, and arguably better than the desktop version.  Unfortunately one of the few places where music/video will be used will be about 30,000 feet in the air.  Email/Calendar works fine, but my work routine is so tightly integrated with Google Apps that the until an actual GMail app comes out, I’ll probably stick to using Safari, which does a superb job on the 9.7” screen by the way - you almost really don’t need an “App” at all. 

iPad: ADD Cure?

I’ve got a terrible bad habit of opening more tabs in my browser than I can ever really manage. Constant emails & instant messaging all day long makes it even worse.

But this doesn’t happen on the iPad.  Somehow, the iPad inadvertently sidelined my natural ADD and has caused me to become more focused and engaged when reading articles and interacting with the Web and other apps. This is huge for me.  I don’t get peeled away or distracted by widgets, gadgets, instant messages or task/tab overload. 

Ultimately, iPad is about consuming media

I’ll always have a desktop both at the office and at home where “work” really gets done; everything including web design, development, photo editing, building and running and the bulk of writing emails will be done on a desktop while I’m in “work mode”. 

I rarely ever “work” on my laptop unless I’m traveling. When I really think about it, about the only thing I ever do on my laptop is browse the internet and stay caught up with email.  And because of how well the iPad excels in these areas, it’s actually a lot more than just an alternative or a replacement - it’s an improvement.    

Anyway, I love it and am very happy with the purchase.  More to say about iPad in Part 2 - stay tuned.