I Touched An iPad

2010 April 12
by CajoleJuice

I feel like this is the type of blog post that could be much more entertaining if I were intoxicated. This probably goes for the vast majority of the posts I make, but it only comes to mind because I was planning on writing a bunch of stuff last night upon returning home after watching UFC 112, but ennui overcame me. I blame Anderson Silva.

This week — I don’t even remember which day of the week anymore — I went up to Smithhaven Mall with the sole intention of making a beeline for the Apple Store there and to plop down in that pristine white space and mess around with a new piece of hyped-up technology. I haven’t really provided many of my own thoughts on the iPad up until this point, only creating a 1st-grade-level photoshop, and linking to a few articles about it. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t waste any words on it before giving it a test run, since my feelings and preconceptions weren’t affected much.

The one thing I hoped they’d have loaded on the iPad was the MLB At Bat app, so when I quickly saw it on the first collection of icons, I clicked it and immediately looked for a way to watch a game on it. Unfortunately, the quality was pretty damn shitty, which I originally chalked up to an overworked internet in the Apple Store, but 1) there weren’t many people in the store, and 2) it was recently brought to my attention that MLB.TV was performing terribly the first few days of the season — or maybe that was just Opening Day. No matter the reason, I’m not ready to blame the iPad directly for the awful, pixelated stream. It did have a lot of cool pop-up boxes, though!

Oh yeah, the other thing I immediately realized was that — contrary to what I’ve heard numerous people say — the iPad is not that heavy. I don’t know what people were expecting, but it’s pretty much the exact weight I expected a computer tablet to be. Did people seriously believe it’d be anywhere as light as a Kindle? Yeah, you’re not going to be holding it up to read for any extended period of time, but don’t a lot of people rest a book on an armrest or something while they’re reading, anyhow? I think the discussion is moot, though, since I can’t imagine trying to read a book on an LED-backlit screen. Reading an internet article of any sort of length is tough enough for me.

Where the iPad shines is in its internet browsing. It’s tough for me to admit, but flying around web pages and click on links with your fingers is fun, and compared to iPhone or iPod Touch, it’s about 50x as functional. Everything is bright and clear, pages load much quicker, and you can see so much more of every webpage. On the other hand, not having Flash functionality is fucking GARBAGE, and it destroys any chance of me agreeing with Apple’s statement that the iPad is “the best way to experience the web.” I guess I just contradicted the first sentence of this very paragraph. Basically, it’s awesome at browsing the parts of the web it actually supports.

What else did I do? Not much, since way too many of the apps loaded onto the iPad were iPhone apps. New York Times app for iPhone? No fucking thanks, I want to try out the version that has a resolution above 480×320. I guess Plants vs. Zombies was the one iPad-optimized game I played, and it was for about 15 seconds, since I rather just play the Steam version. Shit, there really were way too many iPhone apps on it.

I did get accustomed to typing on the iPad fairly quickly. With it rested on a flat surface, I was able to go at probably 80% speed with only a small drop in accuracy. I guess that bodes well for anyone who plans on doing a lot of typing on it, but I can’t see many people fitting that profile. I also can’t see all that many people even needing this admittedly impressive piece of technology. The iPhone (or smartphone of your choice) + laptop combination still makes way too much sense for someone on the move. When I’m at home, I’m not going to have the urge to use a gimped internet browser. I feel like even the hundreds of thousands of people who have already bought one see it as a complimentary device to use around their house, not some new type of computer.

BUT I guess the huge advantage an iPad has over a laptop — or even a netbook — is its battery life. I don’t know what to make of that, as I don’t travel often, and even when I have lately, I didn’t bring along my laptop. And that has nothing to do with having a monstrosity for a laptop, nope. I made use of my hotel room Wi-Fi with my iPod Touch. That was good enough. No need to buy a $500 king size version of it.

Damn, this post needed to be much more negative, if only to get Apple fans to post. I don’t think my heart was in it this time, guys.

Related posts:

  1. My Thoughts on the Apple iPad
  2. Belated Weekend Links – 2/1/10

  • Frank

    Your heart wasn’t in it? Who do you think you are, John Maine?

    • http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog CajoleJuice

      If I got paid that much to suck, I’d own a few iPads.

  • Andrea

    I think the iPad is ridiculous -_- They just keep releasing the same sort of thing over and over again in different sizes and charging more for it. Spend less on an iPhone and you get pretty much the same crapola– or travel with your laptop if that’s what you want. Ugh I hate it when companies re-release the *same exact thing* and idiots snatch it up! No offense to you if you actually bought one, although that would make my respect go down a few notches….

    • http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog CajoleJuice

      hahaha no I did not buy one