CRAZY LEVELS

Apple has brought us the iPod (Various editions), the iPhone, innovative laptops and desktops. One of the leading technological companies in the world today, apple has recently launched its new handheld device called the ipad.

The ipad is said to be a cross between the smart phone and a laptop, no doubt defeating the pupose of both. In a world where blackberries demand the attention of the user at all times and technology is becoming more important, the ipad is a very attractive toy.

At a starting price of $499 the ipad has a variety of useful features; it is 9.56 x 7.47 x 0.5 inches of polished glass and cool aluminum, everything the iPhone and iPod touch are taken to grand scale. Perhaps more than any previous device, however, the iPad’s specs aren’t what’s interesting or even as important here. It’s the experience.

You’ve seen the photos and watched the videos, but holding the iPad in your hand for the first time really is a different experience. Of course it’s solid and well-constructed, the large glass panel and aluminum back mean that there is no flex at all. The buttons are well-familiar by now – home, power, volume, and a switch that locks the iPad into landscape or portrait. They’re all nice and clicky and as solid as the aluminum casing.
Speaking of that aluminum casing, it blocks WiFi signals pretty effectively. To get around that, Apple placed the WiFi antenna behind the plastic Apple logo. While all reports indicate it’s a good antenna, I do find that I’m getting slightly worse reception on the iPad than I do on other devices. Apparently the 3G model will have a plastic strip on the rear panel so there’s more room for the antennae to breath. It’s too soon for me to say for sure, but I think it might help on the WiFi-only version as well.
I’m not sure why Apple went with a black logo on the back instead of a white one, but I like it. The fact that I’m reduced to talking about the color of the Apple logo should say something: Apple’s designed this thing like they did the iPhone, by removing as many physical elements as possible so the device can become invisible and you can focus on the screen. Ignore the complaints about the bezel around the 9.7″ screen – it’s fine and doesn’t seem as large in person as it does in photos.



The screen is great – 1024×768 with 132 pixels per inch equates to just the right size, I think. Any higher resolution and not only would those iPhone apps look odd, but likely there’d be a lot of squinting going on. The screen also features ‘In-plane switching’ (IPS), which means that you can view the thing from pretty much any angle. Fingerprints and reflection: both definitely there and a nuisance, but with the bright screen on you don’t notice them too much. The glass is ‘oleophobic,’ so fingerprints are easy to wipe off.
I’m forever grateful that Apple switched the silent switch to the rotation lock – the accelerometer on the iPad is very sensitive. On balance, I think Apple did the right thing by having the screen rotate so quickly and easily. There’s nothing more frustrating than repeatedly tilting a device to rotate the screen. It’s a testament to the fast processor and to the way that OS is built that you never have to wait or try hard to rotate the screen. Dang, though, the iPad sure does flip the screen around quite a bit.



Put me in the camp that isn’t disappointed that the iPad isn’t widescreen. For web browsing, a 16:9 screen would get annoying really fast. Also, honestly, you spend a lot of time switching between portrait and landscape and if we had a long, narrow device the change in page rendering would get old mighty quick.
At 1.5 pounds, I initially was worried that the iPad would be too heavy for me – or at least too heavy to justify a spot inside my gear bag. After using it for a few days and toting it around, my basic feeling is that I wouldn’t complain if the thing shed a half a pound or so. It’s heavier than you might expect and holding it up in one hand gets tiring pretty fast. You’ll find yourself leaning back and setting it on raised knee (Henceforth: the iPad Position), setting it flat on a table and looking down on it, or perhaps using Apple’s folio case to prop it up. Either we will all get beefy forearms and wrists or we’ll be choosing furniture that’s more conducive to raising your legs up. iFixit’s iPad teardown actually reveals quite a bit of empty space inside, my guess is Apple spent quite a long time balancing weight and battery life.
On that balance, Apple clearly went for longer battery life and I fully applaud them for it. In my first few days of testing, I can say that the iPad definitely achieved Apple’s 10 hours of use. Cranking the screen brightness up to 100% will cut down on that, though – I had it set high for several video reviews and noticed the difference. The bottom line is that you don’t need to fret too much about battery life.
I expected typing on the iPad to be completely abysmal, but I’m happy to report that it’s better than I expected. The portrait mode keyboard is strictly hunt-and-peck, but I do wonder if I might get faster with prolonged use. I’ve spent so long one-handed typing that apparently my right hand has key placement ingrained in more than just my thumb – I can truck along fairly quickly. In landscape mode I find I can type faster than I expected too – much faster than I have ever been able to on my Dell Mini 9 netbook. The trick for touch typists it to pretend you no longer have pinky fingers. Apple’s second-to-none autocorrect helps out here as well.

The speaker is loud, but even though it’s a little gimmicky on a device of this size I do wish there were two speakers for stereo. The headphone jack works, sound is crisp and loud. You can hold down the volume-down button to immediately silence all sounds.
The experience of using a touch screen this large is surprisingly intimate. With an iPhone (or any smartphone), the ergonomics of having something small in one hand means that you’re tapping with one finger or two, often (literally) at arm’s length – the touchscreen is small and at the ‘end’ of your fingers. With the iPad, you need to use larger gestures, your hand floats above the screen instead of the tips of your fingers. The ergonomics require you to either recline and set it in your lap or lean over it on a table. If the television is a ‘lean back’ interface and the computer is a ’sit forward’ interface, the iPad is an ‘embrace’ interface. You haven’t had a relationship with an object like this since your childhood teddy bear: you tote it around with you everywhere, you sit cuddled up with it, you take it to bed with you.