iPad First Impressions

So I installed the WordPress app on my iPad and here I am, just typing away on the iPad to give some first impressions on what has been called the Jesus Pad. Is it anywhere near as cool as the rabid Apple fanboys would have you believe? Is it really a “magical and revolutionary” device as Steve Jobs would have you believe? Based on my first 30 minutes with it, I’m going to have to say if it isn’t, it’s pretty damn close.

For one, I’m actually touch typing right now. Sure, I do keep hitting enter, but that’s because my brain thinks I’m typing on a real keyboard where hitting the apostrophe key to properly spell conjunctions is required. Not so on ye’ olde iPad because it’s just like it’s smaller (but older) brother, the iPhone. Please take a moment and consider very carefully the first sentence to this paragraph: I’m actually touch typing right now.

If that doesn’t blow your mind, that one can actually touch type on a keyboard that doesn’t physically exist, then I’m not sure that anything aside from the iPad raising the dead could possibly impress you. I honestly didn’t think id be able to touch type on this thing, but I can!

Now, in fairness, it is missing fixing some words, the occasional lowercase I or not putting that apostrophe in the right place, but that may just be me. I’m honestly not sure, and it’s infrequent enough that it’s not a big deal. In fact, the keyboard on my Asus Eee Pc 1005HE with its constant insertion of keys (double typing) is far more obnoxious than the iPad not fixing my typos (think about that for a second, what that really means).

Anyhow, I’m here to give some impressions beyond how widely impressed I am by the landscape keyboard, so here’s a few things to chew on:

The folks who said that the iPad is remarkably fast weren’t kidding. To be fair, it’s not as fast as my 13″ MacBook Pro, but it’s also less than half the weight and considerably smaller. Still, the speed it renders web pages at is very, very fast, and the delay for zooming is almost nonexistent. Yes, really big web pages do sometimes cause the grey checkerboard of “hang on, I’m loading” to surface, but the delay is less than a second.

The aesthetics are exactly what you should expect from Apple: impeccable. This is a really gorgeous, simple, elegant device. Yes, it basically resembles a larger iPhone, but the iPhone itself is one he’ll of a beautifully simple device in appearance. Of note, the Apple logo on the back is a glossy black.

The UI should be familiar to anyone who has used an iPhone or iPod Touch, but the subtle additions of extra controls, slightly larger buttons, and a whole hell of a lot more real estate means that using the iPad is a snap. Everything works exactly how you’d expect it to and does so, as stated earlier, very quickly.

The first time you open up the App Store on the iPad, you’ll get a pop-up message asking you to install iBooks. iBooks, you see, doesn’t come preloaded, but it downloads quickly and installs right away and comes with a copy of Winnie the Pooh. Why? It just does.

Unfortunately, navigation in the App Store is a little clunky right now. For instance, going to categories and then “Games” and then trying to find all of the games in the store is, seemingly, impossible. You get two panes with several games per pane and an option to “See all” within those two categories, but not to see all games in the store. It’s…weird. Either I’m blind and can’t find the “See all games regardless of if they’re hot, featured, or otherwise” or Apple needs to tweak a little.

The quality of the panel is damn good. Colors are bright and vivid, text crisp and easy to read, and generally, it’s just plain a joy to use. We’ll see if this holds out past the honeymoon, but for now, this was well worth the investment.

Expect a full review in coming days.