iPad Thoughts

This post is off topic, but I've had my iPad for a week and wanted to post some thoughts for people considering a purchase.

My company did a "strengths assessment" to help me better understand and exploit my natural capabilities. The idea being to match what you do well and what you actually do for a living. My report identified "input" as my top talent. People who are talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more, they like to collect and archive all kinds of information. Input is the reason I love the iPad.

I read a lot. I think of the internet as my expanded brain. There's not a piece of trivia or answer I can't find in 10 minutes of research. The form factor of the iPad suits this use case perfectly. Here's why:

1. The Screen: It's bright, just the right size and touch screen is THE BEST way to browse the internet. I feel disconnected using a mouse now, it's inefficient. See what you want and click it directly with your finger. Eliminate the middleman.

2. The Size: The tablet feels more like a piece of paper than a computer. I never sit on the couch with my laptop. Now I have all my publications accessible without sitting down at a desk. Makes reading feel less like work.

3. Always connected: Last night I made stir fry. I opened the epicurious application, found a recipe and the iPad sat on the counter next to me while I made it. iPad beats using a cookbook; it offers reviews and tips by people who execute the dish (there were 20 meaningful reviews with variations I added to my dish). Imagine when they embed video. When I realized I didn't have an ingredient, I went to google and figured out a suitable alternative.

4. The Apps: USA Today, NPR, the WSJ offer really nice applications to read their pubs. Flickr photos lets me access and download my photo archives. There are some useful note taking apps (I get a lot of ideas while I'm reading all this stuff). Going forward, it's unlikely I'll read the print version of anything available online (unless I'm camping or at the beach).

Here's my experience with some of the common complaints:

1. No flash: I've noticed this twice and don't care
2. No direct inputs (e.g. USB): That's what I have a laptop computer for. Apps like Flickr give me the option to store files on the iPad. Zero effect on my primary use case. Good reason to stick with the 16GB version.
3. Fingerprints: give me a f***ing break
4. Multitasking: I don't get it. Critics say this limits the usefulness of pandora. OK, but that's what I have a stereo for! Buy some of your own music you cheap bastards.

Lastly there's the price. The iPad is a high quality device. There's nothing cheap about it. It looks and feels expensive. Netbooks use low quality parts and feel cheap. A decent laptop is more expensive than an iPad + lacks the form factor mentioned above.

Conclusion: iPad = future of personal computing. It's a better way to experience the internet and you can have it today. It works perfectly, so you don't need to be a nerd to enjoy it. Go buy one, you won't regret it.