Bob Sutor

I’ve now had my Apple iPad for a bit more than a month, so I thought I would share some of my thoughts on what I think of it and how my perception of it has changed during that time. I’ve written before about my experience after almost two weeks, but now I’ve had more time to kick the tires.

• I’m glad I opted for 3G. While I do use the iPad at home quite a bit, bringing it along with me when I travel or even run around town is extra convenient because I have Internet access. While coverage is not 100%, I usually don’t have to think about whether I can get onto the Web.
• I’m glad I opted for 64Gb. While this did push the price up, I already have more than 32Gb of material on the device, and it’s been nice not to have to edit down my music collection.
• When I first got the iPad, it brought in all the apps I had installed on my iPhone. I then deleted most of the apps that weren’t necessary, but I’ve gotten much more aggressive lately about either deleting the iPhone apps or looking for bigger, or “HD,” versions. I typically have my iPhone with me when I have the iPad, so there’s no need to be redundant other than convenience.
• One annoyance is that similar iPad apps are usually more expensive than their iPhone counterparts. I also suspect some of the iPhone app developers have gone away because some iPhone apps that would have reasonable iPad editions have still not materialized.
• I’ve managed to keep to one screen of apps that are especially good when I travel, though the mix has changed.
• Similarly, I have a screen’s worth of games, though I delete them if 1) I don’t play them and 2) I didn’t pay for them. I am willing to keep around games that my son plays. Scrabble and, of course, Solitaire are excellent time killers.
• My most recent new screen of apps is devoted to music especially, for some reason, guitar tuners. The coolest new one I’ve found is PolyTune. This allows you to tune all six guitar strings at one time.
• I’ve become much more comfortable with using the iPad as an ebook reader. I have several nonfiction books and I’m reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I recommend that a good way to get adjusted to reading a book on a device is to get a book you really want to read, a real page-turner. This may seem obvious, but otherwise you’ll just collect ebooks that you want to have versus want to read.
• I simply don’t miss Adobe Flash on the device. Sure, I’ve run into a few websites that use it, but I’ve always been able to find alternatives to getting the information I wanted. This is not a comment on the Apple/Adobe debate, just an observation.