An ‘Everyday Life’ Review of the iPad

Image by Jose Maria Cuellar

As of this weekend, I’ve had and used Apple’s iPad for a month now. In that time I’ve purposely resisted writing much about it here and refrained from giving too detailed thoughts about it when people have asked. I had my opinions, but I wanted to make sure my thoughts were well grounded in regular, daily work and life with the iPad.

Let’s cut straight to the chase from the beginning… you don’t need an iPad. Not yet.

I’ve told people who’ve asked about my impressions three things…

1. You don’t need it.
2. You can live without it.
3. It’s really, really good at what it does.

I won’t give an in-depth review. There are plenty of those around if you’re looking for a good pros vs. cons look at the iPad. Here are some of my short, ‘the iPad in everyday life’ thoughts, though…

The iPad Has Replaced My Laptop… Sort Of
In the last month, outside of work, I’ve opened up my laptop far less. In fact I can only recall pulling it out of it’s bag while at home when I’ve truly needed to get some heavy ‘work’ done or when someone else in the house had grabbed the iPad to use. For me, this is a huge plus. I like being able to grab something light & portable when I just need to check email, play a game, or browse around on the Internet for awhile. Beyond that, though, I love that when I’m simply ‘playing’ my kids see me doing just that. In the past it was more likely that when they saw me with my laptop open they immediately thought that I was working. It’s important for me that my kids see the margin I’ve placed in my life that I don’t work outside of those margins very often. The apps aren’t deep enough yet for most people to opt for an iPad in place of a laptop. Once more feature-rich apps are developed, however, that may change. The iWork suite of apps that Apple developed (Pages, Numbers, & Keynote - each $9.99) is a great example of this as I’ve used each of them to create and edit documents, publications, spreadsheets, and presentations on the iPad itself.

The Internet In My Hands Is Incredible!
For the last three years I’ve loved how natural & easy it is to use the Internet on my iPhone. Now, with the iPad, it is even better! I completely agree with Steve Jobs when he said that this is the way web browsing should be. This is especially true at GiANT, not just on my couch. I’ve been in several meetings where we’ve been discussing website details and I’ve been able to ‘pass around’ the site for everyone to reference rather than dimming the lights to throw the site up on a screen, or tilting my laptop around enough for people to see (albeit via squinting many times from a distance). This is one of the major reasons GiANT bought the iPad in the first place. Our Resources Team will be using two iPads at our Chick-fil-A Leadercast event to be able to demonstrate and show our websites, iPhone apps, and digital products. Having the ability to walk up to someone and allow them to see, hear, and touch our websites is incredible!

It’s Beginning to Replace Pen & Pad
I’ve consistently left my Moleskine and pen on my desk in the last several weeks and opted to carry my iPad with me into meetings. Not only has this given me instant, easy access to meeting-related emails and websites, with a few easy/inexpensive apps has allowed me to capture conversations and notes. I’m a HUGE fan of Evernote. If you don’t have this app for your computer, pause right now & go download it, then come back & finish this post. It’s that good. The Evernote (free) and Penultimate ($2.99) iPad apps allow me to grab most everything I need while I’m sitting in a meeting. In fact, with both of these apps I can easily email my notes and sketches from the meeting to everyone involved as soon as the meeting is done! I still grab my iPhone and shoot photos of any whiteboard notes before leaving and add these to Evernote when I get back to my office. Once the iPad gets a camera I’ll be able to take the pictures with it and attach them to my notes in Evernote.

It’s Only Going to Get Better
This is the biggest case for grabbing an iPad, in my opinion. I’ve shared earlier that I believe the iPad is as much about Apple’s vision for the future of computing as it is about the product itself. As the technology envelope continues to be pushed what computers look like is beyond our imagination. Developers are already getting ahold of the iPad and looking for ways to create even more functionality for the device than what Steve Jobs intro-ed in January when he revealed the iPad.

Posted 04.30.2010

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