A Few Hours With Padge

Today, I actually had a little more time to spend with my iPad. Before I went further, I just named it "Padge" so it will be referred as such going forward. How the name comes about I will explain in due time.

I took Padge to work but did not take it out of my briefcase at all. I am amazed by those people who play with their 'Pad on the subway. What would they do if someone try to rob them? Or just snatch it and run away? Perhaps at the last possible second as the subway doors close? I didn't even take it out at work, but transferred it to a stringed plastic bag to take it out at lunch time. I used it at a public atrium. Hmm, how safe is that free, public Internet service? I guess there's only so much caution one can have in life. I sent two email and one of them, interestingly enough, is about Padge itself.

There's nothing like actually having a device to find out more about it. Without reading the flimsy doc, I didn't know that there was a power button at the top of the 'Pad. Or that there are volume controls on the right edge. I knew about the lock to prevent screen orientation, but not these other buttons. All along I had Padge in the book-jacket case the wrong way, in a way. The right side of the Pad should be exposed for the orientation toggle and the volume controls exposed.

I continue to be pleasantly surprised how well Padge can handle web sites. How good is a web experience when there is no Flash? Very good, as far as my limited usage is concerned. Google Docs work fine, although I couldn't find the Search field/button. I'm sure it's out there. BillHighway.com, with its unattractive run-of-the-mill VBScript interface, worked fine. Facebook runs fine, too, but of course the Flash games don't load. Size really matters. I recall too well how painful it was to surf on the iPod touch.

I thought the onscreen keyboard would be hard to use but again that was just a bad vibe I carried over from my usage with the iPod touch. There's plenty of screen real estate so the keyboard does not take up most of the screen like on the touch or iPhone. Some day I may even try to write a blog post on Padge. I may not have to get a Bluetooth keyboard after all. I already spent a big chunk of money on Padge any saving would be good.

As I played around with Padge, I discovered that there was a Cellular Plan setting. It seems I can sign up with AT&T's data plan should I fork over my credit card number. Hmm, maybe it's just the software, i.e. WiFi and 3G models have the same software loaded. Or maybe I got a 3G Pad for the price of a WiFi model? Being a pack rat, I still have the original iPad box and the receipt from Best Buy. The box says WiFi + 3G and the receipt agrees. Rats, I didn't spend $820+ but a tad more than that. Oh, well, Padge is data-ready so perhaps some month I will splurge and sign up for a data plan.

So I have a 3G-ready iPad, not just WiFi. I was going to refer to the iPad as just "Pad" but now that it has 3G, I decided to sort of stick "3G" to the end of "Pad". "3" flipped vertically looks like the letter "E", so if I simply switch "3" and "G" before tacking it to the end of "Pad", we have... Padge. Does Madonna have an iPad 3G? Would it be referred to as Madge's Padge?