Lonely At The Front

Two Weeks With Padge

It has been two weeks since I bought the iPad. For a while, I was happy downloading apps from the Apps Store, free and paid. It is so easy to get apps! I went through a similar experience before when I got hooked on the iTunes Music Store. Ninety-cent a pop, almost every song I could think of. I had an iTouch before but the tiny screen did not entice me to buy apps and such right off of it. Instead, I bought everything for the iTouch via iTunes on the PowerBook.

Size really matters with the iPad. I bought a few apps even though most of them cost more than the typical 99-cent iPhone app. Of course I would buy from the Apps Store, directly from the iPad, only when it has a WiFi connection. (My iPad has 3G but I am not ready to spend more money on it.). The iPad is an Internet appliance, is it too much to ask that its Net connection is reliable? Apparently it was. I heard about the WiFi issue with the iPad before but decided to take a chance with it. And lost. While WiFi worked, it worked sporadically. Somehow it couldn't remember the long password and often asked for it. At some point I was confident that I got the long password memorized and entered it, but alas some character was wrong and the connection couldn't be made. I had to reset network settings to at least be prompted for the password again, otherwise nothing would work. I thought I figured it out by always making sure under Preferences to have WiFi connected first, but that didn't do it either. The list of suggestions as provided by Apple was pretty pathetic. I felt like I was dealing with a Windoze machine. I thought about returning the iPad. Best Buy has a decent 14-day period during which I could have exchanged the thing or return it, I thought.

Luckily, I didn't have to travel down that road. iPad OS 3.2.1 came out a day before Day 14 arrived. The installation was not smooth, as the iPad froze during the process. I had to reboot it then wait for the OS to be restored, then my various apps, music, and photo. Some two hours later the iPad was functional again and boy, does that WiFi fly! All is well in Apple Land again!

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?

Magical and Revolutionary Temptation

I gave in to temptation. I don't plan to buy any books to read on it, or movies to watch on it. The public library is doing a fine job of providing me books and movies, all free. Yet I'm now an iPad owner. Yup, 64-GB and WiFi only. I was considering the 3G model but I feared that with round-the-clock Internet access I won't get much else done in my life. The monthly fee does not help then the news of the security breach on AT&T's server killed the idea.

I actually went to my local Best Buy on Friday morning to try to buy it. There was only one iPad left in the whole store, ONE! Just a WiFi, 32-GB model. I took a few moments to mull it over, then some woman came to the salesman and eagerly bought it. I should have left the matter alone. Instead, in the evening I went to the Best Buy at Broadway and Houston Street to ask about their availability. They only had 64-GB models, for both 3G and WiFi. This time I acted fast and moments later walked out of the store an iPad owner, another lemming in Steve Job's Field of Distorted Reality...

Is it really magical and revolutionary? I cannot tell yet, having only synced the MacBook's old content from the dead iPod Touch to it. Old apps made for the smaller screens of iPhone and iTouch can be viewed at 2x magnification and are surprisingly not bad at all. No pixelation here! With more room both on the laptop (200+ vs. the old laptop's 75 or whatever) and the iPad (64 GB vs. the dead iTouch's 16), I plan to add more of my music CD and subscribe to more podcasts, maybe even some video-based ones.

I sure wish the background photo is something else though. Those nice streaking lines in the sky may look nice to some people, but one of the streaks briefly got me worried that it was a crack on the pristine screen. I simply rotated the thing to confirm that it was not a crack, whew!

With the Pad, I plan to do much web-surfing and emailing, perhaps more frequent blogging, once I get the Bluetooth keyboard. I don't plan to totally abandon the MacBook Pro with regards to Facebook. I know people who only interact with Facebook via their iDevice and totally miss out on a lot of what FB has to offer, warts and all. Besides, Wordscraper does not work on the Pad anyway. I wonder if there is some FB word games that has human interaction and does not require Flash... In a related note, I was pleasantly surprised that dailymile.com's route-creating routine worked fine on the Pad, albeit somewhat cumbersome as the screen is not big enough.

Here are some unboxing photos. When I can get the Pad from my son's cold, stubby fingers, I may make a short video with it.

More Excuses To Have An iPad (and Sanity Checks)

Here I am trying hard not to run to the local Best Buy or the nearest Apple Store to scoop up an iPad and there are so many good reviews out there. My MacBook Pro still works, I still should spend less time online, the house still needs a major renovation, the list goes on and on. Here goes some more excuses, heck, maybe I can spin this off into a cartoon or two.

• I can use it as a digital picture frame. (Digital picture frames are wasteful electricity-suckers. I cannot consider myself green and at the same time have something running 24/7 showing photos that definitely are not viewed all the time. Besides, all the months I had the iPod touch I showed its photos only a few times, ten times top. A stock iPad cannot stand by itself so that would be another x dollars to make the thing stand up like a photo frame.)
• A man in black turtleneck and jean robbed me at gunpoint. When he ran away with the $500 I happened to have, he dropped behind this beautiful electronic gadget. (Yeah, right.)
• It was on sale, 50% off, at the local electronic store. (Apple products are classy and are not carried everywhere. Sure you have the Chinese knock-off that may look like an iPod or a MacBook, even an iPad, but bona fide Apple devices don't come cheap.)
• I can use it for videoconferencing at the Newtown High School (Elmhurst, Queens) reunion at the Astoria Manor in NYC on September 25, 2010. (Even with the 3G iPad coming out in late April 2010, there is no camera whatsoever with any of the iPad. Someone may come up with some add-ons, or maybe Apple will release a newer version, but the likelihood of a new iPad, complete with video camera, is highly remote. For video conferencing, a cheapo netbook is still the answer.)

EXCUSES TO GET AN iPAD (AND REASONS THAT DEBUNK THEM)

The iPad, aaaaahhhh. For me it is a matter of Want over Need. I already have a MacBook Pro and am happy enough with using it around the house. At most I would take the laptop when I go visiting relatives in the city. I am not one of those people who drag laptops everywhere they go. Even though my iPod touch passed away some months ago, I have been able to make do with an ancient Handspring Deluxe (Palm OS) and a 2G iPod. Still, I cannot help thinking up some excuses to buy the iPad, then quickly realized how lame they are.

• To get my son to read more, even if it is just comic books. (Once he has the 'Pad, he will play games all the time. He does not read the comic books I borrowed from the public library anyway.)
• I like reading e-books on the couch. (I listen to podcasts and read books from the public library - cannot beat the price.)
• I can watch movies on it. (I can barely keep up with the DVD movies I borrow from the library. Granted they are not this year's features, but a year or two behind is not that bad. I am not that keen about buying movies either. I bought some Ben 10 movie for my son once from the iTunes Store. He saw it once or twice and then that's it, just sitting there taking up room on my hard drive, or off on some backup media, with little chance of ever being watched again. If I can help it, movies, like books, are best used as borrowed items from the public library.)
• My mother can surf the web with it. (She is obsessive with cleaning around the house, she won't have time to surf. When she does use it, she probably wants to print out the news article to send to friends and I will end up using the laptop to do that anyway.)
• I need to check email and can use the free WiFi at the atrium near the office. (I do fine checking email at home at night, all these years.)
• I should buy one to review for ATPM free online, volunteer-based magazine. (Someone in ATPM already did, maybe there are others who already bought it).

Who knows? I may say to heck with saving money, that even though I just spent a few thousand dollars just last year for a MacBook Pro and that I need to save money for an upcoming major home renovation, I should just get it over with, Want over Need... Maybe going back to this list will convince me not to give in to temptation.