iPad Retrospective

With the iPad2 set to be introduced tomorrow it is a good time for a retrospective on how it has been used and how views about it have changed.

John Chandler has a retrospective on his blog that goes through the stages of his iPad thinking and usage. It has been his constant companion, unobtrusive tool, and has helped focus on one thing at a time. It also became more than a media consumption device. He has found that the portable MacBook Air has reduced his iPad usage so it is more a device for augmenting not replacing his laptop.

I was eager to show that the iPad could be more than a consumption device and with all the great software that has been developed this has been borne out. My favourite is OmniFocus with the iPad version arguably better than the Mac Version which is playing catch up. Syncing has become extremely important to me as I continue my workflows from Mac to Mac to iPad to iPhone and on again. I have been really impressed with Simplenote even after purchasing and trying the many other note taking iPad/iPhone apps. I like free but I am seriously considering getting the premium versions of Simplenote and Dropbox to further extend my syncing workflows. The whole experience has also got me to be a big proponent of multimarkdown text for writing. Textexpander syncing has become a mainstay that I wouldn’t want to go without. I am a big fan of mindmapping and iThoughts HD is a no compromise version for the iPad.

I haven’t used drawing apps as much as I would like to. I have some really good ones like Omnigraffle and Sketchbook Pro but I just haven’t got into using them as much as I have writing.

It has been very pleasant seeing the innovation in new types of apps at such affordable prices. There are so many excellent apps that the biggest issue is finding and choosing which ones to get.

I have pretty much converted over to reading books using the Kindle App as they are portable, affordable, there is good selection, and they are instantly available. I wanted to use iBooks but the price seems higher and the main problem is the limited selection. I am evaluating graphic support as I am noticing that most of my Kindle books are almost all text. I suspect iBooks could have better graphic support and text formatting but if they don’t have the titles I want what can you do? Ebooks still have a lot of evolving to do as simple things like copying text snippets and sharing notes are not as easy as they need to be.

I have found the iPad to be very responsive and I really like that each app goes full screen so you can focus on one thing at a time. It is amazing how well the software works even for fast switching given the relatively small amount of memory. Apple really needs to work on syncing though, because transferring files via iTunes just isn’t any good. It works but it creates too much friction as it distracts from just getting things done. Many apps use Dropbox but this should become a built in system capability. The poor transfer capability has limited my use of Apple’s iWork applications. I have purchased Printopia for printing directly from my iPad but I haven’t really used it yet.

One decision I spent some time considering was whether or not to get 3G networking or just stick to wifi hotspots. I am glad I picked 3G as I have used it a lot and Rogers has a sensible plan for combining iPhone and iPad data usage.

I haven’t found the lack of camera to be a big deal as I always carry my iPhone with me and can easily transfer photos to the iPad.

I found the Apple case has met my needs although it does tend to look dirty and it isn’t as stylish as some of the third party cases. I also purchased the charging stand but this was a waste of money as it rarely gets used because I would have to take the iPad out of its case. I would still like to find a good stand that I can use without taking off the case. I like the iPad writing apps so much I would like to use a stand and wireless keyboard sometimes instead of always using the onscreen keyboard. I haven’t used the display adapter but I saw it being used yesterday and I would like to start doing that too.

All in all I am very happy about my iPad purchase as it has served me well. We will just have to wait and see if version 2 enhancements are significant enough to tempt an upgrade. I haven’t seen anything in the rumours yet that will cause me to advance a purchase before iPad 3. This is more a testament of how good the iPad 1 is rather than a critique of the yet unreleased iPad 2. Most of the enhancements I am looking for are software updates that should continue to run on the original iPad.