The Lubis Family Adventures

Even the Blue Power Ranger likes the iPad!

For Razak Ahmad & Bedud, who asked for my view of the iPad:

I don't have an iPod nor iPhone, and I'd never really wanted neither. But when Jobs previewd the iPad, I was all ears! I pre-ordered it on the first day Apple opened for orders, March 12, 2010. It came to my door all the way from Shenzen, Cn, on the release day, April 3rd, 2010, via UPS Express, at around 10 am.

It's the base model, Wi-Fi with 16 gig hd space, for $499.00, before tax. With tax, the amount came to $529.00. I also ordered a TV adapter for about $30.00.

The first thing that struck me was the lightness of the thing. It's supposedly 1.4 lbs didn't feel like it at all. I like to have a small lap pillow for the thing to stand as I use the screen. My younger kids like to have it on the floor; they'd have both hands to zoom in and out, pointing and tap, just like you'd use the iPhone.

The ON button is on the top right of the iPad if you're looking at it portrait-wise.

On the right side of it is the volume control. The Home button is centered to the middle, at the bottom of the iPad frame.

Those are the physical buttons. The rest of the controls are menu and finger-driven.

Once switched on, the iPod displays the "lake view with a meteor shooting down" wallpaper.
You are asked to unlock the screen, and after sliding the arrow icon, the screen changes to the Home page.

This is where you see your apps (on top half; the sky part of the image). Preloaded are Calender, Contacts, Notes, Maps, Videos, YouTube, iTunes, the Apps Store and Settings. There's a Dock on the bottom, with Safari, Mail, Photos, and iPOd icons.

The iPad's screen seems to be backlighted, but projects sharp and crispy clear images. We uploaded one of our family videos and it played nicely, just as it would on our mac mini. Some of the music done by the kids on the Garage Band were also uploaded for testing; they sounded like laptop speakers would, tinny and lacking bass.

I noticed a couple of things as we were checking the iPad out. One, that it requires another mac (or pc) with the iTunes program to synch (upload) in the videos, photos and music to the iPad, just like the iPods would. You'd need to sign in an iTunes account in your iPad to access the files in your PC. There is a direct way of uploading your material like say, from your Nikon to the iPad without the middleMac, but that's through a special $29.99 cable accessory from Apple (of course, la!). The second irritant was the need to get apps for a fee. The apps range in prices from free to 99 cents upwards. For example, Keynote (akin to Powerpoint) costs $9.99. Now imagine all these iPads needing additional apps, you would see the REAL reason for this XXXL iPod Touch.

Connecting the iPad to my DSL-based wi-fi system was a breeze. Put the user name and password in, and you are connected. Navigating the Net on it was slower than what my 2001 iBook could, but that's most probably because the look and feel of the Safari app was a bit different from my iBook's. For one, where are the bookmarks? And somehow, Adobe's Flash doesn't go into the iPad. That means, right -- get an app!!

YouTube is one of the preloaded apps which works really well even on my DSL connection. The iPad orientates itself automatically, so when viewing a YouTube file, I'd place it along its side for the panoramic view and walla, it's now a full screen movie.

I have not yet fully grasped the touch screen interface, But my kids say that it works just like Kak Cah's iPhone. So, for those out there who have iPhones, you know how to use your tapping and clawing skills to zoom in, out, or scroll down and sideways, the iPad.

Zooming the page: Place any two fingers on the screen, close together, like this..

and spread them out. It's that simple!

So what's the verdict, asks Nan aka Pa Alysha. Well, I bought my iPad because I'd like to use it for my work, mostly, and my hobbies, partly. I'd like to take my laptop everywhere but it's just too inconvenient; usually I'll need just my flash drive. But flash drives need to be connected to the PC at work, so yes, I'll need that docking device (a PC) at work.

This iPad is, therefore, a flash-drive in disguise, that comes with a decent-sized screen and rudimentary internet access. Go where there's wi-fi, and you're connected. The touch-interface is a joy to use, and for two-finger peckers like me, the touch-screen keyboard that pops out anytime I touch a fill-in field works just fine.

This iPad does not replace your MacBook. It is a companion to it, acting in most parts, as a showcase of what you do on your main PC. It will do some things your laptop would, but it won't replace it. Not yet, anyway. Try to place the iPad into your needs grid, and if you could find a vacant slot, you might want to purchase one. Otherwise, save your $499.00; you don't need an iPad.

-------------------