Teach42

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Well, it has now been two full days with the iPad and I figured I ought summarize some of my thoughts about it so far. I ought to preface his by saying that I had/have a healthy degree of skepticism regarding the device. I’m no Fanboy when it comes to Apple. I have a great appreciation for what they’ve accomplished, but I held off for years before switching to the iPhone. While I do have a MacBook, i still work primarily on a PC. And I have to admit, the list of things the iPad doesn’t do had me grinding my teeth.

And yet, I still wound up outside an Apple store at 6 am saturday morning with four other die hard Apple fans, watching dozens of Apple store employees prepare for heat seemed to be he event of the century. This was my first time coming out for an apple launch, and it was quite a spectacle. Screaming,cheering, high fives galore… And that was all from store employees! Starbucks came out and made up free coffee and passed out snacks. All in all, it really was quite a good time, if a bit overdone.

And after hours of waiting, I finally got the box in my hands, drove it home and ripped it open. A mixed blessing, it came with a full charge, but had to be connected to iTunes before it would work. So…….. if someone wanted this to be their one and only device, they need a friend with iTunes to activate it for them. Strange. It also started loading up all my iPhone apps, and I have quite a few. So despite the full charge, it was still about half an hour before I could play with it (which is freaking forever in ‘geek with a new toy’ time).

When I first got it fired up and running…. I have to admit i was a .title disappointed. ‘big iTouch’ kept going through my head. And while it’s nice to be able to runthe iodine apps, that double size thing is mostly annoying. However, I did discover something interesting pretty quick. The keyboard on the double size iPhone apps is easier to use than either of the iPad keyboards. Why? Because it sits closer to the ,idle of the screen. The iPad keyboards sit so low that it’s uncomfortable to hold it up and thumb type. Much more comfortable with the keyboard closer to the ,idle. That being said, I still deleted most of my native iPhone apps. It’s such a beautiful device, it seemed a shame to use those blocky, pixelly apps.

Anyway, as I was saying, I was disappointed at first. But an hour or so later, I needed to show my wife a recipe. So I grabbed the ipad and had it up in a second and was showing it to her in the kitchen. That was kind of nice. Much more convenient than booting up the laptop and calling her over. Not much, but that was the first lightbulb going on.

Later I gave it to Aiden to see what he would think of it. I was expecting some kind of wow moment, and I really didn’t get it. He just grabbed hold of it and knew exactly what to do. He flipped through the pages of apps and loaded up a game. When he got bored, he exited out and fired up the Toy Story interactive book and proceeded to watch the entire thing. The ,sot fascinating thing about it was just how intuitive it was for him. No instruction necessary, he knew just what to do. In some sense, that actually was kind of magical. It’s a new niche built on a familiar platform. He was careful, respectful and left much smaller fingerprints than mine.

I really started to see the potential when I brought it over to a friend’s house to watch the final four. I put it in the ,idle of the coffee table and just left it there to see how it would get used. And it got used constantly. People used it to look up sports facts, the Hawkeye football schedule, camp sites for a summer trip, the calendar to plan the same trip, the Lollapalooza lineup, to watch letterman use the iPad on YouTube, to check out a recipe, look up photos and who know what else. All I know is that it was used constantly. Yes, at first because it was a new gadget, but then because it was… Simple. Easy. Convenient. Intuitive. Accessible. And that’s when I started to really see where this thing is going. It’s a social machine because it CAN be. Try huddling sound an iPhone and having three people watch a video. Or passing an open laptop around a sofa. Can it be done? Sure! But this just does it… better.

Since then, I’ve used it for two more days and a good part has bee setting it up. Syncing calendars, getting email accounts up, installing apps, loading music and movies and so on. But I’ve also read stories to Aiden on it and started reading my own book as well. I’ve done more Thant my fair share of web surfing on it, which is quite simply a pleasure. I’ve read and sent emails, as well as done some actual work on it. And right now, I’m typing this post on it. It’s lying din in the sofa and I’m doing the fastest two finger typing i’ve ever done. I could do it faster with a real keyboard, but I wanted to try this out. And it ain’t too bad,

So what’s the verdict? I dunno. I can’t recommend someone buy it especially in place of a different device. But k can tell you I don’t regret the decision so far. And i can also say that while the apps are good so far, most were designed off a simulator. I’m confident they’ll get a lot better now that people can develop with production models. And as we saw witness the iPhone, the hardware was a good start, but it was the apps that really made the device. And this will be a dream of a platform to develop for.

So as of now, I’m satisfied with the experience as it is, and I see big potential for it. A s for it’s implications for education, I think the verdict is distill out. It really ain’t a cheap device, and the question is whether the benefits will justify the cost. Believe me, I’ll be coming back to that.

All things in time. As of the first three days, it may not be as magical as Jobs claimed… but i don’t think that’s a bad thing. Some times the best magic is the kind that’s simply invisible.