Uk iPad user - First Impressions

Its here! Finally!

So I couldn't wait until Apple decided to grace us with the ipads presence and instead decided to get one early off bay. So I might have paid over the odds, but who knows? Apple may decide it's worth one squillion pounds to us UK'ers...

I opted for the 32gb wifi only version as there are loads of ways of getting online without the 3G version. The jailbroken iphone app MyWi to name just one... Who needs another data plan!?

First impressions are that it feels like a quality piece of kit... Not too heavy, but not so light that it came out of a kinder egg. Size wise, go look it up, but its not quite as big as a piece of A4.

When you turn it on for the first time you will need to pug it into an updated version of iTunes. Then the usual setting of sync options and away you go.

The first thing I did was to set up push with gmail, just like on my iPhone. The mail application is great! 2 diffent display layouts depending on the orientation you choose. In fact this is the same for most ipad apps, hold it one way you get one view, another and you get a different view.

If you are an iPhone user, you need no introduction to the iPad and will be buzzing around in no time. The interface is really simple and very intuitive.

Typing on the screen's keyboard is really very good. So good in fact that I'm writing this on it. Landscape mode of course.

The absolute winner for the iPad so far for me is the Internet browsing... Google already seem to have skinned their apps for the iPad, so gmail in a browser looks awesome. The pad feels so natural in your hands and having the web right there in all it's glory is indeed very good.

Sound quality for the built in speaker is surprisingly good, and certainly better than the iPhone.

Google maps is kind fun, almost as big as an old fashioned a-z! The location services (not gps) had me pinned in seconds.

iTunes is a real treat! If you are addicted to spending loads of 79ps on your iPhone then this device could seriously ruin your credit rating!

iPhone apps on the ipad are kinda weird as they are so small. Apple have given us a 2x button to scale it up, but that looks wierd too... Soon enough though there will be native ipad versions of pretty much everything anyway.

Bad points: no built in camera... WTF!!??

One thing I'm really looking forward to as an amateur photographer is getting my hands on the camera connection kit. Shoot on the slr and review on the iPad. That's gonna be great!

So I guess the big question is "will it replace my netbook?". So long as I can get decent native remote desktop and ssh apps then I honestly cannot see why not.

I'm probably gonna be jail breaking this puppy soon, so I'll let you all know how that goes...