SpeedyE.com » iPad

iPad 2 Review

Enoch — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:27:01 +0000

A little less than a year ago, I posted my review of the original iPad. It was a solid first gen Apple product that changed the way we look at tablets and computing. Rumors started to swirl during the build up to the iPad 2. Retina display or no? Built in SD Card slot? Smaller version? All of these rumors were eventually thrown out closer to launch so my expectations were pretty muted when Steve Jobs took the stage. After the keynote, my initial reaction was posted on twitter. I think I felt this way because the iPad 2 was basically everything I suspected it would be and nothing more. Things started to change when I actually watched the video of the keynote and subsequent videos from other tech sites. So I decided to sell my old iPad to Gazelle.com for a $330 Amazon GC and made plans to stand in line for the iPad 2. After a few days of testing, here are my thoughts.

The Smart Cover

Why would I start the review of the iPad 2 with something that is listed as an accessory? It’s because I believe this is the most significant change that Apple has made in the design of the iPad. Yes it’s thinner, yes it has two cameras, but functionally this is the best feature they’ve come up with in the new iPad. The cover fits on the iPad magnetically and is quite easy to take on and off. Being able to snap it off in an instant when I want to is quite nice, unlike other cases made for the iPad. When I used my original iPad, I almost always kept it locked in portrait mode. With the new smart cover, I find myself using the iPad in landscape mode more and more. Being able to comfortable type in landscape mode with the iPad on my lap is a new experience for me. Beyond the functional use of the Smart Cover, there is finally a case that matches the aesthetics and minimalism of the iPad. I decided to go for the gray polyurethane cover to keep the color on the front and the back consistent. Go into an Apple store and try out the smart cover, it’s pretty great.

Design

Overall, the new design of the iPad is neutral to me. On the one hand, I really like the new thinness of the model. On the other, I don’t exactly like the way the ports/buttons look on a tapered angle. The tapering makes it feel better in your hand but the functionality of the buttons and ports have been a bit compromised. I’ve never really been a fan of the 1 speaker setup on the iPad. The new grill on the bottom of the iPad 2 is a eye sore and causes some issues with 3rd part back covers and cases. The Bookback from DodoCase now looks like crap. There just has to be a better way of implementing speakers on the iPad without compromising the design.

Cameras

The cameras look like crap, plain and simple. When the iPhone 4 came out, I extolled the quality of the camera and how it would change the way mobile photos would look in the future. The iPad 2 took about 3 steps back. Granted you’re not going to be taking that many photos or video with your iPad when you’re out and about but a better camera would have been nice. Here’s a test shot from the iPad, no editing, in a pretty dimly lit room. You can see the massive amounts of noise, artifacting, and lack of definition. And also for those that are curious, the resolution on the back camera is 960 x 720 or a whopping 0.7 megapixels. Apple is the king of incremental upgrades.

Speed

Apple has boasted that the new iPad 2 is twice as fast and has nine time faster graphics. In my use, the anecdotal evidence supports their claims. The iPad is indeed a lot snappier. In Safari, pages load up a lot quicker and switching between applications is a breeze. Safari now can hold all your tabs in memory so there’s no need to reload the whole page when you switch tabs. The faster graphics are evident with Infinity Blade and the update they released for the iPad 2. The textures and details on the models have been turned up and it looks amazing. I’m really looking forward to seeing developers leverage the new graphics and CPU on the iPad 2.

Conclusion

Specs and details aside, the iPad 2 is a great product. Once you get it in your hands and use it, it’s quite a magical device. Apple has always focused on the user experience more than the specs and the iPad is a prime example of this. Bottom line, it’s a joy to use and is a great value at $500.

Kindle

Enoch — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 02:35:00 +0000

I’ve been using my iPad a lot for reading lately. Even before I got the iPad I had downloaded and read a few books from Amazon. I decided against using iBooks since I didn’t want to split up my book collection.

Recently, I’ve started to reread some books that I enjoyed from middle school and high school. I remember reading Ender’s Game in middle school so decided to reread that first. That lead to reading other books in the series, Ender’s Shadow and Shadow of the Hegemon. Overall a enjoyable series and pretty easy reading.

I remembered one of the few books I enjoyed in Highschool English AP class was John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. I ended up rereading the 900+ page book in 3 days. I didn’t even remember most of the book but that probably made it more enjoyable for the rereading.

I still haven’t finished reading The Year of Living Biblically but so far it’s been entertaining. The premise of the book is that they author is trying to follow all the rules of the Bible for a whole year and writes about the experience.

You may have heard of the new TV show Sh*t My Dad Says starring William Shatner. I’ve only seen some of the TV spots for the show and I can already assure you that the book is a lot better than the show will ever be.

If I keep up my current pace, I’ll be finishing a new book every 3 days. I used to think that I didn’t like reading much. Maybe I just needed the iPad to get me started.

iPad Stand

Enoch — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:16:07 +0000

iPad: The Review

Enoch — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:51:49 +0000

Pre-launch

I have to admit, before the iPad announcement I was pretty excited about the possibilities of an Apple Tablet. After the iPad announcement, my excitement was a bit tempered. I wasn’t sure Apple had delivered the goods with their first foray into the tablet market. But after reading a few initial hands on reviews, I was cautiously optimistic. Going into launch day, I had decided I would buy it, use it for a few weeks, then if I didn’t find it useful I would resell it. I can tell you now that I’m not going to get rid of this thing any time soon.

Day to Day Use

For the past few days at home, I’ve been exclusively using the iPad and leaving my laptop tethered to my monitor in my room. The iPad really works in the home environment because you can quick access to your email, web, or apps while you’re doing other things in the house. While I was prepping some chicken thighs for roasting the other day, I was able use the epicurious app to look a baking temperature and time frame in order to cook the chicken through. Using it on the couch while watching TV is a particularly enjoyable experience as you can pick it up at any point and look up the TV Guide on the Yahoo! Entertainment app or just surf the web during commercials.

The web browsing experience is phenomenal on the iPad. When I heard Steve Jobs talking about how great it was to have the “internet in your hands” I thought it was a bunch of BS. You really don’t understand this point until you try it for yourself. The device is a bit slower rendering the whole webpage than a Macbook Pro but the responsiveness of the zooming and scrolling is amazing. You maybe browsing the same websites as you do on a laptop but the experience is markedly different.

Now you might argue that a laptop can do all these things and more. The one advantage the iPad has over netbooks and laptops is the instant on that you get from it coupled with the battery life. There really is no reason to worry about your battery life on the iPad on a day to day basis. One charge will last you 12 hours so you never need to plug it in during the day. Just set it to charge each night and you don’t need to worry. The instant on allows you to do quick look ups of information and turn it quickly back off.

The Apps

As good as the hardware and the iPad interface is, we all know it’s all about the apps. The development of 3rd party apps is really what’s going to drive the innovation on the iPad and give it uses that Apple never could have thought of on their own. On that note, these are a few of the apps that I’ve found myself using on a regular basis.

Netflix – The netflix instant streaming function has really increased the value of a netflix account. With that comes the netflix app which allows you to watch movies and tv shows that netflix has on instant streaming. I’ve been watching 30 Rock and documentaries.

New York Times – This app has gotten the most “Wow” reactions from friends. Not because it’s flashy, but because it reproduces the look and feel of the print version so well. Everytime I load this app I feel rewarded. The photos coupled with the great articles just make the experience immersive.

TweetDeck – They still need to work out some kinks in this app but they’ve done a good job incorporating the iPad UI and functionality into this twitter client.

Kindle – I had already invested in a few Kindle books before the iPad came out so I’ve continued using it over the iBooks application that Apple released. This may change as companies learn how to fully leverage the iBooks app with color and interactive books. But for now, the Kindle app is a must. I’ve already read more books in the past few weeks on the iPad than I have in the past 2 years.

AirVideo – Since I have a lot of videos that I’ve made over the years, not all of them can fit on my 16 GB iPad. AirVideo fixes this problem quite elegantly. I can now stream my videos and movies over the network from my laptop to my iPad.

The Games

It’s nice to be able to kick back and play a few games on the iPad after a long day at work. People whine about the exclusion of flash in the iPad but I really view flash viable for a few things: advertisements, video and games. The exclusion of ads on your web browsing experience is like having a free ad blocker. Many video sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, CNN, and ESPN have moved over to HTML5 so you can view their content on an iPad. And finally for games you have an even better experience by downloading them straight to the iPad. Here’s a few that I particularly enjoy.

Words With Friends HD – I really don’t understand why the scrabble app didn’t pick up this much steam, maybe because of the initial free, ad supported version of WWF that came out on iPhone and iPod Touch. Regardless, this is fun game that will get you plenty of entertainment.

Geometry Wars Touch – I was pretty obsessed with this game when it came out for Xbox Arcade. The controls are not as precise on the touch but passable. Still gives you multiple modes and hours of play.

Flight Control HD – This was already one of the best games made for iPhone. The iPad version takes it up a notch with multiplayer options and new maps. If you want a similar game but free, look at Harbor Master.

For Work

Lest you think the iPad is just for fun and games, I also bought it to use at work. I regularly have to go out of my office to do help requests. For some requests I may have to assign DHCP static IP address on our DHCP server. Before this would either require me to walk back to my office to assign the IP address, or bring a laptop. The iPad offers a nice solution. I have a Remote Desktop app that allows me to make the necessary changes on the server with out having to go back and forth between my office and theirs. I’m still waiting for Apple to release a ARD app, but VNC is a work around for that right now.

Conclusion

Now after this glowing review you might think that I would say that you have to go out and buy an iPad because it will change your life. I’m actually more of the opinion that the iPad, in it’s current form, is more of a luxury than anywhere close to a necessity. The device itself is great but I don’t believe it’s for everyone. The ultimate goal for Apple is to change this “want” to a “need” and I still think they have a ways to go before that will happen.

For more, take a look at my iPad First Look video

iPad First Look

Enoch — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 21:30:16 +0000

iPad Reaction

Enoch — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:34:39 +0000

I’m writing down some of my initial reaction to the new Apple iPad for posterity.

- I liken the iPad to the 1st Gen iPhone. If you think back to how the 1st Gen iPhone was and what the 3GS is now, there was a ton of growth both from Apple and from 3rd party developers. I think the iPad has a ton of room to grow as far as productivity and usability.

- They hit it right on with the price. $499 entry for this device silenced a lot of the haters. Usually it’s the innovation and design that drives Apple to sell units but this time it’s going to be the price.

- The iPad won’t replace your computer. Hell it won’t even replace a laptop. Unless you own a desktop and have no laptop, I can’t see the iPad replacing my Macbook Pro. You still have to sync this to a computer to get the full functionality of it.

- The iPad would be amazing for photographers and videographers to bring around to client meetings. Being able to show your portfolio on this beautiful device would add to the selling of your services.

- I think the hackintosh community will end up making the OS even better for techies to use. Let the competition begin for who can make the best 3rd party iPad OS.

- The iPad would make a great travel companion. If you’re going on a trip you can just activate the $30/month 3G plan just for that month then deactivate it when you’re done traveling. They even offer a SD card reader to dock connector adapter so you can upload your camera’s photos onto your iPad and then onto Flickr. Probably won’t be able to read RAW files just yet though.

- The Amazon Kindle is in a world of hurt right now. $260 for a monocrome E-book reader? Or $499 for something that can do infinitely more.