This is my first and only apple product but I have to say it is fantastic, it just works. There is no messing around, it just switches on, you do your mail/calendar/whatever and switch it off. As AdamW said, there was a lot of eye rolling when first purchased but now the only issue is that we don't have more in the house.
It is possible that the Android devices will manage the same but this could also be one of those cases of buy cheap, buy twice. The price is still a bit painful though
As one person pointed out, there is removable storage for the iPhone and iPad. There's the Camera Connection kit, and Zoomedia do a similar thing which I've had for ages, a card reader with dock connector and accompanying app that allows files to be copied to and from the Pad. Works really well.
Regarding Flash, those who've been paying attention would know that Apple have relaxed certain restrictions, and Adobe are working towards a way for Flash to work on iPhones and iPads, they are also demoing a way to use an iPad with Photoshop, with all the brush selections and other menus on the pad, allowing the whole monitor screen to be used for editing. Early days yet, but could be useful for those who do Photoshop work on a laptop.
David Hockney's got an exhibition of work done and exhibited on iPad's too, to show it can be a creative devise.
Mine was work issue (16gb wifi) and it has been so so good for our 3 yr old. Long trips be it in the car or on the plane or whatever are easy as she happily messes around on the various kiddy apps or loads her self some charlie n lola.
It must be a fairly intuitive UI for her to grasp it so quickly.
For me I do love it for browsing the net/email, I can imagine a fair bit of the xmas shopping will be done on it this year. With it so quick to power up and so on it means you can deal with things straight away, for example road tax letter dropped through the post yesterday, I wandered back into the lounge with my coffee and renewed it via the ipad with no waiting for windows to load, logging on and waiting for the laptop to chug into life.
We used it as a sat nav on the weekend too now that android 2.2 gives you a wifi hotspot from your phone, it was alot easier to use with the bigger screen.
Definitely a luxury rather than a neccesity though!!
I found three phases with it (64gb 3G) over the first month, now firmly in phase 3 (6 months in now)
1) OooOOooohhh - isn't it lovely!
2) Wait a minute, this is just a big iPhone
3) Hang on, not it isn't. this is rather clever.
Key hooks for me -
Goodreader and PDF annotation on the fly with ftp integration, same for keynote and idisk. brilliant way for me to work with info for my team and my suppliers instantly, on fly and completely mobile. brilliant, really brilliant, not at all possible with our current corporate IT systems.
Teamviewer: diagnosing and fixing my family's computer problems by taking control of thier computer with my iPad from anywhere in the world - amazing!
Filterstorm, photobucket app + camera connection kit and ability to edit Canon 5D RAW files on the fly - great. Still use Lightroom for major imports but for mobile stuff it is great
Reckless Racing HD, Madden NFL 11 HD and NOVA HD are terribly addictive games
Miss Spider series, 5in1, Pirates, The Lorax, AniMatching, Drawing Pad, face melter all great for the kids.
Remote is great for controlling apple TV and music through airport express (that really gives people a mindf*ck)
And of course then there is the standard browsing, mail, video and ipod stuff. Brilliant.
Add to that the instant on, incredibly fast in and out of apps and physical size and it is a winner.
HTH
Kev
Key hooks for me -
Goodreader and PDF annotation on the fly
+1 - brilliant
Cheers Kev, really useful info. I really like the idea of reading colourful & animated stories to my children using a device like the ipad, they'd love it. The Alice in Wonderland app looks pretty impressive. Interesting that there's a way to edit Canon RAW files, that's a big plus for me as I always shoot raw with my 40D. Teamviewer is indeed ace, have had a play with that before.
they are also demoing a way to use an iPad with Photoshop, with all the brush selections and other menus on the pad
There are also a few apps where you can use an iPhone as a palette and the iPad as the canvas, which is pretty cute.
GrahamS - Memberthey are also demoing a way to use an iPad with Photoshop, with all the brush selections and other menus on the pad
There are also a few apps where you can use an iPhone as a palette and the iPad as the canvas, which is pretty cute.
That sounds well cool! I was playing chopper 2 on a long flight recently, using the iphone as the controller and the ipad as the screen, had a queue of people wanting a shot. I love that kind of thinking to deliver cool integration.
The animated kids stories are great, a very interesting way of using teh tech.
Kev
[i]I'm sure that after xmas the market will be awash with Android powered copies for less than a couple of hundred quid[/i]
I tried one. Bought a Point of View Android tablet for £150 (around that), seeing as it was mainly for my son to play on. It was GARBAGE!
The touch screen didn't even work properly. REFUND!
[i]There's the Camera Connection kit[/i]
Googling that baby!