iPhone Life magazine

First post from iPad

John Painter 4.3.10

Is the iPad “magical”?  No.  Is it pretty darn impressive?  Absolutely. After picking my iPad up this morning at the Portland Mall in Maine, I got right down to business seeing just how well this thing can blog, and in so doing, put it through the paces that everyone wants to know. I’ll let you be the judge based not just on these words but by the recognition I’m doing it all on the iPad. So where to start?  Setting up MobileMe is just like the iPhone, Settings > Mail > Add Account > then enter your MobileMe account info and you’re in. You set it up to connect to the internet just like your iPhone or iPod Touch.  And if you’re a brand new convert to the iPhone OS, it’s about as intuitive as you can get.  Just go to Settings, > wifi and select the wifi signal (there’s free wifi in the mall) where you are. No surprises with taking a screen shot either, just a quick press of your Home and Power buttons simultaneously and it’s done. Going onto the iPhone Life website, logging in and writing.  Just like on my (former) MacBook sans keyboard.  Uploading a screenshot and a photo off my iPhone via Mover + ($1.99) http://bit.ly/dq8v6k and I’m done. It is indeed a LOT snappier than I thought it would be, having been conditioned by my iPhone 3G where there’s some lag when your on the web.  None to speak of, with the iPad. This will take some getting used to, the keyboard, it works like on a MacBook except you’re using your finger for a mouse.  Thinking about this, it strikes me that using the keyboard/charger is going to be a hassle because there is no mouse!  You better get ready to do a lot of typing ala Jobs – on your lap. Downloading apps from iTunes is again, just like the iPhone, though I have to say that I’m loving typing into Pages ($9.99) http://bit.ly/a3mZUl it’s smooth! This was indeed a smooth, albeit quick posting, so I can’t really say how great this virtual keyboard is, though it is going to take some time to get used to because you’re typing on a flat surface with all your fingers.  The risk I see here is a potential, if you’re blogging all day, imaybe developing carpal tunnel syndrome.  But I’ll have to type more to figure out where the risks are. The iPad isn’t magical, but after many years of using PDA’s, smartphones and iPhones I can already tell you getting rid of my MacBook was a good decision.  Enough for now.  I’m off to see if my 80 year old parents will give this thing a try and get their opinions, hopefully they’ll let me video tape them and I can post a video blog.

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John Painter
http://www.johnlpainter.com

I'm a behavioral health professional living and working in Maine specializing in psychiatric rehabilitation. For years I've utilized mobile technology to improve the delivery of community based mental health services, and embraced the iPhone when it came out in 2007.

I am also a doctoral candidate at Franklin Pierce University where I have been researching the role of the Liberal Arts in American higher education.

I write as a guest for iPhone Life periodically with a special interest in helping other professionals (healthcare, education and government in particular) incorporate iOS devices into their work, and several years ago introduced the first iPhone and eventually iPad classes at Lewiston Adult Education in Lewiston Maine http://laeipad.blogspot.com/ concentrating on helping other professionals interested in using and incorporating iPads into their work.

Old Comments

great - write more!

Submitted by Phyllis Khare on 4/3/10 11:38am

 I really appreciate you taking the time to write about this - and I would LOVE to see how your parents react...

Was there supposed to be a picture in this post?

Who needs a laptop?

Submitted by John Painter on 4/4/10 1:53pm
Yes there was, of course I have not figured out how to upload images to the iPL server since this version of Safari is different than on a regular computer.  Slowly getting the hang of it.  Got a review of Pages I'm finishing after putting it through the paces.  I think Pages and whole iWork suite is critical to making iPad either sink or swim as a net book (let alone laptop) replacement. But if this weekend is any indicator, I'm certain getting rid of my MacBook was the right decision.  

Macbook?

Submitted by n lane on 4/14/10 8:10pm

why do you say getting rid of the Macbook was a good decision? I just bought one instead of an Ipad because I didn't think the Ipad would replace a laptop.

Good question, what I'm doing

Submitted by John Painter on 4/14/10 8:45pm
Good question, what I'm doing won't work for everyone. I did some soul searching... What was I really doing with my MacBook? In short I was doing a lot of writing of small papers in school, not more than 15 pages, doing a lot of Internet searches though various online libraries, blogging, and collecting bits of data for my research. The iPad does these things well. On the down side, there's no DVD or ability to connect a Flash drive, there's no real keyboard (you can buy one but then that sort of degrades the liberation from extra 'stuff' the iPad gives you), and a whole different way of interacting with your computer i.e. touchscreen and the issue of not playing Flash. Here's the thing though, once I really looked at what I was doing moving around though my daily routine the iPad just works. The MacBook was overkill, when I need to do heavy computing I use my iMac, when I'm running around but still want to get basic work done I use my iPad.