What you're seeing in the picture to the right is lots of folks' worst nightmare: Windows XP on an iPad. The real thing and fully functional. How is this possible? With a VNC client (I use VNC Viewer). The iPad is not really running Windows XP, of course; it's just running a piece of software that lets you view, control and use Macs, Linux boxes and, yes, PCs.
Since getting my iPad I've been wanting to find out what my parents think about the device, so this past weekend I headed down to the coast with my son and iPad to relax and visit with my parents, and find out if they would like to try using an iPad.
I came across some speed tests on Lifehacker for the free Opera Mini browser. When it comes to loading web pages it's over 4 times faster than Safari. But the testing shows that it's slower than Safari in a couple other respects. The review says this is likely due to Safari's privileged position as the default browser and the fact that this is first version of Opera Mini.
Be sure to read our blogger Werner's review of this new, free web browser for the iPhone. Opera Mini was downloaded over 1 million times on its first day in the App Store yesterday! That's amazing. It's currently the top download among all categories. The beauty of Opera Mini is that it routes web pages to a server before they get to your iPhone. That server compresses the pages up to 90%, greatly speeding up your web browsing. Plus, it has other great features.
I figured that maybe with a little help from BlogPress ($2.99) I might have some luck being able to upload images to my iPL blog since I was having difficulty uploading images from my iPad via my regular Safari log in. Still getting used to BlogPress, oops how to I change the image orientation?
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.
