My iPad Review Or: I Really Miss the iPad Already

There are thousands of iPad reviews out there and I probably won’t say anything new about the device itself. So, I guess it would be more accurate to say that this is a review of how the iPad has changed my computing life and how I’m missing it terribly three days into its absence as Lisa has taken it to Australia. (I swear, I miss her more.)

To say that my desktop computer is on its last legs is just a bit of an understatement. I built it in 2003 for my last year of college and it has served me faithfully with only a harddrive and operating system upgrade. However, it makes very strange noises and it’s getting progressively slower so Lisa and I tentatively made plans for its replacement and we both seemed to think an iPad would make sense since it would cost about the same and be a bit more portable and convenient for travel. Then along came an opportunity to buy one through my incredibly generous brother and we jumped on it about 3 weeks ago.

The great thing about the iPad was the very shallow learning curve. I like to learn as I go with computers and software and everything happens pretty much intuitively with the iPad. There are a few odd things (moving icons around the home screen is a bit trickier than it needs to be) and there are a few incredibly annoying things (I had to give my credit card information to Apple three times in the first three days and I didn’t even buy anything), but there were a few extremely cool moments too (like downloading my digital copy of Harry Potter 7 directly to the device rather than to my PC and then syncing). Put together, the cool moments give the iPad an almost mysteriously futuristic feel, like this is something that came out of an episode of Star Trek. So, on the whole, it’s a great device and it fees like the future, despite Apple’s stranglehold on how I try to put anything on to it.

Let’s be honest here: Apple is either the Walmart or the new Microsoft of the computing world, despite what all the Applecolytes try to say. Apple takes 30% off the top from anything bought or sold in the Apple App Store and, oh yeah, you can only buy things in the Apple App Store. I like knowing that the apps in the store are properly vetted by Apple, but the practice of banning user-created apps with great ideas so they can steal them is more than a little wrong. So the best thing to happen to the device is that it is an Apple product and the worst thing to happen to the device is that it is an Apple product. So the shine is off the fruit, but hey, that’s capitalism I guess.

But truly the biggest and best thing I’ve discovered with the iPad is this: there is stuff to read on the internet! To be honest about my internet habits prior to the iPad is a bit embarrassing. Check out this WWII forum here and that one there and look up some shopping stuff for things I want to buy; put off answering some email, check the Facebook newsfeed obsessively, and maybe stay up on a webcomic. Although I was reading a lot, I wasn’t actually doing it with the intention of gaining any knowledge. That’s where the iPad has changed everything. The fantastic Flipboard app has made me give in to Google Reader and now I’m collecting blog subscriptions with glee. And it makes Facebook a lot more interesting too. The Economist, New York Times, and Wired magazine all have fantastic apps that I’ve been enjoying immensely. I’ve even found that if I receive a PDF or .doc attachment in email, I will leave the desktop, get the iPad, find a couch, and read it there. In other words: I’m enjoying reading the internet again. Who knew there was so much smart stuff there?

Where this finds its strangest in-road is comics. Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse all have amazing apps (in addition to Graphicly, Comicology, and some others) and there is a ton of free content out there. This is dangerous for me. I gave up buying print comics last fall because of the expense and just generally getting bored with most of the storylines, but I’m ravenously devouring comics again because of the iPad. Part of it is the way that reading them has evolved. All of these apps have a great feature that (heresy in 3, 2, . .. ) makes for a better experience than reading a print comic (for me at least). I’m a dumb comic reader: I tend to focus so much on the story that I zip through and don’t spend too much time appreciating the art that is fully half of the comic I just read. But the guided view for reading comics pulls up each panel individually and forces me to consider each one rather than flying through the page as fast as I can. As I said, for me it’s a better experience. If something is going to pull me back into comics, this might be it. Please know that this pains me: I consider myself a comic reader, not a collector, but I would hate to see the local comic book store become obsolete and disappear. But I love reading them on the iPad, I don’t have to manage a physical collection of comics, and they’re generally cheaper and it doesn’t cost gas money to get to the comic store and back when you can download. So, I’m torn.

The biggest question though is if the iPad will replace my desktop. I will be the first to say I was surprised at just how little I was on my desktop while the iPad was in the house. Very, very little actually. This is a surprising amount you can do on the device and I’m looking forward to the next version of iOS that promises to do more to severe the tie between iPad and desktop. As I’ve basically said so far though, the iPad is the perfect medium to comfortably enjoy absorbing the internet’s best information. So really, my iPad review comes down to this: I was shocked that I like to read stuff on the computer again and very thankful that this clever little device helped me to find that love again.

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