The SiPad

So…. Yes, I have an iPad. I”m sure that many will choose to see this post as yet another fan boy getting terribly excited about the latest gimmick designed for the sole purpose of extracting more money from fools like me, and you would be pretty close to the truth. But I wanted to write this post just because, regardless of whether you want or ‘need’ this device yourself or not, or are completely bored with the whole subject – I can’t help but shout about how incredible it actually is!

Johnny Ive of apple describe the iPad as ‘magical’ and although all it does is browse the web, do emails and all the other crap we do every day on any number of other platforms, it does these things in such a way that indeed does feel…. well, magical.

When you first use the iPad you connect to it instantly, there is no manual. The lack of manual is very easy to explain, you don’t need one. The iPad feels totally intuitive, everything happens as you would imagine it should and as such it feels instantly comfortable to use. Physically it can actually be a pain because it’s not light enough to hold single handed for long periods of time and the sides (although aesthetically beautiful) chafe and rub the hands after extended use.

People bemoan the lack of certain features or support, but the limitations really don’t matter. Any device can perform the tasks the iPad performs, but it’s the very using of the iPad itself that makes it special. The intuitive way in which you interact with it makes you want to do things on it regardless of how mundane the task itself might be.

It is for this reason that there are any number of gadgets out there that have all the same, and more, features but receive none of the plaudits – these are the ones that become the favourites of hate boys, goons and the like because they are ”open” and ‘fully featured’ – but the experience of using them is instantly forgettable. Yes, you might send that email or poke that facebooker, but if you instead do it on an iPad…. you”ll remember it.

I hope that everyone gets a chance to play with the iPad just to feel what I”m talking about. I’m sure the majority of people that will read this blog will be photographers, and there is plenty for you to love. For a start there’s great display of your existing pics which you can share through iTunes, coming from iPhoto or Aperture or use cloud based storage like dropbox. Then there is the AppStore which already provides some great (if basic) editing apps and will no doubt start to have a plethora of portfolio solutions that can really impress any client. I can see that tethering apps will appear too and that will be an exciting prospect.

I would do a full review, such is my obsession with my new toy, but there are so many out there already that I’ll leave that job to the experts.

In short I’ll say this; it’s just an iPad…. But I like it!