Follow up to the iPad review.

So I have been using the iPad as a replacement for my net book for a solid couple of days. However despite it's replacement tag, there are some activities that still require the iPad to be tethered to a proper PC. If u haven't done anything funny to ur iPad, ur kinda left with just iTunes to transfer stuff to and from your iPad. Anyways for the benefit of those who would never consider jail breaking their device, I'm gonna continue the review as if this process was not done. Google is ur friend if ur curious.

Before anything I need to sort out the whole 3G bit. I know the iPad has wifi and there's a bunch of hotspots that I can connect to. But if u intend to use the iPad as ur main email device, u do need to consider investing on broadband access to facilitate Internet connection. Amongst the 3 major telcos only maxis have come out and say that they would be providing their subscribers micro sim card suited for the iPad and iPhone 4. Not sure if it's already available. But then again, ur well off googling a bit for how to cut your existing sim cards to fit inside ur micro simmed machine.

I chose digi's prepaid Internet sim pack. For 25 bucks you get unlimited access for 5 days. And u can chose to top up from the packs that are widely sold. I googled for a guide on how to cut the sim card. If u can see from the picture, I totally miscalculated the measurements. But luckily i didn't cut through any of the chip bits. By some miracle, the make shift micro sim works and the iPad automatically detects digi's setting and I was online in a few clicks.

"micro sim" in the tray

A word of caution on digi's broadband, comparatively in urban areas, the reception is okay. I got the advertised 384 Kbps speed most of the time, but it gets a bit iffy up there in the twin towers. And also during my commute on the LRT. But this is probably just me.

Anyways u can choose any telco u want. For me primarily, I'm using Celcom broadband advance on my e72 and joikuspot to share the connection via wifi. I've whipped out the iPad on the train. Did some casual browsing on the Internet. Played games. It's hard not to have people looking. So far I haven't seen anyone jogging with the iPad like I saw some dude do whilst in Singapore. Well u could but it's like jogging with weights la kan.

I got a guy asking about it in the lift. Had to do a product demo during a discussion because the team members were more interested to find out about the iPad more than the topic at hand. Maybe this is due to the novelty factor. But so far i've met another iPad user at the tower. Dude got the wifi version and is using a mifi device to connect his iPad to the net. Using maxis broadband package. Which he says is the best, apparently.

Wait, what was the purpose of this follow up review? Oh okay. How does the iPad fare in it's purported role as a net book replacement? In terms of operations in a moving LRT, the iPad wins this round. I've attempted and succeeded in drafting documents and presentation on my net book on the moving LRT before. In fact if I was feeling extra bored, I'd boot up the net book and easily run football manager to do my manager duties running Preston. But handling a laptop on the train is not as easy compared to the iPad. Plus the built in 3G makes internet a doozy.

However, editing PowerPoint presentations using office is still easier on the netbook. Regardless of it being on a moving train or not.

Email is also excellent compared to the netbook. But that's just me not having outlook installed on the netbook. But then again i'm all for how ios handles email. One not so good thing when I was exploring email on the iPad and in fact the same issue might occur on the iPhone too - the email client can't seem to handle forwarded email. You know how on outlook you can drag several emails into your newly composed mail as attachments? Well it seems that if u open those kinda emails on the iPad it can't open the attachments. Which is a bummer if the email is really important. Coz I can open them on my e72. Even if it's not that pretty.

That aside, because apps just loads up faster on the ios as compared to a full fledged operating system like windows, it's just quicker to do things on the iPad once u get used to it. Whilst in discussions with colleagues or even ur boss, u could as easily jot down and email the points right from the iPad. Yes u could do that from a laptop too but hehe it's just way cooler on the iPad. Fact checking on the Internet, u can do the whole fancy pinch zoom and share the info with the people ur discussing with. Incidentally most websites u load doesn't require any horizontal scrolling because of the high resolution screen. Again maybe that's just me.

which is which?

In conclusion, with the wealth of apps available on the app store, it's not difficult to find the apps to customise the iPad to suit whatever u want it to do. Granted there are areas where it still lacks when compared to a laptop or netbook even. But it does have a lot of potential. It might not be the right gadget for u, but if u do decide to get one, or if someone decide to give you one, heck I'm sure u will definitely find a use for it that suits you.

Ipad, the tablet that gives u wings..

Okay since this is an iPad review, i'll be attempting to update this entry entirely on the iPad and see how the typing performance of the touch screen is. Wish me luck. So far so so good.

Okay, I'm not an iphone fan. That much we have already established. In fact when the iPad came out, I was a bit skeptical on how Steve jobs would change tablet computing as we know it. Coz tablets are nothing new. U have seen a few iterations of the tablet making it's round but nothing really catched the eye as much as the iPad. Maybe that's simply and apple thing. They do know cool, but there's always been this silent understanding that u just have to accept whatever apple tells ya when it comes to how u wanna use an apple device. But that clearly is not important in an iPad review.

I decided to get the 3G model. If u have an android phone or even a nokia, u can install programs that can turn ur phone into a mobile hotspot and u can tether ur iPad via wifi. I'm not sure if u can do that with an iPhone. U probably could, u would think, but I won't be surprised if u couldn't. The 3G model, at least gives u the option of using a data simcard and connect through the cellular network. Just don't expect to plug in ur normal sim card tho coz it only accepts micro sims. Fret not, a quick google will present u with a solution. U can cut ur existing sim and use an adapter to fit it inside the 3G iPad or u probably can ask either maxis or digi if they can give u one since they're the front runners to bring the similarly micro simmed iPhone 4 to these Malaysian shores.

I haven't done so myself. Quite satisfied to use wifi at the moment. Well at least until I can ask if Celcom can provide me a separate data sim for my existing unlimited data plan.

So what do u get outta the box? The iPad packaging, like all things apple are quite minimal. U get ur 10 watt power unit. A USB cable and a metal thingy for u to eject the sim tray. Well that's if u got the 3G one like I did. And that's it. Yep. A one piece instruction card telling u to download the latest iTunes and plug ur iPad into the computer. Follow on screen instructions and walla ur done. I already had an apple id when I made some purchase on the apple store, so I just used that same id. It prompted me to confirm some details, mainly for the app store purchasing purpose and that was that.

The first thing I did was to set up my office email using exchange active sync. I've always maintained that the best mobile email experience was on the iPhone. I'm sure u can dig up quotes of me saying that. Email is just beautiful on the iPhone. And now it's just even brilliant on the iPad. The bigger screen is definitely a plus. Its as good as ur desktop email experience. I think the iPad supports viewing different types of attachment but to edit any of them u probably need to invest on a good office like app. The bigger screen also allows for a bigger keyboard, especially if u work the iPad horizontally. But I imagine if u were to invest in a good Bluetooth keyboard, it would probably improve the typing experience.

My intention is to use the iPad as a substitute for my trusty net book. Which basically means, the following core functions, browsing the web, blogging, twittering, social networking and maybe some work. That's a big maybe la since it's definitely hard to do work at home. The señorita can vouch for that. Anyways for the functions highlighted above there are some areas where the iPad excels at but at the same time u expect things to be better. I don't have to elaborate about the 'no flash' argument. The iPad won't support flash. Well not unless u jailbreak it and make it do things that Steve Jobs won't let it do la kan. But nevertheless web browsing using the safari browser is generally fine. Unless u go to flash heavy websites la kot. But if u don't then it shouldn't be a problem.

My second core function is blogging. When it comes to blogging on the go, I've set it up so that I can email my blog entries. Using the iPad to open blogger.com is kinda a mixed bag. For starters I can't use the compose function to let me attach pictures and what not. So ur only left with the basic HTML edit option. I guess u can always edit the entries properly on ur desktop. But that sucks a bit. Maybe that can be sorted out with an update? But so far, typing on the screen, whilst it may not be the kist natural typing position, I find myself not making much errors as compared to typing on my htc hero. Keyword here is 9.7 inch screen. Hehe.

For Twitter, there's a few clients that u can use. I'm using tweetdeck for the iPad. Unfortunately, Twitter have not gotten to update their official app for the iPhone to the iPad. And if u run an iPhone app on the iPad u get screen wastage which just gets a tad annoying. But I'm sure these will soon be fixed with a proper update. More and more apps are getting iPad compatible so that's always a good thing. The 3G makes geotagging ur tweets a cinch. I'm not sure how that would be handled on the wifi only version. Maybe someone can share? Which brings me to the next thing, as of today there's no iPad version of the official Facebook client. U get the iPhone version scaled up. Not pretty. I'm sticking to safari at the moment.

As for work, there's a few worthy apps that one can download to assist in one's work. I need to keep up to date with news so having Reuters and Bloomberg helps. For editing documents I decided to go with quickoffice. I have it running on my e72 and I thought it's quite good. I have documents to go running on my android. It's not bad but it has a desktop app to assist in true synchronisation of files. I'm trying as much as possible to limit the desktop interaction that I need to do with the iPad. That's where the dropbox client comes in handy. I have drop box running on my hero, e72, my net book (both the ubuntu and xp boots), the desktop at the office and now the iPad. So at any given time if I were to update any file on any machine I can be sure that I have access to the latest version. Just don't edit it all at once on different machines la kot. Conflict plak nanti.

So far so good. Lucky they didn't invent the iPad in such a way that there's only one way to type on it. Hehe it's kinda hard to do a death grip on this baby. I'll probably update this review later if and when I manage to try out the 3G capabilities.

This would definitely not be my only review on the iPad.

Pics courtesy of the señorita.