iPad Unboxing and First Impressions

Saturday marked the release of the iPad from Apple. I had pre-ordered so my iPad was sitting on my doorstep by noon Saturday and I spent some time playing with it over the weekend. The iPad is very cool. I have used my iPhone when I was sitting on the couch watching TV and wanted to check some of the forums I frequent or look up something's online.

The big problem with my iPhone is that the screen is so small I end up having to zoom in on one section of the site and then zoom out again to get the full picture of the site to find the next thing that I want. I always found on my iPhone that posting to forums was a huge problem because the on-screen keyboard is so small that it is next to impossible to type with anything close to speed or accuracy.

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The first thing I noticed when I pulled the iPad out of the box was that the thing is so thin. It seems to be thinner than my iPhone 3GS. Rather than a black or white plastic back on the iPad like my iPhone has, the rear of the thing is aluminum. The iPad is very lightweight and easy to carry around.

The iPad had a full charge right out of the box, which was a great thing considering I wanted to play with it right away. However, before I could play with the thing I had to hook it to iTunes and register the device. If you already have an iPhone like me, you can use the same charge and synchronize cable you use for your iPhone. I ran into one error when I was trying to sync the iPad and register it. The error said that the iPad couldn't be registered. Closing iTunes and reconnecting the iPad fixed that issue though.

Once that was done, I synced the iPad to get all my apps and music from my iPhone over onto the iPad and connected it to my wireless network. I will come back with a full review of the iPad soon, but for now a few early impressions of the device, I will share with you all. The onscreen keyboard is fantastic. I can type almost as fast on the onscreen keyboard with the iPad in landscape mode as I can on my desktop computer keyboard.

In all honesty, I am not sure I will need or want that keyboard dock I ordered from Apple that hasn't shipped yet. This is the best onscreen keyboard ever with great key spacing and more. I love the iPad. I have never used a netbook or notebook while I am sitting on the couch watching TV. I don’t like the bulk of the things. The iPad is perfect, it's thin and light, and its bulk is perfect for using on your lap. The screen size is perfect, and the picture quality is fantastic. I am disappointed to see that the Apps for the iPad cost much more than apps for the iPhone though. A dedicated iPad app can cost as much as $15. Still, I loves me some iPad. Come back later this week for a full review.

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