Good to Know

Recently I have been lucky enough in my life to stumble upon a new piece of technology: the iPad. I thought that a review of this product might be useful to those interested in purchasing one. In the week that I have had it, I have found out there are both good and bad things about it. Since I just bought the iPad, I have not been able to use it to its full extent considering the unlimited number of applications that can be downloaded for it. However, here is the best advice I can give to date.

What's good about the iPad is that it's useful for about 90% of things I'd want to do on a computer. IPod/iTunes? Yup, this has it. Email? Fast and easy to use. IBooks? Basically it acts like a Kindle that displays crystal clear books on the screen. Everything is also easily downloadable via the books or apps store.

The games are great and there are many free apps to download such as Solitaire and this cute game called "Pocket Frogs," to name a few. For under $3 you can purchase many others as well. The picture and color is so clear, it almost hurts your eyes because of how much time you can spend staring at the screen.

I bought the "Star Walk" app and it might be my favorite part about the iPad so far. You can hold up the iPad to the sky and find constellations, blow up the images, and find out what anything is in the night sky. Another one that I like is the Netflix app. Here movies such as the "Watch Instantly" are easily viewed on the iPad.

There are a couple of downfalls to this product I have found so far. It is by no means a replacement for a laptop. Actually, you need to hook up everything through your laptop initially anyways. My laptop is on its way out as it is, which is one of the reasons I wanted the iPad in the first place. It was a lengthy and strenuous process trying to update my iPad with a 3-year-old Dell.

Another major bummer is the block Apple has put on the latest version of Flash player. This is so that they can make more money by requiring you go through the Youtube app to view videos and encouraging you to buy and download more songs and movies through iTunes. For example, I could not just go to Mtv.com and watch the latest episode of Jersey Shore on my iPad. This is something new that Apple has done with the release of the iPad, so if you have been using an iTouch in the past and getting Flash I recommend not updating to the latest version of iTunes and losing this feature. 

I find that I cannot type a whole word document on the iPad, but I have not downloaded any word processor type apps for it so far either. I purchased a wireless keyboard, which makes typing much simpler on it, especially when completing tasks such as emails or blackboard posts. 

Other than that, I am completely in love with this product. It is unfortunate, however, how much easier and often I can look at my Facebook. The iPad is influencing the Internet addiction that I already had in a greater way. I feel like I consciously have to put it down or I could be on it for hours. I like that I can lock the iPad with a code because I keep a lot of passwords stored on websites anyway, so that makes me feel better about storing personal information. I am constantly browsing the app store and I know that I will have to control myself before I purchase a crazy amount of them. 

Essentially the iPad is just a big iTouch. However, it is pretty freaking sweet. I didn't purchase 3G service, because with all of the wireless on campus it didn't seem to make sense for me to buy a plan each month just so I could be connected anywhere on the planet. I definitely recommend this for technology nerds. Apple is such an innovative company, and they really do think of everything when they make their products. The iPad is no exception. Jump on the wave and let this magnificent piece of technology make the things you do each and every day on the Internet that much simpler to accomplish.