My Ode to iPad

The iPad is a technological phenomenon — a real game changer.  I got mine in the mail a few days ago and was immediately impressed by its true portability: It’s a laptop replacement, no doubt about it.

The basic genius of the device is that Apple has figured out the precise size, weight, and shape that a truly portable computing device needed to be, both in terms of utility and pleasure, and, believe me, the two are intimately connected in iPad. 

It’s a paradigm of tactile delight, a veritable incarnation of the principal, “I touch, therefore I am.”

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The iPad’s 1024-by-768 HD screen makes photos pop, videos are as satisfying as a flat-screen TV, and because you can play them in your lap, it’s airplane or car trip perfect!

So far, I have gotten ten or more hours of continuous use, which blows away the battery life on any laptop or the iPhone.

The E-mail app is better than on the laptop, its layout and functionality being the best, most usable, I have ever seen.

Internet browsing is speedy, and I love the way the different browser windows open up in an arrangement across the screen, making it very easy to click back and forth between browsers.

iPad apps are each a huge extension of the device because they open up to a size much larger than the iPhone — it’s like apps for a laptop: Why didn’t anyone think of this before? E.g., the calendar app becomes really useful when it opens up like a leather bound daily dairy.

Our friend and fellow IC blogger, Laurance Alvarado, added the following iPad observations with which I concur:

  • Speed – I’ve been very impressed with the processing of web pages, apps, games (the Real Racing HD is extraordinary.  No frame delay, incredible graphics, and responsiveness.  Who needs a mouse?)
  • Netflix – Wow.  This is really incredible, portable and fun.  Easy to watch while relaxing in bed. WiFi is not bad, but it’s comparable to running NetFlix on my PC’s aircard.  No real difference in performance.  I can’t really think of a need, however, when I would use the air card to stream movies.
  • iBooks – makes my Sony eReader look like an Underwood.  Now, I haven’t tried using it in direct sunlight, which is where the eReader excelled (and Kindle), but I love all the options.
  • Universalis – this pays for about 15% of the iPad.  It’s the entire four volume set of the Liturgy of the Hours, plus all daily Mass readings.  The space and weight savings from carrying around two three-inch thick books is worth it alone.  If I could find a 1962 Missal, I would use the iPad at Mass.
  • Sheer usability – I know I’ve only had it since Friday, but I take it everywhere and use it.  I took notes on it at a meeting yesterday afternoon, I’ve used it for research during conference calls, etc.  It’s such a joy to use.
  • Keyboard – I love the touch pad keypad (more so in landscape mode than in portrait).  I now find keys on a laptop clunky and laborious…I know that may sounds funny.

Some iPad critics have found the Wi-Fi underpowered – if you refrain from holding the iPad on both sides while surfing the Internet. The antennea are evidently blocked to some extent by being held in this way — iPad should be put in your lap or on a surface when using a Wi-Fi connection.

The AT&T 3G connection, however, more than makes up for any Wi-Fi hassles.

I look forward to future iterations of iPad and also to what the competition will come up with to compete. As another friend of mine said to me yesterday, “Why don’t Apple’s competitors stop skimping on screen quality? It’s obvious people really want the kind of screens Apple is putting in their products!”

 

Author

  • Deal W. Hudson

    Deal W. Hudson is ​publisher and editor of The Christian Review and the host of “Church and Culture,” a weekly two-hour radio show on the Ave Maria Radio Network.​ He is the former publisher and editor of Crisis Magazine.

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