10 iPad observations 6 days after purchasing one

Last week I was in NYC for a new business conference (as tweeted) and I decided to pick up an iPad.

I’ve already blogged about all the reasons I wouldn’t be buying one - and all those reasons still stand true – but I decided it was my duty as a digital marketer to get familiar with it for research purposed only.

Here are my 10 first impressions during the first 6 days with it:

1. The sunset background image that comes default with the iPad has shooting stars. At first i thought they were scratches on the surface!
2. It’s actually smaller than I had imagined it would be – and many friends have made the same comment
3. It’s heavier than you’d expect it to be. Holding it with one hand is at most a 20 minute exercise. Best to hold with two hands
4. The icons are too spread out on the interface – they could be a lot tighter (like on the iphone / ipod). There should be an option to optimize your screen – even the size of the icons
5. Typing sucks. I still can’t get used to using a full touch-only based QWERTY keypad. Thankfully I have a bluetooth keyboard that i can throw in my bag
6. The mobile web is beautiful. It’s truly a great experience and in portrait mode you can fit about double of what you’d normally find “above the fold” on your desktop browser
7. There aren’t as many Apps as I would have expected – but the BBC App and the NBA Playoffs App are beautiful. I’ve been debating App vs Wap (or mobile web) for a while on smartphones, but so far App wins hands down for the iPad – especially with the larger screen and multi-touch capabilities. For the first time I feel like an interface designer can create something truly beautiful and functional at the same time.
8. Setup was a breeze. All my iphone Apps migrated over easily – although most don’t look that great. By default the app shows in its native size – but you can “double” it to fit most of the screen. Although this makes the App a bit pixelated, it’s still quite readable. One thought here – with the introduction of multi-tasking in the next major software update, it would be great if I could open 6-8 iphone apps all at once and arrange them on the big & beautiful iPad screen. It will be like creating my own personal App dashboard.  Bonus points – allow me to specify the size of each so that i could have my RSS reader down one side, tweetdeck along the other, and other apps in the middle.
9. For those of us who are “international” customers of Apple, you’ll need to get your own U.S. itunes ID in order to download or even access the App store for the iPad.  Considering the delay in releasing it in Canada (now end of May at the earliest) and longer in other countries, you can’t afford to wait.  Here’s what you do… first go buy a pre-paid MasterCard at your local Shoppers Drug mart. This will allow you to buy Apps against a “valid” credit card that doesn’t need a US address for verification. Go into itunes and create a new account. Change country of residence to US and input any US address. I just picked one from NYC – anything will do.  Setup & sync your new iPad while logged into your new US account. You are good to go!
10. Overall it’s a great media device and I love reading the news on it. It’s got great potential as a gaming platform – but it can’t replace my laptop or netbook and it’s too big to replace my iphone. I haven’t even setup email on the iPad.