Despite working with the latest electronics and consumer products on a daily basis and regularly impressed with the best open source software available (i.e. Linux), plus years of touching the iPads on display, there's nothing quite like actually owning one and using it for a particular purpose.
Although this article is similar to the many that have gone before it praising the iPad and tablets in general, the first important idea I want to put forward is that I'm a firm believer that the tablet won't replace desktops, laptops, netbooks, digital camera, or even my iPod Touch. Even now, as a I glance at the shining, shimmering white iPad on my right, I'm touch-typing on my Ideapad Z360, pulling up my blog notes via Samba from my openSUSE 12.1 netbook (and taking photos for this article using my Canon A2000IS). Sure, the iPad would reduce the time spent on all of these devices as a whole, but it's the same with any other electronic item or hobby you take up. There's only so many hours in a day and each hardware I have serves a different purpose. Of course, my Sony PRS-600 ereader will feel the iPad's presence the most, but I'll get to that in a bit. To wit, my quick review of the iPad 2:
1. Great for reading. Really. Ok, I'm not one to fall into false advertising, but after 3 years of reading more than seventy books, more than two thousand manga pages, and several periodicals regularly (via Calibre) on my Sony PRS-600, I must admit the iPad really is a pleasurable device for reading, even if I don't have the fancy retina screen. The screen is not only bright, but the fonts are clear and text is easy to read even on poorly scanned PDFs like those found in Archive.org. I'm not a huge fan of the page curl effect, but I'm becoming extremely fond of sliding pages to one side after years of page refreshes from an e-ink screen. Plus, the processor easily handles the large, unoptimized PDF files I've accumulated from sites such as the aforementioned Archive.org and Google Books.
Now, the Sony PRS-600 is a poor comparison to the iPad, with its dim screen and impossibly slow performance, but it was my first tablet/e-reader and well-used (even now I'm on page 104 of Ernest Hemingway's "Across the River and into the Trees" on the Sony). Like my 7-year old Acer Aspire 5500Z, the Sony PRS-600 is resilient and sturdy with its metal casing, but the iPad is fetching and great to show off. Will I chuck away the PRS-600 permanently? Hell no. The PRS-600 is built like a tank while the iPad 2 is like a Ferrari you want to keep home. I'm keeping my PRS-600 on my backpack; the iPad stays in the apartment.
I'm not giving up my love for paperbacks for the iPad but in this economy, I have to be careful about which books I want to have in physical form. To be honest, however, with the numerous ebooks I already have in my Buffalo hard drive, it will be quite awhile before I'll shell out money in a bookstore again.
2. Consuming Multimedia? Not really. - I was planning on the practical approach of getting a tablet with expandable storage or storage matching that of my 32GB iPod Touch. Once I started using the 16GB iPad 2, however, I realized the iPad complements the iPod and PRS-600, not replaces it. The iPod Touch is not only exceptional for audio but great for video podcasts and half hour episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Before shelling out one's hard-earned cash for any electronic device (much less one as exorbitant as an Apple product), one must know what they'll use it for. And at the onset I knew I would be using the iPad 2 for reading, learning, and research - which means EPUBs, PDFs, images, and maybe a video or two. 16GB is more than enough. Perhaps the reason why columnists from PCMAG and the nice folks over at BBC Click are quick to declare the iPad as a consumption device and nothing more is because the product came first, not the need.
3. Offline Productivity - Most are enthralled with gaming on the iPad or the instantaneous gratification brought by online apps. I've been using the iPad 2 for only a few days and already I've been using the tablet to learn new markup languages and reviewing basic biology (and reading a few issues of Amazing Spider-Man from the 70s). It's strange how people have become so dependent on wireless Internet to enjoy devices like the iPhone or iPad. But even if I didn't have excellent free offline apps downloaded for geography, video player, and reading, the iPad 2's built-in video player and iBooks app is more than enough (with a little help from Calibre for converting EPUBs and Handbrake for MP4). Load history videos, literature from Gutenberg.org, and free reference books and you're good to go.
4. Entertainment - I really have no problems deleting and uploading videos on a daily basis on the iPad. It's inconvenient for a lot of people, thus the popularity of streaming media through a fast home network and storage solution. However, I don't intend to upload Mad Men, Fringe, or True Blood on the iPad - in fact, the iPad 2 is a perfect opportunity to enjoy an old-school form of entertainment we used to call 4-color books. COMIC BOOKS. Regardless where any user gets their comic books or manga, the iPad 2 is a different and enjoyable way of going through Peter Parker's 1980s adventures. I mean, there's nothing like a Gil Kane or John Romita scene of Spidey taking out dorks like Wolverine, Hulk, or Green Goblin on a gorgeous screen. And everyone should learn to appreciate black-and-white classic manga.
Here's the kicker that I figured out after finally getting a tablet/iPad after years of pining for one: it's not for everyone. Most people forget that you buy things for a reason, not because it carries a quad-core processor, a brilliantly-blinding screen, or an Apple logo. The iPad, the older version or later one, has all the features you really need in a tablet, but it's in the user not in the hardware or software. Just as Linux is pretty much useless to a person who isn't aware of what it can do or what applications are available, the iPad is a piece of overpriced paperweight if you didn't plan ahead on what you were going to use it for. Embarrassingly enough, while saving up for a tablet, I had the luxury of a year's worth of researching on what apps and tasks I can use it with.
Is it time to get a tablet? Definitely. But buy a Windows 8, Android, or iOS tablet for a reason and for a purpose or task (and no, gaming doesn't count). And you'll be as happy with it as I am with my iPad 2.
0 comments:
Post a Comment