Here’s the unboxing video that a few people had wanted me to do when I got my iPad. I did some editing to the video, as it took me forever to unwrap the bubble wrap with one hand.  I think the back design by Colorware looks gorgeous with the matte finish and everything.  Thanks so much to Digg, TapTapTap and Colorware for this very excellent prize.

So far I’ve had the device for a day and my impressions are pretty mixed.  Here’s a quick run down of my thoughts

What I like

• Very snappy device.  Makes my iPhone look like chop liver with regards to speed
• The iPhone games are actually better on the iPad.  I find I’ve played games I didn’t really bother with previously because of the cramped controls on the iPhone
• The screen looks gorgeous under the right lighting conditions
• Downloaded Air Video application and it streams my media flawlessly over my network.  Saves converting my media to another format which is a total pain.  Definitely looking forward to watching stuff while I cook as we don’t have a TV on our main floor.

Here’s what I didn’t like

• No iBooks available in Canada.  Since Apple hasn’t actually launched the book selling features in Canada they have held back the iBooks app from the Canadian iTunes store.  I had a bunch of ePub books I bought in anticipation of receiving my iPad and the only free solution that I found was using Stanza, which is still iPhone only
• While the games convert well to iPad, the apps like Facebook, Stanza etc. look really crappy when blown up on the big screen.  I know this problem will be resolved when more devs get their iPad compatible versions of the apps out.
• As I know many have complained about, the smudgy screen.  As soon as you’re anywhere with sun exposure the problem becomes pretty apparent
• Since Apple hasn’t launched the iPad enabled iTunes store in Canada there is really no way of finding top iPad apps or anything.  Some apps are available through iTunes, but not really organized at all.  You can’t even download apps from the device yet for this reason, which is a pain.
• Seems odd Apple omitted a silent switch.  Have to turn the volume all the way down. Having my iPhone, iPad and iMac all notify of the same email is a bit annoying

Since my iPad is a Wifi only version and Apple saw fit to keep the device from data tethering with my iPhone. Luckily since iPhone is jailbroken I was able to buy the app MyWi and create a local wireless network to give my iPad data on the go.  Gave it a spin last night and it seemed to work pretty well, though given my iPhone is in need of a new battery I’m not sure how viable that method is for a long usage period.

I found almost instantly that all the features I miss from my iPhone are the jailbreak customizations I’ve made to my phone.  The biggest is GriP, which enables Growl style notifications for the iPhone.  Seriously I don’t know how a regular iPhone users cope without it.  Makes me wonder how long I’ll hold out before I jailbreak my iPad.

I’d say so far I like the device, but don’t love it yet.  Probably once the full app store is available to us Canucks later this month I’ll be happier with the functionality it offers.

Today has been a pretty lucky day for myself.  Earlier today I won a bowling party at Frederick Lanes in Kitchener.  This was quite funny because I had just dropped my business card off 2 days earlier, after attending a free bowling party that a Twitter friend had won and invited me to.  This is a party with free bowling for up to 25 people, which is pretty awesome.  I think on any other day I would have been content with winning a bowling party and call it my lucky day.

As it turns out that was just the first thing I won.  At roughly 4pm I receive a direct message from @taptaptap telling me I won an iPad.

My first reaction to this was to source out whether this was in fact a scammer just trying to pull one over on me.  Checked the Twitter account, definitely legit.  I had entered the contest through TapTapTap to win an iPad. It was one of those follow this account, then tweet this message to win types of contests that are so popular on Twitter these days.  I entered once on the first day, then probably would have forgotten to enter any of the other days.  The contest was to promote the new Digg iPhone app that launched this week.

I’m not 100% sure whether it’s a case or some type of skin, but the iPad comes with a custom, individually numbered Colorware exterior which looks fantastic.  I’ve been a daily Digg user since 2005, so this will be quite the awesome item to own.

Once I got that DM from TapTapTap things just pretty much became a flurry of emails and activity.  They had announced that I was the first winner over Twitter, so basically my username got broadcast out to 70,000+ Twitter users.  At this point I started getting a deluge of congratulations from kindly Twitter users about my win, lots of friendly jibes about how jealous people were and how they were going to win one of the other 13 iPads that were up for grabs.  I started getting a deluge of notifications as people started following me on Twitter.  Up to this point I have roughly 40 new followers, which is pretty crazy.

I wrote a blog awhile back addressing some of the perceived shortcomings of the iPad, but never did I anticipate I’d actually end up getting one.  I kinda figured I’d wait until the second generation when the price dropped a bit.  As it is I’ve still got at least a month of painful waiting for my new iPad to arrive.  They told me it’ll be roughly 3-6 weeks after the promotion ends, which means since I won on day 1 it’ll be 5-8 weeks wait.  They have to wait to get the iPads from Apple, then they need time to do the customization, then send it out.

I’ve waited a couple days now to comment on Apple’s latest product, the iPad. I typically don’t like being “that guy”, evangelizing Apple to other people. I know the company isn’t infallible, but really how many companies out there are? The iPad is definitely flawed, but I don’t think it is flawed for many of the reasons people are currently crucifying it for.

The Name
This was the first thing that people seemed to have gone off on. In the last 3 days everyone seems to have made the obvious feminine hygiene product jokes. We laughed. Stupid Apple. But didn’t we say the same thing about the Nintendo Wii? It was stupid. Everyone made all the obvious urination jokes. Boy was the Wii a failure. Oh, wait, no it wasn’t. It’s gone on to sell almost double the amount of units of it’s nearest competitor. So in the end, people will get over an unfortunate name and they won’t even bat an eye when you mention iPad.

It’s just an oversized iPhone
I’ve heard quite a few people complain about how the iPad is running “just” the iPhone OS. The problem with this argument is that it’s more then likely being used by people who have never used a tablet PC. To put it simply, a full operating system like Windows or OS X isn’t meant to be used on a touchscreen. Stuff like scroll bars and tiny interface buttons don’t work or make sense on a touchscreen. This is the reason why most tablet PCs use a stylus, as your fingers are too inaccurate for controlling a touch screen. And more then likely this is a good reason why tablet PCs have never really taken off, as they tried to put a square peg in a round hole by offering a desktop OS on a touchscreen device.

Apple was among the first, if not the first to offer a proper touchscreen experience on a mobile phone. It’s been an obvious success as they essentially revolutionized the phone industry and caused every other manufacturer to take note and create similar touchscreen devices. They’ve already proven the iPhone OS is a winning touchscreen solution, why not have it running on the iPad?

But how will you get any real work done on this thing?
The reality here is that this isn’t even being positioned as a work machine. I think the definition of “real work” for most people would have the requirement of being able to type. If you were expecting to be able to code websites or type the next great novel you were probably barking up the wrong tree in the first place. This device is meant as an entertainment device. The type of thing you can surf the internet on while watching TV. Given the explosion of smartphones we have become a generation of multi-taskers as these devices have enabled us to passively answer emails, send a quick tweet or browse the web from anywhere in the world, including the living room sofa. Nobody complains that they can’t get any real work done on an iPod Touch. It’s simply not the reason why 99% of people bought the device in the first place.

The fact that this device starts at $499 should also tell you this isn’t meant as a workstation. This item is meant to compete with something like the Amazon Kindle DX, which retails for $489 US. People are willing to spend that kind of money on a Kindle, so you can be sure the public would be willing to spend the money on something like an iPad.

It’s too expensive
I’ve heard people complain about the price as well. This is possibly the most ridiculous complaint out of them all. Here’s a chart for the device pricing.

People complaining about the pricing are the types who don’t actually know the true cost of devices like the iPhone and similar smartphone devices. But the iPhone 3G is only $199, this is so much more expensive they might say. The fact is that is the subsidized price offered by cell phone carriers. Without a contract an iPhone costs much more. On eBay a new, unlocked 16GB iPhone 3GS sells for roughly $500 US, and $650 to $700 for the 32GB model. So you can see Apple’s pricing is quite close to being inline with the real market values of similar current generation iPhones.

I already have an iPhone, what’s the point of it?
The iPhone is a great device, but it’s not ideal for all types of browsing. Something I did this morning was fill out an online form to get tickets to an upcoming event that had been promoted through Twitter. I wasn’t quite ready to get out of bed yet, so I filled the form out using my iPhone. As I’m sure anyone whose used an iPhone or iPod Touch for filling out forms you know there just isn’t enough room on the screen to fit the keyboard and see which form box you’re filling in sometimes. This would be a piece of cake using a 10″ screen to browse the page. Another thing I instantly thought of was using an iPad in the kitchen. I like to look up recipes online, but find it a pain to actually use that info in my kitchen. I don’t have a printer(nor really want one), so I either write down the recipe on paper by hand, haul our 15.5″ Toshiba laptop into the kitchen(where it takes up valuable real estate) or I look it up on the iPhone. None of these solutions is ideal. This is exactly where the iPad comes in.

The iPad is far from perfect, but I think it’s a good start. I feel Apple made some boneheaded decisions (no USB, SD, 4×3 screen resolution among others) but the concept definitely has promise. Looking at devices like the first Eee PC netbook or the first generation Kindle have shown companies don’t always hit a home run with their first attempt, but people will buy into the concept none the less.

I think many people have gotten caught up with years of rumour mongering about this mystical Apple tablet that it could do little else but disappoint. They could have announced the iPad came with a free unicorn and the public still would have been letdown by the announcement. People had the perception that this device was going to meet all of their personal computing needs, so when it failed to meet those lofty expectations they have essentially thrown it under the bus instead of looking at what Apple is actually offering.

Sure this device isn’t going to be for everyone, but my guess is that it’ll be another Apple success once people actually have a chance to use it and figure out the value of the device. So lets take a chill pill and wait until April when you’re actually able to go to a store and try one out.