So, why do you like your iPad?

[Ember]

DH just got one. He saved up for months and it came yesterday after a shipping delay. (They were released here in Canada on Friday and Fed Ex had a flight delay, so we got ours yesterday.) He is in love with his new toy and I am all for that. But I must admit, I don't get it. It seems like a big iPhone, which is a novelty, but nothing revolutionary... Clearly, I'm in the minority, because they're selling like crazy and the reviews have been great. But what's the draw?!

 

[Ohiodislover]

We don't have one yet, but my DH was saying the other day that while he doesn't "want to want one" he does want one-LOL Me thinks he is hinting for Father's day.

So I am also interested on what people are liking about them.

 

[hopemax]

Note: We do not have a smart phone or a GPS.

When you are fixing a broken sprinkler line, and you're not sure what you are doing...it's nice to have something very portable to carry outside with you, and read the help guides online.

Same for hooking up the swamp cooler up on the roof the first time.

And fixing the toilet.

When you have crawled into bed for the night, and forgot to check the weather for tomorrow...or a song comes up on your playlist, and you wonder what movie you heard that song in recently... it's nice not to have to get up to go check.

Between all the restaurants & stores that have free wi-fi, we haven't had much trouble connecting to a network, which has allowed us to...

When you are out shopping, and the store you went to doesn't have what you want and you are wondering what other stores might have it. Or if the store you are at has it, and you want to know if it's a good price. And if it's a bad price, you can jot down the info so you can easily look it up online later.

When you are out exploring the mountains, and before you leave town, you want to know if you can take this other route home, instead of the one you came.

When you are in a different town, and didn't know a big event is going on and traffic is really bad and you need an alternate route.

When you want to go to a large antique store that your DH hates, but now is fine going to because they have free Wi-Fi.

Not to mention reading books, watching movies, playing games, listening to music, taking notes. For most situations, it works as a much smaller laptop, which will be wonderful to have while we are traveling.

 

[Ember]

hopemax, so you would use your iPad for all these things? You don't find it cumbersome to carry around? Those are all really great uses for it, but an iPhone would do all that, and it fits in your pocket. (Not knocking you at all, because it would work for all your examples! )

 

[jazzielady]

hopemax, so you would use your iPad for all these things? You don't find it cumbersome to carry around? Those are all really great uses for it, but an iPhone would do all that, and it fits in your pocket. (Not knocking you at all, because it would work for all your examples! )

Not speaking for hopemax, but for myself I think it's great for all those things. I don't find it cumbersome at all, and think it's great for reading. I have the official ipad cover, which can be used either in portrait or landscape. I love the suggestions for use that hopemax listed. I will definitely use it for those kinds of things.

It's nice having it in the bedroom for things like checking the weather etc., without having to bring the laptop upstairs or going downstairs. I use Yahoo msg. on it to say goodnight to some friends.

There are proprietary apps for the ipad that you can't get on the ipod, such as the word processor and powerpoint apps (can't think of what they're called).

The best quality to me of it is the SIZE! I can actually see and manipulate apps and the internet much easier, the keyboard is easier to use (especially for someone like me with fat fingers and nails), and I love reading on it at night without having to use a nightlight, as I would with my kindle.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

The best quality to me of it is the SIZE! I can actually see and manipulate apps and the internet much easier, the keyboard is easier to use (especially for someone like me with fat fingers and nails).

This is me too. I wouldn't say I have fat fingers but the nails definitely get in the way, and they're really not that long, it's just hard with the smaller buttons such as on the iPhone.

I REALLY like being able to type a little more normally then I am with my phone.

I don't personally have one but DFiance does and I use his all the time. It's also really good for taking to the gym. I tend to get really bored on the machines, especially if I'm on them more than 20 minutes (which is always, except during a warm-down) so it works really well to browse the internet and watching TV or movies with a screen that isn't 5 inches at best. Sure there are TVs in the gym but I never get a machine that is close to the TV I want to watch, if there's anything I even want to watch at all.

 

[tchrrx]

The 3G is great b/c when you are in a storm closet with no electricity and no phone lines, you can still check the Doppler radar.

 

[hopemax]

hopemax, so you would use your iPad for all these things? You don't find it cumbersome to carry around? Those are all really great uses for it, but an iPhone would do all that, and it fits in your pocket. (Not knocking you at all, because it would work for all your examples! )

As something my DH read...the iPad weighs less than a Harry Potter book, and the size isn't really that bulky. It's about the size of a 70 sheet notebook of paper. I find the screens on the iPhone to be just too small to really surf the web and watch movies comfortable, so we would never get something that small. This is small enough to tote around, but large enough to read easily. And the keyboard works really well too.

So as I'm typing this, DH is playing with the Weber grill app he just bought. Right in the recipe, it brings up video of what to do, and a timer for how long to cook it.

It replaces so much stuff. I think it really is a gateway to a mostly paperless lifestyle.

 

[suzanna1066@comcast.]

Mine is supposed to arrive this week. I can't wait!

 

[OK!]

If I didn't already have an iPhone, I would TOTALLY be all over an iPad. I love my iPhone more than is normal or right, and really the only thing that kept me from jumping on the iPad was the duplication in features (and the fact that I'd just gotten a new laptop in Oct. and am planning on getting the new iPhone in June, or whenever it's released.) I've heard nothing but great things about them.

 

[Princess_K]

I had your exact reaction when my boyfriend came back to school one weekend with an iPad. He was so excited to show it to me, and I just didn't get it at all. I totally agreed, it's like a giant iphone. And then, I started playing with it. I shouldn't have done it, because I love it now. It is so convenient, and is much easier to move around than my laptop is. He would let me take it to class on days I knew that I needed a computer, and it was so much less heavy than my laptop to carry around campus. The convenience of it is what sold me.

I would never use it to type papers or do a presentation or anything, but for getting on the Internet and just messing around, I think its great. Much, much better than my laptop! It is also really fun for playing games

 

[Silent1CB]

At Christmas, we bought an HP Dream Screen. Its a digital picture frame with can access wifi that also provides weather, Pandora online radio, Facebook, Snapfish, and a few other things. About the same size of the iPad.

I'm currently so sorry we didn't wait & buy the iPad instead even though its twice the price of the HP DreamScreen. It just can do soooooo much more & is thinner so more portable.



I also just bought an iPod Touch. My first iPod ever. The iPad is a big iPod Touch. I'm loving the Touch, for quickly checking email or facebook but find I'm using it mostly at home since a lot of places I go don't have free wifi. The bigger iPad would have been great for what I'm using the Touch for currently.

I can see me getting an iPad someday but I don't want to buy it until they are done adding all the greatest & latest to it. A couple versions down the road maybe.

 

[DVCLiz]

We drove to Disney World today and brought my iPad. One daughter watched an episode of a TV show, another daughter watched a movie, I looked through a magazine, and now I am checking my email, reading a few blogs and DISing before bed. Without having to squint at my iPhone or be tethered to the wall with Disney's Internet - I'm not even sure this resort offers Internet. The 3G is working greet, though!

Definitely my favorite use so far is the Zinio app for magazines. I have already replaced 4 of my paper magazine subscriptions and will replace all of them when they are available. So convenient!