The Apple iPad Has Arrived at The-Gadgeteer HQ

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apple ipad 1The UPS man left my house about 10 minutes ago and so far I’ve had just enough time to open the shipping box and take a quick picture of the packaging. I will be updating this article with my first impressions this morning. Several Gadgeteer team members are also getting their iPads today, so stay tuned for their commentary as well. We will also have a full review from Dave Rees and myself in the next couple of days. It should be a fun week! Like I mentioned above, this is just going to be an article with my first impressions of the Apple iPad as I unbox it and get it setup with some apps. A full review will be posted in a few days after we (Dave and I) get some decent hands-on time with it.

As I was unboxing it a few minutes ago, Dave and Janet were both IM’ing me with questions because they haven’t received their new toys yet. Janet is looking out her window for the UPS man to arrive and Dave is standing in line at an Apple store in Washington state.

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Taking the iPad out of the box, it looked and felt exactly the way I thought it would. Heavy and worthy. For size perspective, here’s a picture of it next to the Kindle 2.

I’ve decided to abandon my usual charge-it-before-playing-with-it gadget ritual this time around and have it plugged into my Macbook Pro to set it up.

apple ipad 4One of the first things I do with any gadget that has memory, is to check the capacity before installing anything. As you can see, my 64GB iPad has 59.17GB free out of the box.

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The stock applications that are installed on the iPad are: Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Maps, Videos, YouTube, iTunes, App Store, Settings, Safari, Mail, Photos and iPod. Time to go shopping for iPad apps. I’ll be back…

I took a break for lunch and watched the latest episode of ABC’s Modern Family on Hulu (I love that show). Surprise! It had an iPad theme! I had some good laughs 😉

It’s a good thing I opted for the 64GB version because I’m going a little berserk downloading a bazillion free apps right now…

Back to the hardware…

The iPad feels very solid. No flexing, creaking, cracking or rattling when I shake or try to twist it.

The home, power and volume buttons have great tactile feedback.

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I’m so happy that there isn’t any chrome on the iPad like there is on the iPhone and Touch. The sides and back of the iPad are brushed aluminum like the unibody Macbook Pro. Even the Apple logo on the back of the iPad is not chrome. It appears to be glass like the display… and it’s inset so that the edges around the logo are slightly raised. Nice! The Apple logo on the back of my iPhone got scuffed up within days of me buying it.

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The display is gorgeous. I don’t even have the brightness turned up past halfway. It’s as sensitive as my iPhone 3GS and freaky fast at rotating. I do wish that the screen went edge-to-edge instead of having a .75 inch bezel all around it. Yeah, yeah, I know I’m never happy 😉

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So far I’ve only had time to goof with a few apps, but they all seem to load extremely quickly. Surfing with Safari is going to be very enjoyable.

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I’m going to add a few more apps, then sit down and really start using this little marvel. I think I’m really in love. I can’t remember a gadget making me this excited – even the first iPhone…

If you have specific questions, let me know and I’ll try to address them.

23 thoughts on “The Apple iPad Has Arrived at The-Gadgeteer HQ”




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  2. I’m glad you’ve received your iPad! Mine arrived about an hour and a half ago and I’m importing my iPhoto library into it now. The screen is gorgeous! I really like the way the UI responds. Well, I’m going back to start playing with it again! 🙂

    1. @Jean-Denis Hmmm… I have my iPhone syncing calendar, contacts and email from google and setup the iPad to do the same thing. Hopefully someone else can answer your question.

  3. Smythe Richbourg

    @Paul – the iPad can hold 11 pages of apps, just like the iPhone. Or, as I like to say: “It goes to eleven!”

    I played with them all morning and helped a lot of folks get set up. I’ve not fallen prey yet, but am hoping that I can justify it in a few weeks. They are really addictive devices!

  4. @Smythe Richbourg – thanks! I know that’s a lot, but I like to try a lot of apps. Personally, I see no reason for a limit (folders would be great, without jaibreaking); there’s no limit on music, except because of memory.

  5. Can you read PDF files on it?
    If so, does it have a decent PDF reader where you can zoom in and out?
    How does it feel when reading a novel-type book? I found the KDX to be really uncomfortable until putting it in a cover.
    And is it easy to skip around pages in a book, especially in a technical book, for example, skipping to a figure mentioned in the book and then going back to where you were? Several times. That’s a problem with the KDX.

  6. Oh yeah — and how long does it take from the time that you hit the “on” button till it comes up and is ready to use?

  7. Janet Cloninger

    @Robin I don’t have any pdf files that have images in them so I can’t try them out, but the iTunes store has several pdf readers that I saw while looking at the new iPad apps.

    And as for how long it takes to start up, I pressed the power button and counted “one-one thousand” and the lock screen was already up. At that point, it only takes a second to “slide to unlock” and you’re ready to go.

  8. @Dmitry. In Australia they haven’t even announced the price or shipping date! Still it’s good to let these other guys beta test for us.

    Michael

  9. @ Michael Murray.

    I’m in Russia, man 🙂 here even an iPhone 3G (not 3GS) costs as much as 37 inch LCD TV or a 10-15 years old car (about 1000 USD). for example, average family income is about 500-700 dollars.

    so iphone is a sign of richness here 🙂

  10. Michael Murray

    I’d be interested to hear how you guys get on with DropBox and pulling off files to edit on the iPad.

    Michael

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