What almost three weeks with an iPad has taught this blogger

OK, I've had my iPad for exactly 19 days today. Over that time, just about everyone who knows that I have the device has asked the same question: "So, how do you like it?" The easy answer is that I love this device in a very unnatural way, but there's more to the answer than that. I've learned a lot about myself and how I use my computers through the time I spend with the iPad every day.

The iPad provides a different computing experience than, say, a MacBook. While some actions, such as e-mail and browsing, are quite familiar and comfortable, things like using iWork are very different due to the method of interacting with the device. Fortunately, I've found the experience to be a positive one, and I sometimes find myself tapping on the screen of my iMac to try to open or move things.

What follows is a list of thoughts I've jotted down (in Penultimate, naturally) over the last few days. I'd be intrigued to see how many of our TUAW readers have had similar experiences, or if you've had completely different feelings about the iPad.
1) I may never need to buy a keyboard for this thing. Well, never is a bit harsh, but I find myself typing just fine on the iPad's screen in landscape mode. Two things are helping out my typing -- the tip that I received that holding down the comma key will type an apostrophe, and using proper hand position when I type on the iPad (fingers curled, wrists not laying on the iPad itself). For absolute speed typing, however, I might just bend to the desire of buying a Bluetooth keyboard.

2) The iWork trio for iPad rocks. I've never been a big fan of Numbers, but the app actually clicks with me better on the iPad than it does on the Mac. I like the way you just create a table (spreadsheet) and drag it out to size it, the touch gestures make sense for all sorts of actions that you do to a spreadsheet, and the built-in templates are also a good start for many common tasks. As for Pages and Keynote, they are both worthy mobile versions of their Mac brethren. Frankly, I think the design team for iWork on the iPad deserves a raise and pat on the back from Steve. Not me, that other Steve. The one who runs Apple.

3) 64 GB is overkill. At least for me, 64 GB seems like a vast amount of space. I've moved all of my music and a lot of photos over to the iPad, and there's still way too much space left. I could have bought the 32 GB model and been perfectly happy. Then again, someone might come up with an app that will cause me to eat up gigs of storage at a time, and I'll feel justified. Maybe I'll just use HandBrake to rip all of my movie DVDs to iTunes, and then load 'em all onto the iPad.

4) Damn, this thing is fast. Working on my 2 GHz MacBook Air seems incredibly slow by comparison. I'm getting very spoiled by having apps load in a heartbeat instead of taking a while. As a case in point, I often need to bring up Network Utility on my Mac when I'm doing network troubleshooting. Even with my fairly fast MacBook Air, I open the lid, log in, wait for the device to connect to the appropriate network, then dig around in the Utilities folder and launch Network Utility (no, I don't have it in my Dock because there are a lot of other icons there...). On the iPad, I hit the power button, log in, tap the NetTools (US$3.99) icon, and I'm up and running. The same with Pages. If I need to write a quick article, I can go from powered down to a blank page in 7 seconds. Yow!

5) I have a love / hate relationship with the Apple case. I like the idea of being able to use the case to prop up the iPad in a variety of poses, but the case just seems poorly made. I have a feeling that I'm going to be trying out a lot of cases before I find one that I like. The Incase Convertible Book Jacket looks nice, but I want to see one in person before spending $60 on a new case.

6) Who needs to have Netflix DVDs sent through the mail? Between the Netflix app on my Wii (Hello, Apple? Why no Netflix on my Apple TV?) and its partner on my iPad, I've watched more Netflix movies in the last three weeks than I had in the year before that. The iPad is perfect for personal video watching.

7) My devious plan to go to two devices -- a 27" i7 iMac that will be showing up here soon and the iPad -- is going well. I'm not using my MacBook Air much at all. When I need a "real computer," I simply fire up iTeleport or LogMeIn Ignition on the iPad and take over my Mac. I've done that over Wi-Fi and 3G (using a Sprint MiFi) both locally and remotely. Hmmmm... I forgot the iPhone. That's three devices.

8) The battery life on the iPad is so good that I find myself forgetting to plug it in to recharge it. I don't think I'll have that panicky feeling in airports anymore, where I'm running around trying to find an open power outlet to top off my laptop before getting on an airplane. It's nice to have a device that gives me one less thing to have to remember.

9) Oleophobic screen coating? I don't think so. It seems like the iPad picks up fingerprints like a magnet. I'm wondering if they meant oleophilic instead. I've taken to carrying a RadTech ScreenSavrz with me just about everywhere, and I think my next step might be to get a mylar screen covering. Of course, it might also help if I'd stop using the iPad when I'm eating.

So, that's it. This is not an exhaustive review or a complete list of iPad pros and cons, but just a mind dump of those things that have been most surprising to me. As I mentioned earlier, I'd love to hear from other iPad users about what your experiences have been. Leave those comments below.
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