After ~24 hours with the iPad, I decided to post a few ‘mini-reviews’ of the device, experience and applications. Here is my take on the iPad itself, with a couple more posts coming on particular apps:

Background: I have the 32GB wifi iPad and also carry a Verizon Mifi card (which can act as the 3G provider for the iPad).

In short: I had very high expectations / hopes going into this … just look a handful of my excited blog posts. The iPad exceeded my expectations by a landslide, and everyone else who came into contact with it – some Apple fanatics and some cynics – had the same excited response. I really cannot recommend the iPad enough – it will change the way you travel, interact with the web at home, and interact with branded applications…. and you will have a ton of fun using it.

Pros:

- It is a beautiful device. It looks great and feels sturdy and nice in your hands / lap.
- The iPad hums. Unlike the iPhone or a regular computer, everything flies on the iPad: applications, emails, bootup, app transitions, etc.
- The screen is terrific – crisp, dynamic and rich. Looking at photos and colorful websites like ESPN is a treat.
- Typing is much easier than I anticipated. In landscape mode, traditional qwerty typing is doable, intuitive and fast.
- Mail, calendar and contacts are much better than I expected. The apps are very intuitive and efficient – particularly navigation.
- Books are outstanding… sorry Amazon, but this is a *much* better experience – there is really no comparison.
- iPad-specific apps are beautiful, fast and able to take advantage of the large real-estate. More to come on this in future blog posts – but it really is a new realm of development opportunity
- The speakers are far better than I expected. Normally internal laptop / cell-phone speakers are pitiful. This isn’t a Bose system, but it is quite good.

Cons:

- The biggest downside is that there simply aren’t a ton of iPad-specific apps yet. Running iPhone apps on the iPad is really disappointing. Of course this will change over time, but app inventory is limited.
- Similarly – and this too will change – book inventory is not as deep as Amazon’s.
- No camera: it still bothers me that there is no front-facing camera for chat.
- There are some minor UI annoyances (ie why are downloaded apps stuck on a new screen?) that I assume will be fixed in upcoming software updates.

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