I absolutely love it. I use it for everything but development/work... and I mean everything: browsing, email, reading, ordering pizza/food, as a reference when making food, buying stuff online, researching stuff to buy offline, listening to music, sharing photos (like, physically I mean), checking the weather, playing board games (and other multiplayer stuff) as well as single player games like Osmos and Angry Birds. I use it to keep up on Facebook and Flickr happenings as well as managing twitter accounts... The list never ends, really. If it broke I would absolutely go right out and buy another one immediately.
Ask HN: Four months since launch: how are you finding the iPad?
21–30 of 90 posts
Re: Ask HN: Four months since launch: how are you finding the iPad?
#22My mother (almost computer-phobic) has been using it for months and now loves it. She uses it for e-mail, loading up pictures from her camera, and some music. Since she has poor satellite internet bandwidth, the iPad isn't very useful for video at her location. I've been using my iPad extensively. My main apps are: - Evernote with auto-sync to my MacBook Pro. It's great for simple note taking. Still wish it had a sty…
+1 on Dropbox. Apple really mashed up the file uploading.
Re: Ask HN: Four months since launch: how are you finding the iPad?
#23It'd glorious. I would much rather do any casual net browsing on the iPad because it's easier to read. Then throw in the fact that you can be much more comfortable, take it more places, and not feel like a dork sitting with a laptop while everyone else is watching TV. I loaded a whole bunch of family photos onto it which really becomes 'magical' when you're visiting relatives etc. It's also easy to pass around or cro…
Battery life is simply outstanding.
Re: Ask HN: Four months since launch: how are you finding the iPad?
#24It'd glorious. I would much rather do any casual net browsing on the iPad because it's easier to read. Then throw in the fact that you can be much more comfortable, take it more places, and not feel like a dork sitting with a laptop while everyone else is watching TV. I loaded a whole bunch of family photos onto it which really becomes 'magical' when you're visiting relatives etc. It's also easy to pass around or cro…
often I hit N instead of spacebar
I often hit spacebar instead of N! Perhaps meeting like this will cancel out our habits... :)
Re: Ask HN: Four months since launch: how are you finding the iPad?
#25Game changer for me. Somehow, the format lends itself to reading "properly" in a way a desktop computer does not. So I've actually started reading e-books instead of print and have gone through a ton of academic papers. I also no longer take my MBP out with me. I can present and do most things I want on the road with the iPad. It's also great for getting the "silly" browsing of the news, Reddit, etc, out of the way i…
I like to keep the dinner table sacred... But it occurred to me the other day that's where speech recognition would be really useful. Prop the iPad up and tell it what websites to visit, dictate emails etc. Could be a viable mass market opening for voice recog tech (cause otherwise I tend to agree with that recent Spolsky blog - who really wants speech recognition interfaces?)
There's Dragon dictation software available for it, no idea if it's any good though.
Re: Ask HN: Four months since launch: how are you finding the iPad?
#26I have read five novels ( Carpe Jugulum, Blackout, The Graveyard Book, Never Let me Go, and the Accidental Time Machine) and and find it far more convenient than my Kindle1/K2 for indoor reading - Ironically the battery is always charged on my iPad (I tend to let the kindle run down) and until the graphite kindle comes out, the ability to read at night is the deal breaker.
When I go on vacation though, I expect the Kindle will be in heavy rotation as my primary reader though - particularly out in BRC during the day.
Netflix, even with it's so-so iPad interface is frequently in rotation, and when Hulu-Plus -finally- sends me an invitation, I expect to get a lot of use from it.
Videos are in frequent rotation.
I've spent way to many hours on Games (PvZ, Build-a-Lot,BloonsTD)
DropBox/Good Reader/Instapaper get rotated every other day. Innovative Use: I have a Go program that I worship (SmartGoPro) - and every Friday Night, when I get together with a Friend for our six-hour Go session, we go through a bunch of Life-Death problems, both new and old, on the iPad.
All-in-all I really like how the iPad and the iPhone compliment each other. I use the iPhone for taking pictures, Blogging, GPS, SMS, eMail, instapaper a lot. But I find that general browsing I now typically reach for the iPad.
The Laptop at home gets very little use - only when I need to hop onto Terminal.App or use Remedy (Grrrr Flash) do I actually bother to open it up.
WSJ is killer - I open it up every morning and read it on my walk to/from work + they keep improving the App! The WSJ really, really are good. What's going on at the NYT - they've totally lamed out on the iPad.
Of the three magazines I read - Time, Popular Electronics, and Wired - Only wired really wowed me, and now I actually look forward to the new magazine coming out. I haven't looked forward to the day a magazine comes out in 20+ Years (Dragon Magazine).
So, for me - iPad is a huge win. Looking forward to iPad with a retina display. :-)
Re: Ask HN: Four months since launch: how are you finding the iPad?
#27Bought it for reading papers in pdf, does that reasonably well, though there is no good annotation software yet (with smooth ink). Not bad for movies. Cool feel of "100% interface." Completely lacks a viable input method (keyboard too small for touchtyping, too big for thumbs, and the pen apps just aren't there yet); input on the iPhone is far more comfortable.
I've found the complete opposite - I can hardly work an iPhone keyboard now. I'm amazed at how fast typing on the iPad is - although I've still not worked out where I should be looking keyboard (for finger placement), or text (for typos)
Re: Ask HN: Four months since launch: how are you finding the iPad?
#28Is there a market for a screen darkening overlay? Even with brightness right down it's too bright for me at night, and I think it disrupts my sleeping slightly.
Re: Ask HN: Four months since launch: how are you finding the iPad?
#29My macbook is my new desktop machine and my iPad is my new laptop.
Dropbox + omnigraffle + numbers + keynote + safari + mail means I basically have all the information I need when I'm out in usable form.
I do have a ridiculously large case, though. I've been wondering if I should go for the apple case as opposed to this incase thing that makes the footprint larger than my Dell mini 9.
Re: Ask HN: Four months since launch: how are you finding the iPad?
#30Game changer for me. Somehow, the format lends itself to reading "properly" in a way a desktop computer does not. So I've actually started reading e-books instead of print and have gone through a ton of academic papers. I also no longer take my MBP out with me. I can present and do most things I want on the road with the iPad. It's also great for getting the "silly" browsing of the news, Reddit, etc, out of the way i…
I like to keep the dinner table sacred... But it occurred to me the other day that's where speech recognition would be really useful. Prop the iPad up and tell it what websites to visit, dictate emails etc. Could be a viable mass market opening for voice recog tech (cause otherwise I tend to agree with that recent Spolsky blog - who really wants speech recognition interfaces?)
See, I would find that makes the table a lot less sacred because it's where a lot of conversation goes on, and barking orders at my iPad isn't going to be popular ;-) Not only that, I'd rather my wife didn't know I was goofing off instead of working, ha!