iPad 3G, do I need this?

Due to the uprising trend and consumer interest towards Apple's gadgets, I have decided to get myself an iPad 3G 32GB last week to catch the wave and the decision burned a big hole in my pocket. I have included the Marware Evo-Cue and a matte screen protector in the package with a total cost of about SGD1200 (MYR 2800) before the 5.5% GST refund. It is selling like hot cake in Singapore with 300-400 units sold over the weekend from a single outlet.

Well, this is my first gadget from Apple as I have been using Windows and Linux all these while. At first glimpse, the iPad is a COOL product. Booting up was a charm, ohh wait...I think there's no boot up because it booted up instantly because it doesn't has a Hard Disk. The aluminium chassis made it feel "good" on hands and the screen is nice too (no complain on this). Setting up the iPad was a charm as most of the critical settings are easily accessible via the "Settings" tab.

My iPad is being delivered with the following pre-installed apps:-

• Calendar
• Contacts
• Notes
• Maps
• Videos
• YouTube
• iTunes
• App Store
• Safari
• Mail
• Photos
• iPod

After getting the iPad from the town, I was stranded in the airport for 4 hours due to a flight delay (Tiger Airways sucks). I've decided to burn the time with the new iPad. First, I try to connect to the available Wifi AP and none of them are offering free internet services :(

So, the iPad is pretty useless without an Internet connection as I do not have apps to play with.

Then, I tried to pair the iPad up with my phone (HTC Wildfire) over bluetooth. The pairing was successful but the it can't connect to each other...Gosh...I can't transfer the photos and videos from my phone to the iPad for viewing. There are so many issue with bluetooth on the Iphone and iPad. I attempted to pair the iPad to my friend's HTC HD2 but there was no luck as well (sad). The iPad was useless for the entire duration.

I managed to hook the iPad to the Internet when I reached home. It asked me to create an iTune account before I could download any apps whereas my Android does not require me to do this. Signing up the iTunes account is quite a pain as it require a lot of personal information (data mining). They should have make the signing process as simple as signing up on Twitter, that's the standard of today!

Done with iTunes account and I downloaded Skype and eBuddy, there were no iPad version for it so I have to use the iPhone version :( Sad.........the resolution and keyboard doesn't really fit the iPad.

Next, the Safari web browser. It was nice for the first page but not after you open additional tab as the iPad does not support multitasking :( The additional tab will open but the page will reload again whenever you switch back to the previously closed tab :(

The Mail is good for iPad. Setting up Gmail, Yahoo, AOL and exchange is easy as you just need to key in your username and password. The Mail will take care the rest for you. No complain on the Mail for iPad.

Conclusion:-

In my humble opinion, this is just an overpriced luxury gadget. It doesn't really help me much in work, so I will give low scoring on practicality but it will score high on the cool factor.

I would rather spend the money to buy a small and lightweight notebook which would offer much more functionality than the iPad.

I like:

- Cool factor

- Slim

- Light

- Fast boot up

- 10 hours battery life

- Nice display

I dislike:

- Overpriced

- No multitasking

- Almost everything need to be done with iTunes

- Need to jailbreak to get extra functionality but it will void the warranty.

- Money pit as you will spend a lot of apps.

- Feel like a bigger iPhone

- No card reader slot

- No USB slot

- Non-replaceable batteries

I will provide a new update if I decide to jailbreak it later.