Three weeks ago I bought it from Currys on Oxford Street. Interestingly both Apple on Regent Street and Apple in Wimbledon both said it was out of stock everywhere and they would be the first to get it in. I asked when and they said to order it now and probably a week or so for delivery. I walked down to Currys and they said they would have some in tomorrow morning.  So an interesting tip if you want one quickly.

I loaded it with videos and tunes for my holiday, and business tools to play with, much to my girlfriend’s dismay but for most of the time it can easily be passed off as a fun play thing, rather than a work laptop.

So what have I found that is good and bad about it.

The Good:

The videos are excellent but you have to convert them to mp4 or mov files from any DVD iso’s that you may have. I used Airvideo (ipad app connected to my pc) or Movavi but each iso took about 3 hours. You then have to synch them with itunes to get them onto the iPad, it’s a bit of pain but that’s the product, like the iphone.  The only issue with the video sound is not very loud through the speakers or the ear phones but my video recording quality was good so that was a bit of an issue for me. Email is great on it but you have to be connected to wireless or 3G when you are out and about. There are a few data plans but I simply use £2 a day whenever I’m roaming or find a BT openzone cafe bar as I’m on O2. All the usual apps for the iphone are great, you can browse a Google reader app for all the usual downloads, the iBooks app is good for reading books or pdf’s for presentations, connecting up to your social media (hootsuite or Seesmic) works perfectly well and internet browsing is good through Safari. The keyboard is surprisingly fine but having said that, I wouldn’t use it for long textual writing, like this blog for instance as you may find you have fat fingers a lot. The looks are lovely and the speed of flicking between apps is super. I have also used Logmein to remote control my PC, which works perfectly well. I need some more apps that make more use of this device, so if anyone wants to comment with any, feel free to do so? The battery life is good and will easily last for a day, even watching videos and playing music substantially.

The Bad:

It’s quite annoying when you want to watch some videos through the internet pages and due to flash not working on it. I also experienced some the same problem with trying to download or read things on Microsoft based web sites. The screen just clicks and nothing opens. If anyone knows a way round this or a better app for browsing that works on an iPad, then let me know. I read MS office docs using docs2go but quite frankly, it’s good to read but if you want to create something that is a decent business document, then I would stick to the proper copies or office on a PC or Google docs if you are that way inclined. I am sure some people will have a comment about this and maybe it’s a matter of using the app a little more but my patience ran out. It has to be charged overnight or expect to sit there for a few hours as it takes just that to charge from empty but that’s expected. I am still trying to get my Flipvideo onto the machine as it has no USB connection and even when it has, I’m not sure Flipshare will work but it does have ‘an app for it’, so to speak. I have been told I need the camera kit connector but there are none around in the UK. I started to write this blog on it but soon found my site wouldn’t accept it in the blog post backend (WordPress) and very quickly found myself on my Windows 7.

My overall impression is a good one but it if I thought it was going to replace a mini laptop for my roving work, I now can’t see that happening as it’s not really designed to do that with synching itunes to get pdf’s and data on there and with the use of pseudo Office apps, and the clunky way of getting files onto it, I’m shying away from it for those reasons. I see it as a sexy machine around the house, great for kids to learn from, watch and browse, good for doing social media with a coffee on the sofa first thing. I also love showing people what it does as it really looks the business and as said the reading, music, video and email parts really are very good. I do however take it up town for presentations as it does that well with Keynote and displaying PDF’s, so there are benefits. I eagerly await what Microsoft are going to be doing with their tablet pc, that will rival the iPad. It looks very similar to the iPad, I’ll come back to you soon once I’ve tried one.

Here’s a bit of news about MS’s challenge: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10611568

Chris