Just when the week couldn’t get any better – with England actually qualifying for the last 16, the rapturous response to our 100th issue and Example and Giggs dropping big albums – Apple bike over a little wonder machine also known as, The iPad. The Gods must be smiling down on us…
Love it or hate it. The iPad is an amazing bit of technology; another landmark launch from the California-based company. Many refer to it as an ‘iPod Touch on steroids’, or a ‘big stupid iPhone minus the call facilities’ but we refer to those many as ‘fools’. Yeah, it’s expensive – with prices starting from £429 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only version rising to £699 for the all singing all dancing all surfing all blogging, 64GB WiFi and 3G version – but can that price be justified? We rip open the box to find out.
On first impression
We’d only seen an iPad on TV, in all the print advertising and during an opportune visit to the Westfields’ Apple Store. Never had we had one to play with or customise to RWD’s hectic professional lifestyle (basically we need to add a couple of albums and get Twitter on the mother and we’re good to go). First we can tell you that the 64GB Wi-Fi device is not THAT light. It weighs the same as a bag of sugar, or ten Dizzee Rascal albums (the good ones) or something like that (0.68kg to be precise). However it is amazing. The display is crisp like Walkers and when the home screen first opened up a little bit of sex wee escaped.
The initial 24 hours was obviously spent – after fighting over who was gonna take the inaugural session –trying to get as much from the iPad as possible. With Wi-Fi enabled we took a trip to our favourite website (RWDmag.com) and the browsing was perfect, we may not use Safari on our desktops but on the iPad it works like a (wet) dream. Despite not having the ability to display Adobe Flash, YouTube videos like Rusko’s Hold On worked full screen without a glitch and looked amazing. Really like that song. After linking the unit up to our iTunes – which admittedly took longer than we were expecting, mainly as we had to download the latest software – adding videos (Peep Show), photos and of course music was easy.
The second, third, fourth, and fifth day
The following days were about Popular Science+, iBooks, iHobo, Modern Conflict HD, Metro, Top Gun, Google Earth, WordPress, IMDb, Tris, Tetris, Touch Hockey, Street Fighter IV, and of course Grand Theft Auto China Town Wars.
The best of which…
Popular Science + (£2.99) is a digital magazine which is perfect for tablets. Once you figured out the innovative navigational system the content was consumed with ease. Despite all of its faults this is a great app to show off the iPad as a reading device.
iBooks (FREE) you might have heard of this one, another amazing app for those want to read on the move.
Modern Conflict HD Lite (FREE) although we downloaded the free version of this strategic, Command & Conquer-like app and it’s very graphic-light it was bloody addictive.
Metro (FREE) nice and simple.
IMDb (FREE) brilliant for movie moguls on the move. Especially once who like to watch HD trailers.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (£5.99 but imported from the iPod) Brilliant fun but on a larger screen. Click here to read our review of this game.
Street Fighter IV (£5.99 but imported from iPod) once you sort out the controls this is a good port from the iPod Touch/ iPhone. Although the iPad was tricky to hold it shows that this can be a great gaming machine. We just need a HD version. Click here to read our review of this game.
The verdict
After having an iPad for a week, general opinion from the RWD team is that we all want one (well most of us). Although many of the crew have laptops, iPhones and iPod Touches there is just something about this creative contraption that sparks a lustful feeling of ‘Buy it’ every time you switch it on. Whether the decent battery life, large screen and the features will warrant the purchase, depending on if your bank account will back up the transaction (imagine what you can buy with £429+) and considering Apple’s new iPhone 4 has dropped, your reason for buying one HAS to be backed up by more than just the fact that Steve Jobs says you should. Those that consume/ read/ watch videos/ blog on the move, this is you!!! Those that love amazing gadgets, this is you!!! Those that want to be stared at every time you whip it on the bus (seriously people stare it you like you’re Bin Laden), this is you!!!
I want an iPad… whether I will part with the p’s… I don’t know.
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