Right after the publication I started to doubt. 10 hours battery is amazing. I have to admit I didn’t believe the marketing video Gizmodo. The difference would be too big in relation of the iPad. I was realizing the fact that the iPad was available on the market on the Courier not ‘yet’. Also I didn’t wanted to wait for eternity. It was a  good decision I didn’t wait. When the iPad arrived I received the message that the HP Slate but also the Microsoft Courier are cancelled and not would come on the market like they published.

People who know me well know I don’t judge on brands and flavours. I’m not a Linux hater or Windows lover. Systems and brands can be a better solution than others. I’m happy the market has this differance. Like also Apple. Nice marketing and slick design. Some tasks really well make, some other tasks I would prefer Windows or Linux solutions over Apple.

What caused that I eventually bought an Apple product? I read on an American blogsite that synchronizing with Microsoft Exchange was possible from the box. On that moment I thought that Apple for this first time also marketed on business users. I went to read more reviews to see the possibillities. I wanted to have a solution for my manuals, instructions and lesson material which I have in PDF and ePub format. I saw on YouTube.com a review of iBooks with the possibility of making bookmarks. For me, this feature alone, it was the reason to buy the iPad. You also have to imagine what it costs when you every time have to print a 500 page counting eBook, often I need to do this in color. After the printing I mark the special paragraphs and pages. A task which cost a lot of time and money for the material. Then I experienced for the first time Apple’s AppStore. Now I get what they mean about it. It’s really good. I found iAnnotate PDF. This programm, or shall I say App, does exactly what I wanted. It has even more features than iBook. You can read PDFs but you can also mark words, sentences like you do with a marker.You can bookmark and add texts and drawings. Exactly what I was looking for. And for US$ 9.95… that’s what I call a bargain!

Let’s do some complaining… I have the first iPad model which came out, the 16GB WiFi. 16 GB is not really available for the user. It’s 14.02 GB… I expected this but I wanted to mention it anyways. Then the label Apple uses a lot… HD. Nothing on the iPad is HD. The resolution is 1024×768 while specifications of the HD format states that widescreen has a resolution of 1280×720. The screen is beautiful, no doubt about this, but technical it’s not HD.

Back to the features.

Because the iPad is not yet available in The Netherlands I experienced some little issues when registering my iPad. When I entered my information the websites responded the iPad was not for sale in my region. Funny thing was that I was registering with my iPad. I found a link on google which explains how to solve this. The next issue came. My credit card was not an American which it didn’t accept, also here is google your friend. People in the Netherlands who will buy the iPad in July (hehehe) will not have this problem. But to be honest this all didn’t stall me more than 5 minutes. After that I could look around in the AppStore.

I want to come back to the standard apps.

Like mentioned before your data can be easily synchronised with an Exchange server. In my case it’s a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. It works well, all my calendar, e-mail and contacts are nicely synced.

Calendar:

The colors you can assign to your appointments can not be syncronised, all items have the blue color. The overview looks great.

Contacts:

If you have photos with your contacts in Outlook will be synchronised. Also notes which you have entered under your contacts in outlook are synchronised.

I will not discuss the other standard programs because other sites done that already lots of time.

Look here my Top 10 iPad apps.

LogMeIn Ignition:

Some people do know LogMeIn for the PC. You can remote control your PC. Provide help or assistance via internet. With LogMeIn Ignition for the iPad you can controle all your LogMeIn computers. Really handy and the app cost US$ 29.95.

The music part is well organised. I used my Bose InEar headphone and the sound was good.

I’m happy with the features of the iPad. Apple has done a good job. The AppStore did even more than I expected. Really good implemented. These little software developers listen really well to their customers.

UPDATE…

I experienced some problems when synchronising via iTunes. A PC in a Windows 2008 domain is not really iTunes friend.

I found that the roving profiles, different folder permissions, SMB2 and several other little things I had to fine tune some settings before it worked stable. Now it’s fine… EQ32NM5KA4YB

1. Formula 1 ’10 Timing App

• When I saw this app on Youtube, I was sure…I had made the correct choice.  This App shows that the iPad is more than just a color eBook reader. It’s worth the price of 30 US$.  I follow Formula One strictly. While watching I have always my statistics with me, realtime. This is a good addition.

2. RDP Lite

• Remote Desktop Connection Client which allows your iPad to make RDP sessions. I tested it with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and Windows 2008 Server 64 bit. Works great and is free!

3. iAnnotate PDF

• Turn your iPad into a PDF reader with a lot of features

4. QuickVoice Recorder

• This little and free app is really handy. You can record your notes via the builtin mic and send it via e-mail

5. Sociable

• Twitter and Facebook (note : app doesn’t exist anymore in app store)
• use official twitter app
• use official facebook app

6. Adobe Ideas

• Draw your own ideas and send them by e-mail. The receiver will see a PDF file with your drawing. Easy, simple but effective

7. Siphon (orginally an iPhone app)

• SIP on your iPad. I tested it with several SIP VoIP accounts and it works well!

8. Photoboard HD

• A funny way to share your photo’s in a natural viewing way…

9. ComicZeal

• Read all your digital comics in color without converting them

10. Reuters News Pro

• Nice app of Reuters with news.

HP said goodbye to the HP Slate. For the people who don’t know what a HP Slate is… Microsoft in person of Steven Ballmer announced the HP Slate running Windows 7 on the CES. That’s friend number 1

Friend number 2 is Microsoft… I was, sorry I have to write ‘am’, charmed of the features presented of the Microsoft Courier, finally a way to say goodbye to my paper journal… but Microsoft has announced that the Courier will not come on the market. That’s disappointment 2…

It did took longer than most people who know me expected. The first product of Apple that has my support is the Apple iPad. I never been against Apple. I only think most users of Apple products believe the marketing a little bit to enthousiastic. But the truth is Apple always has the marketing done well. I think the iPad will be the start of a trend we will see in the market of eReaders. Their product exist and works. HP and Microsoft left this tablet market premature. Dutch announcement of the iPad has not been confirmed yet but rumours indicate availablity in the Netherlands around september 2010. Dutch newspaper Telegraaf and Autoweek announced their vision on iPad. Great!

It looks strange to me see this happening. If you ask the people why they do this you will hear the argument most time emotionally and so not made on functionality.

Their management decides for Apple because… it looks great. A lot of consultant cannot do their work like they would like, but that seems not the main issue. When saving costs you don’t want to go to Apple. They are inside the higher and expensive area of the market. This is the only true reason why they choose Apple. Look us, on a different level.

I admit I like the looks of MacBooks. Only they are so inpractical. Daily tasks cannot be done, due of the fact there are only Windows-versions available.

You are stuck with Apple when buying cables or accessoires. This can become an issue when you travel a lot and in a urgent situation in a need for a cable. It’s horrible when you on the road and suddenly you need a cable. There are very few stores. PC stuff is a lot easier to find due to the mass of stores.

Apple is beautiful but in the real world inpractical. Maybe for a normal and light user who only surfs on the web it’s an alternative, but if you somewhat more experience user with an Apple you will reach it’s limitation fast.