It’s not really reduced use of my mobile phone. It might on some mid-length trips where it’s enough to carry the iPad but not a laptop.

I still use my iPod Nano for media rather than my phone. And I’m still figuring out how best to interface that to a 2004 model car.

It’s totally supplanted the Creative Zen Vision:W media player that replaced my original iPod. That’s going on eBay.

It’s become a new category of amusement as a eBook reader. I’m a bit late to the eBook party, but on the other hand I still think I’m here as an early adopter dealing with a fragmented marketplace and lots of competing and incompatible devices. I think I’ve largely seen the end of me buying paper books, but I want to know there’s a way out of the DRM before I really commit.

The other change is a bit more complex. At the start of this year I had a desktop and a netbook as my personal computers. The desktop died and got replaced with a laptop. The netbook was intended as a travel computer, and that role has been largely supplanted by the iPad. I’ve not sold it yet for one simple reason – I’ve done so little travelling that I’ve not had chance to confirm the iPad as the replacement. But the iPad has definitely taken over the “consumption” role of the laptop. When I want to sit back and read – be it forums, blogs, RSS feeds or books, the iPad is the tool of choice. And with a Bluetooth keyboard, it’s also a creation tool. But not a serious one. Because there’s no way to paste the link I copied inline into this post. So it will remain a drafting, tool, a place to make notes and write blog entries from a comfy chair. It certainly won’t replace the laptop. The jury’s still out on the netbook, but probably that’s out too.

The game changing features of the iPad are the fact that it’s “instant on”, it’s a “like a book” way to read books and the internet, and that it turns the web into something you can pass around like a book.

These sound like subtle changes – and from a technological viewpoint they are. But from a usability viewpoint they are game changing.

The iPad is indeed a third device. More portable than a laptop, more useful than a smartphone, and more cool than even an iPhone 4.

It’s also interesting that Mary Foley who writes the All About Microsoft blog also categorises the iPad as a “consumption” device. It’s something for reading, for watching, for sharing.

I’m writing this sat on the sofa with the iPad in it’s case and the keyboard below it, both on my lap. It’s a position that will probably give any so-called expert in ergonomics palpitations, but since my spine is properly supported and I’m comfortable I don’t care. This isn’t working, this is slouching and writing for fun!

For casual web surfing it’s a definite win, and when discussing something I wanted for my birthday it was nice to just put it on the table and look at together – it seems somehow less intrusive than sharing a PC screen.  Without a Bluetooth keyboard it’s a consumption device – it’s a TV not a Camcorder.  I wanted to send an email with three sentences in it, and I put the iPad down, when into the next room to get my laptop, and booted Windows to send them email because typing on screen is so painfully slow. I find the same with my phone – if you get an email reply from me from the phone it means there isn’t a real keyboard in reach.  And it’ll be terse.

I’ve got my entire music collection – 16 gigs – plus a handful of movies converted for playing on there, and I’ll convert some more as time goes on to get a reasonable collection before the next long trip.  Using CloneDVDMobile creates excellent results but does take time to do all the transcoding – about 2x the time needed to watch the video.

Installed Free Apps so far:

• Evernote.  - I already have this on all my PCs, and my phone, so it was an obvious move to install it here.
• Bloomberg.  - I’m not an avid stock/news watcher but this does present information in a useful format.
• Amazon Kindle – More on eBooks below
• Apple’s iBooks – More on eBooks below.
• Epicurious – interesting recipe site, but haven’t seen their
• GoSkyWatch – Free Planetarium app.  Great for skywatching as I always forget to take my sky maps on holiday.
• WordPress – will probably use this once I get a keyboard!
• The Weather Channel – free weather app – almost obligatory to have one of them.
• AeroGuitar Free – demo of “Guitar Hero” type game.  Not that impressed – the whole point of guitar hero is mucking about with friends, not sitting alone!
• Dictionary – again, almost obligatory.
• Plane Flight HD Free – demo of plane tracking app.  Probably not used enough to buy the app when I get hit the websites that provide this information for free.
• Adobe Ideas – not played with this yet, but seems interesting
• Urbanspoon – restaurant search – have it on the phone as well and seems useful
• IMDb – because I can.
• Periodic Table – the £7.99 paid app is gorgeous but I’m not paying that much for “pretty”.
• BBCiPlayer
• eBay- Curious, but why do I need an app when the website works fine?
• Google Earth – This has always struck me as “why do I need an app for that”, but it’s fun to play with.

Any other recommendations?

Paid Apps

• FlightControl HD (£2.99)  Most used app so far.
• Weather HD (£0.59)  This really should have been a free app.  Weather and pretty pictures.  Waste of 59p.
• Real Racing HD (£5.99)  This’ll keep me amused on travel sometime.

I’ll probably – possibly – add the Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps – Word, Excel and Powerpoint equivalents – once I have a BT keyboard which I have hinted will make a nice birthday present (and will be buying myself the day after if I don’t get it!)

On eBooks

I’ve got a whole bunch of reference PDFs downloaded, as well as the beginnings of a collection of Free eBooks.   These all open fine in the built in iBook application.  But since Amazon are promising a Kindle App for Android, and their whispersync technology means I can go to a book I started reading on the ipad, and carry on on the PC or the phone, that sounded a better deal.  Oh, and their eBooks are cheaper too.

Reading in the sun

Probably my biggest unknown was how well it would work in bright sunlight.  I intend to have it with me on vacation later in the year as my primary source of “entertainment”, and want to be able to watch videos and read books in the sun.  Watching video’s isn’t so good, but the “mostly white” screen of the book reader does an excellent job of hiding reflections off the screen, and after a while you start to focus on the screen, not the reflections, so it’s prefectly usable. If money really were no object, I’d probably get an eBook reader as well – which would also eliminate my minor concern about this being something of a single point of failure in amusing myself when travelling.

Essential Accessories I’d have bought at the time

Well, if I didn’t have a birthday in a few weeks and hence the opportunity to drop hints about presents.

1) Spare USB charger.  Nominally so I can leave one in my “travel” bag and one at home, but I’ll probably take both when travelling since I can (with the right leads) charge my phone and MiFi router off the USB port as well.

2) Case.  And the only reason I didn’t order this at the time was the quoted 3-4 week delivery.

3) Camera interface so I can download photos taken during the day to the iPad.  I really like the idea of being able to sit in the bar and look over the day’s photos.

Since I already have two laptops (work and home) which benefit from being able to access the Internet from anywhere, it seemed like a 3G/WiFi router was a better option than the built in 3G.  I don’t want to pay for separate contracts for the lapdog, iPad, and SWMBO’s lapdog. So the fact they can all share one SIM is good.

The downside is that if it’s being used to partner the iPad it’s another device that needs to be charged up.

Time to get that Gel Cell powered USB port working!!

• Reading eBooks is great even in the sun.  After a while your eyes learn to focus on the screen not the reflections, and then it’s even better
• Transcoding DVDs to a format I can watch is painfully slow.  Advance planning needed to get the existing DVD collection (or at leat the interesting part thereof) converted ready for the next prolonged trip.

The true test will be in a month’s time.  Am I carrying it everywhere, or has it become an expensive Photo frame I take on international trips?

Time will tell.

After my first iPod was replaced under warranty 4 times in 2 years, and died again just out of warranty, I went on a bit of an anti-apple phase.  Which was exacerbated when I realised I couldn’t play any of the music I’d bought for the iPod on any other player.  Since then I have an iPod nano for portable music, which I’ve been rather more impressed with.

I deliberately didn’t get an iPhone – at the time I was happy with my WM6 phone.   Then corporate policies forced me down the Blackberry route, and while it’s an excellent tool it’s not a fun personal gadget so I got my own phone, and after looking seriously at the iPhone ended up with a HTC Desire.

But after looking at several eBook readers I came to the conclusion that it was going to be another device – and battery charger – to add to the netbook,  media player, and mobile phone that I take on any kind of trip.  Then I figured the iPad would do all of these things, so I’ve ordered one.  I’ll be selling the Netbook and Creative media player once it arrives – sometime the week after next as it seems Apple deem fir to take my order three days ago and ship it in 10 days time.

Not the best first impression in this day of instant gratification.  I expect same day ship from Internet companies these days.

Edit: they’ve improved the delivery date and allegedly it’s on a UPS truck somewhere near here.  I shall resist the temptation to keep refreshing the tracking page every 30 seconds.  Not so shabby after all.

www.IPfor.me.uk

Just the answer you want, and a single line of ads.  I hope it’s useful for others.

After a week long trip to Prague, the Aspire One has proven to be a vastly more usable machine than the EEE.  I have nothing against the Asus – I just wish I’d waited and bought the 901 instead of the 701.  But with the offer on the Acer, the decision was made.

The keyboard suffers from the same problem as the larger Dell I have from work – it’s very easy for me to accidentally hit the trackpad and move the insert point while typing.  But the 82% keyboard is perfectly usable even with my big paws!  The display is clear and crisp, and displays enough text to be useful for previewing photos.   I’m not going to get into any photo editing here though – that’s what the pair of wide screens at home are for!

A bit more battery life for longer plane journeys would be good – but at least it’s compact enough to use in an economy class seat!

Compared with the original Asus eee701 it’s a vast improvement – a more usable screen, a better keyboard, and a decent sized hard drive.  I’ve been using it extensively and find it far more usable.

So what to do with the eee?