iPad or iFad?

Hello all!

I am currently speaking to you from the future. Actually? Well, no. But I am writing this blog entry from my newly acquired iPad that all advertising majors in Creative Communications at Red River College got today! I was fortunate enough to be the first one in my group of two to get it for the first week. We have 16 ad majors, but alas only eight iPads. So, we were assigned in groups of two and are going to be switching back and forth from week to week. Our faithful leader, Kenton Larsen, pleaded to the Program Innovation Fund last summer and his prayers were answered.

So, I bet you're wondering how I'm liking the iPad so far!

Well, first off, before getting it this morning, I would have never thought to buy one. I saw it as impractical, hard to use, and just a flashy new toy for tech geeks and rich folk to buy. Have my opinions changed after my first day?

Yes and no.

I'm really quite enjoying myself and the time I've had to discover the ins and outs of it. It's very versatile and easy to use. The interface is the same as the iPod touch and probably the iPhone as well, though I've never used the latter. The biggest surprise to me so far is how well the keyboard works. Before trying it, I saw the touch screen keyboard as its biggest flaw, but after the first couple shaky and awkward minutes, I got used to it. Now I find myself typing just as fast a I can on a regular keyboard. In fact, maybe even faster! Wow!

I'm sure it gets easier with more practice but right now I find myself having to spend a lot of time looking for the punctuation marks as you need to go to a separate keyboard than the alphabetical one.

I haven't had much time to check out the apps as of yet, but I will investigate further and let you know. Embarrassingly enough though I did download the free Angry Birds app and play the entire demo in one sitting.

Oh, I just discovered something. It's actually not too hard to place your cursor in-between letters and highlight specific things. The touch screen has really good sensitivity and accuracy.

So I've blabbered on the positives, how about negatives? Well, I'm not going to list any right now. I'm sure if I did, they would just be things I could fix after playing with the iPad for a couple more days.

As for right now, the iPad has impressed me and changed my views about it. Check back later in the week and I'll tell you my impression after our first date. We're going to Olive Garden.

"Hey, I'm kind of broke. Try and fill up on breadsticks, okay?"