The good news: on the whole the reviews are glowing.
More good news: there was more time and thought given in the reviews to the notion of using the iPad as a computer replacement than I thought there’d be. For example, Walt Mossberg talked about dramatically decreasing the amount of time he used his laptops. In general, this tells me that:
-SJ’s comments about it being better than a netbook were taken to heart by the reviews in their evaluation of the iPad, OR
-This blog is more popular than I thought 😉
Seriously though, let’s review my earlier questions…
1) Email search. We still sorta kinda don’t know yet whether searching covers nested folders. I’m guessing not. This is a bummer for me. I’ll likely wind up keeping my primary email account open in a Safari tab at all times just for this purpose.
2) Printing. Nope. Definitively (for now). A bummer, though not so big for me. I hardly print anything anymore. Maybe 1 – 2 pages/month when I have to sign something, scan it, and email it back to someone. Or print boarding passes. I’ll still use the iMac for this stuff I suppose. I’ll also try some of the printing apps that are out there…
3) The file system. Still a lot of questions, but in general it seems like the expected ability to save from emails, open in iWork apps, resave, and email out are all there. That’s good. File organization questions it would appear will have to wait…
4) Mobileme/iDisk. Nothing (yet) as far as I can see.
5) News. 6 items in the dock FTW! That was a happy but not entirely unexpected surprise.
On the whole, there was nothing particularly shocking – either good or bad – in the reviews as I read them. As I said, in general they were glowing. For a fan, this comes as no surprise. The best part of all for me is that I saw nothing in the reviews that thwarts my plan to use the iPad as my primary computer!
The next few weeks are going to be excruciating and wonderful…
The iPad Alone 
Nice “surprise” pure video playback is tested by David Pogue and Walt Mossberg giving us 11-12 hours!!!!
Some other nice things I’ll post tomorrow on …
Good point about battery life!!
I need an iPad to stop my vajayjay from bleeding out!!
Wow! Thanks for the value added post…
Agree reviews all sound good…only disturbing thing I read was Mossberg indicating that you cannot group address emails…I send a lot of messages to more than one person…problematic
Nice blog BTW…I’m going to try the same thing with the iPad…use for it my main computer.
Thanks for posting. Yup I caught that comment too. Not something I do but I can see it being an issue if it’s part of your regular routine. Sort of how I feel about printing – not that big a deal for me, but I could see where it could be trouble for others. Well, welcome to the iPad-as-computer club 🙂
I’d say the reviews were overall very positive. But not overwhelmingly so. And it definitely depends on what you plan to use the iPad for. Shortcomings which might frustrate some and not others were definitely pointed out. I think the UI and for the most part – form fact is what was unanimously glowing in reviews.
The best news of the day I would say is Netflix streaming…
Yup just saw that Netflix story myself. Great news indeed! Couple that with the major networks (now all officially or unofficially announced as supporting the iPad either via app or website), plus youtube, and we’ve probably covered 9x% of the video I want to watch online.
And agreed about the reviews – not overwhelmingly so, but definitely very positive.
Another cool point – Scrabble is a reality – we will have companion apps on the iPhone/iPod to hold are pieces and flick them to the board – all this within the first month of the iPad – !!!! – I can’t wait to play a great game of Scrabble on my new iPad come “Late April” !!
Can’t wait for this. I kind of have a geeky scrabble family I roll with so this will be a big hit for us 🙂
#1- Big email changes coming in iPhone OS 4, and I think this will be included. I want a universal inbox too 🙂
#2- Maybe you can use an app like PadNotes that will let you sign a document directly on the iPad, export as a PDF and email without the physical copy. Delta and some other airlines are moving to digital boarding passes on mobile devices, too.
#3- The big addition is the ability to copy files themselves to and from the iPad via iTunes when it is plugged in. This allows some new usages that weren’t possible before (without AirSharing/email/etc)
#4- Don’t know much here. Don’t see anything built in.
Thanks for posting. And thanks for your thoughts/answers/ideas.
There are two 3rd-party printing apps that might solve this problem.
The one I’m most hopeful about is called Fax Print and Share, which costs $5.99. According to the developer, this lets you print directly to any networked printer without needing a computer. If I’m reading this right, it will work with any file stored in “Documents” on the iPad. (You can also fax and e-mail and do some other stuff, but the printing capability is the big one.)
I hope this works.
Thanks – I’ll definitely check that one out. The one silver lining about waiting for the 3G version is that all the wifi folks will be testing the apps 🙂
I think you might like this app….
It’s legit as per MR
That guy is creepy! But the app is definitely worth a look, thanks!