Ordered a 32 gb Wi-fi iPad today at 8:39 EST. The ordering process was glitch-free. After I added a case, dock, adapter, and 2-year AppleCare warranty, the price was up to $850.65, including $55 of tax.
Free shipping, promised delivery by April 3. No way to purchase iWork yet. Guess that will come later.
When it arrives, I’ll post thoughts on using it as a writing and research tool. Hope other buyers will post their thoughts, too.
MacUser UK report said that, when it is available, iWork for iPad will be a free download for those who have already bought the hardware. For your sake, I hope they’re right.
Mark
I’d be very interested to know whether the iPad version of Pages can handle track changes and comments. There’s no sign on this in any of the videos, though they do make clear you can run text around the neck of a giraffe. I have no need for the latter. The former would be essential to make the iPad useful for book editing/revision.
I’ll be very interested in reading your review, Druid. Specially after you start testing iWorks.
I was utterly pleased to see that Keynote can be used to do a general presentation (outside the iPad). That’s essencial for me. I’ll be waiting for iPad v2 when more apps are out and some trimming has been made to the hardware, but I’m definitely going to buy one for general ebook reading, browsing, emailing. Most of all while traveling between US and Europe.
We are watching the driveway for a UPS truck.
Apple sends out tracking information; it left the main warehouse at 8:10 am.
Should be here in another 2-3 hours.
Feeling like a ridiculous fanboy about now. 
All I continue to think is “meh”.
Good to see some of the reviews coming confirming it as not for serious writing though:
guardian.co.uk/media/pda/201 … ital-media
Even so, I’m resigned to receiving daily requests for an iPad version of Scrivener for at least the next couple of months, sigh.
Still, I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it. Dunno when we in the UK will be able to get them (unless you happen to be Stephen Fry of course) - not that I’m especially bothered, given that the iPad excites me about as much as pickled spam.
Best,
Keith
[quote=“KB”]
All I continue to think is “meh”.
Good to see some of the reviews coming confirming it as not for serious writing though:
[quote]
I’m not especially interested in one for serious writing. I’m interested in one for serious note-noodling and copying and annotating snippets from books that will eventually be assembled into serious writing in Scrivener. I’m presuming Pages will output a Pages File that can then be transformed into a .doc file that can then be upsucked into a Scrivener file.
But I’ll wait for the pioneers to comment before leaping. Never buy version 1.0 of anything, is my motto.
One thing the iPad will surely accomplish is to give me even more technological advantage, because I will continue to use my notePad… 
notePad:
However:
For me, that would take it into “things I want a laptop for” territory. Especially since my laptop can run both Scrivener and DevonThink, my two main research apps.
Katherine
Notepads have a certain retro-cool. Consider the popularity of Moleskines.
They’re also far less likely to be stolen.
Katherine
First impressions: it arrived around noon, and we’ve played with it for 2-3 hours. In that time, the battery went from 100% to 87%, so it looks like 10-12 hours will be standard. The battery was fully charged on arrival.
Setting it up is simple: Plug in to iPad and a USB port, turn on iTunes, and follow directions. But if you have previously synced an iPhone, iTunes says: “An iPad has been previously synced with this computer.” Which is wrong, and confusing. You get two choices: Set up as a new iPad, or Restore from the backup of [name of iPhone].
I chose Restore (to get all my iPhone apps installed), and it takes 20 minutes or more to restore. iPad says Restore in Progress and gives the incorrect remaining time. That also happens on an iPhone restore. (If you have a MobileMe account, sync your Preferences; otherwise you have to enter all login data over and over.)
After the Restore, I eliminated phone-type apps, like Cell Minute Tracker and Skype. I bought iWork, which is not free ($29.97). Other writing apps include Dragon Dictation, EasyWriter Pro, Note Taker Lite, and WriteRoom. I did not have time to use any of them extensively. I also installed the free NY Times app.
Several of the iPhone apps appear in the small format; and I haven’t looked up how you expand them to iPad size. The keyboard is easier to use than the iPhone version. Safari works smoothly, and pages download quickly. (We have a cable modem at 15 MB speed.) I installed the Netflix app, which downloads Instant play movies flawlessly. Color and HD quality; great when you don’t want to use a TV or laptop.
For new hardware and software, it all works very well. I did this all intuitively, and next time I will read manuals and pick up some shortcuts and tricks.
Planning to download the free ePub of Moby-Dick? I’d be interested in hearing how that goes.
Druid,
Have you tried writing with the touch keyboard? How is it?
This afternoon I’ll see if the Apple Store at Paris has one to try. I’m very curious about it.
Paolo
Has anyone determined whether iBooks can be annotated and highlighted on iPad? Can iBooks be read on other devices like MacBooks? If so, can the annotations and highlights made to an iBook on iPad be read on a MacBook or desktop Mac? Thanks.
Progress report: spent more time with the iPad, while idly watching TV. This may be the venue in which I most often use the Pad: mute the TV, diddle away with a new toy.
First, I found there’s an easy way to enlarge iPhone apps: a small button that toggles from 1x to 2x at the screen bottom. But I quickly wanted Pad versions of those apps, to use the screen fully and get a few more functions. While some apps are charging higher prices, a great many are still free.
To purchase and download an app: click, enter store password, and watch the download bar fill up, as the wallet dwindles. Warning to gadgeteers; this may get expensive.
I downloaded six free Pad apps: three in News (AP News, NPR, BBC) and three in Productivity (DropBox, EverNote, MobileMe iDisk). AP News lets me construct a personal news page, with favorite topics, preferred region, or ZIP. NPR is fantastic: I put in a ZIP and instantly heard a station 1200 miles away, in HD sound. I’ve yet to try BBC, but it promises quick news summaries and a library of video clips. (Maybe not as great as my BBC widget, which lets me tune into local UK broadcasts.)
My initial concern as a writer is: how do I clip, annotate, and save data? When browsing in Safari, it’s easy: use the e-mail command to send links to self or others. In the Pad version of Safari, the browser fully displays PDF pages. So I could e-mail those links with my comments, using copy/paste for an abstract or particular passages.
Reading books: I’m using both iBooks and Kindle for Mac. Both are free, and while iBooks makes the better display of text, Kindle seems to have more tools. (I don’t know yet about highlight or annotation.) If you want free books, download them to your main computer and drag into iTunes. After the next sync, they appear in iBooks. (I will also try that with PDF files.) A good blog on these issues is ReadWriteWeb.
What about file storage? That’s where DropBox, EverNote, and MobileMe iDisk come in. I’ll be testing them for awhile to see which one I prefer.
About typing: it’s easier than iPhone, but harder than a laptop. In a recliner, the hand-arm angle is not quite right for me. I’ll need to experiment with props or slant-top desks. I bought a case, but Apple won’t ship it until 4/12.
“What I’ve mostly been doing on the iPad is reading, because this much-ballyhooed harbinger of the future turns out to be the ideal device for that most old-fashioned of leisure activities.”
Laura Miller, “The iPad is for readers” in Salon for Apr 5, 2010: tinyurl.com/yen648v
Day 3: I spent two more days installing and testing apps, and getting used to working on the iPad. It still remains fun, but I’m also sensing it will be great for research and writing tasks.
Disclaimers: I’m using the Wi-Fi only model, 32 gb, and so far have not installed any pictures, music, or movies. I plan to use it mainly for web surfing, reading matter, and writing. So it’s less an entertainment medium for me than a portable research tool. (I am fortunate to have very fast Wi-Fi, which is essential for this model.)
Case: the Apple case arrived, and it’s made a difference in how I work with the Pad. Before the case, I carried it about gingerly, terrified that it would fall and break. The case is light but sturdy, and it lets me configure the Pad as either a slant-top reader-writer or a stand-up viewer. Watch a Netflix instant film, stand it up. Reading books or articles, lay it down. Close it up, and the Pad is safe from scratches, dust, or spills. At airports, the TSA treats it as a smart phone; you don’t have to remove it from your bag for scanning.
Orientation: most of the time I use Landscape, because it resembles a laptop screen. But Portrait is handy for reading, resembling a full book or magazine page. Most of the iPhone apps require Portrait, and the 2x enlargement is not bad, but the iPad app is preferable.
Surfing: before the Pad, I spent hours each day reading news sites, checking on weather, paying bills, social networking, and the inevitable e-mail. Now I tend to postpone that discourse until the evening, when the Yankee games come on, and I have 3-4 hours of watching a very intermittent sport while indulging in frequent bouts of surf. Cricket fans may find such a diversion essential, plus one may look up other games or player bios if one is a cricket obsessive. (Baseball runs April to November; in the fireplace months, we spend evenings with music or radio.)
Notes: that doesn’t feel like time-wasting; instead I save bookmarks or write notes, reminders, and tasks to myself and others. Nearly every app lets me mark places or write comments that are either saved in the app or exported, usually via e-mail. Some of the apps are better than their Web versions. Wikipanion (free) has a left pane that shows an article’s contents and also categories. If you start with a name, like Robert E. Lee, the category list shows articles on Confederacy, Virginia, monuments, Civil War, and so on. Perhaps I could do such free-associating myself, but late in a tied game, it’s helpful to have the assistance. (We’ve had a flap over here; the governor of Virginia declared April to be Confederate History Month and left out any mention of slavery. He has since apologized and emended his declaration.)
Typing: with more practice, I am getting better on the virtual keyboard. With the slant-top case placed on a table or lapboard, there’s a consistent angle that makes touch-typing more possible. The keys are sensitive and I tend to droop my outer fingers, causing many typos. (Minor annoyances; having to change keyboards for numbers, symbols, punctuation, and capitals. I’ll probably just type lower-case english and edit on a lap/desktop later.) I may well spring for an external keyboard, and then typing should be easier.
Apps: the writing apps I’ve tried include Notes, Note Taker Lite, Dragon Dictation, EasyWriter Pro, and WriteRoom. The first two are for task lists, and NTL is hand-writing only, but remarkably good at saving cursive, much faster than typing. Dragon Dictation is surprisingly accurate, if you speak slowly and carefully in Standard Received Pronunciation, which in the USA doesn’t exist. EWP is a good way to knock out e-mail on the iPhone; typing in iPad Mail is easier and simpler. I’d say the same about WriteRoom; the full-screen environment is not so great with a keyboard visible under it. Again, an external keyboard might help there.
Pages: I’ve had some peeks at Pages and think it will be the writing app I use most often. It’s my preferred word processor (after Scrivener), and I’ll be able to outline by using the Style box and picking Headline 1, 2, or 3. There’s also a Tab button; the easiest way to set outline levels. And the Pad version of Pages has a Share command, which allows export in Pages, Word, or PDF formats. No RTF, but you can do that in your standard version of Pages.
NewReader: this popular and free app helps you to transfer files from servers, mail attachments, and web downloads. It promises to offer file storage and management, and also PDF reading and annotation. I haven’t tested it yet. As I previously noted, the Pad version of Safari also has a built-in PDF reader.
Multitasking: that’s what I miss the most. If you’re reading a text and want to annotate it, that function must be in the app. Otherwise, you must close one app and open another. The apps retain your places, but you don’t see them side by side. I bet you anything that multitasking will arrive in time, as it did for the iPhone.
Scrivener: so I will join the crowd that’s urging it: Scrivener would be a smash hit on the iPad. There’s room for a Binder pane as well as two horizontal or vertical Editing panes. The Inspector might have to be a floating pane; Pages uses that for its Inspector. But a virtual keyboard eats up valuable screen space; it would be much easier to work with the physical keyboard. Third-party boards may be light and flexible, unlike Apple’s current version.
Bottom line: for an early model, the iPad performs beautifully right out of the box. It will improve down the line, but I’m not sorry that I bought this first edition. It’s already proven useful to me as reader, researcher, and writer. Did I mention that the battery runs all day, that it puts out no heat, is completely silent, and easily slips into a briefcase? Often I just keep it open beside me when working at my iMac. The iPad helps me quickly fact-check or find a quotation, faster than the Safari browser installed in my iMac.
PS: hundreds of new iPad apps are arriving each day. Many are updates of iPhone apps, but others are completely new. I’m hoping that the iTunes interface will soon have a major revision. It’s very hard to find serious working tools amid all the clutter of games. Most of what I download comes from the Productivity and Reference categories.
No. Scrivener. For. The. iPad.
Just because the screen seems big enough, it doesn’t mean the UI classes are there - and imagine rearranging the entire binder with your fingers. Brrr.
But seriously. If I’m going to think about porting Scrivener to another platform purely for commercial reasons - because it will be a hit that will make me oodles of cash - I can think of a much bigger platform I should do first, users of which have been clamouring for a version of Scrivener for years. With limited resources, if I have to choose between platforms to port to, it’s what they call a “no brainer”.
Of course, for me, I remain solely interested in the Mac version. If users want to move to other platforms to do their writing, then I certainly can’t stop them and wish them all the best, but I have no intention of starting coding Scrivener all over again just because some users of other platforms demand it. Because with limited resources, it’s an either/or thing - I can’t develop for all. (Is my face turning blue yet?)
Besides, I still have zero interest in the iPad as a writing device.
Glad you’re enjoying yours, though, and it is nice to know that users like Scrivener so much that they want it on other platforms.
All the best,
Keith
Andreas, you didn’t get it quite right … not “the near future” … “the forseeable future”