I just taught my gal’s uncle and 13 year old cousin some tips on their new iPad. They came away very happy knowing what they could do beyond media consumption and gaming, which it is excellent for. I figured I would share what I showed them to you. I hope this removes any doubt anyone may have about this device as a “real” machine. I did this entire post on the iPad.
Remember that the iPad is multitasking and has fast app switching with the recent iOS4.2 update, so each of these things are “alt tab” away from each other (double click home + touch app icon, which is a very fast operation analogous to alt tab).
I may sound like a gadget nut, but my normal usage is 4 devices. An iPad. An iPhone. A Desire HD Android phone. These three I carry with me always. I use one mini charger with two cables that all fit in my pocket. I carry the iPad like a pad folio. The forth device is a MacBook. Every other device I have eliminated from my normal life, because these devices do everything. The iPhone is my camera. This could be three devices if I only carried one phone.
In pictures.
This is my home screen:
This is how I generate documents in PDF, Pages or Word format. This is a very powerful word processor.
This is how I generate presentations in PDF, Keynote or PowerPoint format. This is a powerful, extremely easy to use slide deck maker.
This is how I generate spreadsheets in PDF, Numbers or Excel format. This is a decent spreadsheet. It is limited when you start looking at pivot tables and solvers, so it’s not all the way there yet if you live in Excel.
This is how I import documents in XLS, DOC, PPT or PDF.
This is how I edit photos.
This is how I instant message.
This is how I whiteboard. This exports and mails as PDF.
This is how I communicate design to my developers. This exports and mails as Balsamiq or PNG to attach to flow diagrams.
This is how I read my news.
This is how I read books.
I can go on and show how I sketch, how I browse, how I annotate documents, how I work in issue and work item trackers, how I sync and backup my stuff (Dropbox), but I hope this gives you an idea of what you can do with this apart from the great movie viewing, etc.
This is generation one. It’s already this good. It’s only going to get better.
Sent from my iPad.