When it comes to Apple products, I’m not exactly unbiased. I’m an Apple shareholder and have been using a Mac for almost 20 years.
At the same time, I’m not usually an early adopter. The only product I’ve ever gotten as soon as it was announced was the iPod, because it fixed everything I hated about my old MP3 players and I love music.
And even though I was certain when the iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs in January 2007 that it was going to be a game-changer, I waited until the second version before I bought one. As I had hoped, it’s become indispensable to me.

But the iPad doesn’t seem to slot neatly in my life between my MacBook Pro and my iPhone. After much thought the reasons it makes sense for me to get an iPad now are:
- It handles some niche needs well enough to be useful today, and
- It holds future potential as a software and content platform that will be upgraded in the future without needing to buy a new iPad.
What I Would Use The iPad for Now
There are five major immediate uses I have for an iPad:
- Lightweight travel companion replacing my MacBook
- Sketchbook
- Photo review in the field
- Bedside/couch/travel reader
- Video and music player
Writing and Drawing on an iPad
What I’ve wanted for some time is a tablet device that I can write on with a finger or a stylus.
For example, at meetings or conferences, I would love to be able to write or sketch notes directly over a Power Point or Keynote presentation, and then be able to save the results digitally with an option for handwriting recognition after the fact.
The iPad clearly is capable of doing this, but even the iWork software as demonstrated seemed to fall short. However, with its thin, light, fast, instant-on, long battery life operation, the iPad could be ideal for this application if Apple or a third-party developer adds some features.
Coupled with a responsive stylus (I’ve been experimenting with the TenOneDesign Pogo Sketch stylus on my iPhone, and while it works I’m still not used to having to push down on it to make a mark) the iPad could replace everything I currently use physical paper for -- taking notes and drawing.

If the stylus can recognize variable pressure I think many artists would make the jump from their Wacom tablets. Look at how many are already creating remarkable artwork on the iPhone and its tiny screen.
My Travel Companion
If the iPad could replace all of the handwritten notes and drawings I make today, its mail, web, and office productivity apps would only need to moderately surpass the iPhone for it to replace my laptop when I travel.
The iPhone actually works great for reading mail and even replying in a pinch, but long emails are tedious to type on the small keyboard.
For web browsing, it’s a marvel that the iPhone works so well, but it’s still like watching a three-ring circus performance through a keyhole at times, so the additional screen real estate would be welcome. I don’t expect Apple to support Flash in the iPad browser but I can deal with that.
But the real advantage here is the speed with which the iPad renders the pages as shown in the demos. If they also create tabs for fast switching between pages, web browsing will be a huge improvement over the iPhone.
For documents, although I have Quick Office on my iPhone, I never use it because it’s too much of a pain to edit tiny documents and to get them on and off the phone. Fixing the latter would require changes on Apple’s part but the bigger screen would go a long way toward addressing the former.
I’d also like to have a quick-entry app for financial transactions on the go that I could import directly into Quicken.
The coup-de-grace (which I think Apple has no intention of doing) would be to sync my iPhone to the iPad instead of a PC.
The Multi-Tasking Red Herring
On the iPhone multi-tasking mostly doesn’t matter, and I’m not sure if it will on the iPad. But, the iPhone OS already does multi-tasking.
What it doesn’t permit is third-party multi-tasking. If Apple ever decided to let non-Apple apps run in the background, this would be a software change they could enable immediately.
In the meantime, given that I already have to carefully manage the battery life on my iPhone, I’m content to let Apple decide when and if they’ll allow third-party apps to run silently behind the scenes. Apps launch so quickly on the iPhone that it’s really a non-issue today.
Reviewing Photos
Last year I bought a digital SLR camera after noticing how much better the pictures I took with my old SLR were than the small point-and-shoots I used the last several years. It’s revived my interest in photography, especially since unlike film, digital photography gives me instant feedback on what I’m doing.
Or rather, it would if I could see the pictures better than on the tiny LCD on my camera. The issue mostly arises because I’m trying to learn how to take pictures in available light (without flash), and experimenting with sports photography (where action requires a fast shutter speed) and depth-of-field (getting blurred backgrounds when I want them, but sharp primary subjects).
I’m finding that frequently I’ll return home after shooting and find that some nice shots are actually blurry once I see them on the big screen. An iPad with a camera attachment would allow me to quickly review the pictures while I still have a chance to fix the problems. Some good editing tools would be nice too (and I think third-party vendors will fill the void here if Apple doesn’t).
Beyond that, the iPad would be a nice way to display my photos for friends and family without needing to lug a laptop around.
Portable Reading Device
After getting my iPhone, I was astonished at how quickly I stopped reading physical books in favor of e-books. Despite the tiny screen, it’s incredibly liberating to have all of the books I want to read with me at all times.
If it’s easy to hold, I can see the iPad as a companion to my iPhone (syncing the page position as the Kindle app does today) for use when I’m reading in bed or on the couch and want the larger form factor. The advantages over other readers are the full-color, multimedia-capable display and its responsiveness (I find e-ink readers annoyingly slow to refresh the page).
What I’d like the most is an option to convert my present magazine subscriptions (Business Week, Money Magazine, and MacWorld) to an iPad-only option. I’d get them faster and have far less clutter in the house. Even better would be if I could import them to my iPhone with an option to read them on the go in full form, text-only, or some hybrid of the two.
The Future
If the iPad is able to do all of the above, it’ll be well worth it to me as a third device. Not insignificant is the contract-less, pay-as-you-go monthly data plans, where I think even when traveling the $15 option will be enough for most of my needs.
Otherwise, the iPad’s strikingly fast processor fixes one of the current limitations of the iPhone, its slow rendering speed for complex web pages and graphics.
But the real power of the iPad is that, like the iPhone, it’s a platform with a powerful software development kit (SDK) and an easy-to-use on-line store for apps, music, video, and now books (and hopefully magazines).
That means that as Apple continues to refine the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch hardware and programming interfaces, the potential of these devices is going to be limited only by the imagination of the makers of software and add-on devices at Apple and elsewhere.
Today the iPad straddles an uncomfortable line between the iPhone and MacBook. It by rights should be able to fill the role of an ultra-portable MacBook, but here the lack of a USB port is the major omission. There are many people who will never need anything more than an iPhone, iPad, and maybe a big external drive for backups, but today you still nominally need a Mac or PC to sync the iPad.
With all that said, Apple is well-positioned to follow that trend in either direction. In the meantime, I’m willing to take the chance that the iPad will prove useful to me.
Ideally I’ll be able to try one before buying, but I may not want to wait. I may get my wish anyway though since I want the option of a 3G connection and that model will be released a month after the WiFi-only version.
Read the Full Post

































































