iLove My iPad

Okay ya'll.

Feel the beat.

Here we go...

I don't mean to brag and I don't mean to boast
But I love my new iPad more than cinnamon toast
I'm a hip and funky rapper named-ah Cinnamon Spice
And let me tell you that my iPad is way better than nice

(Hey, what do you think? If this blogging stuff doesn't work out for me... Hmm, hmm?)

I've only had my iPad for two days, but here's what I think so far.

I love:

That I can take it anywhere and access the Internet instantly.
The Kindle app.
That it's small enough to fit in my purse.
That I can sync my email contacts from my computer to the iPad.
That it's easy to set up and use.
That an icon pops up to notify me of new emails.
The Kindle app (oh, did I already say that?)

I don't love:

That it's a little heavy when reading a book on it, but I knew about that complaint before I bought it.

My Favorite Feature

My favorite feature of the iPad, besides being able to check emails on the go, is the Kindle app. I've taken it to the gym twice (yep two days in a row - good girl) and I bought and downloaded the book Cutting for Stone through Amazon. Most people find it difficult to read a book while using the elliptical; I've always enjoyed it except for trying to hold the book open with my elbows or turn the pages with my nose (just kidding). But the iPad sits perfectly on the elliptical's book holder and with a swipe of my finger on the screen I can turn the page. Love it! Plus, if you need to you can increase the font size to make it even easier to read while you're (hopefully) pumping your legs like crazy and working up a sweat.

In the Kindle app you can click on "popular highlights" to see portions of text most often highlighted by Amazon/Kindle customers, which are shown very lightly underlined. I like this feature, and the popular highlights underlined are usually what I would have highlighted myself. Missing, though, is the dictionary that's available on the regular Kindle, where you can highlight a word and see the definition. That would come in handy for me.

However! The iPad comes with it's version of eReader called iBooks, and it does have a dictionary. It also has a search gadget where you can click on a word or phrase and it will locate the word or phrase throughout the book.

I also like the page turning aspect of iBooks; when you swipe the screen it looks like the page is actually flipping. Pretty neat.

In iBooks, a Winnie the Pooh book is already on the "shelf," and it shows illustrations. I don't think pictures or illustrations are visible on the Kindle app, which is a bummer because I read a lot of memoirs and biographies that include pictures. If I buy these through iBooks, would the pictures be visible? Not sure.

When you turn the iPad on, both the Kindle app and iBooks go directly to the page of the book where you left off.

I know there are considerably fewer books available through iBooks than Amazon, but I haven't shopped in their "store" yet to see what they've got.

There are a lot of features that I'm finding out by trial and error - just pushing buttons and seeing what happens. The iPad does not come with a manual; a 150+ page pdf manual is available on the Apple website. I haven't had a chance to go through it completely, and I certainly won't be printing it out.

Here are the other apps included on the iPad desktop that I haven't had a chance to check out yet:

Calendar/appointment book
GPS
Notes (see below)
Contacts
iTunes
You Tube
Photos

Funny: The first day I had the iPad I wrote a note on the "Notes" app, "Get something for dinner." That night when my husband got home I was excited to show him the iPad and everything I can do with it. When I showed him the notes app, he saw my "Get something for dinner" note and said, "Well that didn't work."

And off to dinner we went.

Questions about the iPad anyone?