Winning An iPad

Good News: My in-laws got real lucky at a competition and won the first prize, an iPad. Bad news: Only one per family.

Nonetheless, an iPad is an iPad, doesn’t matter if only one member of the family got it. If it is in the family, I can use it whenever I want. I am now thinking that getting married at a young age was not a bad idea after all.

So… how was it?

Well since I am the geek in the house, they gave it to me and said “Open, configure and set it up.” I have an an iPhone so I thought how difficult can this be. The problem was, I was dealing with an Apple product and I should have seen it coming.

Unlike the iPhone, you don’t just turn ON the iPad and start working it. You have to first connect it to your PC, download iTunes, register, and create an account on iTunes. That took about 15-20 minutes. Setting WiFi up was a breeze and within 25 minutes of opening up the iPad, I was watching Potter Puppet Pals Videos on YouTube with my 11 year old Sister-in-law who thinks Potter Puppet Pals are hilarious.

After the Potter Puppet, I decided to test out the iTunes store and downloaded some apps. I didn’t like the iTunes app on the iPad. It is not as user friendly as the one on iPhone. I like to have a tab that takes me to the Free apps and iPad seems to be lacking there big time. I downloaded few games, Angry Birds was one of them. Since Angry Birds is made for iPhone, you have to zoom in and that results in grainy pixels. It was an OKAY experience playing Angry Monkey on the iPad.

iPad’s screen is magnificent. The clarity is excellent and watching videos is one heck of a treat. If you want a portable video player that is also connected to internet (WiFi in my case) then iPad is the way to go.

It is not something that will replace a laptop, not anytime soon. It is portable yet it is heavy, drop it once and that’s it. It is so thin that it creates an illusion for someone picking it up for the first time that it is lighter than a feather. But just because it is thin doesn’t mean it is not heavy. Even before you drop the iPad, there is a possibility that it might just slip out of your hands/lap.

iPad is revolutionary, in many ways and one of which is the way portrayed in movies depicting future. iPad or similar devices will make it possible for us to control everything in the household. Security alarms, TV, Music System, Lights, Energy, Garage Door etc. You can watch cooking videos and YouTube and make it exactly like the Chef. You can look at each and every corner of your house when you are on a vacation using a surveillance camera. These things are all possible right now on a computer connected to internet but iPad just makes it more portable.

More than 1 Million iPads sold so far, there is definitely a market out there. I would really like to see more competition, something as promising as the iPad.



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