After playing with my son’s iTouch gizmo and loving it, I was pretty excited to try the iPad. I have had it about a week now. I have mixed feelings about it.

Pros:

• It is extremely portable. There is no mouse … you navigate just by touching the screen, and the screen is quite responsive.
• The screen is beautiful. It is a great “reader” device. So, if you read most of your news online, or you love eBooks, then you’ll enjoy reading them on the iPad.
• All of my email accounts (yahoo, gmail, and my company account) set themselves up. Wow, it was stupidly easy. It took awhile for them to “sync” with the mail server, but the mail interface is very nice.
• The keyboard that pops up is cute and useable. It takes some getting used to and I am a facile typist. But, if you are too, then you will probably find the keyboard fun. For Web 2.0 SAS and apps, it does auto spell-check, too … just like the iPhone and iTouch.

Cons

• It needs a wi-fi connection. If you don’t have a wi-fi connection, then you can’t read up to date news or get your email. I have found this to be the most frustrating. There will soon be a model that comes with a monthly data plan for a 3G connection using AT&T. But, it isn’t available yet.
• There are only a few apps for it right now, although I’m sure that will be resolved, too.
• It doesn’t work directly with Google docs … and that pretty much stinks for me right now. I hope that someone comes up with a clever app for this.
• It doesn’t display “flash” movies … so I can’t watch movies on Hulu.com.
• It doesn’t work with my Gotomypc.com account either … a javascript issue. Logmein.com works, but I don’t like that interface as well and to use it, you must purchase a $30 app.

Bottom Line

It is a cool device. But, if I were to do this again, I’d wait for the 3G model that is supposed to be available by the end of the month. By the time the 3G model will come out, there will be more apps.  Even then, though, like many Mac products, there’s a lot of work and work arounds that have to go into them in order to make them function with basic “work” programs.

PS.  Ancestral Quest, Legacy, FamilyTreeMaker and/or the Master Genealogist need to get a family history app out for this QUICK! The iPad and its successors are going to be a hit.

PSS. Shhhh … if you want to be really sneaky, you can purchase a data plan and modem from any provider and then purchase a portable battery powered router to transmit your own wireless signal. Now, that’s sneaky, but doable and then you don’t have to use AT&T or jail-break your ipad. This is a total geek-out, though; meaning, you’ll want to be pretty good at setting up wireless networks if you’re thinking about attempting this.