After months of being sceptical of this 'revolutionary' new bit of kit from Apple, I finally got to play with one in the Apple store at Cribbs Causeway. (In actual fact I played with about twenty of them, because by the time I left the store, every single ipad of them was displaying either the www.rmwfilms.com or our YouTube page. I shouldn't think we actually got many extra page views out of it, but it's the thought that counts.)
Anyway... I was quite impressed with the thing. It's well sexy. I know all the arguments about it basically being a nerfed tablet laptop with no USB ports and that it's just an oversized iPod touch and all of that, because I was making those very same arguments. But it's sexy, okay? It has a lovely responsive touch screen and... well... It's sexy (not in a boner inducing way... that would be weird). It doesn't reinvent the wheel or give me any functionality that I don't have in the form of a laptop or a smartphone, but it does have an immediacy about it that I like. It's always there. Always connected. None of this waiting two minutes for my lappie to start up or trying to read the interweb on the relatively tiny screen of my HTC HD2. It's there its on and, did I mention that it was sexy?
Some of my friends are envious. Several of my work colleagues have had a play and pronounced it the greatest thing on the planet based on a few minutes with Google Earth. I don't like to point out that Google Earth on the iPad is no different to Google Earth on the PC. I think the addition of fingers is what makes it all so awesome for them. I shall have to work that into a chat up line somehow.
Other friends think it's the most enormous waste of money on the planet. I would point out to these friends that it's not really any different to buying a bigger, more powerful car than is entirely necessary (Jon) or a bigger TV with ambient lights (Scotty) and 5.1 surround sound (Neil) or a holiday chalet in Devon (Dad).
So anyway... I've been playing with it for a couple of weeks and I still love it. I'm now about to start delving into how useful it will be in my other hobby, filmmaking. I've already spotted an auto-cue app and a storyboarding app that I want to try out. So far I haven't been able to link it to Google Docs to enable collaborative script witting and planning and I'd love to be able use it as a real time video monitor on set.
I shall share my thoughts on the subject as and when I have them. I have, after all discovered a blogging app. In the meantime, I shall continue to love my iPad. Mmmm... iPad...
Location:Bristol
