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iPad: The First Week

There are advantages to having an iPad handy, not the least of which is that I can now see the keyboard I'm trying to use to type. It's also a bigger screen, which makes it look clearer (though my understanding is that the screen is exactly the same as the iPhone 3G). I'm also getting relatively good at typing one-handed (though part of that is due to autocorrect). Having something handy to joy down my ideas may in fact be handy and a boon to my creativity. I will need a keyboard to do serious long-form work, since my hand gets pretty tired pretty quickly, but that's a relatively minor complaint.

My usage is obviously going to be less games than gaming; the various possible game apps hold no appeal, but there are some seriously nifty gaming and productivity tools that I'm chomping at the bit to snag and try out. It does mean that I'm now even more interested in finding a game to play rather than running my own, so I really want Brian to get his Ptolus game back up and running again.

I do think that a superhero game would be awesome. I just don't know what.

Things I do like about the iPad: ease of use. Ease of accessorizing.

I've been surprised at how much I've been using it for notes and work. Especially with the ability to sync in evernote, I've been surprisingly productive.

Note that the keyboard in landscape mode is a nearly perfect size for either one- or two-handed typing, but in portrait mode it's just too small.

I desperately needed a screen cover or something, so I bought one, but I'm hoping that the manual is correct and the bubbles will work out over the next couple days, because it looks terrible right now. I did manage to pick up a clever little carrying case / stand, which I've been testing out and seems ok. I'll probably see more once I've spent some time gaming with it.

I've tried writing on it, but there's an impulse, for whatever reason, to stop writing and do something else that's moderately more fun. Having an actual keyboard might help, but I noticed that having the bluetooth keyboard at gaming made it much more likely for me to write down notes and whatever rather than ignore or assume I'll remember it later (and then not remember it).

So far, it's a net win.

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So that happened.

I couldn't resist, and didn't really want to. So I bought an iPad. First Gen, but they're on significant sale right now, so I can use this one until July or august, when I'll buy an iPad2 and give this one to someone else. I named it "conspicuous consumption" because it seemed like truth in advertising. FYI, this blog post is coming from inside the tablet!
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