…shipping notification.

Gonna be a S L O W week.

Teaser

Teaser indeed!

Funny guy.

Just winded …I ran downstairs to tell you guys

almost noon here...and nobody has got an iPad yet?!

zwei has his and Shawn King has scored one according to tweets. With my limited budget, I'll wait for the refurbs to show up at the Apple Store online.

Hehe. Yeah, I have mines. Just been playing around with it and trying to figure things out.

typing isn't too shabby if you are sitting up!

Our UPS driver at work is a Mac user. They had a few iPads show up at the local facility on Friday instead of today. As soon as the first one was found they had to stop everything and start looking for more. It was like they had found a dirty bomb or something.

I have mine as well. I also purchased the VGA adapter but have yet to get to an external monitor to be able to check out how that performs. Video output I hear is limited to 1024 x 768, which I knew going in, although there's a "wide screen" option in the settings that sounds intriguing ...

Synced over Sherlock Holmes and it looks just gorgeous! Although I guess at this point the iPad doesn't appear to support the additional content that you can access on your Mac or an AppleTV ...

Bought and downloaded Keynote, since this was a main interest in my getting the device. Put a 170MB Keynote file on it and opened it up and was somewhat disappointed at all the graphics that had big ?s on them and the shifting of the artwork that did make it through the conversion process. I'll have to go through the original file on my Mac to se what the missing artwork has in common that the iPad doesn't appear to like ...

You have to use iTunes in order to xfer files from your Mac to the iPad, which means if you're going to be creating something using graphics, you'll have to synch over all the source images before assembling them in Keynote or Pages -- kind of a kludgy process if you ask me, and I'm not sure how one would be able to use imagery w/o and external computer from which to synch ...

Also, there are a limited amount of fonts available on the iPad and you don't appear to be able to add any, so content creation is somewhat constrained in that regard. Additionally, not all of the animation options are available on the iPad, so a lot of stuff just defaulted to a smooth fade. Long and short: it looks like a nice little version of Keynote right now, but one will definitely have to develop specifically to the iPad's relative restrictions in order to get something good-looking ...

Anyways, onwards!

I also grabbed the free iBooks app, which comes with a free copy of Winnie the Pooh! I had also synched over Classics, which I have been using on my iPhone. Suffice it to say that reading stuff on the iPad blows anything on the iPhone away. I have seen -- but not actually used -- a Kindle, which I hear is much lighter than the iPad, which I can see being a bit tiring if you're not resting it on something while you're reading (all the Kindle users I've seen tend to hold that in the air -- I would think your hands/arms would get tired lofting the iPad for any significant amount of time) ... But overall I can see actually reading a book on this, whereas (even though Classics is great!) reading something on the iPhone is reserved for moments of absolute boredom ;-)

Safari looks great and is petty speedy. I haven't tried any of the Apple-approved sites yet, though, so don't know how well the whole HTML-5 deal actually works in practice ... Typing on the screen keyboard is *much* better than on the iPhone, as one might imagine, and since I'm a hunter/pecker (heh -- he said "pecker") I don't mind the lack of tactile feedback of screen keyboards ...

Other than that, I really haven't played too much with it -- but the exploration continues =D

You can see my quick first impression HERE

Back to experimenting. (my large content sync should be done now)

LOL

We take it fast and then take it slow , way down in Kokomo

The clerk I asked at the Apple store said that the VGA adapter had to be used with the dock. Is that true?

I don't think so based on this statement:

"The iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter connects to your iPad or iPad Dock via the dock connector and to your projector or display using the VGA adapter."

Looks like the dock connector on the iPad is the port of choice.

Why do you say that, Michael? Scottyb's link seems to say you can choose which to use, the port on the iPad or the port on the dock.

The port on the iPad is called the dock connector.

Oops.

I'll say.

The problem began with the person a the Apple Store in Chicago, Reboot. I asked her "Can I connect a VGA dongle directly to the iPad or do I need to use the dock?" She said "You need to use the dock." I meant the separate dock device. She may have meant the dock connector. I'll never know for sure!

I figured as much, I was just messing with ya'. Hard to believe you didn't get the full story from a $6 an hour employee.

She was very nice, though. Smiled a lot. Can't trust these Midwesterners, though.

'Cause it says that it connects to the iPad's or the dock's. Seems the iPad's dock connector is the preferred port.

Other than the headset jack it's the only port.

Yep, I wouldn't turn my back if I were you.

Being in Chicago reminded me of how great Midwesterners are. It's the part of living in IL that I miss.

Chicago is my hometown so I am partial. 13 Aunts and Uncles in the area at one time. Probably at least half of my relatives are still in the area. We moved out here at 3 years. I get out there about once a year or so.

A large number of my family out there are quite fluent at dis dat dese dem and doze.

Ya know, the only reason I'm replying is because of the smirk smiley.

I don't see the smirk smiley very often.

And so I ask…

Are you implying that Apple creates an "open standard" device, but must then buy Apple-Branded docks, and plugs, and cords, and adapters, and, and, and… You're not implying that Apple does that on purpose are you?

Well in Apple's defense, the "dock" connector is kind of a standard, in that it's the same connector that's been in use since the very beginning. The iPod touch charges and docks on the same dock my old 3G iPod sits in (if hooked up to USB that is).

Also there are plenty of 3rd party cables/docks/chargers/whatnot. For instance, there's no way in hell I'm paying $30 for a USB charger from Apple when the one that came with my video cam does the same thing - which BTW if it hadn't been free, Kodak sells for $9.

Funny guy.

Logic would say that it would be kind of hard to fit S-video, composite, VGA, and component ports on a device as thin as an iPad, or iPhone etc, along with the audio out and standard USB ports. So they have one output that can go to many other formats.

Just trying to keep the conversation lively

Another fine mess you've made.

WHAT??? Apple hasn't figured out how to warp space time to fit those ports onto the iPad? TEHY ArE TeH SuCK!