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Do you want to know which iPad to buy now it’s been released in the UK, or find out which apps really are worth buying?

Well we have the answers to your questions and hopefully more, so read on, review and comment if you want to know more / disagree / have more information for our readers.

Firstly to qualify this article as the REAL deal and not just some recycled jurno junk, I have been using a iPad (64Gb wifi) for the past month, in anger as both a businessman and home user / dad of a 2 year old child and husband to a media junkie wife. I also have both UK and US itunes accounts so can access all apps around the world.

Should I get one or wait for something else?

That’s a great questions, especially as Intel have just released news of their new Atom chip that will be super fast, up to 1.9ghz, and super lean, hone batteris lasting up to 10 days. But anyone who bought an iphone competitor in great anticipation should just get on and by the iPad, it’s the real deal, you’ll not be disappointed.

I’ll update the blog as I go, so all findings are in chronological order (did you need to know that?)

Wifi or 3G?

This one is easy, if you’re likely to use your iPad out of the home or office environment, which is most of you over 16, go for the 3G. It drives me mad trying to log onto these rubbish public wifi networks and at £5 an hour on some, a PAYG or cheap O2 iPad tariff will be much cheaper. You can also cut your normal SIM card down apparently so get a Tesco mobie PAYG and you’re in.

Will it replace my laptop?

Office apps ♥♥

If, like me you spend a lot of time reading and replying to emails, showing presentations, reviewing RFPs or proposals then it’s better than a laptop. But if you want to edit those documents, then forget it, the tools are just too simplistic to do anything useful.

Yep, it’s true even the wonderfully designed Apple Pages, Numbers and Keynote fail to really compare to much more than Google Docs (which does not work on the iPad yet).

Other contenders such Office HD, et al have even bigger problems, save your money for now, be content with reading documents and not editing them. It will all come soon and it will be the online apps that win out.

Cloud computing ♥♥♥♥

I have also come to realise how important cloud services are, the iPad and other ultra-portable devices will cement this as the future, my favourites are Huddle and Dropbox. Huddle has a great UI and is easy to find docs, view online renderings and generally do what you need to do, other than download and edit document; see above as to why this is not such an issue.

Creativity ♥♥

Again it seems that the promise of great creativity on the iPad has been jaded by the early, quickly designed apps that feel a bit rubbish, in fact less useful than the iPhone versions. There are a couple that people like me will use a lot, iMockups and Omnigraffle both hold a lot of promise for interactive designers and Adobe Ideas, whilst basic, is great for freehand sketches on the fly.

Video & music ♥♥♥♥♥

In a previous blog I describe how the iPad came into it’s own during a power cut in a hotel recently and it’s brilliant. Anyone who has watched TV on an iphone or ipod will know that if the content is good, you soon forget the screen size. Well the iPad has great sound, an amazing screen and iTunes integrated rocks as always. You can stream UK Freeview TV using TVcatchUp.com/iphone and whilst the video is not HD, it’s pretty good for a free services.

Otherwise Spotify and Pandora (US only through VPN) are both great additions to your iPhone music library, infact I have sort of given up downloading from iTunes.

Battery life ♥♥♥♥♥

Is it a goer? Oh yes, it’s got more staying power than a student rugby team at a free bar. I have had at least 10 hours of continuos video play back and stand  by last for weeks even with regular use. In fact i have stopped carrying a charger at all, even over weekends, and the added bonus is you can use any iPhone charger with it.

iBook vs eBooks ♥♥♥

The Amazon Kindle and iPad book reading argument has been raging for longer than the iPad has been around, and whilst Kindle sales could do with a bit of Apple magic, the Kindle is a muh better ebook, mainly due to it’s e-ink and matt screen. As a long time Kindle owner I am impressed by Apple’s integrated book store within the eBook app, but less impressed by the weight of the iPad whilst reading anywhere that you need to hold it, and by the glare on the beach or in the garden.

However, the killer appeal to many will be the fact that the iPad is a multifunctional device, so it’s unlikely that the majority of interested consumers would buy both, only early adopters like me would bother. So there is a good chance that the iPad will become the defacto device for the casual consumer, but the Kindle will remain the leader as far as serious readers, most of whom will be big spenders, are concerned.

As a foot note to the book piece, there is an Alice in Wonderland app that is beautiful, interactive and worth every penny, my daughter loves it and I can see it becoming the DVD of the new millenium.

Will it save news and magazine publishing? ♥♥♥♥♥

Only good journalism / content can truly do that but the apps I have seen go a long way. It seems the publishers are split into two camps, it’s a digital newspaper and looks like it or, it’s a new device with new ways of interacting let’s redesign it.

The winners so far in the new new media war are:

• AP News: mmm lovely UI and exciting ways to filter
• Thomson Reuters: A bit hectic but using the space and interaction nicely
• Zinio: Amazing renders of the actual magazines in an interactive format
• USA Today: Content is still as dull as ever but the cross over design between print and digital is lovely
• NPR: Looks great but a little less usable than the rest
• Marvel Comics: The best interaction of them all, it’s amazing, very lateral

And the losers are:

• Yahoo!: Indeed an exclamation mark is needed, it’s a bad 3D sitting room for a menu, very 80’s
• WSJ: Looks kinda 1930s, which is nice if that was the brief
• NYT: Again the retor squad have been out, nothing challenging just a bit dull and detached navigation
• BBC: Not what I was expecting at all to be honest, poorly designed and too many images
• Maxim: Whilst not on my usual reading list, the app is a terrible, ham fisted affair. Get Zinio and pay for the glossy electronic version of the print, it works, simple as that.

First impressions

It feels solid, the screen is beautiful, it’s a breeze to set up and the interaction is everything you expected. As always with Apple the bits you want to work do work, from effortless touch screen interaction to fast loading apps, beautiful email and calendars and web browsing.

In fact it’s so good I forgot about the lack of camera, USB ports, coffee machine bolt on, finger print readers, etc. When you use it you know every single part has been thought out and, unlike the all singing all flash playing future competitors, it does everything you need, just not everything you want, but it does it perfectly.

It’s far better than I could have hopped and it has been well received by everyone who uses it, in fact 100% of people who have used mine say they want to buy one now!

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Just a quick update on how useful my ipad is turning out to be.

Pre-editorial note; wait for the 3G, the reason will become clear shortly.

Having left hospital after an operation, I was forced to take a break from office life, so off too Sandbanks in Poole for 4 days.

On the way there the road was closed and we had to wait for hours, whilst I read a few chapters of my ebook, I could really have done with some online mapping on the iPad to get round the traffic, alas no 3G.

Once there, with the hotel kindly providing free wifi, 3.5mb so not too bad, we surfed the web, checked tv listings, found nearby attractions for the rainy days that did not happen and generally left the iPhones switched off, we even had a good laugh at the price of holiday houses in Sandbanks, circa £800k for a 3 bed apartment!

Now we all know hotel tv sucks and my 2.5 year old loves a bit of firman sam before bed, well luckily we had a few downloaded on the iPad, which my daughter Sophie can now happily use.

Then the power went off in the hotel from about 6pm to 11pm. No drama there, we finished up watching Peppa Pig, put Sophie to bed and then settled down to Harry Brown with our wine and fish & chips.

The battery is truly amazing on the iPad, hardly using any power at all for hours of videos. Once we had finished the film, drunk our wine and polished off a bag of Revels, we hopped into bed and I read another 100 pages of The girl with the dragon tattoo.

Once the power came back on, sadly the choice of TV channels was reduced to Sky news and Sky sport, so for the next two nights we streamed all our tv through Catchup TV, which I was very impressed with from a quality point of view, in fact it was flawless. (apologies to the other guest who had terrible wifi due to our streaming).

Whilst the iPad is no Kindle, it was for those few hours a lot better given we had no lights. And whilst my weekend away may not sound that exciting, a evening in a hotel room with no lights and a 2 yr old child has the makings of a murder.

So thank you Steve for saving my life and providing us all with some much needed R&R.

The iPad has proved to be a game changing device for me, my daughter and my parents. It’s simple, compact, so very usable and above all it does what it says on the tin.

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I’ve had my iPad for a week and I love it. Even with just a few apps it rocks at everything. It’s replaced our laptop at home, I use it out and about for emails, presentations and reading magazines which it excels at.

So all of this sounds great and it is, except that the launch in the UK is delayed for a month, so no iPads or apps for 6 more weeks.

The good news is that you’ll be able to buy the 3G version, which, if like me you plan to use your iPad on the go, will be something that you can’t live without. After all how prolific and affordable are public wifi zones?

And in return we’ll see our mobile phone companies offering new individual tariff bundles to add mobile, home broadband, mobile PCs and a range of tethering charges.

Opening up this new market sector will drive a price war, similar to the one Tesco has just started with their new iPhone tariffs, which is good news for consumers and for the companies making and selling ultra portal PCs.

So don’t complain that you can’t use one tariff to do everything right now, because I am certain that you will be able to soon. Once Google have launched their gPad and the rest of those that I’ve seen but can’t remember the the rush will start.

The only question is will the gpad and other clones hit the spot and be as good as the iPad?

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I’ve spent the last three days loving my new iPad. Being bed ridden as I have been, slipped disk, I have been able to try everything out whilst reading reviews and tips and frankly a load of general rubbish about what the iPad lacks.

Well let me put the record straight, it’s brilliant! If you have ever wondered what might happen to the future of magazines, worry no more. In 24 hours I have spent £39 on everything from Wallpaper and Yachting monthly to Mac User and Cosmo, and I’ve even become a fan of USA Today, a usually dull free paper you get in your hotel in the states.

Families will love it for long journeys and rainy holidays, 20 episodes of Peppa Pig downloaded already. I love the films, even though we have access to loads through Bafta, the iPad is finally a device that you want to watch things on.

If you have a Bluetooth Mac keyboard you can link that up, whilst I am typing this on my lap unsung the on screen keyboard, ouch, but it works and it’s as fast as a normal keyboard.

Web browsing rocks, battery life is amazing and as a thing to own it takes some beating, although there are a couple of shady people here in A+E that look like they may give me a beating for it.

Other tools that will amaze you both visually and usability wise are the email app and the calendar . Both bring things to life on a screen like this that even my mac air struggles to do.

All in, it’s as big an advance as the iPhone and whilst many will reject it initially for not having a web cam or 16 USB ports, or what ever unknown need they suddenly find they have, eventually it will shape the future of ultra-portable computing.

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