I like it!

The UPS driver finally arrived at 5:41 PM. We were expecting another, unrelated, package for my son so I asked the driver "Only one package?" - he replied "JUST YOUR iPad!". I asked him if he had delivered a lot of them and he laughed. The box had no marking at all that said it was an iPad or from Apple - only a large orange "SATURDAY DELIVERY" sticker. In fact the box only had a return address in some unlikely place in Califormia; no company name. But, of course, his handheld computer would have told him who shipped it.

Opening the box, it was very minimalist (a good thing when it comes to packing materials and junk you don't need). Inside the shipping carton were two "egg carton" type end pieces holding the actual product box - which also was minimal. About the size of a large book like an encyclopedia, the box was typical Apple white with a couple of logos and the top of the box was a picture of an iPad. Inside the box were the iPad, dock connector to USB connector, and a power adapter for the USB connector. Documentation? There was one small sheet that explained the minimal external controls and one small sheet with warranty information; that was it.

The real instructions were on-screen. Step one: connect the iPad to your computer with the USB connector*. Step two: sync through iTunes (after signing the 58 pages of terms and conditions)**. Step 3: start using the App Store to customize your experience.

* I learned after the fact: connecting via USB only to your PC does not charge your battery. If you connect to "some late-model" Macs it will charge but otherwise you have to use the power adapter and plug into actual AC power source. But this is not a problem; the device came fully charged and early reviewers have tested the battery life and found that it exceeds Apple's estimate of 10 hours.

** One frustration: before I could change anything, iTunes started trying to sync my ENTIRE music library from my PC (over 48GB) and of course it wouldn't fit. Once I tried to change it to allow me to manually control what gets synched, I was never given the opportunity to select content from iTunes. Instead, iTunes randomly selected an assortment of music that it calculated would fit - but will take up too much space on my 16GB iPad. Note that this is an issue with iTunes; not the iPad - Apple rolled out a new version of iTunes on 4/3 to coincide with the roll-out of iPad - and you have to download that version before you can perform the initial sync. The worst of this was that the check boxes that would be used to control what content was to be synched were grayed out and I could not tailor the selection. I will have to spend more time looking at this but I would expect there may be another iTunes update soon.

Once I got through the initial sync, things went very well. I have not owned or used an iPhone so had to get accustomed to the multi-touch control but it was mostly very intuitive. The on-screen keyboard is tailored to the app that brings it up; the keys were a bit small for my fingers but much better than using my Nokia - and no stylus required. I am wondering how to keep the screen clean though as it is necessarily covered with smudges and finger prints after a short time

For me, the biggest surprise was the degree of integration and quality of the apps that have been developed or updated for iPad. This really changes the user experience in a big way. Even though I don't have the 3g version, the device uses the presence of local WiFi signals to determine an approximate but very close location; and apps that tailor content based on your location will ask to use that information (such as the weather tools). Google Maps pinpointed my location to within one or two houses without me specifying.

So far I have been very pleased with the apps and the user experience. I "purchased" about 25 apps yesterday ***, most of which were free, and only spent about $30 (half of which was paid with an iTunes gift card I got for Christmas and had been hanging on to until now).

*** The app store was VERY busy yesterday evening! :-) There were probably a million people who got their new iPads yesterday and I am sure they were all downloading.

Anyway, I am reasonably impressed so far; I will record more after I have more experience - especially about specific iPad apps. One that I really like already is the Scrabble game - you can play against the computer, against another person sharing the same iPad, against multiple people on iPads, against multiple people on your network or on the internet, and best of all, against any of your Facebook friends who play Scrabble on Facebook. Apps that I haven't found yet: a decent,free, Facebook interface, a decent, free interface to Fark.com - both of which are supposed to be coming.

Some thoughts on where the iPad may go in the future:

(1) Automobiles. In fact, Hyundai has already announced that their new luxury model will come with an iPad - not sure how it will be integrated. This is something that Microsoft has been working for quite a while as "vehicle infomatics".

(2) In the kitchen. The iPad in it's optional dock station looks just the right size to use a kitchen based information appliance - assuming you have clean hands :-) I think we will be surprised as how this develops.

(3) as a gaming device. well duh; you can already run games. but what I am thinking is, when there are remote game controllers that connect to the iPad like a Nintendo Wii. If there iPad were mounted on a wall (say in your den. dorm, or game room) and could be controlled by multiple people with remote controllers... but wait, I think somebody is already developing that.
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPad/Apple+patents+iPhone+and+iPad+game+controller+devices/news.asp?c=19629