48 hours with an iPad 1

[CHR1S]

I have been given an original 16Gb wifi to have a play with, I have never used one before and have decided to write a sort of blog/review. Feel free to correct my errors as this is just an on the go response. Your opinions are welcome and any tips to help the integration would be a god send!

 

Out of the box

 

Wow its heavy, not laptop heavy, but enough to be slightly uncomfortable.

 

Setup was easy, just used iTunes and linked it to my own account.

 

I decided to run through the usual free apps I have on my iPhone 4 (BBC, Sky, Twitter, etc.) The apps designed for iPad look great and really make use of the extra screen size. Those that aren’t, are very small or if zoomed pixelated but useable.

The app that made me go wow was Sky News HD, it looks stunning and brings an element of interactivity to the mundane reading of news. I hope the devs decide to progress these style of applications as they really do show off what a multitouch device can do with different medias.

 

Video and graphics look crisp, considering its not on a very high resolution, high pixel dense screen. The speaker is adequate.

 

Holding it is awkward for anything more than one fingered use and a good dock or holder is required for desktop use and typing.

 

A day in

 

So, I have been using it for a day, I like it!

I’m exploring new things; linked my google apps and drop box.

 

The lack of a unified system for accessing a cloud storage provider, getting a document, editing it and sending it back frustrates me.

Typing seems comfortable for short to medium periods of time, even if the keyboard layout isn’t quite as simplistic as an ordinary desktop item, but its altogether very useable.

 

The inability to try applications for free frustrates me, yes I know there are “lite” and “free” options but these are few and far between for most apps and raises the question of jail breaking, in a legitimate but albeit grey area, especially if the initial demo is to decide on a class purchase of 30!

 

The lack of file browser is an issue, perhaps because I am a windows user? Not having an all in one place to move my files around locally is weird, going from app to app for each different file. This compounds the issue of not having a unified system for editing and storage as discussed earlier.

 

Finger marks and lots of them!

 

Sitting in the lounge I browsed some websites much more comfortably than with a laptop, its pickup and go instant on/off allowed me to slip in and out with ease. The sites are rendered well and with speed and the lack of flash didn’t really bother me. The one app for each web presence still bothers me, BBC/Sky/eBay et al but these all open in the web browser sans flash.

 

 

Day 2

 

I’m walking round school with it, the attitude of staff concerns me! They seem to be very snotty and perhaps jealous that I have one. I explain it’s a demo and not mine but they don’t seem to care.....

 

Haven’t used it much today, limited by the fact I have to give it back tomorrow and don’t want to integrate it into my day to day work.

 

I’m worried where I leave it, won’t fit in my pocket like a phone or sit on my desk like a laptop, it was the same at home too; Do I leave it on the side, on the floor, in a book shelf?

 

I’m starting to think that an iPad (or any tablet) will need a raft of accessories to help it fit in day to day. A dock, keyboard, A/V adaptor and a case just for starters.

One thing that has tweaked my interest is the hybrid concept, where an ipad like device running a tablet OS can be docked into a charger come keyboard/mouse combo and revert to a more desktop like OS giving me the best of both worlds. Maybe it will happen, maybe not.

 

It’s a bit sluggish today, I have left a few apps open and you can feel it starting to struggle; battery is at 50%, impressive!

 

 

Conclusion

 

The concept is right, the application is very good but the overall experience is not for my own personal needs. Perhaps jail breaking it will give me more freedom as it did with my iphone4?

 

It ticks a lot of boxes, especially ones for our SLT looking at moving to a google apps environment and it will also encourage others to (hopefully) follow suit.

 

DLNA (sorry apple but please use common standards) is essential, wireless printing works but you need a PC on 24/7 to run iTunes (D’oh).

 

One day a company will make the holy grail of tablets.... but no one would upgrade each year, so, its not going to happen!

 

Would I buy one? Yes

 

Would I recommend one? No, I would say go play with one at an Apple store for an hour first and then decide.

 

Now just need to get a 48 hour test of a Xoom to do a comparison.

[andy_nic]

I did give in and bought one a while back, mainly use it for E-Books for my degree and all my Microsoft manuals just saves me carrying around a load of books, websites, dropbox the new iplayer app is nice too. I also worry where to leave it, at £499 for the 32Gb one it’s not something you want to go missing. I also find it collects a lot of finger marks

[pete]

Xoom review: Ars reviews the Motorola Xoom (yes, I know they're Apple whores at Ars).

 

I'd probably buy an iPad if it had a hinge down the centre / folded along it's length and fitted into a pocket. If I have to carry a bag, I may as well sling in a real computer.

[rad]

Is it one of those, I want, use and collect dust items though once the novelty wears off.

 

OH wanted a Wii for Xmas, so i bought one of here (EG), got a balance board and everything, not used it a lot, is that cos it is either TV or Wii, not sure, will see what comes about in a few months, will it get turned on.

[Haptic]

It sounds daft but the case makes all the difference.

 

I was cautious about using mine, leaving it everywhere etc until I bought a decent case for it.

 

Oh and Jailbreak is the only way forward, if not a tad naughty (so I'm told)

 

Joe

[CHR1S]

I did give in and bought one a while back, mainly use it for E-Books for my degree and all my Microsoft manuals just saves me carrying around a load of books, websites, dropbox the new iplayer app is nice too. I also worry where to leave it, at £499 for the 32Gb one it’s not something you want to go missing. I also find it collects a lot of finger marks

 

Where do you get the MS manuals from? Kindle or iBook?

[CyberNerd]

Just a headsup wrt Google and SLT - We are a Google webapps site and one of our SLT uses ipad for everything. SIMS, Google Docs, Calendars etc. He thinks it's fantastic and has given his school issued laptop back.

We set it up on a 'dirty' home user network with just access to web applications and Citrix.

[CHR1S]

Thats where we want to head, im going to be an advocate for it! Edited March 17, 2011 by CHR1S

[CyberNerd]

cool. wrt printing - we think PaperCut web printing is the way forward. We want to firewall off all our internal servers except for web access.

Google exports pdf and papercut web print imports them.

[mattx]

I was going to get one the other week but then came to my senses..... I still want something like this - but can't make up my mind what. It took me 10 years to purchase a printer so this may be another one of those situations.

[andy_nic]

Where do you get the MS manuals from? Kindle or iBook?

 

There the PDF versions which use to come with the paper copy of the books just use ibook to sync them over. havn't bought some in ages so don't know if microsoft still give the the CD with them on.

[Butuz]

To be honest I am seriously looking at getting a Ipad 1 16GB. For £329 inc vat from the Apple store it now represents somewhere near good value. I mean nock £100 off £329 and that will buy you a horrid mickey mouse tablet with a crap screen. Paying £600 for the top notch one is a bit bonkers.

 

All I need is enough storage for documents etc (not gonna use it for music much) and dont need 3g as 3g is mostly rubbish in most places round here. So the 16gig one seems to do the job.

 

Verry tempted. Mind you I know ill end up using it 90% for school work so I may end up going the route of getting one through school.

 

Butuz

[Pete10141748]

I was instructed by the Deputy Head yesterday to order 30 iPads so we can give 1 to each member of staff and give everyone a chance to see how they can integrate it into teaching&learning (which will then become a set of 30 that can be booked out after they have figured out good uses for it) so quite soon I will be getting one to use for a bit too, though at the speed of ordering around here I'll be playing with my own iPad2 before the school gets it's iPad1's!

[CHR1S]

 

A slightly blurry picture of an Equanet iPad mobile classroom, management and charging point.

[MK-2]

I was instructed by the Deputy Head yesterday to order 30 iPads so we can give 1 to each member of staff and give everyone a chance to see how they can integrate it into teaching&learning (which will then become a set of 30 that can be booked out after they have figured out good uses for it) so quite soon I will be getting one to use for a bit too, though at the speed of ordering around here I'll be playing with my own iPad2 before the school gets it's iPad1's!

 

so basically there will be an outlay of approx £13k for equipment that nobody has any idea how to integrate into the system? what happens if you buy those 30 and they don't integrate, is that 13k wasted or will they be sent back?

[SpuffMonkey]

I was instructed by the Deputy Head yesterday to order 30 iPads so we can give 1 to each member of staff and give everyone a chance to see how they can integrate it into teaching&learning (which will then become a set of 30 that can be booked out after they have figured out good uses for it) so quite soon I will be getting one to use for a bit too, though at the speed of ordering around here I'll be playing with my own iPad2 before the school gets it's iPad1's!

 

It just sounds like a solution looking for a problem - coughing up £15k just to see if people can find a valid use for them - that's nearly a techie's salary in these straightened times...

[Pete10141748]

Yup I know and that's why me and the Deputy Head have talked the Head out of doing this 2 times already since January, but she (the Head) is adamant that she wants them so we've just had to do it. It'll mostly be money down the drain, and just like the set of 24 PDA's that came before them they will be used by 1 or 2 people for a couple of things in the first term and then forgotten about, either because staff don't want the training hassle or there just is no use for them

 

You never know though, I might be proven wrong....... doubt it, but you never know.......

[MK-2]

that's what really irks me. working at an independant school now we are accountable for every single penny spent, if you dont need it, dont spend it. yet heads and bursars at state schools see it as "spend spend spend, because if we dont waste that 20k then the world will explode". its like they live in their own version of brewsters millions. knowing that there will always be another grant or scheme or initiative where the goverment will throw money at them to spend needlessly.

 

the fact you have talked someone out of it twice and they still plan on steamrollering this through shows their complete incompetence.

 

 

 

*and before anyone complains - i spent 9 years at a state school which wasted at least half a million on needless IT things, and millions more on crap around the school (shall we recarpet the halls every summer just because we need to spend the money - or how about 2k for an uplighter for every office)

Edited March 17, 2011 by MK-2

[CyberNerd]

It isn't necessarily money down the drain if you have the infrastructure to support them. If you've always paid your MS tax like a good boy then re-designing a network for home user type devices is an uphill struggle. Once you have moved everyone to web based Office apps then things like ipads are simple to accommodate,

[MK-2]

It isn't necessarily money down the drain if you have the infrastructure to support them. If you've always paid your MS tax like a good boy then re-designing a network for home user type devices is an uphill struggle. Once you have moved everyone to web based Office apps then things like ipads are simple to accommodate,

 

but unless that is in their development plan why should the whole school suffer for a headteachers shortsightedness?

also as has been stated before, moving to web based cloud solutions aren't the be all and end all of it and make it all work magically

[Disease]

I can never understand why you would buy something that is meant to be an internet friendly device that precludes you from viewing large portions of the internet?

[CyberNerd]

but unless that is in their development plan why should the whole school suffer for a headteachers shortsightedness?

also as has been stated before, moving to web based cloud solutions aren't the be all and end all of it and make it all work magically

 

I'm not disagreeing - If the head is forward thinking enough then they would have put the infrastructure in before the devices.

I appreciate there are disadvantages to cloud computing, but you can mitigate against most of the problems like redundant links for less money than redundant servers.

[MK-2]

I'm not disagreeing - If the head is forward thinking enough then they would have put the infrastructure in before the devices.

I appreciate there are disadvantages to cloud computing, but you can mitigate against most of the problems like redundant links for less money than redundant servers.

 

by the sounds of it, the head in question has no forward thinking (or thinking in general) and just wants the ipads in for a play, not for a specific reason. thats what annoys me.

fair enough, if the infrastructure was in and they wanted ipads to enable mobile learning or something, great. but if they are spending 13k for a bunch of ipads to "play about" and then say "so can we use these or do we just let staff take them home to mess about on" is a total waste.

 

if there is no plan for these, they aren't needed. if all the kids are going to do is mess about on a touch device and play games, the question has to be asked why the head is asking for this money to be spent.

[Pete10141748]

There is no plan to change the network to accomodate the iPads, even if/when the staff figure out what to do with them the 'vision' (hah!) of the Head is that the iPads will be taken out into a class for 10-15 minutes for a certain specific activity using 1 or 2 apps and then put away again. They are not intended to become the primary focus or an all-singing-all-dancing resource of the school, just as something still-IT but slightly-different to keep the pupils interested and for the pupils to use now and again.

 

But yeah, overall I think they are going to go largely unused an be a great waste of money, especially as we are also getting 6 trolleys of laptops as well and that's what most teachers are going to want to use.

 

She has had the idea of the iPads put into her head by someone from the LEA, and from the people who have provided the funding to the school for these devices (the funding can be spent on *any* ICT device though), we were also advised to buy THREE Nintendo Wii's, are going to be getting a set of 32 Nintendo DSi's, and possibly some PSP's as well.....

 

And here I am thinking that school was meant for LEARNING things, evidentally it's actually for playing computer games on flashy devices......

Edited March 17, 2011 by Pete10141748

[MK-2]

Pete I feel for you. Our old place was like that.

We had a delivery of 250 PDAs without any knowledge of the order and just got asked "so what can we do with them in class" once they were stacked in our office. When we said pretty much nothing it was then decided "could we lease them to the kids so they can use them to work at home", again negating the fact they cant actually do much.

As far as I'm aware most were either "lost" when given to kids or never used.