Question:  Should you buy an iPad2?
Answer: YES!

Yesterday I waited in line for 4 hours at the Rosedale Mall to get my very first iPad.  A friend and I ended up in the 40-50th spot in line when we showed up at 1PM.  When it was all said and done, about 300+ people showed up to wait in line… Note: I did take vacation time to stand in line and not everyone was able to purchase an iPad2.

I finally got my hands on my black 16gig wifi iPad2 at about 5:30PM (only 30 minutes after the Apple store opened up, again) – yes, I opted to get the cheapest model possible.  Why?  I already have an iPhone4 that contains my music and podcasts.  Everything that I need to access with the iPad is all in “the cloud”.

Now for the fun stuff… My first impressions of the iPad2:

Likes

• Awesome display.
• Speedy response time.
• Loving the Blackberry-esque magnet response to the Smart Cover.
• Super thin and light.
• Battery endurance is awesome.  I have yet to charge mine after taking it out of the box and I’ve used it for at least 5+ hours and I’m at 41%.  To be honest, I don’t remember what percent charge it was at when I opened it.
• Keyboard is super easy to use.  I can easily respond to emails faster on the iPad than I can on the iPhone.
• It’s a giant version of my iPhone that gets better battery life and enables me to be more productive.

Dislikes

• Smudges on the screen – this is going to happen.
• Didn’t come with headphones like the iPhone – oh well!
• Various iPhone apps are not yet available on the iPad.
• Even if you paid for an iPhone app does not mean you get the iPad app for free.  Note:  I paid another $4.99 for the Reeder app – It’s worth it!
• Portrait mode of the Mail app is confusing.  I think I’m too used to the iPhone version…
• Facebook doesn’t have it’s own app.  This is not Apple’s fault but it is Zuck’s fault.
• I was eligible for EEP (Employee Pricing Program) but I was not able to take advantage of this in the store.  However, I could use my EEP online but then again, I would have had to wait 2-4 weeks for shipping…

Summary

An iPad is a very useful tool/toy that gives you the functionality of an iPhone sans the calling and bigger.  I plan to start using mine more as an e-reader and as an extension to my iPhone.

I’m sure I’ll have later posts about the apps that I like/dislike and various other uses for it.

Thanks for reading!

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