AJ Vaynerchuk

The screenshot below is a quick glance at what is in my reading queue on Instapaper.

What do you plan on reading?

I’ve heard negative buzz that the iPad is just a giant version of the iPod touch. My question to everyone saying this is: who cares?

With that kind of thinking one might look at a small house:

and then a much larger house:

and come away saying, “ah who cares? It’s just a larger house.”

Just because a product isn’t revolutionary in design / build does not mean that the product is unnecessary. The iPad is, in my opinion, another great launch by the Apple team. I hope those who dismiss the iPad at first glance take the chance to actually use it before entirely writing it off as a failure.

This is meant to be a quick review that may highlight a thing or two you won’t find from an official review. If you are curious about my feelings towards the iPad before reading on here you go: As of right now, I love it.

Nice, simple, clean design.

Typing on the iPad, on a flat surface using two hands, is actually rock solid. Maybe my experience with the iPhone has made this experience far more enjoyable the first time around.

Opened up the store, like how it immediately prompts me to download a free copy of iBooks.

Reviewing the Apple Store terms & service, I wonder how many people actually read all 58 pages.

I can’t emphasize enough how much I respect Apple’s ability to create an amazing user experience.

Opened up iBooks, they gave me a free book, Winnie-The-Pooh. Nice touch.

iBooks is gorgeous.

Buying my brother’s book on Vook. This is one of the applications (Vook) I was looking most forward to, seems like the iPad is a dream for this company.

While it downloads, taking a look at the paid apps, first impression: seems like the market is inflated, not seeing too many $.99 apps.

Browing through apps, there is one app in the sports category called BasketballMat. This is awesome – the ability for coaches to whiteboard out plays using the iPad – brilliant!

Vook on the iPad is amazing. Beautiful, beautiful display of content.

Just played a round of TapTap Radiation on Hard with the song Quiet Dog by Mos Def. Fun game, beautiful experience. Makes me all that more confident that the iPad will become a big time mobile gaming system. Wish I had this when I was younger, forget gameboy!

The lack of titles may hurt iBooks in the beginning. Just search for the book “Rework” to no avail.

One thing I really like about the iBooks app compared to the kindle is the fact that when you are reading a book you have an idea of what page you are on. The kindle (as far as I know) only shows you the % of the book you have read. I like to know I am on page 7 of 200 rather than 3.5% of the way done. Also like the little note on the bottom right for where you are in the chapter (2 pages left in this chapter). Another point, bookmarking on the iPad is fantastic. Simply press down on a word, and bookmark it. You can also drag and select a sentence (similar to iPhone) and bookmark that.

Thought coming to mind, the iPad is the perfect travel computer. Could I get away with having a laptop at the office, a laptop at home, and simply carrying my iPad around? Hmmm, tough investment, but may be worth it.

Final though, great effort in innovation by apple. I am sure there are shortcomings with this device, but it is a MAJOR step in the right direction.