48 hours with the iPad, and also 6 year old Paige weighs in with her thoughts on video

I’ve had the iPad since Friday afternoon, here are a few observations in no particular order:

• It’s heaver than I thought, but lighter than my wife thought it was going to be.

• Fingerprints are everywhere on it.  Especially when the kids play on it.

• The screen is very shiny and reflective.

• The battery is crazy good.  I used it for over 4 hours straight and it was still over 70%.

• Not good for outside use because of the reflection and the fact that it overheated on me after maybe 15 minutes of use on my front porch.

• The official Apple case has improved the experience by a third.... Typing, browsing, watching movies, stopping it from sliding around.  The case is a must have.

 Here is what Paige had to say:

• It's fast. Really really fast. Pinch and zoom resizing while browsing or looking at a photo is ludicrously quick.

• Twitter is a totally awesome experience with Twitteriffic.  The way images and links are handled right inside the app are perfect.  I can’t wait for Tweetie/Twitter who ever they are to come out with an iPad app.

• I love how YouTube videos are now played inline on a web page instead of launching in a new app.

• Dropbox needs an iPad app.

• I need to be able to edit Googe docs in the iPad.

• I'm writing this on the iPad Evernote app. 

• I can’t believe there isn’t a free document creator app that comes free.

• The resolution is spectacular, looking at hi-res photos and videos is unlike any experience I’ve had.

• I use Instapaper a whole lot less. (No need, I can read the whole article on the full browser).

• Facebook.com is perfect.  Why would you need an app?

• The on screen keyboard is a really good size and easy to use in landscape mode and a lot like the iPhone in portrait... I hunt and peck.

• It's good for the whole family. Suduku and books for Becky, drawing, Winnie The Pooh and Alice In Wonderland in iBooks for Paige and Kaitlyn.

• My neck hurts from looking down to my lap rather than the height of a normal laptop.

• The NPR app is great.

• The iBook app is great.

• Gmail in the browser is great, what's with save and send buttons right next to each other? 

• The 5th graders on the street know I have an iPad the word has spread!

• Apps that aren't made for the iPad are very pixilated but still work great.

• Overall experience for me is a 9/10.

• I have yet to activate 3G, maybe tomorrow.

  

If you have any killer apps to share please do in the comments.  Also if you have any questions I’ll do my best to answer them.

Lastly, I’ve been tagging interesting iPad related things on my public Google Reader page here.