Got an iPad2 for Christmas. (Of course, my husband now regrets the decision for his purchase. Not because I’m glued to it 24/7, but because with the rumor of an impending March7 announcement for the iPad3 release, the prices have begun to come down on the iPad2.)

Well, as I mentioned, it was a Christmas gift. My husband has had one since last summer and he decided I should have one too. (Sweet huh?) Well,  as I opened my gift, he said, “OK, now you can figure out the cool apps and stuff you can do with this thing and then show me.” (Sweet, huh?)

Well, now that I’ve been playing with the iPad2 for almost two months, here are some thoughts on the little bugger:

“I Want to Be Barbie… that b**** has everything!”

We’ve all seen the t-shirts or stickers. Well, I feel like the iPad is some sort of Barbie doll. Why? Because of all the accessories and bling in which you can dress the damn thing up.  I spent countless hours trying to decide what sort of cover I want for mine… I don’t spend that much time picking out a pair of shoes!

It took me a while to decide what sort of cover I wanted for mine and I still don’t know. I like the kind with the turny-thingy on it so you can use it portrait or landscape but it seems a bit bulky to me. I love the sleekness of the Apple smartcover but I would want a backing case for it to protect the tablet but then, it starts getting expensive.  (And right now, with the market being what it is, I have to scrutinize every non-essential expenditure and let’s admit it, this stuff is all fluff and vanity.) Then, I thought I might want a keyboard for mine and those cases are different. I still can’t decide. In the meantime, I went over to HandHeldItems.com and picked up a silicone protective case for about $4.00. It slips on the back and the front is left open but I have one of those clear protective covers on mine, sort of the set up I have on my smartphone. For now it will have to do.

My Personal Gripes

My main gripe still lies with Apple’s insistence that iTunes is the cornerstone of their mobile products. In fact, when I opened my iPad2 at Christmas… I was literally like a kid on… well, Christmas morning… eager to play with my new ‘toy’. The problem was that I was in a cabin in the North Carolina mountains with no cable much less internet. I had my laptop with me but without an internet connection to hook iTunes into the Apple mother ship, I was out of luck on the whole thing since you can’t even boot up the iPad until you’ve done this.

So we got dressed  and schlepped down the mountain into town and parked outside the (closed) coffee shop and used their wi-fi to get the set-up of the iPad completed. Once done, we hurried back to the cabin and then, with no internet to peruse for fun apps to make the unconnected times enjoyable, the iPad went back into the box where it stayed until we arrived back home.

The other problem was that my husband’s computer is dying… if not already dead. He really doesn’t need one as he is strictly a consumer of information. So when he got his iPad last summer, I had to hook his iPad up with my iTunes on my laptop… which effectively identified his iPad with my Apple accounts.  So when I synched my iPad up with my iTunes, it did the same. Imagine his surprise when the Sudoku app I downloaded from the App store onto my iPad suddenly started downloading onto his device as well. My husband, who is always a bit suspicious of technology, was certain something nefarious was going on.  I had to create a separate Apple account for him and re-set his iPad.

I don’t like that I cannot manage my photos directly from the iPad, i.e. create folders and organize them.  The flash issue is also annoying when you want to access certain sites. But on whole, it’s amazing how adaptive we humans can be…

But on the other hand…

You have to admit Apple knows how to make a slick product.  It’s responsive and fast and even for this devout Windows and Android user, I’ve picked up on the different quirks of the Apple systems.

I did manage to raise some eyebrows when I showed up at a meeting at the beginning of the year with my iPad in tow.  Having been a very vocal advocate of the Android system, I can understand their surprise.  The first thing everyone asked me was if I’ve gone to the other side… and if I was giving up on Android altogether.

It’s a tough call. On the one hand, with Apple’s integration of their products, it would be nice to have the stuff on my iPad synch to my phone – all tied together with one cloud system – iCloud.  That’s how they get you…

But I’m still impressed by the Android phone products out there and I’m even anxious to see the newest Android HTC phone coming to AT&T, even thought I have Verizon…

So I’m taking the stand that one does not have to be completely one or the other… why can’t we all just get along?

Coming up next… my take on the apps and things that make the iPad so darn fun…

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