Apple iPad (16GB) - The Ultimate Tablet PC

Apple products have always been known for their great design, solid construction and awesome style. The Apple iPad (16GB) is no different. Featuring a 9.7-inch capacitative touch screen the actual device measures around 8 inch by 10 inch, roughly the size of a standard magazine. In short, the iPad looks a lot like a larger iPhone. Super-slim and quite light at 1.5 pounds the tablet looks a lot nicer and more solid than other tablet computers in the same class with all the buttons, fittings and surfaces having a very high standard of quality.

As the entry-level offering the Apple iPad (16GB) is powered by an Apple A4 1GHZ processor and offers 16GB of flash memory. Instead of more common tablet operating systems the iPad adopts the same operating system as the iPhone. As such, the iPad starts up in a mere 18 seconds and is quite responsive. The iPad has a standard 30-pin dock connector along with integrated speakers but doesn't have any integrated video camera. Other connections include 802.11n wireless wi-fi and Bluetooth wireless connectivity. It also has an integrated accelerometer, microphone, digital compass and mute switch. A 3G capable model with assisted GPS will be made available later in April 2010.

Handling the Apple iPad (16GB) is as easy as using the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch. The touchscreen is extremely responsive and accurate while the interface is very intuitive. Typing on the screen is possible but not nearly as comfortable as swiping and pinching your way through it. Since the tablet uses the iPhone operating system, you can only do one thing at time. The Apple iPad comes with a number of applications including those for leisure as well as work but you can download games and other applications from the Apple app store or iTunes.

While you can read eBooks on the Apple iPad (16GB) the reflective screen makes it almost unreadable in direct sunlight. At 1.5 pounds it definitely cannot be held one-handed as it becomes quite a strain after a time. The screen is more than enough for most movies and images with a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution but HD movies are out of the question. Battery life is about 10 to 12 hours based on what you're using it for

All in all, the Apple iPad (16GB) finally offers users with the ultimate tablet computer. While it does really well with similar iPhone-like applications it doesn't really do typing and editing very well nor is it going to replace any e-book readers anytime soon. It does on the other hand offer users with a very fast and very easy device to use to stay connected, however if you're looking for a netbook, smart-phone or e-book reader replacement, this isn't the device for you. If you can't live without your Apple iPhone and adore your Apple iPod Touch, then chances are you'll love the Apple iPad (16GB).

Apple iPad Wi-Fi Review

There's something that captures your imagination when you open an Apple box and first see your new gadget. That is certainly the case with the Apple iPad. The first thing you see is the device itself with its large screen. Also included in the box is a cable, power adapter and the famous apple stickers. But was the box worth opening in the first place? Is the iPad really worth getting?

The first thing you need to know is what the iPad is for. After all you can't review a product without knowing what it's for, right? Well Steve Jobs from Apple said that the iPad sits in-between the iPhone and the Macbook. It isn't the best communications device and it isn't for serious work. The iPad is the perfect device for consuming media. Watch movies, show photos, surf the internet, answer e-mails and read books. That's what the iPad is for. It's a device for around the house. I've put that statement to the test.

Design

But before I get into the media stuff let's look at the design first. It's great. The back is all aluminum which makes it feel really classy and decent against scratching. The apple logo sits in the middle.

The front is the same as the iPhone. It's glass from edge to edge with the only buttons being the home button, volume, sleep and screen orientation key. The edges of the screen are now wider which is useful because it enables you to hold the device with one hand without touching the screen. The black and gray contrast between the buttons and the body looks great. The device is very thin and the aluminum border (metal one is gone) makes it one of the best looking gadgets ever made.

The internet & Keyboard

Internet is really important in a tablet, laptop, smartphone well actually in pretty much everything. Luckily Apple knew this and they've worked hard on getting safari just right on the iPad, and they have. The iPad is simply the best internet surfing experience. It's great to see a whole webpage in front of you that you can manipulate without using a mouse or other pointing device. In fact the only downside is the chunkiness in using tabs. It's not fast and it requires you to first press a button and then the page of your choice. I wish it was more like the PC/Mac way with all of your tabs just a single click away.

How does the iPad type? A lot of people asked this question prior to the launch and I can say that I've no problem typing. Portrait mode types fine but can get awkward when you're both holding the device and typing at the same time. But in landscape mode with the iPad on your lap things really come alive. It types just like a normal notebook. And if you mistype, the iPad quickly corrects you and predicts the word you wanted to spell. It works just like the iPhone which was a fine system. You might have to get used to the lack of feedback though. Your only guide is the screen and for some people it may take some time getting used to.

media

Now let's talk media. First of all watching movies is great and a way better experience than a laptop or smartphone can offer. The laptop is simply too heavy for the job and the iPhone's screen is just too small.

Apple included the video app to further enhance the video watching experience and it works great. The app nicely shows a cover art of the movie and it's very easy to go to a curtain chapter or read a description of the movie. I think a lot of people will really fall in love with this feature.

Another big selling point is the ability to show photo's to friends and family. The device can function as a digital photo stand during parties, or you can use the built in app for a great photo viewing experience. The device will tell you where the photos were taken (if geo-tagged) and it will tell faces. Zooming in and out on photos or sweeping across your collection feel great. It's much better than on the iPhone because the larger screen really lends itself for smoother gestures and the great IPS screen shows every detail.

Books are hot again. Apple made an app specifically for reading and buying, it's called iBooks. The app will display all your books on a bookshelf. Tab the library button and the bookshelf will flip to reveal a store. But it's not all great because the store lacks proper navigation. For example you can't navigate by category or publication date. It really doesn't make sense that it lacks this feature, so the store is actually only useful if you already know what you want. But the reading itself is great. It even works in the dark! Take that physical books.

The iPod app is also present. It looks a lot like you're used to in itunes. You can display your music in lists or album covers and see what's playing. Cover flow is mysteriously missing though, but probably won't be missed.

Tab a song and it will display the album cover. Tab again and you get access to the music playing keys. The app is really great to use because the 9.7" display allows you to see all of your songs.

Other provided apps are: calendar, contacts, notes, app store, iTunes, maps, and YouTube. They all work great as expected from Apple. calendar does exactly what you expect it to do. You can watch a whole month without scrolling or tapping, which makes it particularly useful.

Contacts divides the screen in two, one side it shows all the details and on the other the names of your contacts.

Maps is greatly improved on the iPad. Apple did it by only adding one new feature: streetview. And it works easy. Just drop a pin somewhere and press the street button. In fact the streetview works way more intuitive on the iPad than it does on the actual Google site.

Last but not least is YouTube. It's really nice that you can see both the comments and the videos on one screen in portrait. Because let's face it, we all read the comments. In landscape the video fills the whole screen, which makes it a pleasure to watch.

Apps

The app store allows you to download any iPhone app on your iPad. But you can also download apps made specifically for the device.

iPhone apps look awful on the iPad. The screen in 1:1 mode is too small to use and looks silly with all that unused space around it. Displaying the app in 2x modes isn't recommended either because it just looks plain ugly. I can see every pixel in this mode.

iPad apps are great though. The larger screen allows for some exciting stuff. Zombies vs Aliens for example is simply amazing to play. It looks very crisp and the controls are as intuitive as can be.

The iWork package from Apple is another example of screen space used well. Making documents and presentations is easy. In pages I was surprised to see the task bar disappear in landscape mode though.

The future will tell if the bigger screen will allow for some great new apps. I'm a little worried though because of the speed of the device.

Problems

So media is great on the iPad but unfortunately not everything is. Communicating for example isn't really possible because the iPad doesn't have a front facing camera. So grandma won't be able to video chat with her grandchildren in the garden. And the iPad isn't fast. It feels zippy but the apps aren't what they could be and at times the device slowed down a bit. Another problem is the build quality. I could slightly wiggle the volume button and sleep button by holding my fingers on it. On the iPhone for example the buttons are way more stiff. Another thing about the build quality is the vibration that you get when the speakers are playing. It's probably the fair amount of bass that the device can produce but it makes the device feel more fragile in a way.

conclusion

The iPad is amazing in its own little way. It's not going to replace the phone. It's not going to replace the notebook. No, it can't do any of those things. Instead it becomes the best way to interact with your media. Movies, music, books, photos and the internet. And sure you can work on it via the iWork packages from apple. it works fine but not good enough to produce 10.000+ word documents.

The iPad is an amazing tablet and I hope Apple fixes the shortcomings in the next version.

How To Synchronize Apple iPad 2

If you want to synchronize your Apple iPad 2 so you can put some music or videos from your PC, you are at the right place. Read carefully and follow the instructions how to synchronize your Apple iPad 2 and PC.

You have a couple ways to make the connection:

USB cable. Use the cable that comes with your iPad to attach the USB connector to a free USB port on your Mac or Windows PC, and then attach the dock connector to the 30-pin connector port on the bottom of the iPad.

Dock. If you shelled out the bucks for an optional iPad dock (a regular dock or a keyboard dock), first plug it in to a power outlet. Using your iPad's cable, attach the USB connector to a free USB port on your Mac or Windows PC, and attach the dock connector to the 30-pin connector port on the back of the dock. Now insert your Apple iPad into the dock's cradle.

Synchronizing Your iPad Automatically

Depending on the storage capacity of your iPad - 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB - you may be able to transfer all your computer's iPad - friendly digital content onto the iPad hard drive. If that sounds like the way you want to go, then you can take advantage of the easiest of the iPad synchronizing scenarios, in which you don't have to pay any attention in the least: automatic synchronization. Because you know all the iPad - able content on your Mac or Windows PC is going to fit, all you have to do is turn on your iPad 2 and connect it to your computer.

iTunes opens automatically, connects to your Apple iPad 2, and begins synchronizing. And just for your information, the USB port also begins charging your iPad's battery.

Note that you can't use your iPad while the synchronization is running. However, one of the iPad's nicest features is that you can interrupt synchronization. When the Sync in Progress screen appears, you see the Slide to Cancel slider at the bottom of the screen. If you ever need to bail out of the synchronization to perform some other duty, drag the slider to the right. iTunes cancels the synchronization so you can go about your business. When you're ready to restart the synchronization, click the Sync button in iTunes.

When the synchronization is done, you need to do two things:

In iTunes, click the Eject icon beside your iPad in the Devices list.
Remove the dock connector from the iPad's 30-pin connector port.
Bypassing the automatic synchronization

Sometimes, you may want to connect your iPad to your computer, but you don't want it to synchronization automatically. For example, you may want to connect your iPad to your computer just to charge it. Or perhaps you just want to use iTunes to check how much free space is left on your iPad 2 or to check for updates to the iPad software.

Whatever the reason, you can tell iTunes to hold off the synchronizing this time only by using one of the following techniques:

Mac. Connect the iPad to the Mac, and then quickly press and hold the Option and Mac keys
Windows. Connect the iPad to the Windows PC, and then quickly press and hold the Control and Shift keys.
When you see that iTunes has added your iPad to the Devices list, you can release the keys. Note, however, that you don't need to use iTunes to see how much free space is left on your iPad. On the Home screen, tap Settings, tap General, and then tap About. In the About screen that slides in, the Available value tells you how many gigabytes (or megabytes) of free space you have to play with.

Troubleshooting automatic synchronization

So, you connect your iPad to your computer and then nothing. If iTunes isn't already running, it refuses to wake up from its. What's up with that?

A couple things could be the problem. First, connect your iPad 2, switch to iTunes on your computer, and then click your iPad 2 in the Devices list. On the Summary tab, make sure the Open iTunes when this iPad is connected check box is selected.

If that check box was already selected, you need to delve a bit deeper to solve the mystery. Follow these steps:

Open the iTunes preferences:
Mac. Choose iTunes > Preferences
Windows. Choose Edit > Preferences
Click the Devices tab.
Deselect the Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from Syncing Automatically check box.
Click OK to put the new setting into effect and enable automatic syncing again.
Syncing Your iPad Manually When you first connected your iPad to iTunes, the brief setup routine included a screen that asked if you wanted to automatically synchronize certain content, such as music and photos. If you activated a check box for a particular type of content, iTunes configure the iPad to synchronize all of that content.

One fine day, you'll be minding your own business and performing what you believe to be a routine synchronization operation when a dialog box pops up telling you iPad 2 is out of hard disk space. You can handle this in a couple of ways:

Remove some of the content from your computer. This is a good way to go if your iPad 2 is really close to having enough space. For example, the dialog says your computer wants to send 100MB of data, but your Apple iPad 2 has only 98MB of free space. Get rid of a few megabytes of stuff on your computer, and you're back in the synchronization business.

Synchronize your iPad manually. This means that you no longer synchronize everything on your computer. Instead, you hand-pick which play-lists, podcasts, audio books, and so on are sent to your iPad. It's a bit more work, but it's the way to go if there's a big difference between the amount of content on your computer and the amount of space left on your iPad.

Synchronizing manually means that you handle the synchronization yourself for the various content types: contacts, calendars, e-mail, bookmarks, music, podcasts, audio books, e-Books, photos, videos, and apps. You do this using the other tabs in the iPad window: Info, Music, Photos, and so on.

Removing data from your iPad 2 and replacing it with fresh info

After you know what you're doing, synchronizing contacts, calendars, e-mail accounts, and bookmarks to your iPad 2 is a relatively bulletproof procedure that should happen without a hitch each time. Of course, this is technology you're dealing with here, so hitches do happen every now and then, and as a result you might end up with corrupt or repeated information on your iPad.

Or perhaps you've been synchronizing your iPad with a couple of different computers, and you decide to cut one of the computers out of the loop and revert to just a single machine for all your synchronization.

In both these scenarios, you need to replace the existing information on your Apple iPad 2 with a freshly baked batch of data. Fortunately, iTunes has a feature that lets you do exactly that. Here's how it works:

Connect your iPad to your computer.
In the iTunes Devices list, click the iPad.
Click the Info tab.
Select the Sync check boxes for each type of information you want to work with (contacts, calendars, e-mail accounts, bookmarks, or notes).
In the Advanced section, select the check box beside each type of information you want to replace.
Click Apply. iTunes replaces the selected information on your iPad.

Avoid Screen Replacement by Getting Your New iPad Screen Protection

Get your new iPad screen protection to keep it free from scratches. Do not wait before it is too late. An iPad with a scratched screen is not very pleasing to use. It will stay there forever unless you get it replaced. Replacing an iPad screen is not the most practical idea, but let us consider the options that we have.

The best option for getting the iPad screen replaced or getting any repairs for your iPad is the Apple Store. They have the expert manpower to do the restoration procedures on the iPad. These are people who have been trained and certified by the makers of the device themselves. They will also be using original equipment hardware to replace the defective parts you need replaced or fixed.

There is another reason for choosing the Apple Store when seeking for iPad repair services, and that is the product warranty. If a scratch or defect is present "out of the box" it can be considered a production or manufacturing defect and is covered by Apple warranty and is a valid reason for product replacement. On the other hand, a scratch or any other problem arising from improper use of the device is not covered by the warranty.

Another option, which one should only consider if the first option is not available, is to have a third-party vendor or service provider do the screen replacement on your device. This requires you sending them your device and having them do what they claim to do. The process of having the screen replaced is no overnight procedure. Aside from the process itself being delicate there is also the issue of waiting in line. So do not expect to get your hands on your repaired iPad soon.

The results of third-party service provider screen replacement are surprisingly good. There are very good reviews of the services they do, so make sure to do your research before choosing a repair service for your device. The service providers are also very straightforward with regards to devices that they cannot fix. If they think the level of problem you have is beyond repair they will not accept your device.

Still, the best way to avoid undergoing screen replacement procedure is getting your new iPad screen protection. Screen protection is also essential if you want your device looking always new. And guess what, this is just a fraction of the price of getting screen replacement, and without the hassles of course.