epb
iPF Novice
First things first - this is my girlfriend's fault! 
For travel, I used my old Sony TZ150 laptop. I've always liked subnotebooks, especially Sony ones, which tend to have good battery life, nice displays, good multimedia capability, and light weight; I'm especially fond of the built in cellular broadband my TZ came with, though the $80/month bill for unlimited data? Not so much. Primary uses for the Sony was typically e-mail, some work in Office, some multimedia.
The gf started with an iPhone and bought one of the first iPads, and has been raving ever since. I've always been leery of Apple fans - they have the glassy-eyed enthusiasm of cult members, and far too few of them seem to have much technical savvy - but she's got a decent head on her shoulders and I thought if she likes it that much I should give the iPad a try as a possible replacement.
Part of what convinced me is that it's a pretty low-risk trial - with the feeding frenzy over these, it should be easy to unload if I don't like it, even after the exchange period. Part of it is also the unlimited data usage for $30 and no contract, compared to Sprint charging double and requiring at least a year.
We went to the Apple store last Saturday and of course they didn't have any, so I made a reservation for a 64GB 3G version. Despite online squawking about wait times and delays and possible rationing, I got an e-mail saying it was in the store on Thursday and picked it up after work ($829 + $40 case + ~11% sales tax, if you're wondering at the title). I played with it some that night and last night.
First impressions? The display is awesome. The battery life is double my Sony's, and it's lighter and smaller. The power cord is insanely short, and I can't get my att.net e-mail account to work with it. How it goes from here, we'll see.
For travel, I used my old Sony TZ150 laptop. I've always liked subnotebooks, especially Sony ones, which tend to have good battery life, nice displays, good multimedia capability, and light weight; I'm especially fond of the built in cellular broadband my TZ came with, though the $80/month bill for unlimited data? Not so much. Primary uses for the Sony was typically e-mail, some work in Office, some multimedia.
The gf started with an iPhone and bought one of the first iPads, and has been raving ever since. I've always been leery of Apple fans - they have the glassy-eyed enthusiasm of cult members, and far too few of them seem to have much technical savvy - but she's got a decent head on her shoulders and I thought if she likes it that much I should give the iPad a try as a possible replacement.
Part of what convinced me is that it's a pretty low-risk trial - with the feeding frenzy over these, it should be easy to unload if I don't like it, even after the exchange period. Part of it is also the unlimited data usage for $30 and no contract, compared to Sprint charging double and requiring at least a year.
We went to the Apple store last Saturday and of course they didn't have any, so I made a reservation for a 64GB 3G version. Despite online squawking about wait times and delays and possible rationing, I got an e-mail saying it was in the store on Thursday and picked it up after work ($829 + $40 case + ~11% sales tax, if you're wondering at the title). I played with it some that night and last night.
First impressions? The display is awesome. The battery life is double my Sony's, and it's lighter and smaller. The power cord is insanely short, and I can't get my att.net e-mail account to work with it. How it goes from here, we'll see.
