**EDIT**: This post started off as an only-iPad post but got delayed by 2 months ! And hence, including my newest acquisition as well - the Blackberry Torch 9800 (hope I post it soon :P) !
So, here I am hit by the iPadic (will that be a word anytime soon, no :-) ?) bug, typing another one of those fanboy posts - but sometimes somethings truly leave us speechless and ipad does that to you,but more on that later. lets start with how I got to own one :) and then we can do some more of my fanboyism :).
So, here I am hit by the iPadic (will that be a word anytime soon, no :-) ?) bug, typing another one of those fanboy posts - but sometimes somethings truly leave us speechless and ipad does that to you,but more on that later. lets start with how I got to own one :) and then we can do some more of my fanboyism :).
So, as it happened I had wanted to own a touchscreen gadget like ever and my 1st true tryst came with the evil Corby Pro, more of that here. After thankfully transiting out of that device (thanks biwi !), I lost my BB 8310 red curve :) on a Mumbai taxi and was presented with an ossum opportunity to buy another gadget and satisfy my touchscreeny cravings.
Thanks to my ossum boss, Kanishka, I had 1st hand experience of iPad both of the wifi-only and wifi+3G varieties. So my 'new gadget' choices boiled down to either buying a new kool phone (Android or iPhone 4) or buy an ipad + a downmarket 2nd hand BB 8310 curve for 2k (which I could perk up with my self-devised theme - here). And like a seasoned consultant, I chose the iPadic option, courtesy following:
- I use a smartphone mostly for chatting and checking the web intermittently, which I can very well do on the downmarket BB as well.
- But with an iPad I could do a lot more, read books, replace a laptop partially and even try to play games (I pretty much suck at all games :(), and consume media much, much better.
- Get instant access to 3G with a MTNL sim which will be a long wait if I were to buy a phone (don't wanna change my Vodafone num, right :)).
So, with a bit of anxiety and blessings of biwi dearest (What would I do without you :) ?), my pals Sahni and Taru practically ordered and got the iPad 16 GB Wifi + 3G delivered from US on Jul 3rd. That said, it has been approximately two weeks since this acquisition and my heart has been a contented place. While the tablet war is well and truly on, currently (and after spending 32k you might consider me a tad biased types :P) iPad looks by-and-far unbeatable and here are my top reasons for loving it:
1. The incredibly well-developed OS - while many consider iPad a bigger iPhone, but nobody else (including Android / Microsoft) has been able to adapt their small-screen versions to a large-screen so beautifully and effectively, you really do not care if this is a big iPhone, all that matters is its an iPad :-).
2. The best-in-industry touch screen, nothing to say which hasn't been already said !
3. The amazing iTunes store ecosystem – so many apps to choose from, so many games to play and they just keep coming.
4. An amazing ebook reader – I have seen a lot of junta criticizing the outdoor performance but thankfully, I haven’t had to contend with those conditions – I have been reading extensively and with tons of books to purchase from the Amazon and Barnes & Noble ebook stores, I ain't gonna run out of them anytime soon !
5. And even more important than 4 above, an amazing "Comics reader" :P, I have retrograded a bit back in my childhood, jumping between Batman, Superman, Phantom, JLA etc. etc. (yeah, Dhruv, Nagraj et al are next :P).
6. The most powerful gaming platform yet (and now officially seconded by the "id software" guys who made Quake and Doom) – one of my wife's biggest pastimes and slowly becoming mine J. And as I said on 3, the games in the iStore are as myriad as they come and you are sure to find atleast a dozen to suit your tastes. And what is wonderful is, they are creating a Xbox live kinda online interface where you can play kool, simple evergreeners like Scrabble (and hopefully CATAN soon !) online with junta from all over the world (I am currently playing 5 games with 5 different peepz and luckily winning in all of them :P).
7. The coolest media consumption device around, you feel like reading more and more (and hey, it is a distraction, but who minds J ?) and yeah, fbooking, tweeting and chatting is grr8 as well !
8. And its not all play only, but a bit of work as well. With the official Apple Office apps and BCG e-mail / calendar / notes integration, my actual laptop usage (not that I mind with my laptop becoming almost iPadish with my firm giving me a Thinkpad X201 !) has gone down significantly – I do all team work reviews and any work on the flight exclusively on the iPad !
9. And to round off there are the small things which I like – the instant switching on (absolute 0-sec delay), 10 hour battery life, "jailbreak" :P, continuous 3G connectivity outside home through MTNL, iPod, ease-to-handle etc.
Not that iPad is without its flaws – missing cameras (esp. for video-chatters, not for me specifically), no USB drive / support for apps and no plug-and-play support for normal USB printers – but looks like they are gonna address it in iPad 2.0 coming in Jun 2011 (plan is to get wifey the new one J, its the ecosystem man !). So, if you are looking for a tablet now, close your eyes and buy this one – no regrets !
And now, onto my 2nd new acquisition – the Blackberry Torch 9800. Though my 2nd hand Blackberry 8310 was doing just fine, what with my self-designed fanboy theme, it was just aged, with only a super-limited 64 MB RAM and no more Blackberry love coming its way (stuck on OS 4.7 while the world was moving to OS 6.0), and the nerdie in me was straining its leashes ! With the new Torch around, it was as close as it got to my dreamphone a touch-screen with a BB qwerty keyboard (nobody beats them in this, not even close !) and with a little eBaying and lot of cajoling on the expenses front with the wife, I finally got the Torch for 24k and for now, my gadgetry is replete and complete J. As for my quick impressions, here they are:
1) Tad on the heavier side, it still is the slickest touchscreen slider on market !
2) The touchscreen is ~8/10 compared to an iOS device and I can live with that, especially because the physical keyboard is bloody good, the best BB ever !
3) The highly-toted OS 6.0 is WIP still but they are improving – I only hope they don't get confused like the Nokia Symbian – MeeGo story with their whole QNX foray with the Playbook *crosses his fingers* !
4) Spec-wise this is the best BB around with 512 MB of RAM (a 8X jump for me) and a very good 5MP camera – which has made a pic-averse guy like me take and tweet pics !
5) Finally a Blackberry browser does what it is supposed to do, browse the web J.
And hey – they called it Torch because one of the key components - the new webkit browser comes from Torch Mobile, a company RIM acquired !
So happy to get over with this nerdy post – will be back with something better next !
Ranjan
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