El Rushbo’s iPad Review

RUSH: A lot of people are asking me what I think of the iPad, ’cause I was so distracted here Friday I couldn’t wait to get home and start playing with the thing and I’ll tell you what. I got home at about 45 minutes after the program. It took me an hour and a half to sync it up because it’s just like an iPhone. I connected it to my master computer and I synced everything on that master computer via iTunes that I wanted on the iPad and there were a lot of photos and there were a lot of videos and a lot of things that took some time. It was about an hour and a half, and I’m sitting there saying, ‘Why did I do this? I didn’t have to do this first. I coulda played with the damn thing before I sync it. Now it’s another hour and a half I can’t do anything with it while it’s sitting there and I don’t want to interrupt the sync.’

So I tried to occupy myself for an hour and a half by finding videos of the thing (chuckles) on the Apple website, see how it operates. There were a bunch of apps I wanted to get with it after I got it all synced up and was using it — and I’ve got a Kindle, so I wanted to get the Kindle app, because all my books that I bought on Kindle automatically download to the iPad without buying it again. And then Apple has its own e-book application called iBooks. They don’t have nearly as many books there, but they’re getting there. So I have both those apps. I already read three novels over the weekend. Pshew! It’s fascinating. The first thing that struck me here was how fast it is. This thing, Wi-Fi loads web pages two to three times faster than the iPhone simply because it’s a bigger chip and a more powerful battery. The battery’s 10 hours, 10 to 11 hours. That’s the second thing I noticed. Then the display, the size. I just loved it. I was immersed with the thing all weekend.

I’ve got it sitting over there. I’m still kind of waiting for this show to emd so I can go back and use it. (laughs) Nah, just kidding. Just kidding. The 3G, I turned that on. I have one problem with it. There’s just one problem with it, and it doesn’t happen on the iPhone. It’s Wi-Fi. When I go outside where my living room is, the three feet outside and sit there on a table in the patio, I lose Wi-Fi. The iPhone does not. So I walked back inside, three feet inside, and I got a full Wi-Fi signal. I don’t know what that’s about. My neighbor who has one has the same problem. So I don’t know what that is, but I have 3G so I just fired up the 3G and I was able to use it out there. I don’t know if anybody else has experienced that because I haven’t spent a lot of time on these forums and blogs of people who have these things.

But that’s the only thing I noticed about it that I didn’t like. Everything else about it… Oh, the second thing: When they enable printing from this thing, I will no longer need a laptop. And this thing only weighs four pounds. It’s light as hell versus my 17-inch laptop. That’s a big thing to lug around. I’m told that they’re gonna enable printing on the iPhone software upgrade 4.0 in June which will end up on the iPads in September. But I haven’t confirmed that. There’s some third-party printing apps but they don’t work very well, formatting and so forth. So just like cut and paste (cut, copy, paste) took a long time to get to the iPhone, printing, I’m sure at some point it’ll get there. I wouldn’t look for them to ever put a phone on this thing and just cannibalize the iPhone. But you are gonna get Voice Over IP (I think Truphone or Skype) and you’ll be able to make phone calls that way.

It has a microphone. It doesn’t have a camera but it will; I guarantee you. This is the beta hardware unit. In a year they’ll come out with a camera on the thing, front-facing and it’ll be able to take pictures. I’m sure it’s probably already testing that prototype now, hoping some guy doesn’t leave it in a bar for eventually Gizmodo to come up with it. That’s my review. I showed all the staff here today and they were fascinated with it. It’s a great display. It is lickety-split fast. When you change the orientation from landscape vertical, it’s instant. The iPhone sometimes takes a while to catch up with the movement of the phone sideways. This is instant. You can lock it, too, so that it doesn’t switch when you move the thing around. Typing on it is easy.

I have no problem. I’ve never had a problem with the virtual keyboard. You know, a bunch of whiners (people who professionally complain about things) whine about the iPhone keyboard. I have never had a problem with it. I don’t mind. But this keyboard’s bigger, a little bit… (interruption) What do you mean I ‘don’t have fat fingers?’ That’s not an excuse! Fat fingers? Besides you can go landscape now with the keyboard and the iPhone so it doesn’t matter if you get fat fingers. Not an excuse as far as I’m concerned. Sixty-four. Sixty-four gigs. That’s the memory. That’s top of the line right now. That’s a lot. I got a great bunch of weather apps, some games. Well, some things I shouldn’t say what I have. (laughing)

Nah, security systems. I can arm ’em remotely from this thing wherever I happen to be: Here at home or at the office, the car. It’s an amazing thing. Now, let me get back to some stuff here before we get… Oh! Oh! I just got a flash here: ‘Apple confirms iPad Wi-Fi problems,’ and they’ve got a post: ‘Try these fixes. Users are speculating the weak signal strength may be caused by poor placement of the Wi-Fi antenna. Others ponder if the problems are the symptoms of a software issue.’ I think it’s software. I think they’re going to fix it in the software upgrade or update, because there’s no reason for this. In fact, when I go outside the signal is still full. When I use it, when it downloads an e-mail or goes to the Internet that’s when it dies. So it’s not an antenna. It’s picking up a signal out there. There’s something in there. I don’t know what it has to do with going outside, if atmospherics has anything to do with it. I’m glad to find that it’s not something specific to my unit.