In my case, the experience exceeded the hype. Despite following it with interest, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting - it was far more engaging and useful than I had imagined.

I received a shipment notice for my iPad last Tuesday, and followed it from China to Anchorage, next Kentucky, then Colorado.  When I saw it hit Salt Lake City Friday night, I knew the Saturday delivery would happen ... unless the beautiful spring weather here dumped another 8” to 10” of the white stuff all over the place and messed up the roads.  It showed up at 11:30, and I’ll admit I felt like a little kid at Christmas time.

I won’t bother you with all the unboxing stuff ... I’m sure there are hundreds of youtube videos already.   As I lifted it out of the box, it seemed a little awkward (more on that in a minute).  It is gorgeous ... very sleek and elegant looking.  It does look like an oversized iPhone, and the similarity has led to many criticisms.   Turning it on, the typical iPhone connect to iTunes screen came on.  It took about 30 minutes to update iTunes, plug in the iPad, set up the sync settings and get the thing synced up.  Finally I could do something.

The first thing I did was play around with video and the built in apps.  Opening the calendar app you realize immediately that this isn’t an iPhone. The screen is crisp, clear, and full of useful information.  It isn’t a laptop either .. interacting with one’s schedule on the iPad is different than either the phone or the laptop.  The screen layout is intuitive, and if you rotate the iPad you get a different screen layout appropriate for the orientation.  Very cool.

Mail was next ... again, while there are some similarities to the iPhone, the experience was far more useful.  I tried a few other apps, watched a few minutes of video, opened up the included book, Winnie the Pooh and then launched Safari and spent about 20 minutes surfing the web (which was really fun).  During this session, I experimented with different ways of holding the iPad, and realized why it felt “awkward” and my hand was even aching a little. 

It’s slippery ... you feel like you are going to drop it. But subconsciously I found myself trying to hold it without touching the screen, trying to avoid extra finger prints from holding it.  This just doesn’t work, and when I finally realized I had to hold it more firmly ...  put my thumb around the front and actually grip it ... things got better.  The screen is going to get mucked up with oil anyway, trying to avoid some by holding it gingerly doesn’t work.  It cleans off very easily, and I think despite the fingerprints there will be less oil on the screen than the iPhone ... after all you aren’t holding it up against your cheek to talk on it.

So overall, here are my big takeaways from the first day.

1. 1.Battery life looks like it will be what it’s hyped to be.  4 or 5 hours of use and I’m still at 65% battery life.
   

2. 2.Applications are far  more robust and useful than anything that can be found on the iPhone.  The only similarity for well made apps is the touch interface.  You can easily create a spreadsheet, a presentation or a document with the iPad.
   

3. 3.Interacting with apps is unique and enjoyable.  I tried several apps made specifically for the iPad, some of which I have on my iPhone.  The iPad experience is much different and far more useful and rewarding.
   

4. 4.There is more to the screen than you would think ... not only is it more pixels but physically so much larger than the iPhone the information is much clearer.  Reading web  pages was simple and easy ... better than a computer.
   

5. 5.Reading a book seems to be well implemented.  In portrait orientation you get one page, in landscape you get two pages.  In landscape, the similarity to reading a real paperback is pretty cool, including the graphics of the pages themselves when you turn them.
   

6. 6.The screen is stunning ... this will be a very useful tool for visual presentation to small groups.  I synced up my favorite shots from my Italy trip ... they look great.  A great portfolio presentation device.
   

7. 7.Interacting with the iPad is unlike any other device.  Only after trying it did I realize this is more like sitting down with a magazine than it is sitting down with a computer.
   

8. 8.Video is great, and I was  surprised at the sound ... not bad and far better than the iPhone.
   

So far I have one major complaint, and I hope Apple gets this.  I know many Mac users have more than one computer, for example a laptop and a desktop.  This is especially true of those in the visual mediums such as photography or video ... you need a laptop in the field but it just doesn't cut it at the office.  The problem is you can only sync to one of your computers. 

This doesn't sound like much, but with the iPad it’s more of an issue than with the iPhone ... because you are wanting to sync documents, not just content. I found out iTunes allows you to sync documents for several apps.  I wanted to sync a Keynote presentation from my laptop over, but the iPad was synced to my desktop.  Couldn’t do it.  My only choice is to copy the program to my desktop and sync it from there, or resync my iPad to the laptop.

Personally I would like the option to sync some information from multiple computers.  For example I’d like to sync music from my laptop because most of those files are 128k ACC files, while on my desktop I ripped my set of CD’s to the highest MP3 settings available.  Each song is 4 or 5 times larger ... so I’d like to sync my music from my laptop, but video from my desktop (which has my full video library, not a subset of it).  And I’d like to sync documents from either one ... or even have them sync automatically through iSync or MobileMe.

As far as apps, here are a few i like ...

1. 1.Keynote, Pages, and Numbers.  These 3 cost 9.95 each, but are very well implemented and make it possible to perhaps leave the laptop at home on occasion.
   

2. 2.Weatherbug.  I have this on the iPhone, but on the iPad really cool.  All the information including great maps in one screen.
   

3. 3.GoodReader.  This is a must have ... a great pdf reader.  You can download pdf’s from the web or from your computer.  I have all of my user manuals in pdf for my cameras and printers, as well as a few other items.
   

4. 4.Wikipanion.  Great wikipedia interface.  Better than through a web browser.
   

5. 5.USA Today.  Free until July, this is an good example of the potential of the “newspaper” of the future.
   

That last item is what the iPad is supposed to be about ... how we get content.  Magazines, books, video ... all melding themselves into a new user experience which is engaging and immersive.  It will be interesting how they do it.

For example, USA Today is only useful if I’m connected to the internet.  I turned off the connection, went to the sports section, and most of it was missing.  So what do I do when I’m on the plane ... one of the best places to use the iPad?

One solution is what Newsweek did ... make an “app” that is one issue of the magazine.  Of course that won’t work either ... especially if they continue to charge 12 times more than the paper subscription price.

So some type of delivery system needs to added.  Multiple issues of the magazines ... much like TV episodes in iTunes.  I assume magazine apps will include the ability to contain multiple issues, stored on the computer and then needed ones synced to the iPad.  As far as daily news, seems like it needs a way to push the most recent edition to the device so it’s always there even if the internet isn’t available when the user wants to read it.

Another thing I’ll be following with interest is how applications between the computer and the iPad can “share” information.  For the iPad to really become the ultimate tool, applications need to interact dynamically.  For example, a special iPad version of Lightroom might let me have my library on the iPad, allowing me to show my pictures, rate and keyword and similar tasks.  Sure the iPad doesn't have the horsepower to process the raw files, and there isn’t enough memory to deal with many files, but I can easily see an iPad version that would be useful as long as it could easily talk to the full version.  There are many apps like this ... Keynote, Numbers, and Pages to name a few.  As I said, just syncing some documents via iTunes on the one computer of my choice seems very limiting.

Well enough for now. This is a new device, a new category, and once you use one for awhile it becomes apparent the iPad changes the game.  Just how much and in what ways remains to be seen ... but much like the iPhone completely changed what we do with our cell phones, the iPad may turn out to be just as revolutionary.