About a month and a half ago, I was finally handed a cherished box of thick cardboard in which a new, revolutionary device rested, which some experts called the “fat photo frame,” the second “standing device.” The opinion of the second for me was weightier, and for a long time I wanted to spend money on some fashionable piece of iron.



In this article I will describe my impressions of work over the past month and a half. I’ll say right away that the pictures in the article are not mine, but without them it would be hard to read.

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First impressions

When the iPad gets into your hands, you can see right away - everything is really done incredibly high quality , even the box gives the feeling of a good purchase, I have never seen such quality when packing - theoretically, from iPad boxes you can build a house like foam blocks, everything is very tight, tight and beautiful. Most likely, the device will survive even the shipment of our mail, unloading a revolutionary method and other troubles.

Do not believe those who say that Apple does not think about Russia, the new packaging refutes this in principle, nowhere else in the world does it need it as much as we do.

The device itself is very thin and solid , it’s impossible to build a usb port into it simply because of the thickness of the device, at its edges the device is identical in thickness to the USB plug, the connector itself, respectively, would be thicker than the edge of the iPad (for those who really It is very necessary, you can buy an external adapter for cards and wires).

Weight (700 grams) did not cause any impressions, except positive ones - it fits well in the hand, the quality is felt. This feeling can best be described as follows - take a plastic toy pistol in one hand and a Makarov pistol in the other. Feels like tell me which one is made better.

Assembly of the device is perfect, nothing more to say. In modern action films on ancient themes, in such cases they usually say - "this sword is forged by the gods on the Olympus."

Beginning of work

The battery is fully charged, but the device refuses to work until it is connected to a computer with iTunes, one of my friends says that this is barbarism and cunning intent of the apple corporation is evil, but I have not caused any complaints. The plug was plugged in, the iPad was synchronized, set itself a language according to the language selected for iTunes (I had Russian), and the entire iOS interface (Keyboard, settings, hints, menus, applications (which support multilingual), spelling in the browser and etc.) instantly Russified. This is VERY pleased, I did not have to look for "alternative firmware", keyboards, language packs, etc.

Working with iTunes did not cause any problems, since I have been living with the iPod Shuffle for two years now, there is nothing to tell.

Applications

There are many, many. For two months of work, I bought only one, because there is a HUGE number of applications of free or lite-versions.

All the main functionality was out of the box (browser, video, player, photos, maps, calendar, notes, mail). From the really important applications downloaded - iBooks, Yandex Maps, DOCUMENTS 2 FREE, Dropbox, Calculator, Dictaphone - all are free.

For two months, accumulated three screens of toys , of which only one is paid. I liked the interesting model - the toy itself is free, but it has a limited set of levels or difficulty modes, the rest can be purchased separately. But in many toys it is completely unnecessary, a limited number of levels is enough.

Still in iTunes there is such a practice, many applications become free for several days (to make the number of downloads, the rating, rise in the rating and become paid again). At this point, the coolest toys can be obtained for free, there is even a special application (called: free app tracker ), which shows that today you can snatch for zero dollars.

I use the standard player to watch the video; it suits me perfectly. The only thing is that it supports only .mp4, other formats will not work. There are other players, but I did not even put them.
It's easier for me to immediately download the movie in the right format, since this is not a problem, people who like to convert mass, and it's not difficult to do it myself.

I would advise the Leawo Free MP4 converter utility, which can convert everything to MP4, does not distort the video aspect ratio (many utilities try to customize the incoming file to the 4x3 screen ratio), can convert several video files in parallel on different cores (it can overtake a whole list of files at once) ), which is especially useful when distilling the series.

I find great advantages in the preliminary easy preparation of the video, 1 minute of preliminary preparation gives 100% reliable viewing. This was what I lacked most of all on a netbook, when an omnivorous player could begin to show a movie with glitches and slowdowns, a discrepancy between video and sound, due to some non-standard codec or encoder hand curves. As a result, there were moments when I stayed on the road without a movie, although the film on the netbook was available.

Iron impressions

Let's start with the battery - it is virtually endless, the stated 10 hours in the video viewing mode work honestly, which actually means - your iPad will never sit down.

I sometimes have to travel on business trips that take one day (several hours in one direction, meetings there, waiting at the cafe and at the station, a few hours back), it all usually takes about 12 hours, the battery charge never fell below 30 %

The only time I managed to defuse up to 10% of the charge was when friends were playing on it all day and all night long, spreading ships into six hands on different ports, and torturing air hockey, and then I sat all morning on the Internet. But it was a stress test, during which a maximum was pressed out of it every second.

3G and Wi-Fi do not have a significant effect on power consumption, apparently there are some energy-saving algorithms. Something was done in the software, since I heard from friends that the first versions of the iPhone were pretty hard on batteries when using Wi-Fi, increasing the power consumption by a factor of two.

The screen is cool , there is nothing to say about it, it is really unrealistically good. Yes, it is glossy, but there are no problems in the room, since it is quite bright, and I practically do not use the iPad on the street.

It is easily cleaned from prints with conventional microfiber optics, a cloth is sold in any store that sells glasses.

The only drawback is that the screen is still scratching, although it is rather hard, I have already had a small scratch, which the truth is not visible when the screen is on. I suspect this is the cat's claws, although she is not recognized.

Wi-Fi and 3G work without complaints to the device, but with complaints to our 3G providers , the signal level of which often leaves much to be desired, but this is a common place of our networks.

Micro-SIM is made from the most common sim card in 10 minutes, it will require a clerical knife and nail file. I have already done two (from different operators), no problems have arisen.

The device has only one speaker, i.e. the external sound is MONO , it could be recorded as a disadvantage, but this speaker is so good that the hand does not rise - loud, the sound is very clear. Acer Aspire One, with built-in stereo speakers, nervously and quietly croaks to the side.

Conclusion

The device, oddly enough, is the perfect netbook , if you need something for surfing the Internet, working with mail, reading books, watching movies, playing on the road or waiting room - an iPad is created for you.

For me, the device turned out to be extremely useful, but I did not build any illusions and knew what I needed from him. You can’t work on it, the maximum is work with mail and demonstration of portfolio to clients.

Pros:

+ Everything is very high quality and well made , the aluminum case makes the device solid. The device is small, light and strong. A 9-inch screen is perfect, it would be inconvenient to read less (especially sites where the layout is often not rubber and you need to cover the entire block in width), no longer fit into a regular bag.

+ Long-lived battery , which works out its 10 hours of active use, this is more than enough (you can have time to watch 6 films).

+ Ease of use , there are no problems at all, no settings, re-installations, doping are required for normal work.

+ Books in iBooks are downloaded in ePub format , into which they can be easily converted from any text format.

+ Ideal photo album for demonstration of “how I went there and then” to relatives. The printing of photos probably will also die out soon, very few people have seen this fact from analysts. You can upload photo albums and flip through them on a good screen, enlarging and showing details, even my 80-year-old grandmother, who is extremely cold to all the technology, could do it.

+ Surfing the Internet is VERY convenient , even more convenient than on a computer, if the goal is to read Habr and leave comments, communicate on social networks. I now go to Habr in 95% of cases from the iPad, lying on the couch.

+ A huge number of applications , utilities and games, much of them will not cost you a penny. At the same time, they all passed the test before being accepted into the AppStore and cases of “glitches” can be counted on the fingers of one hand, I say this from experience with more than a hundred applications. I have not met a single serious glitch at all.

+ Wow effect available , all friends will certainly want to touch it and see, because These pieces of iron are not many in the country. The girls, by the way, are usually delighted with such a toy;), the effect can be compared to the appearance at the entrance of a brand new BMW. One girl confessed to me that this is the only thing for which she is ready to change her new shoes from some other well-known brand (I do not remember).

Minuses:

- The screen is still scratched , although it is resistant to the effects - it is better not to polish with sand.

- Without Jailbreaking, it is impossible to download the finished Yandex-Maps cache ( here you can get it in the right format, forum topic, scroll through many different cities there).

There are no more minuses , although usually I am extremely picky about the hardware, and even I can write a list of 4 negative points to the iPod Shuffle.

In the process of writing the article, iTunes was updated to version 10 and stopped slowing down in my Win-7, which was planned as a third minus.


Tip: be sure to take the case, the standard Applevsky is quite suitable, it is very high quality and relatively inexpensive. It looks much better than in photos where it seems plastic, in fact it is not. It is made of microfiber, like cloths for wiping optics, it feels like a cross between soft, rough plastic and a cloth, dense, strong, but it bends well on the folds.

The case allows you to put the iPad at two angles, it is easier to hold with it (it does not slip out), and you can safely throw it into the bag next to the keys and any other scratching nonsense.

PS Thank you for your interest in the article, discussion and killed karma :)