I just got my iPad (v3.2.2) two weeks ago. Hadn’t got a chance to jailbreak it yet. In any case, here are some of my experiences and opinions on the iPad:

This is the first time, as a long-time PC user, that I am at close encounters with a Apple product. Though the user interface was relatively easy to use, there was still a learning curve for me. I had to learn new navigation skills like “swipe to the right to delete”, tap four times to select a paragraph, press and hold to bring up a magnifying glass so that you can place the cursor at a specific place. Till now, I only know how to select one word, the entire paragraph, or select everything. I still don’t know how to select a specific set of words, or phrases within a paragraph at will… Let me correct myself. I just learnt (hot off the oven) how to select a specific set of words or phrases by checking with Google search.

After a while, I got used to the poking, holding and swiping techniques of the iPad. What do I like about the iPad? It has a beautiful display, great sound and minimal buttons. Though it’s still a tad too heavy to hold for long in one hand, it’s still a great device to carry around for reading and for web surfing with minimal requirements for data inputs.

Although I am quite a fast typist on a physical keyboard, using the iPad’s virtual keyboard does pose some challenges for me. For one, I can’t feel the “buttons” on the keyboard and the spacing of each letter on the iPad’s virtual keyboard is a little too wide for all my fingers to be placed correctly. Nevertheless, I could still type using six fingers occasionally. However, it can be quite tiring if you have a lot of content to type in.

What was the first iPad application that I used? The iPad App Store.

What was the second iPad application that I used? The Angry Birds game. It’s no wonder the number one game for iPhone and iPad.

I had tried numerous apps from the iPad App Store and here are the apps that I had found useful. Some of these apps are free while others have to be paid for.

1. Outliner – a basic app that allows you to create content in the form of a outline. This is useful for task lists, check lists, simple project management, outline-based note taking, and basically anything that you can put your mind to. You can also do searches of your content within Outliner.
2. MoesNotepad – This is a multi-media note capturing app. It allows storage of text, images, audio recordings and video clips for a single topic. Quite useful when the iPad is essentially not a effective typing device. It also allows for keyword tagging to facilitate search.
3. Pages – The iPad word processor. It’s not as powerful as Microsoft Word, but it’s probably one of the better word processor for iPad.
4. Numbers – The iPad spreadsheet. What I like about Numbers was it’s ability to convert a spreadsheet table into a form for data entry easily. Pretty good if you don’t want to develop an application to simple data content. It also has cell features like a check box and a five-star scale which is useful in data entry forms for surveys.
5. Keynote – The iPad presentation app. Haven’t really dabbled with this app yet so can’t comment too much. Having tried the tutorial, it seemed to be quite friendly to use.
6. Database – The iPad database app. A little buggy but still usable most of the time. If you are familiar with using databases, then this app can help you create databases that can store most common data types.
7. All Stuck Up – A sticky note app. What I like about this app is that it allows me to maintain separate pages of sticky notes that can group together by colors and also literally stick together. The only regret I have for this app is that I can only have 5 color groups per page.
8. Idea Sketch – A simple flow charting / mind-mapping tool. Great for those who needed to draw simple flow charts or do mind mapping.

To conclude, I have still much to explore on the capabilities of the iPad. My current wishes would be that iPad could properly support java and flash so that I can use them for more serious web apps that required authentication. This is yet to be seen.