Blog ala Vidar

Tuesday this week (Nov. 30th), Apple released iPad to Norway. I once again had to discuss with myself whether or not to buy one for myself. My arguments were:

Pros

• It’s a ”little laptop”, meaning that I can bring it where-ever I go and still have most of my things with me.
• Angry Birds – yes, I’m addicted!
• It has the best twitter client there is; TwitBird Pro, with support for Read it Later.
• It’s got apps for more or less everything; spreadsheets, presentations, games and even RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)!

Cons

• Apple. I love their products, but hate their attitude and their fan-boys which take all criticism to Apple (or their products) personally.
• I don’t really need it.
• It’s not a full-worthy computer, so I can’t replace any of my computers with it.

As you probably figured out by now, I’m a gadget geek, so I went out and bought one on Wednesday. The one I went for were 16GB, with 3G. The reason for this is that I will probably not use it for media-stuff (music, video etc.), and the reason that I choose 3G were that I actually might use this when I’m at a customer. My handwriting is so horrible that I sometimes don’t understand my own writing. Now I can bring my iPad instead, and take notes on that, and even if I don’t get access to the customer’s Wi-Fi, I still got internet access via 3G.

Now, I’ve used it very heavily every day, playing games, watching videos (I love TED), taking notes in meetings, tweeting and lots more, and I love it. I really love it!

I think this is an awesome device, and I am going to recommend it to all of my family members. If you’re in the market for a new laptop, and you’re using it for Facebook, Internet bank, MSN and surfing, this is without a doubt a perfect device in my eyes. Note that Java, and flash, doesn’t run on it, so to do Internet banking, you need an app from your bank. Most of the popular banks in Norway already got apps, either for the iPhone (which runs on the iPad) or specially designed for the iPad (often called “HD version”).

Oh, and just to be clear. This isn’t a device created for developers. It’s created for the end user, like my mom. You can’t run Visual Studio on it. You can RDP to a server, but coding on a touch-screen? I wouldn’t do that at least.

At last I’ve got a list of apps you might want to check out:

• Dropbox – Enables you to sync files between all your devices, including Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone and Android.
• TVGuiden – Norwegian TV Guide.
• TwitBird Pro – The. Best. Twitter. Client. Ever!
• Read it Later – Great “extension” to TwitBird, which enables you to read websites after tweeting.
• Evernote – Sync your notes between all your devices.
• TED – Ideas worth spreading. 3-20 minutes videos about new technology, thinking and more.
• Spotify – Music streaming.
• Kindle – Read your e-books on your iPad. Read my review on the Kindle here.
• Air Video – Enables you to stream video from your home server.
• Angry Birds – Addictive game.
• Air Hockey – Fun two-player game.
• Civilization Revolution – If you like the Civilization game series, you’ll love this!