iPad Saturday - not so mad after all, but I got out early...
This morning my wife and I got up, and made tracks down to the Park Meadows Mall to get my iPad. The crowds were definitely present, but it was quite amazing how quickly and efficiently they handled the mobs.
We arrived at 8:40am, Apple said to show at 9am - the store officially opens at 10am (with the rest of the mall). The lucky reservists, like myself, who'd reserved their unit early, got treated to free Starbucks, Smart Water (no kidding) and granola bars. They had built two lines - one for reservists and one for those hoping to get theirs without reserving one. The staff did say that they'd communicate with folks actively as to the condition of their supplies, and would let folks know once they'd run out. When we got there, there was perhaps 45-50 people in line for the reserved units, and that line grew to more than 100 in short order. The unreserved purchase line was much longer. Apparently some folks thought that reserving the unit cost money as well - perhaps not a horrifying mis-understanding, but I think stating "free reservation" is better than "reservation" for future marketing prep.
The transaction went smoothly, and we were in and out of there fast. I got a 64gb unit along with the case. When I asked about the case, another sales rep danced up fast, handed me a unit already in a case, and that was my first time ever holding one. These things definitely have some weight to them, but the case is surprisingly rubbery as well - a definite must have for the iPad owner.
They did not have the keyboard dock - I was quite bummed with that - and much to my dismay, I have a feeling that this won't be able to charge by just being plugged into my computer - the 10watt AC adapter might just be something I'll need an extra of. Once unpacked, the unit was fully charged and just needed to be synced with my iTunes. All my media, music and apps moved over without too much trouble as well.
I've downloaded all the updates, and I'm sure more are coming out as well - I installed iBooks as well as Stanza - Stanza is much better at finding free content, but once I know what I want, I can probably find it in iBooks and get it without paying for it as well. The iBookstore seems a bit like an early release in Apple land to me - it's plenty polished, but seemingly very limited. I'm sure that many new features and options will appear as time goes on.
The movie and audio quality are all what folks thought they'd be - I'm very impressed with the screen and the quality of the multi-touch.
Importing my picture collection was definitely an interesting experience - apparently they don't actually move your pictures, but rather, iTunes runs an optimizer on them first, and then brings them all in. My 16gb of pictures loaded into something like 1.7gb of space! The picture navigation interface is definitely cool stuff.
I tried to do some playing around with Bluetooth on my email station that runs Windows 7, and was plenty entertained by the Bluetooth connection process. Windows recognized it as an Entertainment Device (hilarious!), but failed to load a driver.
Anyway, I'm going to post more updates as I get around to it. Definitely a lot to explore on this thing!
Update: Its official, the default background makes folks think the screen is scratched. Nice move Apple.
Chargers are definitely going to be a necessary extra - turns out the 10 watts these things need isn't available from a standard PC USB port. Apple seems to have anticipated this in their hardware though, as their latest machines provide the correct power. Looks like battery life will be tested - need to test the car charger options to see if they can cut it. Perhaps my old iPod stuff will work...
Update: Sunday
Okay, so I like actually went outside and tested some things. PC users of iPads are going to be bummed until a high-powered USB port somehow. PC's can NOT charge an iPad - they just keep it from dying. My car charger does charge it. The $20 Belkin charger I picked up at Wal-Mart doesn't charge it. My iPhone mini-cube charger DOES charge it! I gave the Belkin to my son for his iPad Mini, er, iTouch, and took my mini-cube back and will leave it in my bag. It probably just barely charges, but slower. No smoke yet either, but I'll be watching.
The screen does show fingerprints badly, however, video quality is definitely top notch. The Netflix app is hot - now I can watch (and actually hear) a movie without blasting out the house while I'm on my treadmill - and I'm not squinting at something I cross-coded for my iPhone anymore either! Booya!
So now the news reports that Apple may have sold more than 700,000 of these on day 1. Wow. I mean, lets put this in perspective - if the average price of an iPad is $599, that means they solve $419 million dollars on day 1. That's $419 MEGA dollars. Avatar pulled in only 232 million on opening weekend, and it wasn't a holiday. Apple released this on EASTER WEEKEND! Like, worst sales date ever - only one buying day, and then everyone takes Sunday off. Even if you correct for Apple's cost per unit, adjusting the $419 down by say... 60% (which is high from what I've seen).
But wait, there's more. At the same time as this. Apple released their office suite for only $30 - and that's the most downloaded item in the iPad store now!
Cheers!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
We arrived at 8:40am, Apple said to show at 9am - the store officially opens at 10am (with the rest of the mall). The lucky reservists, like myself, who'd reserved their unit early, got treated to free Starbucks, Smart Water (no kidding) and granola bars. They had built two lines - one for reservists and one for those hoping to get theirs without reserving one. The staff did say that they'd communicate with folks actively as to the condition of their supplies, and would let folks know once they'd run out. When we got there, there was perhaps 45-50 people in line for the reserved units, and that line grew to more than 100 in short order. The unreserved purchase line was much longer. Apparently some folks thought that reserving the unit cost money as well - perhaps not a horrifying mis-understanding, but I think stating "free reservation" is better than "reservation" for future marketing prep.
The transaction went smoothly, and we were in and out of there fast. I got a 64gb unit along with the case. When I asked about the case, another sales rep danced up fast, handed me a unit already in a case, and that was my first time ever holding one. These things definitely have some weight to them, but the case is surprisingly rubbery as well - a definite must have for the iPad owner.
They did not have the keyboard dock - I was quite bummed with that - and much to my dismay, I have a feeling that this won't be able to charge by just being plugged into my computer - the 10watt AC adapter might just be something I'll need an extra of. Once unpacked, the unit was fully charged and just needed to be synced with my iTunes. All my media, music and apps moved over without too much trouble as well.
I've downloaded all the updates, and I'm sure more are coming out as well - I installed iBooks as well as Stanza - Stanza is much better at finding free content, but once I know what I want, I can probably find it in iBooks and get it without paying for it as well. The iBookstore seems a bit like an early release in Apple land to me - it's plenty polished, but seemingly very limited. I'm sure that many new features and options will appear as time goes on.
The movie and audio quality are all what folks thought they'd be - I'm very impressed with the screen and the quality of the multi-touch.
Importing my picture collection was definitely an interesting experience - apparently they don't actually move your pictures, but rather, iTunes runs an optimizer on them first, and then brings them all in. My 16gb of pictures loaded into something like 1.7gb of space! The picture navigation interface is definitely cool stuff.
I tried to do some playing around with Bluetooth on my email station that runs Windows 7, and was plenty entertained by the Bluetooth connection process. Windows recognized it as an Entertainment Device (hilarious!), but failed to load a driver.
Anyway, I'm going to post more updates as I get around to it. Definitely a lot to explore on this thing!
Update: Its official, the default background makes folks think the screen is scratched. Nice move Apple.
Chargers are definitely going to be a necessary extra - turns out the 10 watts these things need isn't available from a standard PC USB port. Apple seems to have anticipated this in their hardware though, as their latest machines provide the correct power. Looks like battery life will be tested - need to test the car charger options to see if they can cut it. Perhaps my old iPod stuff will work...
Update: Sunday
Okay, so I like actually went outside and tested some things. PC users of iPads are going to be bummed until a high-powered USB port somehow. PC's can NOT charge an iPad - they just keep it from dying. My car charger does charge it. The $20 Belkin charger I picked up at Wal-Mart doesn't charge it. My iPhone mini-cube charger DOES charge it! I gave the Belkin to my son for his iPad Mini, er, iTouch, and took my mini-cube back and will leave it in my bag. It probably just barely charges, but slower. No smoke yet either, but I'll be watching.
The screen does show fingerprints badly, however, video quality is definitely top notch. The Netflix app is hot - now I can watch (and actually hear) a movie without blasting out the house while I'm on my treadmill - and I'm not squinting at something I cross-coded for my iPhone anymore either! Booya!
So now the news reports that Apple may have sold more than 700,000 of these on day 1. Wow. I mean, lets put this in perspective - if the average price of an iPad is $599, that means they solve $419 million dollars on day 1. That's $419 MEGA dollars. Avatar pulled in only 232 million on opening weekend, and it wasn't a holiday. Apple released this on EASTER WEEKEND! Like, worst sales date ever - only one buying day, and then everyone takes Sunday off. Even if you correct for Apple's cost per unit, adjusting the $419 down by say... 60% (which is high from what I've seen).
But wait, there's more. At the same time as this. Apple released their office suite for only $30 - and that's the most downloaded item in the iPad store now!
Cheers!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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