New iPad

That's exactly what it is. My iPhone is great as well but this iPad really is special because the screen is just the right size and so is the keyboard. Replying to forum posts with the iPhone was a bit hard with my old eyes and clunky fingers. Not so now. Cheers

My laptop doesn't either. I will however report on it's bouncing capabilities first hand when they are clearer

Mike
Whats the battery life like?

And the expected life expectancy of the battery itself?

Is the battery able to be changed or is the whole unit disposable as such, which seems to be a normal part of Apple build method?

Just like the iphone its a sealed unit and a drama to replace if at all I expect. I haven't had it long enough to know how long it will last on battery but I'm expecting 5-6 hours depending what its doing. If running the gps then shorter.

Have seen reports from people testing them and *apparently* have a 12-hour battery life while watching movies. This is from people testing it, not just the stated time in the manual.

My folks' picked one up for sailing - very nice chart plotter app apparently with built in maps, etc. a 4WD plotted would be nice to see!

Yes that's sort of weird when it has a youtube video player on it which are flash videos? The iPhone won't play flash either and It hasn't bothered me at all so when I got the iPad as a gift from all the family yesterday I decided to keep it.

After owning an ipad i'd say laptops are over priced junk!

I've been toying with the idea of a laptop for ages, but if the ipad did the same things, it would be OK....but.....will it run navigation....can you hook up your camera and download your photos.....will it play a dvd......can you watch TV on it.......if not, then its no good for my applications !!!!!!

Yep, my thoughts too. Can it do what a laptop can do? ie can it replace a laptop???

No it lacks the abilities of a laptop and thats been the issue with it for business use.
Its more a multi media device to watch movies, surf the web, music and read books type thing.
In short its a nice to have toy and priced accordingly.

My question above about its durability when dropped is also an apparent concern as laptops have a generally better strength factor.

Its not supposed to replace a laptop as its used for different things and doesn't have a hard drive etc. What it can do it does very well indeed.
To have GPS you have to buy the WIFI + 3G version. I have that but without the sim card as I didn't want a monthly spend. My house has a wireless network so I use that. The GPS worked quite well as it picked up my position in my lounge room without a sim card. The WIFI only model does NOT have a GPS chip.
Ozi doesn't have an iphone version. I use Memory Map with their topo maps and Desert Tracks which are reasonable but not as good as Ozi in my opinion. I also use Sygic GPS app from my iphone and it works well. Any paid apps from the iphone will go straight over to the ipad.

Ozi site mentions that they are considering an iphone/ipad version.

Google maps works well, and gives the often-useful satellite images, if you have 3G coverage. If not then you can use memory map or one of the dedicated satnav apps (that come at a price).

This dropping thing is interesting, how often do some of you drop your laptops?

As for documents I can open and edit in 'pages' then send it wherever I need.
I'm actually thinking of getting rid of my desktop for work and switching to this permanently. I bought the keyboard dock if need be.

There is a app called gps lite I've been playing with, it appears to show tracks etc in the bush, I'm going to take it out soon and see if they're correct.

People seem to be quick to bag them but they are great, I for one will not be going back to my laptop, I surf the net watching Telly and it produces no heat, the laptop used to pump out heaps and I'd cook.

I think business people will take to them well, compact and a 10 hour battery life.

Best part is all the free and cheap apps.

Don't knock it till you try it!

I'm not sure of the data plan costs sorry because I didn't buy the sim card. I have a data plan on my iphone and the sim's don't fit (of course) and I'm not paying for 2. Also its not easy to pair the iphone and ipad together to share a data plan. I use it either at home for web and email via our home wireless network, or in the car for GPS and that suits me fine.
Unless apple come out with a TV dongle then you can't watch tv on it at the moment. Cheers

Yes, tv dongles are on the market now, battery life is around 10 hours.

Hey Nutta,

Can you tell me what brand and where I can find the tv dongle?

Cheers Rob

sorry, that was meant to be a followup to the previous comment

Mate is that available on the special micro sim card? I would consider that as it would be good for trips without a constant spend.

It is on a special card, I think optus or one of them have a 6 month plan for $180, use as u please.

According to their site, $80, 9gig for 6 months, pretty reasonable actually.

I think that's right, bottom of the page.
http://personal.optus.com.au/web/ocaportal.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Template_woRHS&FP=/personal/internet/iPad&site=personal&maincontent=plan_details&modemdetails=tab_usbpremium

Cheers.

mikehzz - yes, the ipad needs a micro sim. With telstra it is $20 for 1GB, $30 for 2GB up to $100 for 12GB ... but all have 30 days expiries unfortunately.

Optus and others are cheaper - but coverage and speed are not as good.