Why iPad?

In this article I aim to answer the questions: Why iPad and what to do with an iPad? My family has been using an iPad daily over half a year now and we use it a lot. iPad is a very good device for many purposes, but I am going to concentrate on what our family actually uses it for every day.

Kids Toy

iPad is a perfect toy for kids. It could even be called revolutionary at that. There is already a wide variety of children games and educational apps available. Computer games per se are nothing new but the fact that a two-year-old kid can pick up an iPad and start doing puzzles on her own is something I would call new and even revolutionary. iPad apps are reasonably priced and the touch interface works really well with kids.

Living Room Surfing

One of the top usages of our iPad is surfing in the Web. I use it to read news and blogs and to access Facebook. To surf the Web, we use mostly the excellent Safari browser, but there are also sweet apps like Flipboard and Youtube that make it even easier to access certain online content. In my opinion, there are several advantages in having an iPad in the living room or bed room instead of a desktop or laptop computer: iPad is fast, it’s always on, it has a great battery life, it’s light, you can use it anywhere, and the touch interface is wonderful to use. In our living room, we could connect the Internet with an Iphone or with our large plasma TV, but we hardly ever do, because we have an iPad. iPad is an ideal device for living room surfing.

E-mail

iPad became fast my number one device to read e-mail with. It’s just so fast and it’s always on. I can’t think of any faster way to access my email when I’m at home. Virtual keyboard is no substitute for a physical one but it’s good enough for short e-mails (which I mostly do).

Travel Companion

iPad is great travel companion. It’s lighter and has a longer battery life than most laptops. It’s great for watching movies, browsing and backing up travel photos (if you have the iPad Camera Connection Kit), and for staying connected while on a trip. I think it’s a lot more comfortable travel companion than a laptop: you may easily use it at the airport, in an airplane, or in a hotel lounge.

Handheld Gaming Device

iPad is a great handheld gaming device. Games look beautiful on the bright large screen. Such a large device can’t fit in your pocket but at home the size is perfect. There are lot of games available and they are often reasonably priced. The lack of physical game controls might be problem with some games, but on the other hand, many games feel like they are at their best on a touch device like an iPad. Such games include for example Pinball HD, Labyrinth 2 HD, Harbor Master, and several bejeweled style puzzle games. Start here if you’d like to test the best free iPad games!

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