The Apple iPad Has Arrived! First Impressions

Frank Gruber April 3, 2010 Tweet

The Apple iPad is officially now for sale and I headed to the Clarendon neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia just outside of Washington, D.C. to check out the scene. Arriving at 8:45 a.m. EST the scene was already a little ridiculous. I observed two lines forming outside of the store and down the block. I took a few photos of the Clarendon Apple Store iPad line and then polled the audience to determine when the line began. According to a couple of the Apple store employees the first loyal Apple patron arrove around midnight on Friday evening and staked out till 9 a.m. EST when the iPad went on sale.

At this point I was still on the fence as to if I really wanted to purchase an Apple iPad, so waiting in line did not seem like a good option. So I grabbed some breakfast and went home. It only took an hour and twenty-two minutes of reading iPad reviews, tweets and personal text messages about the iPad before I decided to give in to this “shiny new object” and head back to the Apple Store for an Apple iPad.

Back at the Apple Store for the second time, it only took 22 minutes from start to finish to purchase an Apple iPad.  It would have been even quicker but I had second thoughts on whether to go with the 16 GB version or not. I finally decided on the 32 GB version given that my iPhone is the 32 GB version and is nearly full.

Apple iPad Successfully Acquired at 10:19 a.m EST!

My first impressions:

• Wow, the iPad is a beautiful device!
• The iPad is a little heavier than I thought it would be.
• Managing email on the Apple iPad is awesome.
• The iPad touchscreen keyboard is a little crammed in landscape mode but overall typing is a breeze.
• I am glad I got the 32 GB as I added some photos and videos and already filled half of it.

A more thorough review of the Apple iPad will be coming soon after I spend a little more time with it. First I need to read Winnie-the-Pooh, the free book available in the iBook application. Please send us your questions about the Apple iPad by leaving a comment below and we will incorporate them into our article. If you did go out in purchase an iPad today post a link to a photo of you with your new gadget (in the comments) and we’ll do something special with it.