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I recently bought an iPad. I have a lot of friends who have switched from a MS Windows laptop to a Macbook. I thought the iPad might be a kindler, gentler introduction to an Apple user experience for me. At least that’s the rationalization I give anyone who will listen. The real reason is that I got tired of doing all the technical support in our house and everyone else getting the new toys. Both my sons were jealous of my new iPad — mission accomplished.

I really do want the Apple computer experience. While I’ve had an iPod for a few years and put all my music collection into iTunes, the controls, small screen, and primitive UI of the iPod didn’t seem like a true computer experience.

Like most Apple products the iPad is beautiful. Apple does a wonderful job with industrial design. I helped setup my wife’s iPhone, so the UI was somewhat famililar. I really appreciate screen real estate and the larger screen of the iPad really shines. My photographs just pop off the screen.

I find that I use the iPad in the morning to read my email and catch up on the news. I’d rather do this at the kitchen table than in my office. I love the BBC News iPad application. It provides a lot of information in a nicely designed UI — I read it daily to get more of a global and European perspective on what is happening in the world. My iPad also makes reading Facebook easier, letting me keep up with our daughter who is traveling in Mexico and only keeping in touch via Facebook.

I have found some aspects of the iPad challenging. It drives me crazy that my carefully organized subfolders of photographs are ignored in the photo application. The calendar application refuses to pay attention to my settings for which calendar I want to see, resulting in my often seeing double calendar entries. It is impossible to enter reminders in calendar entries for zero minutes — my greatly preferred reminder time. Why not?

I have some PDF articles and minibooks that I would like to read. While the iPad can read PDF files in email messages and in Safari, I’ve found it impossible to save my laptop PDFs to the iPad and view them there. It seems like I have to install a new application just for this one feature, which is a lot of work for what I want.

Overall, I rate the iPad 9.5 out of 10. I’m having a blast learning and using it. I’m just starting to realize how much more of a learning curve is ahead of me as I continue to make the iPad useful for the some of the daily tasks I do.