I ended up only standing in line for a few hours, but I got exactly the iPad I wanted. A few thoughts on what I’ve discovered so far:
- It’s really thin. I don’t have an first-generation to compare it against, but the thickness is almost perfect. It’s right in between that sweet spot of being thin enough to feel like an e-reader, but not too thin that it feels fragile.
- I got the 16GB black WiFi-only model. My iPhone can function as a WiFi hotspot, and the white surround makes the screen look dim. I can’t fit my iTunes library on any of the available models, so there’s no point in spending $200 more for the additional space. iTunes Home Sharing more than compensates.
- There are a couple of small areas where the metal back meets the glass front that weren’t rounded properly at the factory. They’re just a little sharp.
- Setting up was a nightmare. Like when I bought my iPhone, I had to reinstall iTunes multiple times before it would get to the setup screen. Weird.
- Apps are the entirety of the experience. Web browsing isn’t faster, I don’t think, but it feels like it is. Flipboard is phenomenal. Pulp is an interesting experiment on the Mac, but it’s absolutely joyous on the iPad.
- I’m trying very hard not to add any iPhone-specific apps to this. Someone pointed out how un-Apple it is to be able to run iPhone applications in a little frame. If I could find that tweet, I’d link it up.
- Writing HTML tags with this keyboard is hard. It’s probably worth finding an app that can post to WordPress with Markdown.
- After being spoiled with a retina display (still not sure what I should capitalize there), the iPad display looks noticeably cruder. Helvetica (as opposed to Helvetica Neue) is also more apparent.
- The magnifying loupe is also notably cruder. It’s really blurry.
- The single most-important thing you can do is enable multitasking gestures. The four-finger swiping feels very natural.