The iPad first impressions

The iPad.

While all I did was quickly try an iPad in an apple store I wanted to give some first impressions.

The iPad has launched with nearly all the hype of the original iPhone, Apple has succeeded in once again creating a lot of marketing buzz for the touch screen category device.  This category has probably never had so much hype.

As soon as I picked up the iPad the first thing I noticed was the heft. The iPad was quite a bit heavier feeling than I expected.  The screen was very nice offering nearly full screen web pages.  I didn’t have the hang of all the gestures but many could be picked up fairly quickly.  The buttons on the on screen keyboard were big enough to be easy to hit.  I somewhat wished for a little haptic type feedback on button presses.  The screen was very fluid with the gestures.  I found myself wishing for a stylus to use for taking notes and the option of a real built in keyboard.    The lack of multitasking certainly could be problematic and limit some of the usefulness of the device.   The size and weight of the device were probably a little on the larger side than would be comfortable for an extended period.

Did I like it? In two words yes and no.  Yes I liked the concept and the idea of the form factor with the fluid UI that Apple is able to deliver.  No I still wanted 3g, keyboard, styles to take notes, the right apps to use it and multitasking, along with easier ways to get content to the device like an SD card or simple USB connection/drive copy.

Apple is surely on the right track, if they can give up on trying to pull every penny out of our pockets with their appstore and required accessories to get content on it this device might be a serious threat.  With Apple’s marketing muscle I’m sure the iPad will be quite possible.

For me I’m going to either wait for some of the mentioned items to clear up before I jump on board.  The device shows promise and I like the form factor enough to want one but I don’t think I can live with all the limitations.

Dell’s XPS 4xx/7xx demise

I had purchased a dell 600 xps some time ago on their outlet sight.  It was a great deal at the time, a near top of the line machine at only about $900 that supported 8GB of memory and close to the top of the line processor at the time.

My dual core 3.2GHZ processory now well behind the times, I was looking for a new dell xps to replace it.  I wanted a system with a 600w power supply to handle a high end graphics card and I wanted to be able to have 12GB of memory in a quad core system.

I hadn’t noticed that Dell basically dropped these series of machines to be replaced by the Dell xps 8100/9000 and the Alienware line.  The xps 435 seems to be equivalent to the xps 9000.  I realized that the power supply in that machine is only a 450w.  The alienware line the lowest price even on outlet is $1600 and new is $2000-$3000.

I found myself wishing dell continued the xps 7xx series, the alienware machines seem overpriced and now dell shoppers are left with a significant gap between the lower end lines of machines and their ultimate gaming rig’s.

I might consider purchasing an older outlet xps 435 even though the power supply is limited and the number of PCIe slots is only one.  Though I’m really hoping Dell sees the error of their ways and either lowers their alienware prices or brings back the xps 7xx series.