Apple iPad 2 (64GB, Wi-Fi, black)

Pros: Slickest thing I have ever seen, its like a bullet. Beautiful screen with wonderful graphics. The apps are fun to play with. I love the smart cover. Worked great with Netflicks. Thank god for Apple support, they helped me immediately. It's a great toy.

Cons: Tied to iTunes. Syncing with iTunes is a major pain. Apps don't always produce results that are transferable. Too difficult to get files on and off of it, and I can't plug it into just any computer to obtain files. Has an issue with the volume button. Li

Summary: I stood in line for 2 hours at the Apple store on Friday night. The iPad 2 is ok. It is beautiful. However, it has some serious deficiencies and issues. I spent 4 hours last night on the phone with Apple support trying to get it to sync with iTunes. We tried everything but I think what finally fixed it was changing USB ports. The biggest problem is that it is tied to iTunes, and there is no easy way to get stuff into the iPad. You have to have a good computer to use the iPad, it does not stand well on its own. I would prefer that it sync with the cloud instead of with iTunes. I have one more week to decide if I want to keep it. The apps are very expensive compared to the Android apps. On my Android phone, the apps are from .99 cents to 2.99, but on the iPad they are average $4.99 to $9.99 each. There may be 65,000 apps, but many of them are useless. The image manipulation apps are mostly toys and the things that I made on the iPad for second life, could not be used because of how it distorted the graphics when I transferred them to the computer. I wanted this thing so that I can do useful work while I might otherwise be sitting and waiting somewhere. Also, the iPad has limited file support, instead of supporting 7 or 8 image and music file types, it supports maybe 2 or 3. I have not been able to move icons to different home pages as the instructions indicate that i can, and having to hit the home button instead of the back button to go back to what you were doing is annoying. I don't think you can make photo albums on the iPad, but have to make them on the computer and then transfer them via iTunes, at least that is what happened with mine. Never the less, I can't put it down, there is just so much to explore.

Updated on Mar 16, 2011

I have to add one more con...there is not pdanet app for this tablet :(. Can't tether it to my Android phone.

Updated on Mar 22, 2011

After almost two weeks of ownership, I would lower my rating by 1/2 star. One annoyance is the lack of a back button to everything. You can't go back to what you were previously doing. Getting files off of the iPad is really a pain. One of the worst things is that the apps can't be returned, and some of them are awful. If there is any quality control on these apps, I don't see it. With my Droid phone, I can return bad apps within 24 hours for a full refund. The Apps for the iPad are expensive. Over time, I think there is a degradation of snappiness to this thing, it does not change orientation as quickly as it did before. It is too bad you can't fix your home screen any way that you want to. As an eReader, it has been excellent, although one of my Nook books will not transfer to the iPad. On my Google email for the iPad, there is no way to close the side panel, so you always see only 1/2 of your mail. There are a lot of little annoyances like that.

Updated on Apr 10, 2011

for the most part the apps are a big disappointment, they are just toys. you can spend a lot of time trying to type and reviewing apps is not at all easy. even GarageBand is disappointing because whatever you create is tied to use in itunes. it's really hard to edit what you type, such as I am doing here.