Hasta La Gadget!

After several hours with an iPad today, the app I was most mesmerized with was Maps. One word: Wow.

When showing off the iPad to others, the Maps app consistently made people’s jaws drop (even more so than the Marvel Comics app, which I also find pretty magical), and rightly so. Never have I seen such a fast, intuitive piece of technology for geographical navigation. That’s exactly how mapping software should be: immediately responsive and easy to use to keep up with you on the road.

For that reason alone, to me the lack of GPS in the Wi-Fi iPad is a dealbreaker.

When writing Wired.com’s iPad buyer’s guide, I highlighted the 32-GB iPad 3G as our top pick, listing the inclusion of GPS as one of the key points. But now that I’ve spent a good deal of time with an iPad, I’m confident to say that that distinction alone should be enough to get you sold on the 3-G iPad, especially if you’re the type who travels or commutes, even if only occasionally.

You might think, “Just how would an iPad fit in as a navigator? It’s way bigger than most GPS devices.” That’s why it’d work. You’ll no longer have to pan all over the place and squint at a map to get a clear visualization of your route: It’s all nicely laid out in the map on the 9.7-inch display.

The fact it’s so easy to use is another big factor. Imagine going on a road trip and handing the iPad to a person in the passenger seat and asking him or her to look up directions. I’m willing to bet that even without ever using an iPad, any passenger will be able to launch the Maps app and look up directions within a few seconds.

The Street View mode is even more impressive. Tap the marker of a location and it immediately zooms in and shows a panoramic view (as pictured above), which you can rotate 360 degrees, giving you a visual of your destination.

Speed, ease of use and comprehensiveness: These elements add up to the convenience we’ve always wanted from a GPS device that no one has delivered until now. Today I bought the Wi-Fi iPad for the Wired office — but for me personally, I can wait for the 3-G iPad, which comes out late April.

See Also:

• The iPad Arrives: The Wait is Over (And Wasn’t Bad)
• Roundup: The First Reviews of Apple’s iPad
• Wired.com Buyer’s Guide: Choose the Right iPad

Photo: Brian X. Chen/Wired

In appearance, the iPad is little more than a 9.7-inch, 1,024 by 768 pixel touchscreen with a few control buttons along the edges and a home button at the bottom. In other words, a giant iPod Touch.

But sometimes size does make a difference, and our first look at the iPad suggests that its modest features might add up to more than the sum of its parts.

Let’s put that to the test. We’ve got several iPads here at Wired now, and we’ll be testing them today and reporting back to you in real time.

What do you want to know about the iPad? Ask your questions in the comments here, or send them via Twitter to @gadgetlab, and we’ll do our best to update this page with the answers.

@free_dob: Is there already a support for Flash video or is it still native QuickTime?

The iPad has no support for Flash, and we get the notion that most people care about how this affects streaming video. Fortunately a number of Flash-based video websites, such as YouTube, have been rewritten with HTML5, which is supported on the iPad. And some video websites, such as Netflix, have created iPad apps. Even so, without Flash we’ll still be missing out on a chunk of the internet — sites that haven’t rewritten their video playback with HTML 5 or created iPad apps — and we’ll just have to wait and see how many websites hop into the “iPad-ready” boat.

@talkhalakath: Can you put the Android OS on the iPad? I’d buy one then.

No. The iPad is a closed, proprietary device that is limited to running Apple’s iPhone OS. If you’re hoping for a more open system, the most you can do is jailbreak the iPad. Supposedly hackers will be pushing out jailbreak solutions for the iPad soon.

@gotha52k: Are any available?

New pre-orders are shipping “by April 12,” according to Apple’s website, so it looks like the current batch of units reserved for pre-orders is sold out. Those who reserved iPads a few weeks in advance are able to pick it up between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. today. Any reserved iPads not retrieved are up for grabs at Apple stores. Plenty of people were able to get iPads without a reservation earlier today, but by now we’d say the chances of getting one today without a pre-order or a reservation are pretty slim.

@gotha52k: Is it really worth $500?

Considering it’s basically a computer, $500 is a pretty good price. We would recommend you try it in a store before committing to purchasing one, however. Also, we generally recommend against the $500 16-GB Wi-Fi model, because it’ll get filled up pretty fast. iPad apps, music and movies will fill up a 16-GB model pretty fast, so we’d push for the 32-GB model. See our buyer’s guide to choose the right iPad for you.

As with most tech products, prices will come down after it’s been out for awhile. In a year, it will probably cost less. At $300, the iPad would be an excellent deal.

@jeperkin: What is the main or best use of the iPad? Why would I buy one? (No, I’m not being cynical – so far I just don’t “get it”)

Nobody needs an iPad. It’s a brand new category for a casual, lifestyle computer. In its current state, the iPad is going to be the computer you use to veg out on your couch: It’s best use is consuming media (watching movies, browsing the web, listening to music, etc.). Just like with the iPhone, however, what will make the iPad more interesting are the apps made by third-party developers. Imagine the iPad replacing textbooks for students, or X-Ray charts for hospitals, or real-time 3D modeling for architects. We’d say, you don’t have to buy one today, but keep your mind open, because it may be something you really want later.

@oneofthejoshs: Battery life. How long does it really last for video, Wi-Fi, music etc?

We just got our hands on iPads a few hours ago, so we haven’t had time to do thorough battery testing. However, early reviews of the iPad say it gets up to 12 hours of battery life playing video, which is far longer than most laptops.

@SamuelCouch: Unlike the iPhone, does the iPad allow you to use a stylus?

Both the iPhone and the iPad actually are usable with a stylus. Theoir capacitive touchscreen does detect input from styluses. Apple doesn’t ship iPad or iPhone styluses, but third-party companies do.

@superbarker:  Is there any native way to print (from Pages, or any other for those matters)?

No. Apple has not created a native, systemwide printing freature for the iPad. Currently what you can do is use iWork to export to File Sharing, or e-mail the document to yourself, and then launch the file on a Mac or Windows PC and print from there. We’re betting third-party developers will be quick to deliver a more streamlined printing solution, however.

@FrostyBlonde2u: WHO will one have to sign up to in order to go online? If it’s AT&T, gag me with a spoon, they suck!

The iPad 3G, which is releasing late April, is an unlocked device. However, the iPad only supports MicroSIM cards, and AT&T is the only U.S. provider using MicroSIM cards. So for right now, you’re stuck with AT&T for 3G service on the iPad. You can, of course, still go online using a Wi-Fi network.

@BikerMike: Does it have a microphone?

Yes. But keep in mind the iPad does not ship with a native phone app or voice recorder, so you’ll have to download third-party apps that make use of the microphone.

@buttonsarentoys: I wanna know if you can use it portably as a hard drive from a dongle…specifically, can I connect a CF card & unload RAW images?

Apple does sell a dongle to connect an SD card reader to the iPad. It doesn’t appear they sell a CF card reader, but third-party companies will likely come out with a universal card reader if Apple doesn’t first.

@TeresaKopec: Dumb question: how is the audio without headphones on the iPad? Wondering about sharing video etc. with kids in the car.

Not a dumb question at all! The audio without headphones, when cranked to max volume, is pretty loud, provided there’s not a lot of background noise. In the office here, it’s plenty loud enough for several people to hear while watching a movie together. But with background noise, it gets harder to hear. It might be a challenge to use in the car, unless your ride is very smoooooth.

@talk19: Can you stream photos over the network to the iPad or must all pictures be stored locally?

No, not natively, if you’re talking about iPhoto. Your iPad can only display photos synced to the device, meaning you can’t pull images from your iPhoto photo library over Wi-Fi. You can, however, handle photos using cloud services such as Evernote or Dropbox.

@skaltnerd: How far will the iPad fall before it shatters? #evilgrin #Blackberry #FTW

Hah! If the demand is great enough, we might consider performing a “stress test” on the iPad. But the iPad sports a scratch-resilient screen similar to the iPhone’s. So unless you’re a complete clutz, we doubt you’ll break this gadget easily.

@pielak: can i connect my stereo bluetooth earphones, hear music and navigate through the internet?

We don’t have a set of stereo Bluetooth headphones handy, so we can’t test this out for you. However, Apple says that the iPad supports Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, so your stereo Bluetooth devices should work just fine. Incidentally, you can also use Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard with the iPad — you don’t have to wait for the Bluetooth iPad dock accessory that will be coming out later.

@buttonsarentoys: I know about the dongle, but can you use it to unload files the iPad won’t recognize (i.e., can you use the iPad as a harddrive?)

The camera dongle accessories — which let you connect a camera or an SD card to the iPad’s dock connector for uploading photos — aren’t available yet either, so we can’t test those. It’s a good bet that they’ll only work for uploading photos and videos, but that’s just our best guess at this point.

@beankssiduous: does the released iPad have a built-in camera? ..When will it be sold here in Abu Dhabi? ;]

The iPad does not have a built-in camera, and the 3G version that’s coming out later this month won’t either. There’s a small spot near the top of the screen that some people have thought might be a webcam, but it’s actually an ambient light sensor. It’s what the iPad uses to auto-adjust the screen brightness based on how bright it is where you are.

We don’t know when the iPad will be available in Abu Dhabi, England, or any of the other countries you have asked about. Sorry!

@Chris1982: With the iPad, will I be able to quickly & easily upload and read .pdf/.doc/.txt/etc?

Yes. The easiest way to do this is simply to e-mail the documents to yourself: We did this, and found that the iPad displayed all three of the above formats with no problems. It can also display non-DRM restricted EPUB books, via the iBooks app.

For academic papers, you might check out Papers. We haven’t used it, but we hear it syncs and displays .pdf files nicely.

If you want to edit documents, you’ll need the $10 Pages app, part of the iWork suite. It can import Pages documents from your Mac as well as Microsoft Word files. Pages can export documents as .doc and .pdf for printing, although — as noted above — you can’t print directly from the iPad; you’ll need to do that from another computer.

MichaelBurns: When you synch to iTunes first time does it transfer iPhone settings and apps?

Yes, but it’s not automatic: you can manually choose to transfer your iPhone apps, movies, music and photos to the iPad. It’s in the sync options that appear in iTunes when you connect your iPad to your computer via USB.

arepera: Will all the paid apps I have on my touch work on my iPad? Meaning, will purchasing one license allow me to have two instance installed on two different devices?

We tested this with Tweetie 2, and it worked just fine: The app we’d purchased on an iPhone transferred to the iPad, where it worked just fine.

jimmyjj: Does the e-mail on the ipad have a built in spam filter as on the macbook pro or is it essentially the same as the iphone relying on the mail program such as gmail for spam protection?

There does not appear to be any spam filtering on the iPad. Like the iPhone, there are no mail filtering rules at all within the Mail app.

The iPad App Store just launched yesterday, and as you might expect, these apps are generally more expensive. The priciest iPad app costs a whopping $900.

It’s called SiteClone Publisher, a universal app for both iPad and iPhone, and we couldn’t help but feel curious about just what it does for such a hefty price. It turns out SiteClone is a framework designed to help corporate and government entities develop apps that pull content from websites even without an internet connection.

For example, if Wired.com bought SiteClone, we could create an app that pulls videos, audio clips and other media when the iPad is online, and later even if users are without an internet connection, the app could still access all that data without having to redownload it. The screenshot at right is an example of an app using the SiteClone framework.

That sounds awfully wonky and somewhat complicated, but why so expensive?

“The app contains two years of in-house development work, so we didn’t want to make it too cheap,” said Pete Meyers, vice president of EP Visual. “If we sell a few of them, hopefully we can lower the price.” Meyers explained that hospitals, for example, could make use of SiteClone because they’re notorious for poor internet connections.

$900 is exorbitant for an app, but it sure beats the feature-less iPhone app “I Am Rich,” which was priced at $1,000 before Apple yanked it from the App Store in August 2008. Let’s hope we don’t see an “I Am Rich HD.”

A hat tip to Daisy, who pointed out this app with the help of Mobclix analytics.

Product page [EP Visual]

See Also:

• Video Gives a Glimpse of What’s Inside iPad App Store
• 10 Apps We’re Excited to Try on iPad Launch Day
• The Wired Tablet App: A Video Demonstration
• First Look at Marvel Comics’ iPad App

Photo courtesy of EP Visual

The folks at Marvel and DC must have have gone crazy when Steve Jobs first showed the iPad. While books, movies and music have all got their own place in the digital world, the iPad is the first natural home for the e-comic. Marvel is first to the game, with its official iPad application, the Marvel Comics App.

Marvel’s app is based on ComiXology, and uses the same engine as the iPhone (and soon to be iPad) application. This allows you to view a page at a time (the iPad’s screen comes in at around 80% the size of a paper comic-book) or, by flipping into landscape mode, navigate panel by panel. Those familiar with ComiXology will know and love this feature already: it breaks down the page into individual panels and flies between them one by one.

Marvel has customized the application to make it its own, from the cover-flow browsing (just like flipping through a long-box) to the full range of titles. And what a range. Many new issues will be on sale, but back-catalog titles will be in there, too, including the first appearances of Spiderman and the X-Men. A range of free titles are available for a while at launch, but the regular price will be $2 per issue. There is also an iPhone version.

This is the kind of thing that will get me back into comics, especially if DC does the same thing, and if both companies make their entire back catalogs available. It might kill the casual, paper comic-book market, but for the collectors, it’s a boon: those mint first editions can stay in their mylar bags, untouched, forever. $0, available now.

UPDATE: There’s a Jack Kirby section! ZOMG!

Marvel Comics App [iTunes]
Press release (guess the password to read it) [Marvel]

Josh Topolsky, head of the Engadget blogging machine, has gotten his hands on the JooJoo tablet for an un-boxing and first hands-on. The machine itself looks to be as clunky and doomed as we expected (flipping from portrait to landscape mode with the accelerometer results in a jarring, non-animated transition, for example), but the $500 tablet has one rather fetching aspect: the box.

One of the aspects of Apple’s products that is usually better than the competition is the packaging. In recent years it has become minimal but still thoughtful, but in the days of the original iPod it was jaw-dropping gorgeous, with each element, down to the earbud sponges, encased in sci-fi silvery plastic envelopes. JooJoo, the tablet that sold just 90 pre-orders, manages to out-Apple Apple.

The simple white cardboard box has some rather striking typography, similar to Helvetica but with a modified “j” (if you know what this font is, let us know in the comments). The whole thing comes over as very classy. As iPhone developer Neven Morgan points out, it looks a lot like the old packaging for Ilford photo paper.

Still, we doubt a fancy box will save the JooJoo from obscurity, but at least those of you who do buy one just for its historical value will have something pretty to keep on the shelf.

JooJoo Unboxing [Engadget]

Inexplicably, the joojoo box looks pretty sharp [Neven Mrgan’s Tumbl]

Photo: Engadget