Not the cat, the thing hiding behind it. The cat is Mr Fluff, and like all good cats, as soon as I had a good comparison shot set up, he came and sat in front of it. Amazing how they do that. Anyway, though the wonders of craigslist, I am now the proud hopping-on-the-bandwagon owner of an iPad. There are already plenty of reviews of the iPad on the internet, so I’m not going to bother with that. But what I will present are some nifty comparison shots of the new iPad and the tc1100 I’ve been using. They’re not as far off as I had initially thought when I set this up.
Yes, the tc1100 is much thicker with its keyboard attached. However, the iPad keyboard dock would still sit up higher thanks to its rather awkward and not portable sticky-up bit.
The nice thing about the tc1100 versus convertible notebooks is that the keyboard is completely detachable, making it not much thicker than the iPad.
The overall footprint of the tc1100 is a bit bigger due to having a 10.4” screen versus the iPad’s 9.7”. The tc’s bezel is also a bit thicker to accommodate 3 indicator LEDs and 3 pen-sensitive buttons. The iPad’s bezel has a home button and an ambient light sensor. Both lack any sort of webcam. Notice the extra glossiness of the iPad.
Ports! The tc1100 has them.
The iPad has one, sort of.
My iPad happened to come with the apple case, which would not have been my first choice of cases, but it was free with the iPad, and free is my kind of case. I recently came into a bunch of accessories for the tc1100 (a post for later), which included an executive leather case. The tc1100 clips in by the keyboard dock or more clips on the keyboard itself, so the case can be used with or without the keyboard on.
It is rather bulky. Then again, I hardly ever actually have the keyboard attached, and I don’t really see myself using this case anyway. It’s just here for comparison.
I also picked up a dock for my tc1100, and apple case keeps the iPad up, as I don’t have a dock for it. Yes, I am using an apple keyboard with the tc1100.
One of the nice thing about the dock is that it allows rotating to portrait, in addition to adding a ton more ports and a DVD drive. The iPad dock does not offer quite so many extras, and will only hold the iPad in portrait. I don’t have one of those anyway, so this is the iPad standing up in its apple case.
The iPad in no way replaces the tc1100, but it is a neat toy. I will try to get a pogo or similar stylus for it to see if I can do some writing with it. The cheapy stylus I picked up from Central Computer is already in the trash and not worth writing about. I’ve seen some good videos with Penultimate and a pogo though, so it’s still worth trying with a good stylus. The iPad might even get a turn in the media booth, even if it can’t replace the tc1100 for studio duty.
Yay for your iPad! This is the first i-Anything I've ever thought I might actually want.
ReplyDeleteBTW - cute cat
=o)
It's turning out to be a neat little toy. Most of the value is in the apps. It really shines when you find a good app for it. My current favorite is CraigsEZPro, which displays craigslist postings as thumbnails with photos. It's so nice to be able to browse furniture without having to click through to see the pictures.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to hear more about how the iPad works out for your studio or other playing.
ReplyDeleteAnd it might be interesting to hear how many of your students purchase iPads in the coming days...
I just picked up unrealbook thanks to your recommendation choirguy. The pen tool looks pretty good, just need to pick up a pogo. The iPad is just frustratingly a little too small for comfortable reading. It's a great reference tool for a piece you already know well, but I'm not sure about sightreading from it. I put some duets on to see if two people can share. It will be interesting to try out at my chamber music camp this week.
ReplyDelete