batteries which give it that touted 10 full-hours of life with wifi, though I got eight full hours out of constant Netflix streaming. Either way though, such a great battery life is something the iPhone/iPod Touch can’t, uh… touch! Another contributor is Apple’s signature glass touch-screen. However, the glass screen is phenominal at preventing scratches and ensures the display will always be crystal clear… at least until you lay your greasy mitts all over it. Smudging of finger oils is an issue with just about any touch screen device, but the iPad is special. It has an “oleophobic” coating that should repel the greasy smears, streaks and fingerprints. After using it a majority of the first day, it became evident that the coating doesn’t work 100%.

It resisted much better than the iPod Touch, which has no such coating, but you can expect there will still be some traces of oil residue from the skin contacting the screen. Washing your hands frequently helps reduce this, but you’ll really only notice it if you try to notice it (by either reflecting light off the screen, or turning the screen off).

So ultimately your experience interacting with the iPad will hardly be affected by such smearing–there won’t be any blurriness or ill effects. However, do note that oleophobic coatings usually start deteriorating after a few months, so expect it to degrade over time, and eventually wear off completely, resulting in more pronounced smearing. One of my bigger grievances with the iPad is the utter waste of screen real-estate. I’m specifically talking about the excessive 1″ black margin around the sides. What is the deal with that? Surely Apple could have thinned that out and either made the actual screen slightly bigger, or made the iPad itself slightly smaller. It really disheartens me for Apple to have squandered such valuable space on rubbish like that. The margin should have been the size of the margin used for the 13″ or 15″ MacBook Pro or the iPhone/iPod Touch–about half an inch. While on the subject of wasted space, I’m also equally disappointed with the excessive spacing (padding) between the app icons on the home screen.

Just like the much-smaller iPod Touch, you can only have four apps per row (i.e. four columns) when in portrait mode (orientation in the upright position), though an additional row has been added. On the other hand, flipping the iPad to landscape mode (on its side) enables you to have one additional column of apps, though you lose the additional row that you get with the iPad’s orientation set to portrait mode. Meanwhile, the iPhone/iPod Touch cannot show apps in any orientation other than portrait/upright. Either way, in both iPad orentations, it seems like Apple could have fit an additional column of app icons between each other, though five or six columns in portait mode (and six or seven columns in lamdscape mode) would satisfy my preferences. In any case, at least the iPhone OS 4.0 update (scheduled for the iPad this fall) will bring “folders” to the iPad, a feature that allows you to better-organize apps on the home screen by grouping them into a single icon whose app collection is revealed in a popup region.

===== So What Can This Thing Do? ===== When Apple first announced the iPad they didn’t tout it so much as an ebook reader as they did a “netbook killer” (due to its ability to surf the web, check e-mail, watch videos, listen to music, and do a lot of the simpler tasks that netbooks were originally designed to do. Thus Apple had put less weight on the iPad as an e-reader in their announcement, which is still very apparent now that the iPad has been released.

Despite the fact that it has begun to spark a revolution in the publication and delivery of full-color magazines and news, in addition to its support for reading e-books, Apple has taken a low-lying strategy with their iPad as an e-reader or “Kindle killer” as some iPad users have touted.

When you go to Apple’s website, and browse the guided tours that Apple has made for the iPad, you’ll see that the guided tour for Apple’s e-book reader app “iBooks” is near the bottom of the list.

(Just below it is Apple’s guided tour for its iPad productivity suite “iWork” which lets you edit Microsoft office documents such as Word files, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations). What they don’t exactly tell you outright is that iBooks (or iWork) is not included on the iPad out-of-the-box. They’re extra applications that you have to download from Apple’s iPad app store. Having not bundled the iBooks app with the iPad, Apple seems to be positioning the iPad as more than just an e-book reader. Despite the fact that you have to download iBooks, the app itself is indeed free, though the books themselves aren’t (of course).

As a courtesy though, and as a sort of demonstration, Apple decided to throw in a Winnie the Pooh book for free. What a nice gesture, Apple! On the other hand, to use the iPad for editing office documents, you’ll need to download Apple’s productivity suite iWork, a trilogy of apps which consists of: Pages, for word processing; Each of the three apps can be downloaded separately for .99 each. Completely reworked for the iPad, the complete iWork suite will set you back a whole thirty bucks.

So be aware of that before you go ahead and grab the iPad for use with work-related document editing, and so forth. Also note that if you do intend to use the iPad for heavy writing or word-processing purposes, you’ll find that your ability to type quickly will be greatly inhibited by the virtual keyboard. Thus, you should snag the external keyboard as well (Note: I’ll also explain some typing techniques below). Either way, be prepared to pay more than merely the price for the iPad alone.

There’s clearly more than meets the eye if you intend to transform the iPad into something a little more productive than it might be for you out of the box.

===== Interaction Experience ===== The iPad is fast and responsive, and touch interface is phenomenal on the same level that all of Apple’s other touch-screen devices have been to date. With the iPad, Apple brings a whole new meaning to the term “multi-touch”.

The iPad touch-screen supports up to ten simultaneous touches, assuming there is ever a need for that, and given that the developer of whatever app needs that many touches has integrated support for that many touches. For example, the most common app supporting ten simultaneous touches is the piano app. Being touted more as a Web browser and email device than an e-book reader, plus with the added potential that you’ll be using the iPad to edit office documents, typing on the device can quickly become a concern.

First off, realize that the iPad is not a laptop in the sense that you aren’t going to be typing at a speed that I would consider fast enough to be conducive for heavy usage like writing a book, posting articles on blogs or typing lengthy emails. With that in mind, there are a couple approaches you can try to determine what’ typing method is right for you. The ideal method might also change depending on where you are and how the iPad is oriented when using it. Typing Method #1: The most common and most flexible approach is to type with your thumbs, which can be done whether sitting or standing.

To do this effectively, the iPad should ideally be in portrait mode–I’ll explain why in a bit. Grasp the bottom of your iPad with your palms facing each other, and your pinky fingers towards you for the iPad to rest on. To stabilize the iPad and prevent it from flopping over and falling out of your hands, stretch both of your index fingers upwards towards the top of the iPad as much as is comfortable. Proceed with using your thumbs hunt and peck the keys on the virtual keyboard to your heart’s content. This typing method works best with the iPad in portrait orientation (tall/upright position). It can also be used like this in landscape orientation (wide/sideways position), though I find it much harder to reach the central keyboard keys with my thumbs without the edge of the iPad interfering (constantly hitting the web of skin between the thumb and index finger).

Typing Method #2: I’ve found this next method to be even more useful, though it requires you to be is best used while seated, with the iPad in resting in your lap, or on something soft, preferably with the iPad in landscape mode. With the iPad situated securely on your legs, you’ll find it becomes easier to type with your full range of digits (fingers), like you would on a full sized physical keyboard. I found it slightly awkward, though, to hit the spacebar frequently with the side of my thumbs as you typically would on a physical keyboard. Still, whether you use your thumbs for the spacebar, or decide to use your fingers instead, you’ll still find yourself typing slightly faster than with the thumbs-only hunt-and-peck method. Also, this typing method doesn’t work well with the iPad resting any anything hard and flat like a desk or table, as the rounded backside of the iPad causes it to wobble uncontrollably while trying to type.

However, if placement on a hard surface is a must, you might try putting something soft under the iPad to stabilize it. Other methods of typing on the iPad include the aforementioned external keyboard, as well as speech-to-text transcription apps. The latter includes the Dragon Notes app from Nuance, but I’ve found its quality in transcription to be laughable at best.

===== Web Browsing ===== Alongside email, and spending money in the app store, Web browsing is one of Apple’s biggest suggestions for using the device. The iPad was born to surf the Web, and its screen resolution of 1024×768 tends to concur, especially in landscape mode. Most websites are around 800-1000 pixels wide, so when the iPad is in landscape orientation, Apple’s