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"The Next Web reckons that relatively few iPad new international iPad owners  will be so disappointed with their purchase that they'll be offering  them up to auction sites after only a couple of days.\r\n\r\nHowever, I  remember saying when the iPad was first announced that I'd really have  preferred a dumbed down MacBook to a souped up iPod Touch.\r\n\r\nIn  reality I'm much more impressed with how well the iPhone OS supports the  larger form device, particularly when partnered with a suite of punchy  new apps.\u00A0 However, as a tech-blogger, there are still a few wants that  would have been more than 'nice to have' for me.\r\n\r\nHere are my  first impressions of trying to write a blogpost on the iPad.\r\n\r\nI just can't stand it...\r\n\r\nRather  than go for the iPad stand with the built-in keyboard I decided to get  the normal dock and bluetooth Apple keyboard which seems to work just as  well.\r\n\r\nThat said, using this configuration really drives home  some of the early comments regarding the design of iPad 1.0.\u00A0 I suspect  that it won't be long before we see an alternative docking port along  the side of the device to enable the screen to be used in this way in  landscape as well as in portrait mode.\u00A0 Although, when typing in to a  word processor, I suppose there's no real need for a landscape view at  all... when the output is designed to be printed...portrait mode is  actually more natural...\r\n\r\n...of course, the device can be used in  landscape mode when set up in the Apple case... in this way it can be  used when it isn't being charged or you have to put up with the cable  emerging from the side of the machine...\r\n\r\n... thinking further, how often  is anything written solely for print these days.... I know that  computers have done anything but deliver the 'paperless office', but I  can actually think of very little of my written output from the last few  years that has been drafted with the sole aimed of being printed out on  paper.\r\n\r\nSo maybe I should just get the standard notion of a  landscape monitor out of my head and get on with things.\r\n\r\nI  suppose some of these challenges will be overcome through a burgeoning  choice of third party accessory offerings, whilst others, notably the  innate hardware restrictions, will need to be overcome in later editions  of the iPad itself.\r\n\r\nWhere is my mouse?\r\n\r\nSo having got over  that, my other key observation about using the iPad to actually produce  content, with an emphasis on writing, is the fact that there's no mouse  and no touchpad type device on the wireless keyboard.\u00A0 There's no real  call for one of course, but there is some relearning of ingrained  behaviours which needs to be done.\r\n\r\nI spot a mistake further up  the page and my right hand darts for the mouse or my fingers fumble for a  touchpad.\u00A0 Instead it takes me a second to realise that to select a  position in the document, highlight any text and start making changes I  actually need to lean over and start touching the screen.\u00A0 When the iPad  is sitting on your lap or firmly in your grip, this doesn't feel too  bad.\u00A0 However, when you've got things set up on a desk with the iPad in  its stand, the angles are all wrong.\u00A0 I feel that I'm about to push the  whole iPad and dock setup over and somehow hand-eye co-ordination seems  all out of flunter too as I try to carry out tasks which have now become  second nature on the iPhone and now the iPad.\r\n\r\n[iWorks tells me  that flunter isn't a real word, which is a shame because I use it all  the time and I'm pretty certain you know what I mean]\r\n\r\n[After  spending a few minutes actually getting to know the keyboard I realise,  of course, that the up/down &amp;amp;amp;n left/right arrows can effectively,  albeit slowly, navigate you around the page.\u00A0 I haven't found method of  selecting stuff, but having been brought up on PCs I confess there there  may well be some hidden magic somewhere... I'm sure someone will let me  know!!!\u00A0 Happily this exercise has enabled me to locate the keyboard  controls for the iPad's inner iPod!\u00A0 Dur!]\r\n\r\nOnto blogging...\r\n\r\nNow  constructing a blog post is a whole 'nother challenge.\r\n\r\nEach  blogging platform doubtless has its own idiosyncrasies and whilst I'm  beginning to realise how very very close blogging on the iPad is to  being 'awesome' (and I don't use that word lightly... in fact I don't  really use it very often at all).\u00A0 However, whilst it is close to  awesome, awesome it's not... at least on Wordpress blogs....\r\n\r\nSafari  on the iPad is pretty useful in that you can have multiple browser  windows open at the same time... pretty essential for a tech blogger  who, if they're anything like me will have Wordpress open, Google  Reader, other source documents as well a Flickr or similar photo  services to source photographs to go into the article.\r\n\r\n[These  extra browser windows aren't handled via tabs but by an easily  accessible screen of thumbnails now familiar to many on other browsers]\r\n\r\nSo,  in short, creating a blog post can be achieved in every aspect apart  from loading photos into the post.\u00A0 Due to the lack of an accessible  file directory system on the iPad itself (which, remember is closer to  the iPhone than it is to the MacBook) photos cannot be uploaded from the  photo gallery on the device itself.\u00A0 This is a shame given that there  are already a number of apps available for you to edit photographs on  the iPad.\r\n\r\nThis leaves you with the alternative approach of  sourcing an appropriately licensed image on the Internet.\u00A0 I tend to use  images using the Creative Commons attribution in Flickr as a rule.\u00A0  Normally, I locate an image, choose the appropriate size and then  right-click to grab the URL of the image itself and than copy that  across into the image plug-in in Wordpress.\r\n\r\nOf course, it's the  right-click that's the problem... or the lack of one.\u00A0 You can lean on  an image displayed on the screen of the iPad, but that only enables you  to save the image or copy the image.\u00A0 Using the URL of the page it self  isn't good enough... so there you go... scuppered.\r\n\r\nI recently sat  alongside another one of The Next Web team at the TNW10 conference who,  despite having a shiny new iPad, needed to borrow a MacBook from  someone to fulfil his blogging duties.\u00A0 What a shame...\r\n\r\nHow will  these issues be resolved?\u00A0 The file directory access to photos stored on  the device is, I reckon, something of a pipe dream...\u00A0 the right-clicky  stuff is a possibility I suppose, hopefully to be bundled in an  upcoming software release.\r\n\r\nIn the meantime the iPad, which excels  in many, many other dimensions, is, for now, limited as a  power-blogging tool.\r\n\r\nAnother iPad owning fellow blogger  recently said that until he can blog on it &amp;quot;the iPad is dead to me!&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nThis  a massive shame, because it stood a good chance or slimming down the  amount of kit I tend to lug around with me to support my blogging  escapades (cameras, sound recorders, phones and all their associated  paraphernalia).\r\n\r\nAs it is, I can't bring myself to leave my  lovely iPad at home, but I'll be lugging a netbook along to complete the  last 5% of any blogpost I write.\r\n\r\nimage credit: Kominyetska cc"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/05/30/sitting-on-the-dock-of-thebay-how-many-new-ipads-will-go-up-for-auction-this-week/>