PadStand
A few weeks ago I purchased a PadStand as an affordable accessory that could go on my desk when I want to watch movies or TV on my iPad. I had already bought an iPad Keyboard Dock when I first bought my iPad and I love it - I use it to input lots of text, and occasionally do work on there. My only problem was when I wanted to watch anything on my iPad as the Keyboard Dock is portrait-only. I first heard about PadStand from Sam on Twitter and when I read her review of it. I immediately was drawn to the PadStand and wanted to order one. I chose black out of five colours (white, blue, green, pink and black). I was very impressed with the delivery - I ordered it on Saturday and it had arrived on Tuesday. PadStand is very compact, and fits on my desk with no extra space at all. I’m not sure about all the other colours but black was the only colour that I knew I wouldn’t regret when I ordered it. The one thing that I love about it is that it’s very portable and can be taken anywhere around or out of the house - anywhere with a hard-ish surface. Also, since this is only £9.99 with £1.99 shipping there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t have one if you have or are planning to buy an iPad. Below are some photos I took of the PadStand:
iPad
So the iPad has been released in America and will be released in the UK on 28th May. I am very excited. The prices of the iPad in the UK will be as follows: £429 for the 16GB, £499 for the 32GB and £599 for 64GB Wi-Fi models. The Wi-Fi + 3G models price at £529 for the 16GB, £599 for the 32GB and £699 for the 64GB version. There has been a lot of controversy over whether the iPad is being priced too high in the UK, as the 16GB Wi-Fi version in the US is $499 and in the UK it is £429, making UK Apple customers lose £90 when buying an iPad. Personally I think that the prices are a little steep than they should have been, but I still think this is an amazing product and I plan on buying the 16GB Wi-Fi version. I know a lot of people have been saying that the iPad is a big iPod Touch, and you’re right, it is! But that doesn’t mean it’s bad? There are so many things that I am going to do on my iPad that I would not have been able to do with my 2nd generation iPod Touch. First of all, iWork. This is going to be amazing for me. I’m always trying to do my homework on the family MacBook, but something always gets in the way. Somebody’s using the Macbook, and I can’t use my iPod Touch as the screen is too small. Now the iPad comes along. I can download Pages on the iPad for $9.99 (around £6.70). I can import Pages or Word documents from my computer and when I’m finished with my essay I can export it as a Word document so I can view and print it on my computer. People say that typing on the iPad will be very slow and not very good, but turn the iPad sideways, an you get a keyboard almost the size of the Apple Wireless keyboard. Making typing even easier is the Apple iPad case, allowing you to put the iPad on a slant, perfect for typing. Second of all, is iBooks. This is the new e-reader application for the iPad. You can read your books and purchase books from the iBooks Store. I’m not much of a reader myself, I get through the odd book every so often, but maybe I would read more if I was reading on something that I used all the time, and that held all my books. Finally, the iPad is a semi-replacement for a computer. I’m not saying that the iPad is a replacement for your computer (and it’s impossible for it to be anyway as you need to sync it to your computer to put music, movies, apps etc. on it) but it is a semi-replacement. It can do mostly all of the things you an do on your computer - surf the web, check emails, listen to music, watch movies, look at photos and use apps. Say you want to go away for the weekend but you need to take something to respond to emails at work while you are away. Without an iPad, you would have to lugg around your laptop (or take a netbook which would run out of battery in an hour) but for a weekend like this the iPad would be perfect to take away. It’s very compact, and very light (only 1.5 pounds). Overall, I think the iPad is absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to get my hands on one when it comes out!
