The iPad

I am finally glad I can write something that hopefully crosses both the “tech” and the “education” sphere of this page.  I’ve been using the iPad for about a month now and from that I’ve seen the the great ways it can be used and the ways individuals can be let down by the device.  When looking at the device and how it could supplant some of my day-to-day activities, I thought about my daily use of technology.  Once the shock wore off of just how long I am connected to the rest of the world, activities fell either into one of the following:

1. Keeping in touch with people on social networking sites.
2. RSS feeds for news, tech blogs, and other “bits of info”
3. General day-to-day activities (email, IM, websites)
4. Work related activities (email, Help Desk access, and some remote management)

The biggest hurdle to overcome, aside from the sheer geek aspect of having an iPad, was finding how it could fit into my daily activities and not how I could make it fit in.  I’ve come to terms the device isn’t one for creating content, but more for accessing information, jotting things down, and just having a device at hand for individual tasks sporting a lifetime of 20 minutes or less.  I don’t see myself sitting down to work on a project on the iPad all day, but more to carry around between buildings.

What has been your use so far and where do you see it going?  More importantly, I’d love to hear the tasks used on your iPad.  (And this can spur an app discussion).  With a good note syncing app between all my devices, something for chat, GTD and a few other items, I’m getting more and more pleased with this device.