Cherry Blossom, the last wave

This is probably the last set of cherry blossoms photos for the year. Our Spring has been exceptionally early this year but it is also pretty long. These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago.

Because of work load, I have not been blogging as frequently as I like. Also I have been leaving my HG Seravee Gundam in an incomplete state. I hope I will pick it up again in a couple of weeks.

Other than work, I have been doing some reading on the iPad. I have to say it is the perfect device for consuming content.

I have been reading ebooks I bought from Manning. They sell ebooks in PDF format which is my preferred format. “Portable” is the key!

I also find the net browsing experience on the iPad to be extremely pleasing. The lack of Flash has not been too inconvenient. A lot of video hosting service now offer iPhone and iPad compatible formats, so I am not missing much. In addition I particularly enjoy the ability to zoom in to an area that I need to read by double tapping it, or use the two-finger gesture to pinch and stretch the area to zoom in or zoom out of. The experience is very fluid and is nothing a computer based browser has been able to provide so far.

The zooming feature would be particularly useful for older people or people with visual impairment. The dynamic nature of the zooming adds an extra dimension to surfing the internet!

Other than reading on the iPad, I have been trying a couple of note taking apps as well. These apps allow one to create hand written notes. With a Pogo, the iPad can easily be transformed into a natural input medium.  Okay maybe that is a bit of a stretch but with the apps become more optimized for writing, that won’t be too far off.

With the world wide availability of the iPad getting closer, I am expecting a lot more iPad accessories, apps, and neat ideas to be sprung up on the internet. Just like the iPhone, the first generation of the device did not please most people in terms of features and price point. I am sure it is only a matter of time before more and more people will adopt an iPad as a casual information consuming device that they can use around their living room or be taken around with them everywhere.

At where I work, there are already 3 iPads showing up even though it is not available in Canada yet. What do you and your friends think of the iPad? What do you think is a fair price to pay for the functionality and capability of this device?