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Why I bought an iPad

Over the last 6 months, applications like Evernote and Egretlist have become a larger and larger part of my life as I search for my ultimate GTD (Getting Things Done) setup.

One of the issues I've had was that while I use a notebook at work, another at home and a phone the rest of the time, the iPhone doesn't have a large enough screen to use for looking at content regularly.

When the iPad came out I was sceptical, I still don't like the app store lock in, but getting hands on with a colleague's for 5 minutes allowed me to 'Get' the iPad.

Beyond GTD, I wanted to be able to read on the go, I have some dead time which could be used to catch up on articles.

1 week in.

The iPad has barely left my side, I take it everywhere I can reasonably be expected to get value out of it. At Work, it's been especially useful for notes and reading.

My Macbook Pro has been a little neglected although it still has tasks I can't do on the iPad and is the centre of my technology setup.

Reading on the iPad is an absolute pleasure, the screen is easy to make out, even with tiny text, and i've not strained at all.

The battery life on the iPad seems to exceed Apples claims. I get a full day's use on and off throughout the day with a solid couple of hours in the evening, and it rarely goes below 50%

The keyboard is easy to use (I'm typing this on it now) with the only thing I would want to add being a set of arrow keys to move the cursor a character or two backwards or forwards more quickly than using a finger.

The video and iPod capabilities are as brilliant as you'd expect, the only downside being that I have to clean the screen before watching video as the screen attracts grease like a window in a nursery.

I could easily see our household having a few ipads in a few years with an iMac or two providing the heft as required.

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