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Ipad report

I'm really happy with my ipad. I use it nearly every day. Most of all I appreciate its "instant on" and its portability around the house. If we get wi fi-ed up in the staff room at school, I shall use it there too.

Apart from checking email and web browsing I have made good use of a number of apps. I like the Metoffice app for instant access to weather reports, including current radar and satellite views. The Living Earth app gives instant weather and cloud cover from cities around the world. The Ebay app is easy to browse. I've occasionally used the bfm.tv app, but our slow broadband connection makes live TV unpredictable. I've made good use of the imdb cinema app and daily use of the Guardian app. The latter is designed for the i-phone and bears little resemblance to the newspaper format, but it is comprehensive and easy enough to navigate. I'm awaiting an ipad specific version of the Guardian, for which I would happily pay. The Daily Telegraph app is designed specifically for the ipad, but is slower to load and less exhaustive than the Guardian offering. It's actually a "best of" the Daily Telegraph. I'm not really a Torygraph reader, but I don't mind seeing a different view of the news.

Star Walk is a brilliant app which allows you to browse the night sky. You hold the ipad up towards the sky and its in-built GPS shows you the stars and constellations in that direction. Good fun.

I've also begun using the calendar and contacts applications and enjoy browsing ther app store on a fairly regular basis.

I'm not a huge games person, but I have had fun with Osmos, Angry Birds and RealGolf  2011.

In the summer I did use the ibooks app for some reading, but this has not become a habit. Online books could do with being cheaper.

Other uses for me have included the Youtube app and the excellent Google Earth app.

All in all, I'm delighted with the ipad. The battery lasts about 10 hours and takes a few hours to charge overnight. The keyboard is a doddle to use too. I have not used it as a work tool and cannot envisage doing so, though I am sure plenty of people on the move would do so with Apple's software. Nor have I used its itunes capability, mainly because my album library would take up too much space on this 16 gig version. No camera either, so Skypers would be frustrated. It is occasionally frustrating that the machine does not allow you to view Flash videos, but some sites are already offering alternatives for ipad users.

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