I’ve had a couple days with the iPad and thought I would share my intial thoughts with you about it. Not just the device itself, but of what the device might represent for the things that interest me. Namely, comics.

This is a pretty long post so get comfortable. Take a sip of water and a little nibble of bread and then I’ll see you after the jump.

Form Factor:
The iPad is bigger and heavier than I expected And every surface on it is made of something slippery. On more than one occasion I’ve found myself looking for a more comfortable way of holding it. And after holding for a while you start looking for a place to put it or lean it so you can stop holding it.

This problem is solved by purchasing the iPad case Apple also sells. It’s a grippy-rubbery book sleeve the iPad slips into. It protects the surfaces you don’t want to scratch up, gives you something to hold on to and can be folded to make a couple stands for the iPad. It’s dumb that they didn’t include the case. You kinda need it.

An Entertainment Device:
This thing is crazy cool as a portable media center. If you don’t have any internet connection, you can load it up with videos, games, music and books. If you DO have an internet connection even better. Netflix, ABC, TWIT, soon probably other networks and Hulu.com. Please. You’ll never run out of stuff to watch. I crawled into bed last night with it and just sat there watching DS9 episodes. It’s nuts. Video, even streaming, is just georgous on it. Fun stuff.

I think it sucks as an e-reader. But it would be stupid not to include books on the iPad. Why not, right? But having spent a considerable amount of time with an Amazon Kindle, if I was going to sit and read for a couple hours and was able to choose between the two, I would choose the Kindle or a real book over the iPad.

And the iBooks app, by the way, is stupid looking. It looks like an afterthought, really. Can we all agree that the fake bookshelf is overdone now? Delicious Library did it first and everyone just went nuts with it. The Amazon Kindle app for the iPad is much cleaner and nicer.

A Netbook Replacement:
I don’t think the iPad could ever replace a laptop, but it sure as hell is better than any netbook I’ve ever sat down with. I’m not really that impressed by netbooks. The keyboards are impossibly small to deal with, I’m not excited about Windows or Linux and the resolution on them usually sucks. So I might as well surf and email on my phone.

The iPad, however is great at surfing the net and reading email and tweeting and chatting on Instant Messenger. I didn’t think an oversized iPod Touch would be but honestly, it’s a really elegant device for that kind of casual computing.

Safari doesn’t feel like a mobile browser at all. Surfing by touch is very intuative and immersive. I actually like it quite a bit. I woke up this morning, sat up in bed and checked my email, twitter and surfed the net for about 20 minutes. I even posted comments on a couple sites and I never felt limited in my experience.

Is the iPad a laptop replacement? No. But a netbook replacement sure. Absolutely. In fact, I think that unless I know I have to make comics on the road, I would leave my laptop at home and just carry the iPad with me on trips. If I’m just surfing and emailing, I don’t need anything else.

Comics:
Comic books look amazing on this effing thing. Big bright full color pages really jump out at you. I can’t think of any other word to decribe it but “fun.” It’s just freaking fun. The Marvel Comics app is sublime. I downloaded a couple issues of Fantastic Four and was blown away by it.

And that’s why it’ll be so dissapointing when the comic book industry does absolutely NOTHING revolutionary with this device. God damn it. I don’t know why I’m so cynical about this, but everything I read from my industry about devices like the iPad make me want to start punching people in the crotch. Everything I read online points to an entire industry either adamatly denying that the iPad will change things for comics or actively praying it doesn’t. Then there’s the truly astounding group of idiots just sitting there waiting to see if it does anything.

Retailers want it to fail because they want to keep selling physical floppy comics. Diamond wants it to fail because they want to keep being a monopoly for physical floppy comics. Fans want it to fail because for them, comics is about collecting, bagging and boarding, not reading. Creators want it to fail because they’re artists, and they don’t understand new business models or how to make money, nor do they want to worry about it.

What about the big four publishers? I don’t know. I suspect they fear selling digital copies of comics will cut into their existing business. That’s why the Marvel app is pushing Avengers comics from 1998 on me. Guess what I don’t give a shit about? The Avengers from 1998. What’s happening to the Avengers now? And how would it be bad for business to offer me those comics for $1.99 a piece?

That Marvel app should allow me to subscribe to my favorite CURRENT title and deliver it to me the day it hits shelves. How about charging me a premium to get it before it hits physical shelves? How about TRYING ANYTHING you luddite assholes! Hey guess what comic book industry? The iPad is not going to be a game changer. No technology is. YOU are the game changer. You have to DO something with the techology that is presented to you. Think. Be innovative. Try something bold. Don’t give me Captain Amaerica from 2004. Even a noble failure would be better than playing it safe at this point. Don’t you think?

PvP on the iPad:
When we made the iPhone PvP app, our main goal was to make it easy to read the daily comic on this small device. Opening the website in the iPhone’s mobile Safari is a test of patience. You gotta flick, pinch, stretch, and scrub to read the strip. It’s kind of a pain in the ass. On the iPad the entire site loads up fully and fast. It’s no different from reading PvP on a laptop. Safari is the PvP app on the iPad. I see no real point of porting over the application for the iPad. And looking at the iPhone app on the iPad at 2x stretching is dumb. Just open the site in Safari.

That being said. I want to draw stuff for this device. Bad. I want to see my comics on it. I want to sell digital copies to you. I want to make LOLbat iPad adventures. And I want to make interactive kids books too. It looks like it would be a lot of fun, and who knows, maybe even profitable.

Final Thoughts:
I think the iPad is pretty cool. I already have a desktop, laptop and iPhone so I don’t really need one. Luckily, I have business reasons for picking one up and playing with it. And I’ll make good use of it despite not really needing one. But I can certainly think of a lot of people and situations where buying an iPad instead of a laptop or an iPod Touch would make total sense. And those people are going to really love the thing. And in a couple years when it’s 200 bucks cheaper, everyone is going to have one anyway. You might as well get used to the idea.

I think that a lot of social posturing happens around these Apple products. It’s kind of dumb. I remember all the crap I took for buying the first iPhone. And now everyone has one. So what was the big deal? Who cares? How many companies released netbooks last year? Nobody knows or cares. Because it doesn’t matter.

Early adopters aren’t stupid. People who buy an iPad are not stupid. People who think the iPad is a waste of money are not stupid. Buying or not buying an iPad because of what people say is pretty stupid though. We’re all adults. If you can afford it and you want to buy one, get it.

They’re really neat.