The iPad is available with a storage capacity of either 16, 32 or 64GB, which though not a vast amount, is at least solid state, so it’s a lot more rugged than a laptop’s conventional disk drive. The first to go on sale in the US were Wifi (802.11n) and Bluetooth enabled, one of which I tested, with 3G models also allowing cellular data transfer only just available. In the US, 3G customers won’t be tied to a monthly data contract, but will be able to buy airtime whenever they like, from as little as a month at a time – and they’ll be able to do this from their iPads. UK prices are, for the WiFi-only version: £429 (16GB), £499 (32GB) and £599 (64GB); for the WiFi+3G, the prices are £529 (16GB), £559 (32GB), £699 (64GB).

With its brushed aluminium back and glass-like front, the iPad is beautifully made, and its extremely sensitive and surprisingly precise touch-sensitive screen means there’s little need for more than a few external controls. There are four, in fact, one of which can be used to lock screen orientation, which may be necessary if you find the built-in gyro’s constant switching from vertical to horizontal annoying. And, for once, the battery life lives up to Apple’s claims, and it’s simply staggering how slowly the battery discharges, even when surfing or flicking through folders of images

The iPad has a 9.7 inch, 1024×768 pixel resolution (132 ppi), backlit LED screen, which is at least as good as most laptop panels in terms of colour and saturation. There are generous viewing angles, and it’s bright too, featuring an ambient light sensor like iPhone. Photos look very good indeed. The touch-sensitive screen relies on skin contact rather than pressure, so it has an oleophobic coating designed to prevent smudges and smears – only it doesn’t work that well. After only a few minutes use the screen was covered in fingerprints, although they didn’t obscure viewing.

Browsing speeds using Safari are comparable to a desktop computer, when there’s a decent Wifi connection at least, and the iPad is certainly no slouch when checking emails or scrolling through pages of downloaded apps, or indeed when opening them. Some users may find it odd using their fingers instead of a mouse for all these tasks but it’s difficult to imagine a better system for browsing.

A lot of people are asking if the iPad is a laptop replacement – it isn’t, but for many tasks it could be. It excels at browsing and email, for instance, and like the iPhone, the ever-growing number of apps will quickly widen its capabilities.

Flash-in-the-pan?
That said, Apple insists the iPad will never support Adobe Flash, which is a proprietary multimedia platform for the web. Given that 75% of web video is said to use Flash, this stance will put many people off, although Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims “almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads”. Be that as it may, it can impact on the browsing experience, though most users aren’t likely complain about the knock-on effect of missing out on adverts coded in SWF.

In Jobs’ recent open letter to Adobe, he put forward several reasons why Flash player hasn’t been installed on the iPad, citing reliability, security and performance amongst others, saying “Flash is the number one reason Macs crash”. However, he also hinted at the real reason why the iPad doesn’t support Flash – and that’s because developers will become dependant on Adobe rather than Apple to implement advances and enhancements in the iPad’s browsing experience. In the short term, that decision may be detrimental to the user, though the number of apps written for the iPad is only going to expand, driving online media content in a way we haven’t seen before.

Quite how it will unfold is anyone’s guess, but browsing apps from The Guardian and Paris Match, to name just two excellent examples, each with their content optimised for the iPad, is certainly impressive enough. However, you may find you need to pay for such content in the future, as publishers work out ways to monetise the new platform through subscription models such as that adopted by the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, which costs $4 a week.

Digital portfolio
No publisher is yet talking about passing on these revenues to photographer contributors. In fact, many publishers are currently slashing fees and demanding universal rights, with devices like the iPad uppermost in the minds. That said, the iPad has many photographers excited about using it as a portable digital portfolio, though clearly Apple didn’t think much about this as it offers limited tools to customise image presentation.

Apart from the iPad’s dock connector, there are no other ports. The bundled cable is used to sync to your desktop computer, and doubles as a power lead using a separate charger. Syncing is identical to the iPhone in that transferring images from your computer to the iPad is an orderly process using iTunes. In that process, however, images are resized and additional compression is applied for the capacity and screen size restraints imposed by the iPad.

A camera connector kit featuring an SD card reader and an adaptor with a USB port has been announced but wasn’t available for testing at the time of writing. However, while the USB adaptor can be used to connect a camera or separate card reader, I suspect JPEG and raw files will likewise be optimised for display; perhaps even showing the embedded JPEG from a raw file.

The default Apple Photos App is basic but quite slick in operation, thanks to the iPad’s ultra-responsive screen. Photos are stored as stacks in Albums as well as Events (Projects) from Aperture and iPhoto, or from sub-folders in your Pictures folder. The Events folder shows all the images in a particular category, whilst the more useful Albums option replicates those of your Aperture Project. So there could be as many folders of images as you like based on whatever criteria you set up in Aperture – ratings are an obvious one, or the bride and groom sorted by Aperture’s face recognition feature, and more.

Images can be magnified using the pinch-outwards technique, and there’s a series of tiny thumbnails shown for a few seconds, so you jump straight to certain images without swiping through rafts of shots. What’s needed is a way of rating images or at least a method of grouping selects chosen together with your client. Someone, somewhere will be working on that right now with a new app no doubt.

Indeed, a huge range of apps already exist, with many designed for the iPhone working equally well on the iPad. One app, for example, originally designed for the iPhone, iFiles from Imagen, which can be used to transfer images between the iPad and Mac either using the USB cable or wirelessly, is a nice example of what’s possible.