Sorry it has taken me so long to produce another lost I hope to be able to post on at least a monthly basis... But we will see.
This device is a fairly solid device, but is not quite worth the money. Their are other devices that are just as capable for less, or with more hard drive space.
When I first got the device I was estatic. First I did not purchase this device but actually one it from a micro center contest. The first thing I noticed is that it hS to be connected to a computer running iTunes before you can do anything with it. This is a mild annoyance for me, but let's say you send one of these to someone who does not have a computer you better make sure they have access to a computer, or set it up before you send it or it will just be an expensive shiney paper weight to them. With as mich as this device is capable of you should be able to do all of these configurations from the device itself.
The iPad 2 has a dual core processor and gps/3G capability and between 16, 32, and 64GB models. The one I have is a wifi only 16GB model. Although the cost for these devices is high in my opinion compared to price and performance. While it is able to handle multiple task and running items in the background I had crashed it within the first week of owning it. I had to look up how to restart it from a frozen screen as it would not respond to any input including holding down the power button. The design of the ipad2 is much changed from the iPad without changing the screen resolution or size. The new essentially 2 plane design is much slimmer than the original iPad. This has both pros and cons. On the good side it is easier to put into a backpack or briefcase without taking up much space, but on the other hand it is much easier to drop now. Also with both the new and old iPad they have an brushed aluminum back which while stronger and better looking than an all plastic biddy makes it feel slick, and you will need to buy a case to keep from dropping it.
The new cases that are available from apple for the iPad 2 are innovative and will help dramatically increase battery life by putting it to sleep when the cover is closed they do not help with the slickness factor. When holding one with the new cover in the store I felt like it was not attached well enough. While the magnets will hold the cover in place with general table use holding it in your lap or in your hand it will come off and you will be left holding a $50 cover while your iPad goes crashing to the ground.
Now that I've got my frustrations out of the way let's talk about some of the good. First it has a huge screen at 10 inches where most tablet devices rank I. At 5-7 inches. This allows for great viewing of movies and the games on it. Also a lot of the most popular games for the iPod iPhone have been remade to take full advantage of the new real-estate. One of my favorite game is dismount. It is simply a game where you push a rag doll down some stairs to see how much damage you can do to him. on the iPhone it is a little difficult to get the setting just where you want them to maximize the fall trajectory but on the iPad this is no problem at all. This theme continues with most games that have been converted over to the iPad.
Let's talk about apps. There are hundreds of thousands of these that were designed for the iPhone iPod that run great on the iPad in either native mode or in 2X mode to make them more visible. Add that with the already thousands of apps for the iPad itself and it is hard to compete with. Setting the iPad on my desk and watching Netflix movies while reading, and tooling around on the Internet is great. Then when I need to go wait on an install I can just pick it up and take it with me. It is also great for taking quick notes to review latter, or creating checklist of things I need to get done in a day. And with wifi available almost everywhere it is a great calendar device. I take it with me to doctors appointments and when I schedule my next appointment I just put it into the calendar and it syncs with my email calendar.
Overall it is a fairly solid device. For the tech o enthusiast like me it has it's limitations and I wish it was more open without void g the warrantee (jail breaking). I also wished it had a standard USB port so I could hook up a USB drive, keyboard, and mouse. For your apple enthusiast it is a a must buy, but then again you probably already have one. For your avid movie watcher it is nice to have. For kid entertainment on long car trips it replaces the gameboys and Sega game gears of old. All things being said I would not have paid for this device, but getting one free I will not complain.
As a side note this entire review errors and all was written on the iPad.
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