Toy Alert #35...

They finally made a Verizon-native iPad 2, and I saved my pennies up (which are a bad idea, BTW).

Here is the verdict after two weeks: simply amazing!

This is the best on-tractor computing device available. It's large enough to read and the touch-keyboard is much easier to use than a phone. The backlighting is great for all light conditions, and by loading the free Kindle app, I was able to give away my rather beat-up Kindle.

I can see my working spreadsheets and maps, via Dropbox, although the translating them back and forth between Excel and Numbers isn't worth it for me right now. (There is no iPad version of Office)

The camera functions are great. Here's what my days looked like this week (although too few of them).



Uploading or emailing video/pics is a two-touch process. It also "skypes" well with (Facetime) with two cameras.  Good battery life as well.

I'm still climbing the learning curve which has been pretty easy, except for Blogger.  One reason I haven't been posting is there is not good app for doing so for the iPad.  I expect the Google guys will have something soon, but I can't really post easily yet.

Still, this is the mobile computing device that dovetails with auto-steer to make cab-computing work, IMHO.  Best of all it's relatively cheap.

This is the device that will replace notebooks and make phones just phones again.

I recommend the magnetic cover, and maybe a heavier one for rough use.