The iPad has landed!

Just as promised, the fine folks at UPS delivered my iPad yesterday. I had been a little worried the last few days since the UPS site still showed my iPad in China as late as yesterday.

After a couple of Google searches (and a few Topeka searches) over the last few days I realized there were many other iPads "stuck in China". A quick search on Twitter led me to @ThomasAtUPS who must've been the hardest working person on Twitter! He responded to tons of questions from soon-to-be iPad owners. @ThomasAtUPS assured me my iPad would be delivered today. Well, actually, he Tweeted it to everyone.

I had the iPad shipped to my mailing address, which just happens to be a friendly local UPS store. On an unrelated note, we have done business with Jason and his crew for 15 years, back when it was Mail Boxes Etc. - we love these guys, they really understand customer service! Ok, now back to the iPad story.

First I went to Best Buy and met Arvin who gave us a great demo of the device. We also ran into friend of the show, Tom Moccia from BuyMeAniPhone.com who was there picking up a couple of iPads.

A couple of hours later the iPad was in hand.

First let me say; physically, the iPad truly is like nothing else I've ever held. It was heavier than I imagined it would be, which I was happy about. No one wants light and wimpy tech toys! Now, I know I'm a fan boy, but seriously, it just feels right (extra cheese points if you read that in Johnny Ive's voice... even more extra cheese points if you know who Johnny Ive is).

The first thing I did was open Photos. Nice UI! Then I went to Safari. I wanted to know what it felt like to touch the internet. It felt amazing. This unique way of browser interaction transcends the iPhone experience. It just makes sense.

I could go on and one. If you're still here, though, it might be easier to just watch the video.

After only using it for a few minutes, I can say that it is awesome!

Originally, I said I would have preferred something more like desktop Mac OS X, with Finder, but, I wanted this just for casual surfing and e-mail... a tasks that it performs incredibly well! So far, the only thing I don't love is the presentation of Mail while in portrait mode. I would prefer to not have an individual message shown when I open the application.

Crappy first-generation? No way! While I'm sure the next version of the iPad will be amazing, I am glad I bought the first. The web surfing is awesome. The iPad apps (like ABC, Twitteriffic, Words with Friends HD) are all great. Games from the iPhone (Tetris, Traffic Rush, Demonless) are a lot more fun on the large screen! And the speed. This thing screams from app to app. I don't care about it's lack of true multi-tasking, apps nearly all open where you last left them.

Happy Easter!