I haven't had an iPad for very long, but I love, love, love it for web browsing. It's like you're flying over your web pages.
However, I don't like how iPad Safari handles "tabs". I would much prefer traditional tabs where I could select or close a tab in only a single tap, instead of the three taps that are required now.
Regardless, it looks like I can finally retire my Newton.
Really? I try to love mine for browsing (on it now) but the silly thumbnail tab screen that feels like a clumsy iPhone leftover kills me. I almost feel like I'm going back to IE pre-tabs.
Copy/paste is also so much slower than a laptop... I don't know how to improve it, but it is relatively tedious.
I don't care about the lack of Flash, but broken iframes, no drag/drop, no way of bringing up the keyboard for things like javascript/canvas apps, no proper fixed positioning for CSS, no resizable or even scrollable textareas and the ocassional full page refresh when switching apps and/or "tabs" that kills form input all combine to make it a mediocre experience IMO. Granted, all this is also true on the iPhone, but it's a phone, not a 10" tablet.
I really like my iPad and I'm by no means going to return it, but browsing doesn't seem like the high point.
> Copy/paste is also so much slower than a laptop... I don't know how to improve it, but it is relatively tedious.
On the iPhone, screen space is precious; there's pretty much no other way to do copy/paste than the way they're doing it. However, there's a lot of room on the iPad screen—it would be pretty simple to have a "fine selection input mode" where part of the screen gets overlayed with a "touchpad" and an actual selection (vertical bar or crosshair, depending on the activity) cursor moves around on the rest, controlled by it. I imagine they're only doing it the iPhone way for consistency.
I haven't purchased one yet but had the opportunity to stop by the local store for a quick 30 minute demo. I was sold on the idea before even touching one and that quick session was enough to make it a rock solid deal (waiting for the 3G one).
The "tabs" on safari need an improvement. I instinctively tapped and held so I could reorganize them but they didn't budge. Still, it gets an 11 out of 10 stars in my book.
However, I don't like how iPad Safari handles "tabs". I would much prefer traditional tabs where I could select or close a tab in only a single tap, instead of the three taps that are required now.
Regardless, it looks like I can finally retire my Newton.