My thoughts on the iPad

I know I’m more than a little behind on this topic, but I haven’t really blogged much lately anyway. I’m trying to break that streak so here we go.

Back on January 27, Apple debuted its newest product, the iPad. It’s a tablet with a 10″ screen and it runs on a modified, expanded version of the iPhone OS. It doesn’t have a physical keyboard, or any real connectivity that a full fledged computer would have. It syncs to your computer much like an iPod would, and runs all the apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

A lot of people were really taken aback by the iPad, describing it as a jumbo iPod Touch and decrying that it would be useless. Initially I was unimpressed as well. Though I have to say, none of us should have been surprised.

The iPhone was the device that was the true breakthrough for Apple, and a big part of that breakthrough was the App Store. Why would the iPad not capitalize on the App Store?

Most people out there are at least somewhat familiar with the iPhone or iPod Touch. They have one or know someone who has one or at least knows the basics of how they work. The iPad runs the iPhone OS because it makes it extremely easy for these people to adopt it. The iPhone is the device that started to break the barrier down between PC’s and phones and put a smartphone in the average user’s hands. And the iPad is an extension of that.

Now, I am an unabashed Apple fan. The iPad makes me drool because it’s an Apple product, and it’s an extension of the iPhone. I’m torn over it though. On one hand I think it’s something I could use, something I could do the majority of my browsing and computering on without having to have my Macbook out all the time.

On the other hand, it doesn’t have any real file system. It doesn’t have USB capability. I was expecting something a little closer to the feature set that a tablet PC would offer, but not full-fledged OSX. So I’d say the iPad as it sits fills about 70% of what I’d want in an Apple tablet.

So will I get one? Probably. When I think about the few shortcomings the iPad has, I think about the shortcomings the iPhone had when it first came out. We didn’t have the App Store then, or MMS, or even a sideways keyboard for texting. The hardware on the iPad is certainly capable of doing more in the future, so a lot of new features may come in the way of software upgrades.

Multitasking is probably the main feature I hope we see in future updates to the iPhone OS. That was one of the biggest complaints people had about the iPad and it is still a legitimate complaint about the iPhone, although most of the time I don’t find it as much more than a minor annoyance.

I can’t wait to see an iPad up close and personal. I think I won’t be buying one sight unseen, but the proof may be in the hands-on.

Latest work on the cars

Over the last couple months I’ve been doing some work on my cars. Mainly I’ve been trying to get the Grand Prix road worthy again, and I’ve been doing some other mods to the G8. Yeah, I know, I swore I wouldn’t do anything to it when I got it, but I guess that didn’t last. I’m sure everyone is surprised.

The GP
For the Grand Prix, I started out by buying a new head unit. Well, it’s new to me. It’s an Eonon 821, and I got it from my friend Justin, who had it in his Tahoe. He complained of unbearable alternator whine, but I figured I’d chance it since the head unit I had before didn’t even play discs. This one is pretty slick, it has a 1.5 din face on a 1 din unit, with a big touchscreen. It plays DVDs, has an SD card slot, has iPod controls, and even has bluetooth for a speaker phone. I loaded up a 2GB SD card with music and put it in there, and also loaded up the Cambered Videos “Grounded” DVD for show duty.

Next in line for the GP was some maintenance work. about a year ago a recall was issued on the 97-03 Grand Prixs because the front valve cover gasket leaks oil, which then builds up behind the spark plug wire retainers, and also on the exhaust manifold, and eventually it catches fire. I never drive my car, but I figured I should do the work anyway. Not trusting the dealership to fix it (and knowing it’s a simple fix) I took at it myself. I removed the spark plug retainers, which wasn’t that hard. I did find that the valve cover gasket is definitely leaking, so the gasket and grommets will need to be replaced. I didn’t check the rear gasket, but I hope it doesn’t need replacing as it is a pain to get to. I’ll order the gaskets and get them replaced fairly soon.

The other project ongoing with the GP is finishing up the trunk and trimming it out to hide the compressor and air tank, and also to build an enclosure for my sub. I think I am going to end up going the fiberglass route for the sub box, if Justin will help me along the way and sort of show me how it’s done. Right now I’ve been working on a template for the false floor that should be done in a week or so. It’s been very cold so I have been less than motivated to get out there and work on it.

The G8
I bought a few things for the G8 with Christmas money. I picked up polished billet grills for the front of the car and I really like how they turned out. Most people get the mesh type grills and I wanted to do something different.

Out back, I totally debadged the rear of the car and switched the rear diffuser panel to the one from the G8 GXP. It looks a lot better.

I took the car to Oxford Muffler and had John and Bill put on a 2.5″ X-pipe in place of the stock mid muffler. They also built Heimholtz resonators on the axle backs to tune out the nasty 120hz drone I was seeing on the highway. It seems to be better now. Took 3 trips out there to get the length of the tubes right (my fault, not theirs).

I also decided to bite the bullet and buy some wheels. Tires for the stock 19s are so expensive. So, I used that as a good excuse to buy 20s. I’m having to piecemeal it a bit because I’m impatient and don’t want to wait to save all the money up, so far I have 2 of the wheels, the lug nuts, and the TPMS sensors. The wheels are 20×8.5″ TSW Indy 500s. I’ve only seen them on one or two other G8s online so I feel like I will have something a little different than everyone else.

Finally, I fabricated video and audio input cables for the rear auxiliary input on the stock head unit. I used USB connectors from my mom’s old dead computer – the header plugs that plug in to the motherboard. I pulled out the other pins and then took some spare RCA cables I had laying around and spliced them in. The installation of the cables a bit were kind of a pain because you have to remove the side console trim and drop the glove box. It doesn’t take long but there’s not a lot of room to work in there. Plus I kept plugging the connectors in the wrong spots. Finally I got it work. It only displays video on the screen when you are under 5mph unless you buy the Video in Motion kit from JHP which is nearly $400. I think for right now it will stay the way it is, because that’s not quite in my budget for this year.

Unless I don’t buy the iPad.

Which we all know I will.