Two months in with the iPad 2, it is growing on me but I am still on the fence on several points.
- Share with anything other than Facebook, Twitter and Email. I know there are other browsers, but I haven’t found a way to make them the default browser, so you end up invariably in Safari. Many applications include a way to display web pages without leaving the app, with a subset of what any browser can do. Which brings me to #2.
- Copy the URL of the current page you are reading when you are using an embedded browser. Look at a page inside Flipboard, Twitter or any other app and you end up having to ‘View in safari’ and leave the app to do anything with that page, which defeats the point of having an embedded browser.
- Collect links for research. This is an extension of #2. There is no easy way to
- Write long text. The default keyboard has serious limitations – serious enough to have apps such as iA Writer create their own keyboard or to see the rise of physical keyboards embedded in cases. Which would be fine except you cannot make iA’s keyboard a default across every apps in your iPad and you have to keep taking your iPad in and out of keyboard enabled cases as they tend to be bulky.
- Easily switch auto-correction on and off. The clumsiness of the keyboard makes auto-correction a must (I can’t count how many times I hit ‘n’ or ‘m’ instead of the space bar). Problem is – english auto-correction is a pain when you try to type an occasional email in French. Fortunately, it is possible to add foreign options to the keyboard, but they also change the keyboard layout. A switch for auto-correction only would be more convenient.
- View the source of a web page. Strangely absent from Safari… you have to set up a special bookmarklet to get that option back. I know most people do not case about the source, but why hide that option since it is still obviously available.
- Both delete or archive emails in the Mail app. When connected to a Gmail POP account, the Mail app offers either to Archive or Delete mails. I need to have both options available so I can decide what to do after I am done reading an email. because of that limitation, I am using Gmail’s web interface instead.
- Plug the power adapter and change volume. The curve of the iPad’s body makes it cumbersome to insert the adaptor and find the volume and mute button. I still have to turn it over and look at the controls to see what I am doing.