The iPad is an integral part of my life.  I’m finding more and more uses for it.  I try to carry it everywhere with me, because it has my list app, and I update various lists when I (or hubby) come up with something.  Even hubby seems to be an advocate — he’s always asking, “Where’s your machine?”  He’ll ask me to put something on a list.

We were at lunch the day before yesterday, and I was trying to discuss a visual concept, and I wasn’t articulating it clearly enough, so I grabbed the iPad, scrolled  to the Adobe Ideas app and sketched what I was talking about.  Then, we were able to discuss the matter while referring to the picture.  Now that I think about it, I may have had a photo of the part of the building I was discussing available, but the sketch was quicker.

I got Plants vs. Zombies HD as a birthday gift.  Yes, it’s addictive.  So is Super 7 HD.  You want to have your kid practice his or her ability to quickly calculate ways to make tiles that are moving around combine to form the number 7?  Your kid knows about negative numbers and how to multiply and divide numbers from -6 to positive 6?  Super 7 is the game for you — and your kids.

Here are the apps I use I use frequently:  Calendar, Notes, Maps, Photos, Max Journal, Dictionary, iAnnotate PDF, GoodReader, WordWarp, App Store (of course!), MyMood, Bento (database), GoMeals HD, Things, Safari, Mail, iShop, The Weather Channel MAX+, Kindle, What’s the Difference, Adobe Ideas, mSecure, DocStats,  Super 7 HD, Plants Vs. Zombies, HD, Words Free, and Web MD.

I just bought iThoughts HD, a mind mapping app that is supposed to be able to import and export to MindManager — the program I typically use on the “big” computers.  I haven’t played with this much.  I don’t use MindMapper extensively on the “big” computer either, but when I use it, I use it.  I, of course, also use Contacts — but only sporadically, but it’s one of those apps you want to have populated with essential data.  I have Pages but don’t use it a lot.  I also have PhotoPad and haven’t used it extensively, but the few times I have used it, it’s pretty decent.  I need to experiment with it more, and I have just loaded some photos  I want to do that with.

While on our vacation to Wisconsin, I used the iPad exclusively and didn’t miss having my laptop with me.  The only downside was my Lexulous opponents got a long break from our games.  I’m pleased to report they all survived.

The 16G iPad reports only 6.2G of free space available.  I think this will become a problem, but this is a first generation product, and I’m reasonably certain Apple may add more bells and whistles in the next generation.  Although, at this point, I’m not certain how many more bells and whistles I’d really like.  This is a great product with few limitations.  It’s entirely possible that in trying to “improve” it, Apple could mess up it’s simple elegance, and that would be a very sad thing.  When space becomes a problem on this device, I’ll re-evaluate what’s available on the market and consider replacing it with a device with more memory.