The iPad Hands-On Review for Travelers

I've been living and breathing iPad for the past two months in my day job at Popular Science magazine (working our our awesome new iPad format), so it was inevitable that Saturday would find me at an Apple store, whipping out the credit card. I'll take my first trip with it next week—a three-day quickie through Copenhagen and Stockholm—so we'll see then how it holds up on the road, but after a few days of really using it, here's how I think it's going to fit into my travel life, and a few must-have apps. (One thing I'm already thrilled about: The TSA has declared we can keep them in our bag!)
UPDATE: Apparently the folks at EWR didn't get that memo. They made me re-run my bag with the iPad out when I went through. In Stockholm and Copenhagen, however, I did just leave it in my bag.

Necessary Accessories
First of all, whatever you expect to spend on one (from $499 for the 16GB—the one I bought, but way too little memory—to $699 for the 64GB, all Wi-Fi only right now), add $100 for a keyboard and a case. Apple makes one, but several others are out already as well. There's no way this think will stand the rigors of airports and seatbacks without a protective case. It feels solid and weighty in your hands (despite weighing only 1.5 pounds) but there's still a lot of glass that could knock against that free-floating razor in your suitcase and crack.

And the keyboard? It fundamentally changes this thing from a toy to a laptop lite. It'll work with third-party bluetooth keyboards, but spring for Apple's, which holds the device upright when it's plugged in. Without the keyboard, typing with my medium-size hands is more tedious than on my iPhone because I still have to hunt and peck but the keys are farther apart. But plug in a keyboard and the ability to combine fast, familiar typing with super-intuitive hand gestures onscreen make this the coolest and lightest netbook you can find.

I'd also pick up Apple's iPad Camera Connection Kit, which comes with both a cable and an SD-card reader for dumping photos onto the device. And with the remarkable screen on this thing (it looks so much more gorgeous than a laptop screen), you'll want to use it as a picture-viewer each night. And it's perfect for e-mailing off a few shots, or posting to Facebook or a blog.
 
So What to Do with It?
My hunch is that for most people, especially those with smart phones, this will not be the device they carry in their day pack. It's too heavy to hold in one hand for long, so it's still the thing you pull out once you've settled at the cafe, not on the street to check something quick (that said, maps look awesome on the large canvas of this screen). But it is the perfect hotel computer for anything but the most serious business trip. It lets you easily e-mail, Facebook, watch movies, view and lightly edit photos, play Scrabble on the plane and read books and news. That's everything I want my netbook to do, a pound lighter and with a better screen.

The iPad's utility is still limited by the apps available, and so far, the selection of travel apps is pretty paltry. That's in part because it's early days, but also, I suspect, because this device isn't about delivering information quickly and on the go like the iPhone is. So Mobiata's FlightTrack, a great app on the phone, is still a great app here, but the bigger screen doesn't really offer any advantages other than a bigger map, and it's a bigger hassle to pull this out of my bag than my phone. There are a number of language-learning apps, which benefit slightly from the form-factor, in that using them feels more like using a workbook, but how many words do you need onscreen?

Some Early App Recommendations
Pages ($9.99) - This is Apple's version of Word and it's a really nice, basic word processor. I don't often have to drop photos into documents and move them around, but with this tool, I find myself wishing I did. It reads Word docs and files created with it can be read by Word.

Netflix (free) - I signed up for Netflix after seeing this app. Tap a "Watch Instantly" movie and within seconds, you're watching instantly in gorgeous high-def. If you want something to watch on the plane (and don't have in-flight Wi-Fi), use iTunes to download a movie before you go. 

Kayak (free) - It doesn't do anything the iPhone version can't, but the larger interface makes it easier to search by showing multiple panels on the screen at once.

Photogene ($3.99) - This is about the only real photo editor available specifically for the iPad, but it's nice enough. Hopefully, Adobe will get mobile Photoshop ported over quickly.

Scrabble ($9.99) - I'm not traditionally a Scrabble player, but after seeing this app, I have this vision of playing it at some cafe table in Italy. The coolest feature: You can turn your iPhone into your letter tray and flick tiles from it to the iPad.

Popular Science+ ($4.99) - Sorry, had to do it. But it is a very nice reimagining of what a magazine can be on this thing, and once you download it, you don't need a connection to enjoy. (I have to admit: Time magazine, also $4.99, is pretty nice too, and the BBC app also lets you do offline reading.)

Share your iPad thoughts and favorite apps in the comments.