The iPad was released last weekend, and to celebrate I’ve made an excerpt from my book The iPad Pocket Guide available as a free download from Peachpit.com. (You need to click the “Sample Content” tab toward the bottom of the page to access the download link.)
As I mentioned previously, I’ve been working on the book without an iPad in hand, which only goes so far. I was not one of the fortunate early reviewers, so I received my iPad on Saturday along with a few hundred thousand other people.
In fact, I wasn’t leaving anything to chance. In addition to preparing the first chapter for the excerpt, I ended up writing the Seattle Times review of the iPad (assigned at the last minute). So, to make sure UPS didn’t have trouble finding my house, I printed and made some signs pointing the right direction and hung them a block away. I also set up a lawn chair and waited.
It’s funny that I chose to have the iPad delivered when I ordered, versus picking it up at an Apple retail store, because I didn’t want to potentially spend hours in line (as I did during the iPhone 3G launch). And so, I ended up outside in the cold anyway.
Fortunately, the UPS driver arrived fairly early (cackling all the way down the street seeing me waiting for him) and I finally got my own iPad. Good thing, too! I ended up making a few structural changes to the chapter based on hands-on use.
(I also made an error. When discussing Multi-Touch gestures, I used the iPod app as an example of shaking the iPod to do something – in that case, it was to shuffle the song playback, a feature that did not, in fact, migrate from the iPhone to the iPad. I’ve sent an updated PDF to my editor, so hopefully the error will be fixed by the time you read this.)
The iPad is a very cool product, and, I believe, represents major changes for Apple and for computing. I’m excited to be working on this book (even on a speedy timeline) and having fun exploring and writing about the iPad.
Jeff Carlson | Never Enough Coffee Creations 
I’m looking forward to trying out these bad boys when they get over here to Europe. I may have to order your book Jeff. I’d be interested to know what you find yourself using it mostly for? Does it lend itself to certain particular tasks more than others or what is your personal preference? Or maybe it just does everything better. It will be interesting to see the trends and apps. Of course we’re still behind over here so the finger tapping continues.