An iPad test -- UPDATE

OK, I finally bit. I've been drooling over the iPad for quite some time. Then, when I saw that Best Buy was offering free financing for 18 months, I weakened. I had. been telling myself that I would let Santa bring me one for Christmas, but then figured that iPads might be hard to find when the holiday shopping insanity begins. So, I made a trip to my local Best Buy last night.

Now, the experiment: I'm checking out how well it connects to my home's wireless Internet connection (great), downloading music, apps and books (I've been an iPod touch and iPhone user),checking out e-mail (just like being on your regular computer rather than the abbreviated version when using your iPod or iPhone), surfing the Net (iPad not using Flashplayer has been an issue once so far ... can't use the Weight Watchers site without it, but instead will have to use the WW app), etc.

So, now I'm checking out how it functions on Blogger. Let me see if I can now attach/upload a picture with this post ... one of a dog, of course.

Hmmmm ... no handy little button to upload the pic. I got a message that I can only operate in HTML mode and not "compose", which is the mode you need to uploading pics. I got a message saying I needed an updated version of Safari ... the only browser that iPad uses ... as far as I've read.

One controvery about the iPad is Steve Jobs' continuing refusal to use Adobe's Flashplayer in Apple products.  I found not having Flashplayer a disadvantage when trying to update my food tracker at WeightWatchers.com  (yeah, I'm back on the wagon).  I can go back to using the free WW app on either my iPhone or iPad, but will have to use a computer to have full access to the regular WW account.

So, now I'm off to see if I can update Safari, find a substitute for Flashplayer, and/or find other browsers that will solve my Blogger problem.
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UPDATE: Well, my mission to find a way to upload a picture from my iPad to a post within Blogger continues to be unsuccessful.  I have found several alternative browsers to use instead of Safari, but to no avail. 

So, I'll continue experimenting.  Let's see if the iPad is more than some of the critics have said, saying it was just basically a big iPod.  There are some other great-sounding apps I want to try, and there is a myriad of accessories ... for which I must budget wisely.  I can attest to the battery's capacity.  The specs say you can surf the Net on wi-fi for 10 hours and on 3G for 9.  (Today, my iPad had its second charging session ... and I would say that between Friday evening and today I was on the Net and doing other things for about 10 hours.)

Some additional things I have purchased at this time: a great leather padded case by Targus (Best Buy), I downloaded a number of free apps and a few cheap ones, I downloaded some free ebooks, as well as downloading some samples of books.  (This is a cool feature!  You can sample a book before deciding to buy it.)  I bought the revised version of "Freakonomics."  So far, reading a book with the iPad is nice. 

Oh ... and here's the picture I was trying to upload yesterday ... of course, it has to be a dog!