When Apple first announced the iPad I admit that I could not really see the use case but I quickly realised that this was the ideal device for my wife. She is not a major computer user, for example her email goes unread for ages because of the inconvenience of using a computer located upstairs. An easy to use, quickly accessed system would be ideal for her. However, an important application for us is using Skype to keep in touch with our children so the lack of a camera ruled out the first iPad. Thus on Friday I was queueing outside a local Apple store for an iPad2 and, of course, task #1 this weekend has been setting up our shiny new toy. First impressions: amazingly thin and light, great screen and the cover is really clever. If I was not already an iPhone user I would probably be impressed by the operating system too.
A couple of moans so far:
- the appearance of iPhone only apps looks a bit strange if you hit the 2x scale button
- Google search insists on using google.nl when I want to use google.co.uk; I have been able to change the default on my iPhone so why not the iPad?
One real positive:
- being able to set up VPN very easily.
I think it is worth sharing the steps necessary to do that:
- Open the settings app
- Click on “General”, “Network”, “VPN”, “Add VPN Configuration”
- Now you need to know the settings for your VPN service:
– select L2TP, PPTP, or IPSec as appropriate
– enter account details
– choose “All Traffic” On/Off
– set proxy to Off, Manual or Auto
In theory you can get the VPN to kick in only for specific sites using All Traffic:Off and entering details under Proxy:Auto but I could not get the BBC iPlayer app to work properly that way so have opted for All Traffic:On.
Once set up you can switch the VPN on or off via Settings: “General”, “Network”, “VPN”.