Last Friday (March 11th) I was in front of my computer a few minutes past midnight.  Even though I am usually up fairly late, that was a new level in “lateness” for me.

I was up that late so that I could go online to apple.com and order an iPad 2.  Having stood in line at the Pleasanton Apple store when the iPhone 3G came out, I was determined to never stand in line in line again for a piece of gear.  I was in line for 6 hours then … met some nice people, and decided that the iPhone 3G was the best phone that I have ever owned.  But, no more lines, ever.  Sorry Mr. Jobs.

Apple initially said that online ordering would begin at Midnight, but later moved it to 1 AM.  Ever the eternal optimist, I was online at midnight trying it out.  I got through at 12:15 and placed my order.  I was promised delivery within a week and thought that was a good deal.  While I was online I also ordered the HDMI video adapter as well as the VGA Video adapter and one of the cool new magnetic covers.

The VGA adapter arrived on the 14th, the HDMI adapter arrived on the 15th and the iPad arrived on the 16th.  I am still waiting for the cover, which should arrive on the 21st.

Longtime readers will know that I did purchase an iPad last August, but returned it 14 days later because it did not fit my needs.  Since my business has me making presentations and teaching classes that require the use of a LCD projector, I really needed the ability to have the iPad output whatever was happening on its screen to the external projector.  The original iPad could not do this, it was only capable of outputting Keynote presentations and Photo slide shows.  This wasn’t the fault of the hardware, it was a limitation of its operating system, IOS.  There were a few other issues for me as well, mainly revolving around the fact that Keynote presentations created on my Mac did not render properly on the iPad.  Transitions didn’t work the same and some fonts were replaced with others.  All of these issues combined created a deal killer for me, so I took advantage of the 14 day return policy and took it back.

I doubt that I’ll be returning the iPad 2 though.  For one, the IOS now permits me to show everything on its screen, no matter what app I am running, on my flat panel TV using the HDMI adapter, and I can use the VGA adapter with my LCD projector to give my presentations and classes.

One small gripe remains for me though, Keynote still does not recognize the full panoply of desktop Keynote transitions and builds, nor does it recognize my favorite font.

The prospects of leaving my Macbook Pro at home when I do my next presentation is exhilarating though!  As good as the MBP is, it’s heavy and I’m not getting any younger.  I am leaving for a one day business trip this week and will NOT be taking the laptop.  Instead the iPad 2 will be going, because it now can do everything that I would have needed my laptop to do…search websites, build Facebook Custom Fan Pages, read and send email, read my RSS feeds, and of course show my Keynote presentations!

Got to run now as I have quite a few Keynote presentations to convert for iPad use!