I’ve been lazy with my reviews, so here’s one about a product that has helped me catch up lately! I started back to school for the year in August taking on a 19 credit course load! All I can say is: whoa! How is a mom of three busy children supposed to keep everything organized, work and do great in school? I decided to get technical and try another Apple product.

I picked up a 32gb iPad in September in an attempt to better organize my life, and boy have I given it a workout! I have to start by saying that I previously brought my Aluminum Macbook to school everyday in order to follow along on power points, do assignments and have an easy way to look up the information I was looking for. I love my Macbook, but lets face it, it can be a bit heavy and cumbersome. The iPad may seem like a giant iPhone and many people say it wont replace a laptop, I beg to differ.

The iPad comes with many standard features that you may already be familiar with on your iMac or iPhone including: iCal, Notes, Contacts, Mail and Safari among others. We are also big fans of MobileMe to help keep our calendars organized and contact books synced.

After unboxing and playing around with my new toy, I immediately purchased 3 apps that I knew would come in handy to make the iPad an essential tool for me. Pages, Keynote and Task PRO. Pages allows me to download (or load) my study guides and assignments right to the iPad so I can review and work on the go. Pages does come with a lot of useful templates and I am even able to create newsletters and documents for work by loading my own templates too! Keynote allows me to view Power Point presentations my instructors lecture from, enabling me to follow along easier no matter where I sit. I can pull up the information again at anytime without printing off several dozen pages. Task PRO allows me to keep track of lectures, skills and assignments so I always know what I need to get done. The extra wireless keyboard we had for one of our iMacs works very smoothly with the iPad to make typing even easier. Although, I do find that having to turn off the bluetooth when I’m wanting to use the onscreen keyboard again is a bit frustrating.

With wireless enabled I can study and research anywhere on campus or at home. The iPad fits easily in my purse so I don’t have to worry about forgetting it at home, its always on hand so that I can pull it out to study whenever I have down time without bringing a bulky laptop or piles of papers.

Besides the education and organization aspects of the iPad I’ve also found that its become an awesome tool in other areas of my life as well. With the camera adapter I use the iPad to free up camera space and easily share pictures with others. When I’m ready to load them to my computer it transfers full resolution versions of my photos! I won’t have to tell other photographers how valuable it is to be able to proof photos right on location versus waiting until you’ve gotten back to a home computer. Instead of shoving the latest book I’m reading into my purse, I can purchase it for my iPad and have it with me without having to worry about bent pages or losing my place. The screen is also the perfect size for watching movies. Earlier this month I had to bring 2 of my children to a boring meeting with me. Thinking ahead, I loaded a favorite kids’ movie and plugged in 2 sets of headphones. (jack splitters are invaluable for multi-kid families!) The only noises they made during my meeting was the occasional giggle of glee. The iPad helped get us out of there much faster so we could get to the really fun stuff, like playing at the park!

The bad? I want WiFi printing! hey, awesome that it allows bluetooth printing, but I don’t have a bluetooth printer! Our home network is all wireless with wireless printing, it would be amazing to be able to print my documents without having to sync to my computer. Fortunately, Apple seems to be taking this request seriously and promises to unleash WiFi printing to the ipad in November. Yay! I also with this device had a USB port to allow easier data transfer, but I can live without. Many say the lack of camera is a deal breaker for them, not so much for me. I can’t imagine trying to take a picture with the iPad, it just is not light enough to comfortably do so. Which brings me to weight. Sure, its lighter than a laptop, but it does have some weight to it. You wouldn’t want to hold it out in front of you for long, but I haven’t found that I’m tempted too either. I sit with it either on my lap or table anyways, so it hasn’t been a big deal for me.

Overall it has been well worth the investment! I feel more organized now and don’t worry about missing an assignment or not having my materials with to study. I’m sure I’ll get a lot more use out of it as I continue on as well.