1. Traveling with the iPad is liberating.

2. The iPad on-screen keyboard still works well for me, better than I might have expected, but it’s still not the best for typing anything of length.

3. iPad battery life is amazing. I have no problem getting across country, listening to music, reading books, watching videos or working [...]]]>

1. Traveling with the iPad is liberating.

2. The iPad on-screen keyboard still works well for me, better than I might have expected, but it’s still not the best for typing anything of length.

3. iPad battery life is amazing. I have no problem getting across country, listening to music, reading books, watching videos or working and I still have plenty of battery life left.

4. Apple’s iWork leaves much to be desired.

5. The iPads method for dealing with document management leaves much to be desired.

6. The iPad’s screen has really nasty glare when viewed from the wrong angle. It’s easy enough to adjust but it makes it harder to use in certain places. Of course, the glossy screen on my MacBook has the same issue.

7. A case is a must. Not for durability. The iPad seems pretty solid and most stress tests show the glass is rock solid. Rather, a case is needed to get the iPad into a workable angle when using a desk or tray table.

8. iPads attract attention. If you travel with one, get used to giving demos to those around you. It’s par for the course for early adopters.

9. I’ve had no issues with WiFi as others have reported but there’s times when WiFi just isn’t available.

10. Downloading movies in hotel rooms can take forever, stock up on your content before you leave home.

via Two weeks of travel, Ten iPad lessons – SlashGear.

So Apple is not taking pre-orders for the iPad. Maximum 2 per customers.  I bet there will be a lot of them for sale above market price on eBay comes April 3rd.  Seriously, I would really like to get one of those but at the moment I can’t justify it [...]]]>

Got to resist the urge… garrrrrrr gnarrrrr

So Apple is not taking pre-orders for the iPad. Maximum 2 per customers.  I bet there will be a lot of them for sale above market price on eBay comes April 3rd.  Seriously, I would really like to get one of those but at the moment I can’t justify it ;-(  I am sure it will turn to be a game changing device (like the iPhone was).

At 1st there won’t be much killer app for it but give it 6 months and then there will be some serious applications that will make this think unavoidable.  Hopefully the shortage will have evaporated by then and my wallet will have some extra cash waiting to escape.  Until then I need to pay for my family summer vacation!

Not conceding defeat I decided to try it the [...]]]> OK, as you have read before I have tried Listia to see how it work.  My 1st listing attempt was one where I clearly stated that I was in to buy Credits with Paypal payment.  That did not went too well as Listia delisted both my listings. Bummer.

Not conceding defeat I decided to try it the way others are doing it. That is by buying Amazon.com gift cards and sending them to the listing winner.  As expected Listia did not de-list that one.  It actually completed without any problem and I made an ample 491 credits for a 5$ investment.  This is much better than buying 50 credits for 5$ as Listia gladly offer on their web site.

The challenge is now to convert those credits in $ profit.  One option is to buy others Amazon gift card codes for less than 491 credits.  This way I can accumulate leftover credits to buy more cards then sell them back at for more credits.  The risk here is that I hove no guarantee of how may credits they will go for as I can’t put a reserve… So I could end-up loosing in the end.

I will monitor things some more to see emerging patterns that might put me at better odds of making profit.  I will keep you posted.

In an effort to cut down the silly gift card business out of the equation I have created a [...]]]> Tonight I decided to do an experiment.  I recently joined Listia.com and noticed an interesting trend.  People are listing iTunes, Visa, etc, etc gift cards.  What this amount to is that they are actually buying (knowingly or not) Listia Credits.

In an effort to cut down the silly gift card business out of the equation I have created a listing that openly offer to BUY Listia Credits based on a flexible “Listia Credits to $” table.  You can see the details at http://www.listia.com/auction/113282.

There is chance that Listia will cancel my auction… but really I don’t think I am breaching any site rules here.  I am offering to BUY Credits and guess what… it mean sending money to the “bidder” in return via Paypal. It is perfectly legal.

The only reason I could see them terminate the listing is because they might want to prevent people to openly buy credits for less than they sell them. Listia is currently selling 1 credit for 0.1$.  I am offering around 0.016$ per credit.  A lot less but in line with what credits are trading today on Listia.

If successful, my next challenge will be to devise a way to sell Listia Credits I bought.  This will likely prove harder but I have a few ideas.  Could this be the beginning of a Listia Credit Exchange Market?  Maybe.

UPDATE

Look like Listia want the monopoly of selling Credits.  They killed both my listings for buying Listia credits on the basis that they where confusing.  Right! The only thing confusing is why Listia won’t let it’s users buy credits by offering money to other users in exchange.  They are OK with people selling silly Gift Cards.  This is essentially the same but with a piece of plastic instead of an electronic money transfer.

I am currently running an experiment where I am offering a gift card with variable [...]]]> I stumbled on this new anti-ebay service called Listia. It allows you to unload all the stuff you don’t need in exchange for “Listia Credits”. You then use those credits to acquire goods other Listia members are listing. Simple? Yep!

I am currently running an experiment where I am offering a gift card with variable value based on the amount of credits I will get… sor of like assigning a $ value to a credit. Right now I estimate that a credit run for about 0.016$. This is based on today’s ended auctions for gift cards… so I am pricing my offering according to that.

I will keep an eye on future listings to see if credits value goes up or down… like tracking the value of the dollar. My reference will be the US$.

You can check the progress of my experiment at http://www.listia.com/auction/113282

I have also created a page where one can track Listia Credits Exchange Rate at http://netputing.com/listiacrx