Can you read the Apple iPad display while outdoors? Do you need to be in the shade or can you see it in full sun? What if you are in the bright desert?

I live in in the mountains in Prescott, Arizona, but today I’m in Scottsdale visiting family. We’re taking the opportunity to play with the Apple iPad outside in the bright sunshine so we can answer these viewing questions. Here are photos & videos from this exploration.

We used two basic applications for this exercise: The Weather Channel TWC Max + and iBooks with free Winnie-the-Pooh. We started in shade then with the same applications open moved to bright sun and rotated so you can see the variation.

The video and photos were taken just after 9AM MST. We’ll check again at noon and 3pm to see if it’s different. Keep in mind that it’s likely that as the season changes to summer and angle of the sun changes that the viewing conditions will be slightly different too. (But will we want to read outdoors when it is 110 deg. F out? Not likely.)

Overall, reading the iPad outside is acceptable because of the application design. When you’re able to adjust application font size to make larger than average and can increase screen brightness all the way, then it’s readable.

Oh, one thing we didn’t do was take a photo of the iPad next to the Kindle. We’ll do that next.

Wondering what’s inside the Apple iPad box and what the initial user experience is? In this video we’ll take you through opening the standard retail box to the required PC synchronization process.

Like some other devices, the iPad needs to be connected to a full computer (Windows or Mac) for initial setup, updates, and synchronization of certain data. Apple iTunes software application manages this process. Advanced users can access photos like you would use a flash drive and may sync contacts and more via Mobile Me service. We’re using iTunes 9.1 running on a Toshiba Portege M700 Tablet PC with Windows 7. This is a particularly mobile combination, as the Toshiba Tablet PC is used as a primary PC even during travel so frequent syncing of the iPad will be possible.

Unboxing

Apple documents package contents fairly well: iPad, USB cable, 10W USB power adapter, sticker, and FCC docs. Nevertheless, it’s always good to open a package and see that what is supposed to be in the box is actually in the box.

Apple iPad is protected by a plastic covering that should be removed before use.

10W Power Adapter attaches to USB cable (included).

Setup

Setup time will vary depending on what content you synchronize. To make this simple and get started quickly, we selected to sync the iPhone applications that were already in the iTunes account. The process took about 20 minutes.

New Apple iPad

Connect the iPad to the PC with the included USB cable. After opening iTunes, it will detect the iPad and walk you through the setup process. You will need to have your iTunes account information handy. Also, before you sync make sure your existing iTunes information is backed up and current.

“Let’s get started” introduces the iPad setup.

How fast are you able to type using the Apple iPad onscreen keyboard? It’s a non-standard QWERTY keyboard, so until have the positions of characters like (, <, ?, etc. then it’ll take a bit of practice.

In the meantime, Loren decided to try his hand at a blog post and at the exact same time Layne was broadcasting doing the same thing. Here is the video I took of Loren typing his entry.

We’d be glad to share photos, videos, and other things as we set up the Apple iPad.

The iPad uses a PC to sync with iTunes application, which is required on setup. We have video inprocess of attaching the iPad to a Toshiba Portege M700 Tablet PC for synchronization, playing with WritePad, Autodesk, SketchPad Pro, Netflix, iBook, and more.