Don’t get me wrong — I’m not complaining about the great portability provided by the inclusion of the virtual keyboard in my favorite device. But for doing serious input when I’m not out and about, a real physical keyboard can’t be beat.

So, why did I name this post “Input Device #1″? Next week I’m expecting delivery of device #2 — Apple’s new Magic Trackpad. Yes, I’ll write about it then.

Both these gadgets connect to their host device(s) using Bluetooth. Yes, I tried out the keyboard on my desktop computer, too, where it also works beautifully. In fact, I bought the thing in the first place to replace the USB keyboard that is worn out. This time I didn’t wear the letters off the keys (which I have done on older keyboards), but the USB cable where it enters the keyboard had frayed and finally won’t make a reliable connection. This is the second Apple USB keyboard I’ve had experience this failure, so I decided to try again with the wireless version. I’d had a wireless Apple keyboard a number of years ago, but wasn’t happy with the fact that the Bluetooth signal dropped frequently. Now, after a number of OS updates, that problem has been addressed, so we’ll see how well it works. I think it will be better now, based on other recent Bluetooth experience I’ve had, connecting the iPad to both my desktop (iMac) computer and my iPhone. Crossing my fingers!

Meanwhile, here’s how I paired the keyboard with the iPad. First I pressed the power button on the right end of the keyboard’s cylindrical battery compartment. This makes the indicator light flash. That’s a tiny green LED on the upper right of the keyboard, that otherwise is almost invisible. Then, I opened the Settings app on the iPad, selected General and Bluetooth, where a button appears that said “Keyboard – Not Connected”. I clicked that button, and a message apppeared instructing me to type a string of numbers, followed by the Return key. I did that, and the button changed to “Keyboard – Connected” and I was done.

Interestingly, when the Wireless keyboard is paired with the iPad, the virtual keyboard doesn’t pop up on the screen when I tap in an input field. Instead, the wireless keyboard becomes the only way to enter text while it is paired. That is good in a way, since the virtual keyboard can take up a lot of screen real estate, but if the keyboard isn’t handy, but is still within range (33 feet, or about 10 meters), it would make it awkward to try to use the iPad. A simple solution is to go back to Settings and unpair the keyboard, but that is an extra step. Maybe future apps will provide a screen button to do that, but unless the wireless keyboard sees very broad adoption I doubt that will happen. It’s up to app developers to implement such a feature, and it would require a lot of user demand to push them to add it.

Ultimately, in spite of the hypothetical inconvenience of having to unpair when I want to use the virtual keyboard on the iPad, I am very happy with the wireless keyboard, on both the iPad and iMac.

I opted to pick up our iPad at the Apple Store in Austin, since we’ll be in that general area when it’s released, and it might be fun to shop for accessories at the same time. We’ve shopped at this store before, and know the parking is exceptionally easy, which is why I picked that one. We may be staying in New Braunfels, which is closer to San Antonio, but what the heck? Either way we’d have to get in the car and drive for an hour, so the direction we head in doesn’t make much difference.

Apparently I was not the only person a little bit excited about getting my name on the list of early adopters. Mashable said there were an estimated 51,000 iPads sold in the first two hours, and 90,000 on the first day of preorders! Not too shabby for a device the pundits kept wondering why anyone would want one. I know why I want one, of course. I’ve got a Kindle DX, and I have been very disappointed with it. While we do use it, most of the time I prefer to fire up Windows 7 in a VirtualBox window and use Kindle for PC to read my Amazon ebooks. When my iPad arrives, I’ll just use Kindle for iPhone on that instead, unless Amazon has a native iPad app ready by then. Color and a backlit screen make the reading experience so much better for me than eInk’s grainy, low-contrast screen that requires a strong reading light. I really don’t understand at all those people who say it’s harder to read an LED computer display than an eInk device or paper. They seem to get their data from the bad old days of CRTs with flickering, unshielded UV-radiant screens. Silly.

As an ebook reader, I certainly expect the iPad to be the best of the breed, but that’s not the only reason I want one. It will be a superb portfolio display, too. And using Reunion for iPhone combined with a collection of family photos, it will be the star of any family gathering. Oh, the possibilities just keep growing….

One of my primary objectives for having this device, especially the 3G version, is to supplement our very pricey VerizonWireless Mobile Broadband account. While that has been a real lifesaver on the occasions, like this past week, when we are in a place without acceptable internet connectivity, only 5 gigabytes of throughput for a month just isn’t enough, not by a long shot. Figure that only two Netflix streaming video movies would use the whole month’s allowance and you’ll understand. We simply use the internet too intensively to be happy with that kind of parsimony. AT&T’s iPad unlimited data plan, which we can turn off when we’re happy with local WiFi, will be wonderful. Phil will be able to watch movies, I’ll be able to get all the video tutorials and podcasts I want, and all the rest, without paying Verizon twice their already excessive monthly fee for using 1/5th more bandwidth, like we have the past couple of months. After all, as many people around the world have said, internet access is a basic human right.

So, we expect to really, really, really enjoy this device when it finally arrives!

Now the wait. Naturally, I “need” the version with 3G, otherwise what’s the point of a mobile device? That won’t be available for around 90 days. But in the meantime, I am downloading the SDK with iPad emulator from the Apple Developer site, and who knows? Maybe I’ll even get around to developing something for it someday? In my copious spare time, of course.