Sunday, October 2, 2011

Adventures in iPad

Good afternoon dear reader

When the iPad first was launched I was a skeptic.  Not only was I a skeptic, but I was a critic of the device and of people who bought the device.  I really didn't see any use for the iPad...other than as a status symbol.  After all, what good was it?  Oh, there were apps.  More and more apps were coming out all the time.  But I was not sold, and  I was not ever going to buy such a useless device.  Read on, dear reader...let's talk iPad.

As I said in my introduction, I was a vocal critic of the iPad.  And I must admit that my opinion was not based on experience with the device, for I had very little of that.  I had never used an iPhone or an iPod or an iPod Touch.  I have an old Mac G4 running Leopard, but that is it for my recent Apple experience (I do not count the Apple IIc I learnt on in high school...that's a long time ago).

And so, I vocalized how useless a device like an iPad would be.  It cannot ever replace a laptop or a desktop computer.  It had no USB ports.  It could not display websites that use Flash technology.  It had no expandable storage.  Really?  64GB was the maximum?  Yes, dear reader...I despised the iPad.  And anyone who bought one I labelled as silly.  These people obviously had too much money.  The obviously were more interested in the status symbol that accompanied the iPad...because apparently only the cool kids bought one.  And the rich kids, but the two go hand in hand usually.

My opinion did not change with the launch of the iPad 2.  After all, there was still no USB ports, no expandable storage, no Flash.  But there was a second camera!!  Sigh.  When would Apple get it right and make a device that I deemed useful?  After all, it was all about me...obviously my opinion was the only one that counted.  The millions of iPad owners were blinded by Apples marketing...they fell for it.  I didn't.  I win.  Or did I?

Dear reader, I was wrong.

In the summer of 2011, one of the schools I work in let me take home one of their iPad 2's.  They said 'Use it for the summer, play with it, work with it, learn it'.  I did that.  I told myself that I would go into the summer with my eyes wide open.  I would find as many uses for the iPad as I could.  I would prove to myself that I was right or wrong.  But I did give it a fair chance.

And so, I bought apps.  I started following the AppStore on Twitter.  I used the iPad in meetings, I used it on holidays, I used it at home.  My kids played games on it, my wife played games on it.  We actually liked it.  Over the course of the summer, I discovered more uses for the iPad than I ever thought possible.  Because of the long battery life, I can use it in meetings without worrying about my laptop battery dying.  I use Dropbox to access my files in a secure manner, thus the issue of no expandable storage is alleviated.  When we were camping, we played games on it during a rain storm (inside the camper of course).  My wife and I have had countless games of Scrabble on it. I bought an Office suite for it that is fully compatible with MS Office and integrates with Dropbox.  It was brilliant.

Yes, dear reader...I was wrong.  I found out over the course of the summer that the iPad was an invaluable tool.  I was sad that I would have to give it back to the school soon.  And so I made a choice.  I made a choice that I had promised myself I would never make.  I bought an iPad.  I bought the 32GB model with no 3G network.  And I keep finding more uses for it.  I would not want to do without it.

I was wrong.  Millions of people were right.  Kudos to Apple on a brilliant device.

FF

1 comment:

  1. I’ve been eyeing them myself but can’t quite justify the expense since my laptop is still in good shape being only a year old.
    Question, if it has no 3G network, does that mean it doesn’t have internet capabilities?

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