I heard people were planning to replace their laptops with iPads. "How could that be possible?" I thought. After all they cannot multi-task and the largest one only has 64 gigs of memory. That won't even hold all of my 24,000 songs that are in my beloved "Pedro Pablo," (That is my iPod Classic with 160 gigs) not to mention the several movies, albums of photographs, few books on audio and a slew of music videos.
I started seeing the iPad commercials and had to agree that the folks at Apple did something right. As always, the slick lines and the simplicity of the design called to me. Still, there was no reason for me to have yet another standalone Apple device. Aside from Pedro Pablo, there is the shuffle, Bernabe, that I use during runs and the new iPhone, Diego.
In October, I attended a conference that had a mix of business people, technologists, some developers and the financial press. There I saw the new toy being used by a large number of people. As I sat next to a gentleman from CNN Money, tapping away at his screen, I felt envious. Meekly, I pulled out Diego and typed some items into my "notes" app. It just wasn't the same. He then clicked on his Twitter icon and began to tweet about the conference.
I looked over at my former boss sitting next to me. He's far from a gadget guy, despite being the CTO. He was also looking at the oversized iTouch longingly. At the next break, he called his assistant. Later, I found out that he asked her to order two iPads; one for him and one for his Head of IT, "to test out."
I made it out of the convention and back home. However, I did pester Mandy with my sighs every time an iPad was shown on TV. I told her I really didn't want one. What would be the point? She agreed and brought up the lack of memory, multi-tasking. We didn't want one. We stood united.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from a consulting firm. I had participated in an industry survey, which had as an enticement to participate a chance to win an iPad. "Congratulations, Alex you won the iPad," a woman said to me. What iPad? When did I sign up for this?
And yet a few days later, there it sat on the kitchen table. I resisted opening the box for a whole day. What better way to prove to me, and more importantly to Mandy, that I didn't really want one. I opened it, played with it for a little while.
I downloaded the Kindle app; no need to buy a Kindle now. I downloaded the Zinio app; time to get rid of paper magazines. I downloaded EA Sports' latest versions of Tiger Woods, FIFA and Madden, all for less than $15 dollars; good bye X-Box. I downloaded the New York Times app. I never buy the paper, but now I'm actually reading it. I found myself ignoring my laptop and only turning it on to sync iTunes.
During a trip to Nevada, which I'm still on, I watched a couple of movies I had bought for a few dollars in iTunes. I guess I may not need a DVD player either.
I carry the iPad to work intending to use it as a note pad. I have yet to do it, but that is more of a testament to my awful note taking than anything.
Now Mandy wants one too. Should we wait for the iPad 2?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Somewhere over Oklahoma
