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davidnI think I've fallen quite embarrassingly in love with the iPad. Like most people in the world, I laughed at it a bit when it came out as something that looked like a step backwards in technology, looking like the equally poncey iPhone except more cumbersome and without the phone capabilities, but ever since my parents-in-law conspired with me to get one for Whitney's birthday, I've come round to understanding what it is.
If you'll humour me for a moment or two - do you remember the Van Helsing film from about 2005, and more importantly, did you stop laughing at it for long enough to take in anything that was being said? I'm reminded of the thing that Mediaeval Q Substitute presented in that, the sort of holy hand grenade that he said was an amazing invention but nobody could work out what it was for. The iPad had the same problem - it occupies a sort of unique space in being a non-computer that's used... slightly like one in some ways, and people didn't really know what to do with it.
What it's mostly used for between the two of us is as a sort of roaming physical web browser, going between the kitchen, living room and bedroom. The moment I realized how much I liked it was when I was curled up watching British television on Youtube with it in my lap - it's far more convenient than starting up the PS3 and trudging round an onscreen keyboard with its Youtube proxy, and you'd be very surprised how much more manageable a device is when it's just a screen. When you need it, the on-screen keyboard is surprisingly workable for something with absolutely no tactile feedback, and while I wouldn't want to do any extensive word processing on it (imagining for a moment that anybody else in the world has called it "word processing" for the last fifteen years), it does its job for making couple of paragraph long replies to things.
Already I vastly prefer it over my work laptop for idle forum browsing, even though unlike my previous Slimnote, using my current Thinkpad isn't like sitting with a square, bleeping rhinoceros on your lap. You don't even have to lug around a charger or worry about where the iPad's plugged in most of the time, because it's made by Apple and therefore you can safely watch DVD-quality video with the volume all the way up for eight hours and only use up half the battery. You would think that the lack of multitasking would be absolutely crippling, but it isn't - you don't multitask on it, because it's not a computer itself. Instead, it's like having a single window on your computer that you can just pick up and walk away with - and I'm beginning to realize the convenience of doing that.
There is one criticism that it, along with all other Apple products, will never be able to escape from - that being that it is incredibly expensive.
If you'll humour me for a moment or two - do you remember the Van Helsing film from about 2005, and more importantly, did you stop laughing at it for long enough to take in anything that was being said? I'm reminded of the thing that Mediaeval Q Substitute presented in that, the sort of holy hand grenade that he said was an amazing invention but nobody could work out what it was for. The iPad had the same problem - it occupies a sort of unique space in being a non-computer that's used... slightly like one in some ways, and people didn't really know what to do with it.
What it's mostly used for between the two of us is as a sort of roaming physical web browser, going between the kitchen, living room and bedroom. The moment I realized how much I liked it was when I was curled up watching British television on Youtube with it in my lap - it's far more convenient than starting up the PS3 and trudging round an onscreen keyboard with its Youtube proxy, and you'd be very surprised how much more manageable a device is when it's just a screen. When you need it, the on-screen keyboard is surprisingly workable for something with absolutely no tactile feedback, and while I wouldn't want to do any extensive word processing on it (imagining for a moment that anybody else in the world has called it "word processing" for the last fifteen years), it does its job for making couple of paragraph long replies to things.
Already I vastly prefer it over my work laptop for idle forum browsing, even though unlike my previous Slimnote, using my current Thinkpad isn't like sitting with a square, bleeping rhinoceros on your lap. You don't even have to lug around a charger or worry about where the iPad's plugged in most of the time, because it's made by Apple and therefore you can safely watch DVD-quality video with the volume all the way up for eight hours and only use up half the battery. You would think that the lack of multitasking would be absolutely crippling, but it isn't - you don't multitask on it, because it's not a computer itself. Instead, it's like having a single window on your computer that you can just pick up and walk away with - and I'm beginning to realize the convenience of doing that.
There is one criticism that it, along with all other Apple products, will never be able to escape from - that being that it is incredibly expensive.
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Date: 2010-09-15 11:43 pm (UTC)Was that sarcasm that went over my head, or -- for once in the company's life -- did Apple actually decide to give something a worthwhile battery, rather than deciding it was one of the expendable parts in one of its ongoing anorexic purges?
But yeah, I have to admit, as an iPhone owner... When you think about everything that you do on your computer, a very very slim percentage of it would be able to be done comfortably on a handheld device... but it isn't until you have one of those devices in your home that it occurs to you how great a percentage of your time on the computer that slim percentage of options actually represents.
Also, hey! You've probably mentioned having an iPad already, but it apparently managed to escape my attention -- pick up a copy of Words With Friends (there's a free version!) and let's have at it! (Just, as a word of advice, leave the Push notifications disabled so that it remains the sort of thing you can check in for updates on when you feel like it, rather than giving your iPad a license to pester you if someone acts on the game during your dinnertime...)
no subject
Date: 2010-09-16 01:08 am (UTC)During the one time in my life for the last several years that I didn't have open access to the Internet - at sea in the Pacific Ocean last year - it was quite a revelation to find out that everything I actually did on the Internet daily could be accomplished in about five minutes of paid Internet time (opening up all threads, going offline, writing up replies and then blasting them back to the Internet in about a minute after going back online). I don't know how I take that much time to do it during my normal life.
And I will, whatever that might be!
no subject
Date: 2010-09-16 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-16 12:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-16 01:17 pm (UTC)Van Helsing was that one movie that appeared to be godawful on one hand and furry bait on the other, right? I kept wondering whether it would be worth enduring the rest of the movie to see the cute werewolves or whatever, but currently still have yet to work up the courage to actually attempt it.
Already I vastly prefer it over my work laptop for idle forum browsing, even though unlike my previous Slimnote, using my current Thinkpad isn't like sitting with a square, bleeping rhinoceros on your lap.
I'm currently housesitting for my parents, so I'm currently in bed with Quicksilver on my lap (or whatever you call a lap when you're actually lying down.) Quicksilver, of course, is a behemoth among laptops, but that's because it's awesome.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-16 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-16 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-16 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-16 02:12 pm (UTC)