Apple iPad and Me.

To preface this, I will disclose that I have been an Apple customer since 1986.  I have personally owned a Mac since I turned 18 in 1996.  I currently have 4 Macintosh computers (PowerMac G5(server), MacbookPro (mine), Macbook Air (Rachel’s), 12” Powerbook (Not even running right now), 3 ipods (2G Shuffle, 3G Nano, 1G Touch), and an AppleTV.  And believe it or not, not one of these devices was purchased new.  Most were refurbished, and a few were used.  I am not a fanboy, and actually have disliked many of Apple’s decisions over the past few years. (No real display port on a laptop?? Why do I have to carry adapters to make any presentation at all???? Only two friggin’ USB ports??).  Anyways……

 

Let’s talk a bit about my usage.  I am not a heavy lifting computer user any more, at least at home.  I check email, surf the web, use Web 2.0 (twitter, blogs, facebook, ect), and do finances and calendar sharing.  Sometimes I do presentations, and papers for work, or the Fraternity at home on my Mac, but it’s just not an everyday occurrence.  I don’t have a single Macintosh game.  I do have a game I play in Windows with Bootcamp, but not very often.  Lately, I have been doing most of the email reading, blog reading, and Web 2.0 stuff on my 1^st Generation iPod Touch.  This has been great, as I am not spending as much time downstairs on my computer, and am more connected to my family.  But I still have to go to my laptop to do most of my web surfing.  Before I bought the Macbookpro in January 2008, I had been hoping for a 12” tablet, or new 12” laptop.  Alas it didn’t come to pass, so I got the MacbookPro.

 

Yesterday, Apple announced a device called the iPad.  It is basically a 10” iPod Touch.  Many people have panned it as it can’t multitask, nor does it run OSX, just a scaled version of the iPhone OS.  What I see, is possibility.  Is this the device I wanted in January 2008?  No.  Are my computing needs the same as they were in 2008?  Not even close.  I see the iPad as exactly what Apple designed it for.  A device to sit between devices.  I have my laptop to do the heavy lifting, and as a home base as such.  I can still take it with me if I need it.  But I see the iPad as a perfect replacement for my iPod Touch.  Perfect?  Yes, as it can run everything I have on my Touch now, plus it has the potential to be so much more.  What about Multitasking?  I haven’t used it in 10+ years as a Palm user, why would I need it now.  The Touch doesn’t have multitasking, but I get email, Facebook, twitter and other notifications when I am using other programs. Can someone explain to me what you really want multi-tasking for???  Please, people have had this discussion for years between PocketPC and Palm, and I could never figure out what multitasking brought to the table.  I used to read ebooks on the iPod Touch, but it was killing my eyes, and I switched to a Dedicated ebook reader (Sony PRS-505).  Reading on that is great, except it has all of the same issues as a book, mainly, I have to have a light on.  I look forward to hearing how the reading experience is on the iPad, and how you load books that you already own, or make yourself.  If that works out, I can combine quite a few devices into one.  Yes it will be larger, but it is a version of what I have wanted for over 4 years, and I can’t wait to see what develops.

 

The only thing this brings to light is that I would lose my music player.  I could temporarily use the 3G nano, but I guess this is basically pushing me towards getting an iphone (which other things have already been doing anyways).  Hopefully the mystical Verizon iPhone will materialize around when my contract runs out in 2011.

 

What are your thoughts on the new iPad?