Technology
I had no intention of buying an iPad on Saturday. I was all sleepy and languorous from an awesome acupuncture appointment (trust me, it works) and had ever single intention of going home for a nap when I realized that I was only a few blocks away from the store where I buy my Apple-related gear.
“What could it hurt? I know they’re already sold out [I had called the day before], but they must have a couple of display units so I could at least play with one.”
And they did: three units that were available for hands-on poking and prodding. And unlike an Apple store—I go to a small, locally-owned reseller with super-personalized service and none of the crowds and circus atmosphere that you see in the Apple stores—there was no waiting for either an iPad or for someone to explain to me how the damned thing worked.
Although I hadn’t been sold on the concept—What? I need another device to carry around?—but after a few minutes, I began to see the point of the iPad. But since the store was sold out of the model I wanted, I knew I could afford to hang back and think about it spending almost a thousand dollars to see if this was a device that really had any practical uses.
“How are sales?” I asked by sales guy. “Great,” he said. We’re down to our last couple until sometime next week. I knew from my phone call that they had one 32G WiFi-only model and a 16G WiFi+3G unit left, neither of which interested me.
“You know,” said Sales Guy, “A customer had reserved a 64G WiFi+3G—but he isn’t coming for it. Is that what you want?”
This is when I caved. Sadly, there was room on the VISA, too.
I resisted playing with it over the weekend—the weather was just too nice and besides, I have to make a big speech to some business types in Ottawa tomorrow and I was still working on my presentation—but now that I’ve had time to set it up and install some apps, it’s…well, interesting.
Syncing was a snap. I plugged it into iTunes and moved over all the music, apps data that I have on my iPhone. I installed the SIM card and signed for my data plan (A word of caution: that takes a little longer than you might anticipate, even though it’s automated.) And now I’m just figuring out what iPad-specific apps I need.
I’ll tell you this much: it’s much faster and snappier than the iPhone and the battery life seems to be insanely great. One gripe: the iBooks store isn’t available in Canada yet. All you can get is material in the public domain. This is why I’m reading Sun Tzu and The Art of War.
Do I need this thing? I’m still not sure, but given what I do for a living—explorations of music in a tech-heavy environment—I at least need to know if this is a content consumption device that’s going to change the world. Or not.
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6 Comments
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Resistance was likely futile anyway. As Sun Tzu himself said “He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious.”
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“but given what I do for a living… I at least need to know if this is a content consumption device that’s going to change the world.”
I smell a tax write-off justification coming… LOL
Can’t wait to hear your impression on it!
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The question is though, why should you have to physically hook it up to your computer and sync it?
You’ve got wifi for Pete’s sake! This is what infuriates me about Apple. Yeah, it looks cool, but where are all the basic things you would expect.
Of course the reason they want you to physically synch it is to make sure that you are getting your media from the iTunes software so that they have the best shot possible to sell you the media in the first place.
Apple sucks. That’s all their is to it. Looking forward to an open-droid world…
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Yes Alan….I understand your weakness. I actually marked the date of the Canadian release of the iPad in my calendar. I live 2 blocks away from a Mac Outpost store and find myself resisting the urge to go over just in case I weaken and buy something I absolutely do not need!! It is a sickness…I will resist….I can do it! Love your show.
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I just got an email from Kobo that they just released an iPad specific version of there e-book reader software. I’ve been using the iPhone reader for a few days and my sister-in-law loves her Kobo ebook reader from chapters/indigo. Good selection too.
Should check it out. The Marvel Comic reader is Epic as well if you are into comics at all. The panel to panel flow system is perfection.
Scott
Whitby, ON. -
The iBook store isn’t what you’re looking for at the moment, unfortunately. Use the Kindle app or Kobo. My wife bought a book and it was insanely easy. Too easy if you ask me…
Happy… uhhh… padding.
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