Okay, I Love My iPad Too

We’ve already established I’m not an “early adopter”. But for fellow slow learners, I feel compelled to say I love my iPad. I’ll be honest, I really didn’t “get it” when the thing came out. And I only got around to buying one because I haven’t bought a “smart” phone yet and...and I wanted a way to show folks my digital pictures. Sheeze.

But yesterday, while my wife was still in the hospital recovering from her knee surgery, there was a tornado warning. They had to pull all the patients out of their rooms (away from the windows) and shelter them in the hall. During all this, I was able to watch two separate radar feeds and post to Facebook all at the same time. While everyone around me was tapping on their tiny phones, I was reading, playing games and watching the weather. And the best thing about it to me? The battery seems to last forever. I know that’s just in comparison to laptop batteries but I used my iPad for around 12 hours yesterday and I still had 20+% battery power when I plugged it in for the night.

For a first-generation replacement of a laptop, it’s a wondrous device.

I had the same thought on the drive home from the hospital. If you had told anybody in 1975 that they would have a satellite navigation system steering them down the road while talking on two separate phones in their car, they would never have believed it. Forget the iPad and the TV screen in the back. It’s amazing how fast all this is happening.

Don’t get too smug about it. All this stuff hasn’t solved traffic jams. Just like NextGen won’t solve the overscheduling of runways.

Don Brown
November 17, 2011