Despite its commonly perceived shortcomings, I'm still very, very happy with my iPad. For some odd reason, I'm not (yet?) as excited about the upcoming iPad 2. Maybe it's because I'm just taking a "let's wait and see" attitude toward it. So you can bet I'll be watching tomorrow's Apple event with great curiosity.
In testimony to my happiness with the iPad, I'll say that it came in VERY handy during the last two winter storms that caused extended power outages.
I live in the high foothills (around 4000' elevation) of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in northern California. In late November and again just this past week, we got walloped with snowstorms that left upwards of 3 to 4 feet of snow with temps down into the teens. With that came power outages that lasted 4-5 days at a time.
No biggie. Fire up the wood stove. Bring in the 115 amp-hour deep cycle marine battery portable power pack with charging ports. Boil some hot water on the wood stove for the cocoa (and cook meals). Turn on the battery- powered lanterns. Then fire up the iPad on 3G (I live in a fringe area where AT&T and Sprint towers are located about 6 miles across the canyon).
Then...watch episodes of Futurama and a couple of movies on Netflix, surf the web, do email, listen to and watch my basketball team's games, watch some internet TV, check weather and power outage status, download and read National Geographic and other magazines using Zinio, play Angry Birds and do crossword puzzles, listen to the local radio station broadcasting via the web, read an ebook, do a little art, write in my journal plus work on my poetry and even make some phone calls. All on 3G (I have one of the grandfathered unlimited accounts...SO totally worth it!). Sure, there were times when the signal would drop to Edge, but while that was too slow for surfing, etc. it was fine for emails and streaming radio. Just so many different things to do when you're sitting in the lantern-lit dark by the fire when you're not shoveling snow.
The big thing is that I was able to keep in touch with my family and friends with the iPad at a time when the power takes out my phone service and my cell phone is barely getting any signal at all (have to stand out on the deck in one spot for that). That impresses me the most. Especially since I live alone, have no close neighbors and-with the amount of snow-being stuck at home for days on end before a plow comes around (in fact, nobody on my road could get in or out).
So, besides being an entertainment device, my iPad has allowed me to be productive, occupied and in touch when I'm socked in. Trust me, the lack of a camera, Flash, retina display, etc. hasn't even entered my mind. I'm just thankful for such a device that performs so well for so many things. And for the battery life...it's tremendous. There is just no way I would've been able to do all of this stuff with my laptop, particularly with regard to portability, ease of holding and battery power (I can NOT stand toting around an AC adapter and charger plus trying to find an AC socket to which I'll be chained to every 2-3 hours! BOO!).
So here's to my iPad, which I've had almost a full year. Will I replace it with an iPad 2? Possibly not. Why? The primary reason is battery power. While the new iPad is most likely to be lighter and thinner with more features (possibly a more powerful processor and more memory, along with camera or two, etc.), the chance of it having the same battery power-let alone have more- seems to be getting a bit less likely. That's a deal-breaker for me. The three most important things to me in a portable computing device are: 1) form factor (thus portability), 2) sheer functionality with consistent performance and 3) long battery life. I'm sure the iPad2 will address the first two points but the third may be somewhat of an issue. Hopefully, I'm wrong. That'd be an amazing feat to overcome. We'll see.
But, for now, I'm happy as a clam with my iPad.
In testimony to my happiness with the iPad, I'll say that it came in VERY handy during the last two winter storms that caused extended power outages.
I live in the high foothills (around 4000' elevation) of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in northern California. In late November and again just this past week, we got walloped with snowstorms that left upwards of 3 to 4 feet of snow with temps down into the teens. With that came power outages that lasted 4-5 days at a time.
No biggie. Fire up the wood stove. Bring in the 115 amp-hour deep cycle marine battery portable power pack with charging ports. Boil some hot water on the wood stove for the cocoa (and cook meals). Turn on the battery- powered lanterns. Then fire up the iPad on 3G (I live in a fringe area where AT&T and Sprint towers are located about 6 miles across the canyon).
Then...watch episodes of Futurama and a couple of movies on Netflix, surf the web, do email, listen to and watch my basketball team's games, watch some internet TV, check weather and power outage status, download and read National Geographic and other magazines using Zinio, play Angry Birds and do crossword puzzles, listen to the local radio station broadcasting via the web, read an ebook, do a little art, write in my journal plus work on my poetry and even make some phone calls. All on 3G (I have one of the grandfathered unlimited accounts...SO totally worth it!). Sure, there were times when the signal would drop to Edge, but while that was too slow for surfing, etc. it was fine for emails and streaming radio. Just so many different things to do when you're sitting in the lantern-lit dark by the fire when you're not shoveling snow.
The big thing is that I was able to keep in touch with my family and friends with the iPad at a time when the power takes out my phone service and my cell phone is barely getting any signal at all (have to stand out on the deck in one spot for that). That impresses me the most. Especially since I live alone, have no close neighbors and-with the amount of snow-being stuck at home for days on end before a plow comes around (in fact, nobody on my road could get in or out).
So, besides being an entertainment device, my iPad has allowed me to be productive, occupied and in touch when I'm socked in. Trust me, the lack of a camera, Flash, retina display, etc. hasn't even entered my mind. I'm just thankful for such a device that performs so well for so many things. And for the battery life...it's tremendous. There is just no way I would've been able to do all of this stuff with my laptop, particularly with regard to portability, ease of holding and battery power (I can NOT stand toting around an AC adapter and charger plus trying to find an AC socket to which I'll be chained to every 2-3 hours! BOO!).
So here's to my iPad, which I've had almost a full year. Will I replace it with an iPad 2? Possibly not. Why? The primary reason is battery power. While the new iPad is most likely to be lighter and thinner with more features (possibly a more powerful processor and more memory, along with camera or two, etc.), the chance of it having the same battery power-let alone have more- seems to be getting a bit less likely. That's a deal-breaker for me. The three most important things to me in a portable computing device are: 1) form factor (thus portability), 2) sheer functionality with consistent performance and 3) long battery life. I'm sure the iPad2 will address the first two points but the third may be somewhat of an issue. Hopefully, I'm wrong. That'd be an amazing feat to overcome. We'll see.
But, for now, I'm happy as a clam with my iPad.
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