It's funny. I'm not usually an early adopter of technology. I tend to let things sort themselves out before buying in. This has been true since stereo came along to replace mono. The only time I got stuck was with my Sony Betamax, which was a wonderful machine, but turned out to be dead-end technology. Since then I've been cautious about getting the very latest new thing. So, will the iPad be another dead end? It's too soon to say for sure, but I don't think so. After playing around with one for the last few days, I'm pretty convinced that there is something to the particular combination of features Apple has put together in this very appealing little package.
On the one hand, it's a pretty good eReader. I haven't used the Kindle or the Nook. I've only paid glancing attention to the Sony eReader. But I have read quite a few books on my computer. I'm not averse to reading on the screen when it's convenient or when I need to read something I don't have any other access to. For me, paper will probably always be my preferred medium. But I like the added convenience of eBooks, and over the weekend I read one (well, most of one) I purchased using the Kindle App for the iPad. It was amazingly easy to adapt to the experience. The text was easy on the eyes, and after a few minutes, I didn't really notice any significant difference in my reading experience. The iPad has a pleasant heft and shape, and I felt like I was reading a book whose pages turned at the touch of the screen. After reading on the Kindle app for a while, I tried other options. Each reader I've installed on the iPad is a little different, but they all provide an appealing alternative to paper: the iBook, the Kindle app, or the GoodReader (which works fine with PDFs).
But the iPad is much more than an eReader, as I'm sure Steve Jobs would be quick to point out. It's a very versatile little computer. We bought ours for my wife to use as a substitute laptop or notebook. We're a little disappointed by the lack of Flash, but so far that's just about all we've missed. The other computer apps work well, and the interface is fairly intuitive. Of course, there's no real keyboard, but we've both learned to use touch alternatives, and the touch keyboard works pretty well for all but full tilt composition. So there is very little that you can do on a computer that you can't also do on the iPad, with more apps arriving every day. In addition to which it's light and handy and wireless, and also has really good battery life.
But we knew all of that before we bought an iPad, and those were the reasons we thought we'd want one. What we didn't know was how much we'd like using it. There's something futuristic about the iPad that makes it feel like a different sort of device, like something they might have had in Star Trek. I imagine that kids growing up in a world where these things are common will be different from those of us who came before. The iPad isn't really all that different from my MacBook Pro, and I still like my MacBook for most of my computing, but there's something about the iPad that feels like a turn in the road and the opening of a slightly different direction. Maybe it's the touch screen, or the way you buy the apps online and install them with one click, or just the feel of it in your hands. But it's definitely a new thing and probably just the beginning of a new direction for such devices.
2 comments:
Here's a really neat vision of a
possible future.
I still regret having to give up that Betamax. It may have looked clunky, but it provided a much better picture than VHS ever did. And, of course, now that it's a collector's item, we can never get rid of it (likewise those 600,000 Beta tapes we've got socked away)!
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