I Think the iPad is Changing My Life

iPAD

It's bizarre.  When the iPad first came out, I was one of THE most adamant "that's ridiculous" skeptics out there. That whole tablet thing just smacked of commercial b.s. for hard core gadgeteers... techno-freaks. And the money... for "that?"  Oh my gosh, how ridiculous !

That was then -- before so many of my photographer colleagues had them and told me the incredible things they were doing with them; the energy saving, productivity boosting things they were accomplishing. That was before I went to a two-day photo workshop by my friend Tasha Prescott and watched her run the whole thing from her iPad, interfacing with her mac and that big screen TV, running slide shows from the iPad wirelessly and seamlessly.  That was before I saw how perfect those apps were for niche tasks... and all the things the iPad could do with the apps -- thousands and thousands -- developed for it. THAT was before I held one in my hands... where upon I promptly lost the "that's ridiculous" battle and started drooling uncontrollably.  Luckily, another photographer friend told me about price reduced, refurbished units (generation 1) I could get from the Apple Store at the time (just after the iPad 2 came out).

No one has ever accused me of being an early adopter, but once I'm sold, I'm a heck of an evangelist, and I am absolutely sold on the iPad. Now wondering... how did I ever get along in life without it. I SHOULD have known, since the iPhone -- when I got my 3G just after the iPhone 4 came out -- was the first cell phone I'd owned in 10 years where I didn't want to take it back to the store (or throw it against a hard surface) within 24 hours of getting it fully charged.  The iPhone just worked "as advertised." At this point Apple could sell me just about anything because they make good on their promise. Period.

But enough hyperbole (that's for my friend Mitch).  The iPad for me is a great mix of technology, ingenuity and selective focus, not to mention it's just plain beautiful. It's about as comfortable to take around as a pad of paper.I'll sit up and browse the news sitting on my couch, watching tv and get informed.  That's big for me, since I don't watch the news. But I can pick a specific app that does exactly what I want it to do -- and that's all it does -- and it makes it easy. It makes so many things pleasant. And you might say, "but Kelvin, you could do that with a laptop..."  No you can't. Comparatively, the laptop is big and bulky, inconvenient and SLOW.  When I want news, "touch" and it's there --NOW.  A dedicated, specialized app for nearly any purpose. Browse the web, see something, print to my wireless printer from the iPad.  Snap!  Done. On the PC, it took 15 minutes to install that printer software, and program it, and set it up to wireless operation.  iPad app, downloaded in about 30 seconds for that manufacturer.  Tap the app, it FOUND the printer in about 10 seconds, and when I hit print, it printed. No muss; no fuss.

AND NOW... with the upcoming iOS 5, Apple is making the iPad completely self sufficient via the cloud and I won't even need to hook it up to iTunes to sync it? That's just too slick for words, and I don't even NEED the other 200+ enhancements.


So the iPad is changing my life. It's making cumbersome things easy, tedious things fun and it replaces my computer for about 80% of the things I use a computer for, and let's me do them with the ease and comfort of flipping through a magazine. And I'm reading this on the iPad that I said I'd never do -- like news (ugh) but only in small doses (see 6 Steps to Being Positive) It just makes it easy.

But that's me. Unless I need to do some heavy duty writing (like this blog post) when I want a full sized keyboard, or I'm editting images from a photo shoot and need the disk storage space for the images and the power to run a program suite like Photoshop and related programs, the iPad lets me do my other stuff -- quick stuff -- quickly, and simply, and conveniently.  And that's all I have to say about that (sorry, Forrest.)

Have an awesome day.

Kelvin