Thursday, June 24, 2010

Drinking The Kool-Aid

I've never had a new electronic device when they were new.

That is to say, I always wait a couple of years for the price to come down and all the bugs to get worked out before I sally in. That's a bit strange for a guy who been into computers for his whole career. I don't even have a smart phone (Blackberry, iPhone, Droid), just a plain cell phone - hey, it makes calls!

But I've got lots of other things to spend my money on, and 5 Nodlings to help me realize my proper priorities. But this time, it was different. I got a bonus for getting someone hired on at my work place which put a little unexpected cash in my hands. We have an upcoming trip to my sister's wedding in Cape Cod and I needed a GPS among other things. A 12 hour car trip means we need lots of diversions for the Nodlings: books, DVD player, games, video games, music, etc.

Adding up the cost, I found it was much easier to buy an Apple 64GB iPad Wifi +3G. It does all that and more. With the 3G cellular enabled, I can take this on the road and get directions, connect to the internet, etc.


I have to say I'm still in the first flush, but I am loving it. The iPhone was always super cool, but there wasn't enough real estate on it to suit me. Now, with the iPad there is. Sure, it doesn't fit in my pocket like a cell phone, but it's small enough to carry around easily (a little smaller than a sheet of paper).

It hold all of my music, a bunch of photos I want to look at later (and for the wedding), eBooks, games, maps, GPS, driving directions, email, Web, calendar, Yellow Pages, and a lot more. Currently, I'm ripping some movies from DVD that I'll want to watch on vacation.

This is the one that put me over the final edge: Universalis. Now I can pray the Liturgy of the Hours easily on the iPad. No more flipping pages and looking up the readings for me. Plus it cost $25 versus $200 for the full dead tree version.
Call me an Apple Fanboy if you want, just keep passing the Kool-Aid!

5 comments:

Bob said...

I've been very interested in the iPad since the concept came out. While I'm sure if Saint Nick graced my stocking with one I would be ecstatic, the other part of me wants to wait to see what tech spawns as a response to it. I would also like it to have a bigger screen because I would love to use it to carry around my sheet music (of which I have something on the order of 50 pounds worth). I use a 12" tablet pc for that purpose now, but it would be awesome to have something even lighter. Anyway grats on the iPad. Let us know how you like it over the long run.

Patrick said...

I got to play with one for a while in the Apple store when I was in NC and I loved it. I think I'm the target demographic. No laptop, no smartphone, no GPS. This would do it all. I'm going to point Kate to this post so she can see how useful it would actually be for me. ;)

Lindsay @ Lindsay Loves said...

Congrats on the new gadget! I pray the LOTH, too, and will hopefully soon be the owner of a spiffy new iPhone. It's important to note, though, that the version that Universalis uses is not the same as the one in even the $36 one-volume "Christian Prayer."

Nod said...

@Lindsay - I noticed a difference in translation. Are there more substantive changes than that?

Everyone I've talked to is loving their new iPhone 4. Hope you love yours.

Lindsay @ Lindsay Loves said...

@Nod: That was the difference I meant. Universalis uses different translations of all the texts, so it's not the same as the 4-volume LOTH (the $200 one) nor "Christian Prayer."

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