New Tech

I'm several years behind the trend, but I finally got a iPad. From which I am writing this blog post, as a matter of fact.

Since I got the iPad from work, I'm mostly supposed to be using it for work. But given the nature of my job, that's rather difficult. So I've mostly just been playing with it and using it to make my own life easier.

The first night was pretty rough. This is the first apple product I've ever owned (aside from an early generation iPod) and the OS is very different from the Windows and Droid OSes I've become accustomed to. I spent several hours on the couch yelling at the iPad while Kevin laughed at me. Why is there no back button? Why do I need to enter my credit card info to download Chrome? How do I get rid of all these apps I don't want? Why is everything wiggling now? What do you mean you need my password again? I just entered it five times in a row.

But I persevered. I continued to play with the iPad and get used to a new set of shortcuts. One of my coworkers showed me a few things that I never would have figured out on my own, like locking the screen position and the need to close apps manually to save battery life. And slowly the good started to outweigh the bad.

There are a lot of things that are easier to do on the tablet than on my phone. Some apps, like blogger, work a lot better. As do most websites. I've been really impressed by the battery life, too, though I suspect a lot of that is because I don't have 3G. Being tethered to wireless networks has been more than adequate for my needs, though.

I've been getting some work functionality out of it. I can use it to take notes in meetings which has been surprisingly useful. And hooking up my work email means that I rarely need to bring my laptop home with me anymore, which is definitely a plus.

It hasn't all been perfect. There's still some functionality that I wish was present. Most importantly a sticky note or check list that I can stick on the home screen. I've gotten in the habit of leaving to do lists for myself on my phone's home screen, which ensures that I see them every time I use my phone. Having it hidden away in an app makes it too easy to forget about which makes it pointless. The home screen is also less customizable than I prefer. It doesn't let me just put apps anywhere I want or add calendar and weather widgets.

I also wish I could turn the GPS off, which is probably more of a paranoia thing than anything else. I can still be tracked through the wireless networks I'm connected to. But something about this device knowing exactly where I am all the time is a bit off putting, especially when apps that have no business knowing my location - things like IMDB and Netflix - then have access to it.

Still I can see the tablet replacing a lot of what I've been using my phone for. I'm considering downgrading to a dumb phone the next time my contract comes up for renewal and using the saved money to get a tablet. I'll probably switch back to a droid OS in that case, since it would have the customizability I'm currently missing. We'll see how things go in the next few months.