Sunday, April 11, 2010

"What's so great about the iPad?"

(Image from Newsweek)

With intense interest, I read Daniel Lyons's article "Think Really Different" in this week's issue of Newsweek (March 26, 2010). Lyons captures almost precisely how I feel about the iPad without my having even seen one:
[M]y first thought, as I watched Jobs run through his demo, was that it seemed like no big deal. It's a bigger version of the iPod Touch, right? Then I got a chance to use an iPad, and it hit me: I want one. Like the best Apple products, the user interface is so natural it disappears. The iPad runs on the iPhone operating system, so it's even easier to use than a Mac. Like the iPhone, the iPad is a sleek, slim device. It has a nice 9.7-inch screen, weighs only one and a half pounds, and can play movies for 10 hours on a single battery charge. Right away I could see how I would use it. I'd keep it in the living room to check e-mail and browse the Web. I'd take it to the kitchen and read The New York Times while I eat breakfast. I'd bring it with me on a plane to watch movies and read books.
As I said, almost precisely. I have to imagine my reaction to holding the iPad in my hands, but I already know how I'd use it -- read the New York Times, check my email, browse the internet, post a blog entry -- and I'd do it while sitting on a subway train or after exercise while sitting on my sofa enjoying a beer. It's the first technological device that I've felt some excitement about since the 80s, back when I first got a computer . . . which was a Mac, by the way.

I was always a Mac-Man after that -- even while living in Germany -- until I came to stay in Korea, a place that has made using a Mac difficult, but the popularity of the iPhone has begun to change things, and when prices for the iPad drop, I will consider asking my wife to get me one.

Most of all, I won't have to fold and re-fold the great big pages of the New York Times while I'm riding the rails . . .

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14 Comments:

At 11:22 AM, Blogger Carter Kaplan said...

I wonder if the next generation device will use a lightweight visor assembly--worn like glasses, or even looking like fashion sunglasses--upon which data and images are projected to focus at infinity. As the user stares off into cyber-space, he or she will use a small hand-held device like a Blackberry to manipulate the projected data, images, and so on.

 
At 6:19 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Talk about isolation from one's immediate environment!

Jeffery Hodges

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At 7:50 PM, Blogger John B said...

I haven't seen one up close, but it looks like the iPad might be the best portable device for reading electronic copies of academic journals. I've heard the Kindle and Nook have problems with footnoting and (problematic for some of us) can't handle Asian character sets. Apple, on the other hand, has always had terrific support for Asian character sets.

 
At 8:22 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I want one too! I was asking one of my friends about the prices and he seems to think that the cost will not drop too much. If this is the case then maybe you should buy one sooner rather than later! :)

 
At 9:06 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

John, that all sounds good to me.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 9:08 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Melissa, that doesn't sound good to me!

I'm hoping that your friend is wrong. Prices have always dropped before . . . but perhaps this is 'Murphy's Law'?

Jeffery Hodges

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At 4:47 AM, Blogger Kiko said...

Seton Hill University is giving an IPad AND a 13" MacBook laptops to their freshmen starting this fall. Then replacing them with new ones in their junior year--to keep. Lord knows what the tuition hike will be. :/ But no more books to carry around.

 
At 5:18 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Thanks, Kiko, for that news and the confirming link. The world is rapidly changing, much as Steve Jobs promised John Sculley when he offered the man a job at Apple:

"Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?"

Those words enticed Sculley away from his career at Pepsi Cola.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 10:09 AM, Blogger John from Daejeon said...

We've come far in the last 1.9 million years: The Source of Mankind and he isn't in the Bible

Your kids might find this interesting

 
At 10:27 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Thanks, John, but did you mean to comment under "Imitation of Christ" (or somesuch)? Or is there some connection to the iPad . . . such as how far, technologicaly, we've come?

Jeffery Hodges

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At 10:47 AM, Blogger John from Daejeon said...

He and his mother fit under both. I just wonder what gods, if any, they would have prayed to back then as both the Christian one and the Geek one were a long ways away.

Here's a story that "60 Minutes" ran before Christmas that I found fascinating and not many Christians even know about:
Patriarch Bartholomew Feels "Crucified"


I never even knew the history of Cappadocia. It blew me away. I just wonder how long until Turkey destroys it?

 
At 10:54 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Okay, I'll take a look at these videos later -- don't want to bother my wife, who's translating at the moment.

(Oh, for an iPad!)

Jeffery Hodges

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At 9:17 AM, Blogger John from Daejeon said...

I think I'll take the openess of the "WePad" over Apple's closed-off version: German Tablet PC

 
At 12:06 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Hmmm . . . competition. Great!

Jeffery Hodges

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