The ipad - I WANT ONE!


I do not have an iphone. I refuse to buy one until they drop the whole "you have to use AT&T" thing. It's not that I have anything against AT&T per se, it's that I have this perverse Welsh/Scots/Irish streak in me that goes against the grain. I don't like being told who I can or cannot do business with. Besides, isn't competition at the heart of our entire economic system? When Apple elected to make the iphone exclusive to one carrier they lost little old perverse me.

So instead, last year I bought John an itouch for his birthday. He loves it. It's almost as good as having an iphone - runs all the apps etc. - you just can't call anyone on it. (No big deal - we have perfectly fine cell phones for that.) And it's wifi capabilities are limited because - again, we don't use AT&T. But he didn't need it to be a phone. I got it for him because he was the only family member not to have an ipod and I wanted him to have one. That, and all the other cool things it could do, including all the calendar/organizer/phonebook type stuff he likes to use it for. 

And because all that touch screen technology is just WAY COOL.

I remember watching the demo when Steve Jobs first trotted out the iphone and thinking - "Man, that is the coolest thing I have ever seen. I'ts gonna change everything!"  And I was right.

Well now I've seen the roll out for the ipad and, make no mistake, this is also going to change everything. Anyone who doesn't think this is a game changer for the publishing industry is missing the boat. 

Take a look at the images they are displaying on this thing in their ads. Notice anything? 

Newspapers, people!

They are actively showing this device with newspapers on it. 

This tablet is going to be huge for newspapers, magazines, and I think most especially comic books and all other graphic content that is not currently well served by the kindle. 

I have never warmed up to any of the other ereaders - especially the kindle. Too small a screen, too clunky, too limited. 

One of my favorite inventions of the last few years is the changing orientation screen. My digital camera even has one and I adore it.

So adding the orientation thingy and the touch screen thingy and the big full color screen thingy has definitely gotten my attention. 

Plus, the ipad will be not only an ereader - it will be a movie screen, an ipod, an internet browser, - heck - I'm sure at some point they'll figure out how to have it make my dinner and walk the dog.

Some folks are complaining that it doesn't have a camera and you can't use it to replace a cintiq. I could care less. I don't need it to be those things. That's what my camera and my laptop are for. (Not to mention the fact that every cell phone camera I've ever had was was a piece of #$%)

I always wait until new technology is out and debugged/price slashed for a while before I take the leap.

I don't know about this time.

I think John better hide the checkbook for a while.

No comments:

Post a Comment