The iPad Advantage

A common question I get from people seeking my “tech recommendation” if they need an iPad – as if it were a difficult choice to make between a touch device or laptop. That is to say if they have an iPhone/iPod touch, the iPad seems redundant. If they have a laptop, the iPad will also seem redundant. It looks like they feel that if they get an iPad, they’d have to let go of one or the other.

But everyone who has talked to me about the iPad knows that I don’t believe this to be the case – far from it. They know I’m a fan of the iPad, and that I would even recommend it over a laptop – which is partly true.

The truth is that whenever a person asks “what would be a better buy: an iPad or a laptop,” my first question would always be if they already have a primary machine (desktop or laptop). If they do [have a primary machine], unless they’ve got special needs, I’d easily recommend an iPad over a laptop any day.

Why is that you ask? Read on. Read More

It’s all about the interface

I’ve already explained why I personally think the iPad is a solid/useful gadget for my tastes. But of course there will always be people in the “other camp” that disagree; people who think that the tablet is utterly useless because of how “limited” it is compared to a laptop, or comparing it to the competition which “does more.”

To all those who think that way, and are trying to understand why people like me think otherwise, I present to you three articles below. I believe that all the points/concepts in these articles give a good overall picture of what people from “our side of the fence” are seeing.

Bottomline is, that you can have all the bells and whistles in hardware, but your device will always be as weak as its interface. And historically speaking, choosing the best “interface metaphor” to use for different devices has always been Apple’s forte.

Lemme at that overgrown iPhone!

Is anyone surprised that I 1 Or anyone else for that matter have a post on the iPad? Thought so.

A good articulation of the concern I’ve always had since rumors of the tablet started, would be from an article at GDGT:

Will people buy it in droves? Is there actually room for a device between smartphones and laptops? That I don’t know — I’ve always been skeptical there’s room for a third category in there. But if there is a contender for this space, the iPad is it.

My knee-jerk answer would be “no” as far as how much people would actually prefer using this over laptops and phones. But then again, Apple has been known to be such a great “game changer” in any industry that they might just successfully create a new “perceived need” in the minds of the people.

However, having said all that, I still am getting one 😉 Not only because of the hype; but I really feel this is exactly the type of “large factor” mobile device I would like to be lugging around instead of a laptop. Read More

Notes

Notes
1 Or anyone else for that matter

Comic Reader Mobi

Since I finished Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle a few weeks ago, I decided to move on to one other “series” I’ve been hearing people talk about. It’s an ongoing [comic book] series called Fables and I was able to get a bunch of CBR files of 80+ issues.

Anyways, that’s not the point of this post. The point is that I bought this app 1 To be able to read said CBR files from the iTunes store which I was really skeptical about, but apparently it works flawlessly that I cannot help but blog about it. Read More

Notes

Notes
1 To be able to read said CBR files

iPhone virus/worm?

First, I’m testing this blogging app to post entries straight to my site from the iPhone. Hooray for that 😉

So there’s Ecto for the desktop, and this for the iPhone.

Okay, on to the topic.

Just to make things clear; having Rick Astley as a wallpaper is a feature – that’s just full of WIN 😉

Seriously though, in a nutshell; both the actual case and potential dangers it implies, while true, are overrated. Read More