If you don’t already have an Ipad, and you are wondering what all the fuss is about, and why every manufacturer of devices like HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Dell, HP/Palm and Others are falling all over themselves to make a copy… well apparently it is not immediately obvious. I am now saying it is as game changing as the cellphone was to the end of the 20th century. It was not obvious to me.
For instance, before I had one, I stubbornly told my wife one day late in December that the Ipad is a useless device. Little did I know she had already made the purchase and the box was sitting in her car waiting to be opened. Boy she felt foolish, and then I did.
Well, on first glance it is a useless device…from the perspective of replacing either your Notebook PC or your Cellphone. The Ipad is somewhat like playing the piano with big fat mittens on. As a Notebook PC replacement or PC replacement; it just can’t do it like a PC. It’s got no keyboard really, other than a hunt and peck method, and you can’t write the American novel on it. It has no camera. It has no web cam. An Ipad is no cellphone replacement. It’s not for making phone calls and it does not fit in your pocket. The Ipad is basically the flightless bird of the technology world.
Apple should have named the Ipad, “The Ostrich”. Ok, all that said, why am I claiming so boldly that the Ipad is THE Game Changer. And why do millions of people around the world agree with me. A simple statement: The end of newspapers and books as we know it today. There is a reason News Corp introduced the first paid version of an Ipad only newspaper recently.
The Ipad is the first device that makes it possible for me to read The New York Times In Bed, before the wife and kids wake. You can easily read the NYT at 2am, at your desk at work, etc., etc. It is the first device that makes it reasonably possible to read the paper in the toilet. Yes, I know a lot of Crackberry.com people read their Iphones and Androids in the lavatory, but that was child play, and bad for your thumbs and bad for your eyes. And then there are those who take it to work and use it to sign up for dating sites like speed dating without their company recording it on their servers… I know I am in the speed dating business and the numbers show that Ipad users are using it to sign up.
Why is this a breakthrough for me and other technophytes? It’s because we haven’t read a real newspaper in 10 years. Web developers, designers and other web team members have discontinued our paper reading, newspaper piling up ways long ago, and we just don’t get and don’t want a newspaper around the house. It is silly. It is wasteful. And if you work on the computer all week long you don’t want to waste your eyes on a newspaper that leaves ink on your hands. And those 20 or so novels and other books, like What To Do At The End Of The World or Unbroken that I bought last year at Costco, I never read. I never opened up the cover. Why? Because I have to preserve my eyes.
And there is more…
I have only hit the tip of the iceberg on the positives versus other devices. The Kindle, from Amazon, looks like a frail, gray-scale, ninny of a device that can’t run a pinball game or let you play Words With Friends (Our version of Ipad Scrabble, yes, with your friends). The Nook, from Barnes & Nobles, is a device that was extinct before its species evolved. I guess we can describe this as an evolutionary point in time and these other species will just die off. On an interesting note, because the Kindle is also software, it apparently has the option to live on, on these other devices like the Ipad. Kind of reminds of recent archeological studies which now believe that Neanderthals may have mated with Homo Sapiens. I guess you have to do something to survive…
And Finally…
My father, who had one before me, asked me with bated breath what applications do I run on my Ipad. So here is my top list so far:
The New York Times
The International Herald
NPR
CNBC For Stock Quotes
Words With Friends (Scrabble with your friends and relatives)
Evernote (A MUST, thank Guy Kawasaki for this recommendation)
Pandora (Another must for radio/music listening!)
Google Apps (Gmail, Google Chat, Calendar, Picassa)
Scrabble
Scramble
Sky Star Viewing Program To View Planets and Stars (unbelievable)
The Deep Pinball & Wild West Pinball
iBooks
Woot
Godaddy
Paper Toss
Etrade
Labyrith 3D