Since I received my iPad early April, my computer habits have changed completely. When I’m on the go, my iPad is good for 80-90% of my needs. I read news, magazines, listen to music and podcasts, play Scrabbles and watch the occasional YouTube video; I can take notes, read articles I’ve found on the web and read them when I’m not online with the help of Instapaper; it’s good for work too – with the wonderful addition of FileMaker Go, I can keep an eye on the databases I’m administrator of, and with Pages, OmniFocus and OmniGraffle it almost feels like I can let go of using a laptop completely.
Battery life is still outstanding, and it’s really true would people are saying all over the net – the device “disappears” whenever you’re using a certain application – reading an article on the web really is like holding that article in you hands; playing a game of chess really turns it into the chess board. There’s nothing between you and the thing you’re interacting with.
What I find really fascinating is that less than 6 months ago, all this would have seemed more or less like science fiction. If anyone had told me about holding up a thin screen to the night sky and being shown in real time and in detail about the various constellations in front of me, I would have thought that it sounded like something straight out of a Star Trek movie. But it’s not anymore. It’s real, and it’s happening right now.
These are very exciting times, and although I can’t wait to see what else developers will come up with in the next year or so, I get a feeling of being part of something truly revolutionary every time I press that button and turn it on.
