One year ago today, I bought a 64Gb iPad 2. I purchased the
device in preparation for the three month visit I subsequently made to America
between August and October, 2012.
I had two main purposes in mind when I bought it: one was
that it made it easier to leave my 15 inch Toshiba laptop behind, and thereby
reduce the amount of weight I was carrying; and the other was my desire to use
the iPad as an eBook reader.
I have said it before, and I don’t mind saying it
again―buying the iPad was the best pre-travel gift I have ever given myself.
The convenience it offered in terms of size, weight, and functionality has
proved its worth over and over again.
A year after my initial purchase, the device is rarely out
of my sight or out of reach. The word I keep coming back to when I talk about
the iPad is convenience. Couple convenience with ease of use,
and you have a device that has helped to revolutionize the way we use
technology to connect with each other, and tap into the vast resources of the
internet. Making use of a basic WiFi service, I find I am forever reaching for
my iPad to look for information online, research some small item of interest
using Wikipedia, or translate a couple of lines of French or Latin that I have
encountered in one of the many eBooks I now have saved to my iBooks app.
I maintain a daily journal with Pages, track my daily
spending with Numbers, and keep in touch with family and friends via Facebook.
Using a free app supplied by my bank I can move money between accounts, and to
the delight of my creditors I can pay bills on time with Bpay. I have far more
apps than I need or use on a daily basis, but then why not? Most of them were free to download,
and if I need the space for more important or useful applications, they can be
deleted with a couple of taps.
I have written before about my favorite iPad apps here… and here… so I won’t repeat myself in this entry, however, I do have plans to write about
some other favorite applications not reviewed already.
After twelve months my iPad continues to work flawlessly, and
I am more than happy with the physical size of the device, as well as its 64Gb
capacity. The quality of the images I can get with the camera is one of my
biggest frustrations, although video footage is actually quite good―as long as
you are shooting in plenty of light. Although I have WordPress and Blogger
apps, I prefer to use my laptop to write for and maintain The Compleat
Traveller. Even though I have bought a keyboard to use with the iPad, I find
writing with my laptop to be easier, faster, and generally more accurate.
Personally, I find the iPad’s virtual keyboard good for short journal entries,
and minor text entry work for things like email, Facebook, and other such
tasks, but for long periods of typing it just doesn’t suit me.
Quite frankly, apart from my complaint with the camera and
virtual keyboard, I am struggling to think of any other issue that has been the
cause of major―or even minor concern. The biggest frustrations are caused by badly designed apps, not the iPad itself. Recently, I exchanged my old iPhone 3GS
for a new Galaxy S4, and I remain very happy with that decision. However, I can’t
see myself swapping my iPad for a rival tablet device any time soon.
I realise I have not written anything about using the iPad
as an eReader, but I will leave that topic for another post. In conclusion, if
you have been thinking about getting an iPad, or similar tablet device, I am
more than happy to recommend this amazing technology to you. It is hard to
believe that tablet devices were almost unheard of five years ago, given the
way they have become pretty much ubiquitous today. They can only get better,
faster and more ubiquitous over the next five years.
