One of Each, Please

Apple.com Menu Bar

After the latest announcement, I had to do it. My iPhone 4 comes in tomorrow. Oddly enough, the number one feature I want on my phone is not multi-tasking, or voice search, or even the gyroscopometer (or whatever). I just really want the 5 MP camera and HD camcorder. Automatic HDR! That in itself sold me the phone.

I need one of each thing on Apple.com's menu bar. iPhone > iPad > Mac, in order of importance to me. My iPhone 3G is already more than two years old. My MacBook Pro is going on its fifth year. iPad with multi-tasking is amazing. And iPhone 4 just completes the set somehow. No more iProducts for at least two years, I promise.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

Earlier this summer, I decided to let eBook reading on the iPad a go, and I must say, it is quite nice. Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Nobles Nook and Apple's own iBooks on the iPad aren't bad at all. (For the record, I believe Amazon's Kindle is the eBook reader to have if reading is important to you. Personally, I don't read enough to justify a Kindle purchase. Also for the record, I am not a fan of the Nook's user interface; it's atrocious.) While I enjoy iBook's organization and ease of download, I could do without the fancy pageflip animations. They felt a bit too gaudy even for Apple.

My first real digital book (oxymoronic, perhaps) was Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. It's worth reading. And while reading on the iPad was a novel experience (oh, pun), this will probably be my last eBook for a while. I'm still a pencil-and-paper person at heart.

iPad: Week One

Conclusions about the iPad in the first week of real world use.

It is so fun to use. Some of the productivity apps, like Pages and Calendar seem a bit gimmicky, and, at times, difficult to use. Some of the features, however, make it easier to use than the desktop application, according to my sister. (The keyboard takes a lot of getting used to though.) There is no doubt that I can probably get more work done on a real computer (or a netbook), but the iPad is infinitely more fun to fiddle around with. That's not to say it can't be done on an iPad; short of uploading and downloading files to and from the web, and short of flash support, the iPad is an extremely capable device. In terms of portable entertainment, with respect to music, photos, and video, and even browsing the general web, the iPad blows the competition out of the water.

Bottom line? iPad might not be amazing at many things, like typing for one, but the creativity put into the design of its apps and the all-in-one-ness of the iPad makes it worth it just to play around with; I'll put up with it's shortcomings because it's just so fun. I can't wait to see what other creative and interesting apps that are coming my way (after spending a lot of dollars).

I wrote this on my iPad.