The iWorld

Jun 19, 2012 by Lona

So I just posted about how I’m not getting a Kindle, despite my overall love for Amazon and all it’s lovely features. This leads me to confessing that I do already own an e-reader-like device.

I own an iPad.

Now, this is very recent. Until April, I used a Sony E-Reader, and I loved it. I still have it, and as far as basic portability and carrying around dozens of books all at once and reading them anywhere I am, it’s awesome. It really is.

But the world, she is a-changin’. And I don’t just need to carry books. For years I’ve carried a briefcase full of contracts in various forms, client examples, my one-pager, business cards, note-taking materials, thumb-drives and a netbook, and an Android phone. I’m on T-mobile, and I’m grandfathered into one of the most generous plans out there, so I have no intention of changing cell service any time soon.

But the iPad is a godsend. No longer do I need a stack of papers a mile thick with me anywhere I go. I can draft and edit contracts on the fly, I can take notes, I can show examples, I can pull up information from the Cloud without needing a thumbdrive, I can email clients information from anywhere. Oh, and hey, I can still read my books. Whether I’ve bought them from iTunes, which I admit, makes for a very pretty reading experience, or ported previously-purchased books onto an app, they all read clearer than the e-ink of the Sony (which was quite depressing when I first realized it) and the battery lasts just fine, despite various warnings I got before buying the thing.

I still use an Android phone, and I don’t see myself moving to iPhone anytime soon, even though yes, I’m sure I COULD jailbreak one to use with T-mobile’s network. And I use a PC because the standard of my industry is PC-based, and honestly, Macs are ridiculously expensive for what they can offer me. Not to mention that I game quite a bit and most of what I play isn’t available cross-platform.

Now, the iPad was billed originally as a new e-reading device. And while that image didn’t last long, some people still consider that the main purpose of their tablet computers. Sadly, the standard for table computers is therefore now a “glorified smart-phone” instead of an all-out cloud-computing device. The iPad functions as a dozen or more things, not the least of which is a gaming console, and there are even little joysticks you can buy to go on it. And I bought it for several of those purposes, and not in fact, as an e-reader.

Should you walk in to my local Starbucks, though (yes, I do that), you’re likely to find me sitting there with an iced coffee, inch of cream and six pumps of sugar (because I’m a wuss), reading on my iPad.