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Baffled

  • Dec. 14th, 2011 at 2:20 PM
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kls_eloise
I am the latest family recipient of the iPad that no one wants.  My brother gave it to my mother for her birthday back in May.  She poked at it for a bit, and finally decided that it doesn't do anything that her laptop doesn't, she loves her Kindle, and at 80 she just doesn't feel like learning a new operating system.  So she apologized to my brother and offered it back.

He offered it to my nephews, but they turned it down.  One is a law student, and one is a computer science major.

So now it's living with me.  And I'm baffled.  Seriously, I'm not joking - what the heck is it FOR?  I've got a perfectly good hand-me-down laptop that does all the things I want it to do - and IT has a keyboard.  Why yes, I am a touch-typist.  What do I do with a computer at home?  I check my email, and I use Word and Excel heavily.  I surf the web a bit.

So I ask with complete sincerity - what am I intended to do with it?  Charlotte loves making the icons move around, but beyond that.  I can see that it's a neat toy, but is it supposed to be more than that?  That's a lot of money for a toy.

Honest to goodness - I'm just... adrift.

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( 19 comments — Leave a comment )
hugh_mannity
Dec. 14th, 2011 07:50 pm (UTC)
Well, if you want to get rid of it, there's a cool off-road app that I want to use that runs on either iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. None of which I currently have.

I don't see the fun of shelling out full retail price for a toy I'll probably only use a half-dozen times a year. But used I could probably justify.
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kls_eloise
Dec. 14th, 2011 08:33 pm (UTC)
Not looking to get rid of it. Aside from the fact that it would be ungrateful, as a media consumption device I'm clearly going to be dealing with it's impact at work - and it would help to understand the interfact I'm drafting for.

But I'm really rather at a loss as to what all the hoopla is about.
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hugh_mannity
Dec. 14th, 2011 08:48 pm (UTC)
Yep. I'm not quite sure what the hype is all about. It's cute, might have some uses, but it's not a game changer.

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kass_rants
Dec. 14th, 2011 08:53 pm (UTC)
I think there's a goodly helping of "This is just like the pads they used to carry around in StarTrek!" associated with the iPad. I think we *want* to have a use for it, but we haven't figured out what yet.
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kls_eloise
Dec. 15th, 2011 01:48 am (UTC)
Well, that and the unthinking adherence to adding to the collection plate of the First Church of Steve Jobs, Prophet. :-)

I hadn't thought of the Star Trek thing though...
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kass_rants
Dec. 15th, 2011 01:56 am (UTC)
First thing that occurred to me. But Bob was so "OMG TREK!" about it that I couldn't have missed it.

I fully admit that when computers became affordable, my parents wanted to buy me one but I didn't see any practical use for it. It wasn't 'til I got to college and it streamlined my ability to write papers that I had a need.

Also, I abhor online games. So if something has primarily gaming applications, I don't care about it.
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kls_eloise
Dec. 15th, 2011 02:06 am (UTC)
We had a computer fairly early - but it was a true "IBM" - I Built it Myself. Dad worked in the industry. But I didn't really *use* one until I went to work for General DataComm and had to.

I like the occasional evening of computer solitaire, but that's about it. Fantastic gaming applications actually turn me off.
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kass_rants
Dec. 15th, 2011 02:19 am (UTC)
I'm a self-admitted addict. When we had a Playstation, I would play Tomb Raider until my thumb was numb. I cannot have games in my house or I will do no work. Truly.
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kass_rants
Dec. 14th, 2011 08:24 pm (UTC)
I gotta say, you got me there. Last fall, I was sitting in a car with a friend and I needed to write something down. I asked him for a pen and scrap of paper and he pulled out his iPad and flipped through this and that until he got to a place where I could struggle to make the keyboard feel my fingers. I could have written the note on the gumwrapper in my pocket if he hadn't wasted my time waiting.

Later, he sat with me and showed me "all these wonderful things" on his iPad. It seemed to be a lot of games and videos. I didn't see any applications I could use for work or my hobbies. I mean, yeah, I could put photos on it I guess. But...

I don't get it.
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kls_eloise
Dec. 14th, 2011 08:35 pm (UTC)
Well, I'm glad it's not just me!
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hugh_mannity
Dec. 14th, 2011 08:49 pm (UTC)
Definitely not just you. Or even just you and Kass, Luddites though you be :)


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kass_rants
Dec. 14th, 2011 08:51 pm (UTC)
Ha! See below, you!
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kls_eloise
Dec. 15th, 2011 01:50 am (UTC)
:-P

I am NOT a Luddite. Quite. Trailing edge, but not a Luddite.
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kass_rants
Dec. 14th, 2011 08:50 pm (UTC)
And you know, I'm no luddite. I make my living on the internet. My "workroom" is a computer program (that doesn't run on Macs). So it's not like I'm someone who shuns technology.
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badgersandjam
Dec. 14th, 2011 10:38 pm (UTC)
Game apps and Pandora, as far as I can tell. And reading books if you prefer the Jobs hegemony to the Amazon one.
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isabeau_lark
Dec. 15th, 2011 03:09 am (UTC)
There's an app that makes it a great kitty toy. I have the iPod touch and it's really just a larger version of it.
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golden_meliades
Dec. 15th, 2011 01:13 pm (UTC)
An iPad is really just a super-portable laptop with a million app options.

You can buy a keyboard dock for your ipad to turn it into a more traditional laptop. Or a wireless keyboard. (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC184) (The dock is like so: http://www.macworld.com/product/458362/apple_ipad_keyboard_dock.html )

But if you're not into all the apps, weather, mapping, gaming, it goes on forever...then I can't see the point in owning one. Better to have a really light, functional laptop, since I would never want to use the ipad without a keyboard and wouldn't want to carry both the pad and the board around, even though they're light and fairly small.
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galingale
Dec. 15th, 2011 10:38 pm (UTC)
I don't know... but IIRC, shalmestere does apples as well as windows. you may want to flag her down at an event and ask her.
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kebbykate
Dec. 16th, 2011 02:23 am (UTC)
Can't afford one, but have serious envy...
I don't have one, but have several friends that do. Serious envy when they have theirs with them at a meeting or conference. They can bring up documents and take notes very easily and they aren't lugging around a laptop. It's no more intrusive on the meeting than a regular paper notepad is, because there isn't a screen sticking up. Check e-mails on the go. Facebook, of course.

One of my colleagues has several in use by her staff at the library she runs. There's a report that comes out of our computer system--the dusty book report--that helps us weed our collections. Instead of printing out about three trees' worth of paper, her staff takes an iPad with the document loaded on it, and they delete things off the list as they go through the stacks, or they can note things that are missing. A laptop wouldn't be easy enough to handle in that situation.

I think for a person who goes lots of different places as a regular part of their workday, needs to check e-mail regularly, but doesn't need a ton of full computer power, an iPad gives you ease of use without packing something either too big (regular laptop) or too small (netbook).
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( 19 comments — Leave a comment )