My Weekend with iPad

I'll be honest with you: I wasn't all that excited about getting an iPad in order to use it. I was mostly excited about developing for it. I bought the lowest-end 16Gb Wi-Fi and figured it would be permanently attached to my computer. For reasons I stated shortly after the iPad introduction, I saw this as a product targeted at other, less technically savvy individuals.

And I still think it's a great product for those people. I really do. I think with just a few changes, such as a keyboard dock with a USB port and built-in Time Machine, this could be the ultimate non-techie computer.

I also saw the very obvious role as a media consumption device. It's clearly targeting the Kindle and Nook, and it's going to do great in that role. The screen is not hard on your eyes, even though it's LED. The colors are beautiful and the viewing angle is nearly 180°. Combined with the 10 hour battery life (mine actually went a fair bit longer on the first charge), it's a great eBook reader as well. I love the idea of eBooks, but until the publishing industry gets a clue and stops trying to charge me $12.99 for fifty year old books I can pick up for a dollar or get from the library, I'm hesitant to actually buy any and will limit my iPad reading to news and all the lovely classic literature available on Project Gutenberg.

But I really didn't see myself falling in love with this product. I saw it as a great vacation computer; something that would be small and easy to pack that would let me check e-mail and surf the web while on vacation without being tempted to do work, and that was about it.

But, the exact thing that makes it a good vacation computer is key. Yesterday was Easter, and I promised my wife I wouldn't work this weekend. So, I actually unplugged and closed my computer and didn't use it at all. My iPhone is great for keeping in touch when I'm away from my computer, but typing any volume of e-mail on it sucks.

The iPad allowed me to do triage with my e-mail and read the news without going upstairs to my office. Now, I have a tendency, when I get in front of my computer, to start responding to work e-mails. I'll also sometimes pull open a project that I've been having problems with if I've thought of a possible solution, or hack out some notes about possible blog postings It's very easy for me to get sucked in to doing a few hours of work completely unintentionally.

But not with iPad. Some people are complaining about there being no Xcode on it. Screw that. I don't WANT Xcode on it. I think it's perfect as-is. This is something I can use to read before bed, without getting sucked into work. This is something I can play a game with the kids on, and not get sucked into doing work afterward. This is something I can use to check the news or weather without going up to my cave office and then getting sucked into work.

The iPad is not a way to do work, it's wax for my ears against the siren call of work.

Plus, it's really fun. It's silly how much I like it.