A couple of years back I used to work for a large multinational organisation. The nature of the job require a significant amount of international and local travel. Besides being extremely tiring, both from a physical and mental point of view, it is disruptive to your personal life.
You have just had a pleasant Sunday afternoon lunch with friends or family, the clock hits 3 pm and it is apologies as you get ready for a flight to some part of the world. You pack your bags and off you go only to return on Friday evening. You leave everything behind, family, friends, music, photographs, personal finances etc. Why you may ask? Family and friends in person is understandable but the rest.... well in a number of corporates these days laptops are "locked down". None of the software and applications you normally use on your home computer are available to you. Whilst one tries to mitigate this with different devices i.e. iPod's, Blackberry's etc. it means lots of chargers, cables and other accessories. At one point I was carrying a personal laptop with me in addition to the corporate one. Whilst this helped, carrying two bricks around through busy airports took it's toll.
I don't do much traveling these days (what a pleasure) so my personal requirement to deal with this has all but disappeared.... but the memories remain.
Last week my wife brought home an iPad which she purchased on her travels (She is now the one doing the traveling!). After a brief spell with the iPad I could not keep myself from repeating "where was this thing when I used to spend my life traveling"!
Light weight, a fantastic user interface, awesome apps and almost everything you need to take your life with you when traveling is available on this device. Set up was easy. Plugged it into my MacBook Pro, activated the device on the internet and next my music, photographs and iPhone apps were quickly synched with my Mac book pro.
Then a quick look at the bookstore. Awesome! Simply select the store and select books that you would like to read. No need to carry that paperback around anymore.
The mail client works really well and the keyboard is comfortable and surprisingly easy to use. If you've purchased the cover (which I can recommend) it is simply a question of flicking open the cover and you're straight into your email with a decent size keyboard and if your are getting on like me, there is no need to rip out the glasses and squint for the text on the iPhone, Blackberry or other minute device you use!
Whilst the iPad browser takes a bit of getting used to, it quickly becomes your favorite way of surfing the web. The touch interface and the ability to size pages by moving two fingers apart or closer together is fantastic. Rotating the device to get the best view of the screen for a particular site makes reading comfortable. Using your finger to flip through the pages just feels so natural....
Then there is the app store that covers most requirements as far as applications go. Just browsing through the store and exploring what is available makes for some good entertainment. One of my favourite apps is Skygrid which aggregates trending news topics from the web. Quite addictive... following all the different perspectives covered on a particular topic from different news services.
There are already a number of news and magazine apps such as Time, Reuters, Popular Mechanics, Mens Health, Womens Health amongst others and the list is sure to grow. Whilst most of these apps are no longer free it is a pleasure to purchase your magazine with the click of a button and no extra baggage to carry around. To get a feel for how nicely the iPad works for publications download the free BMW magazine.
Other apps such as iWork (Apple's version of a spreadsheet, word processor and presentation package) is well adapted to the iPad but could do with some functionality enhancements, but as a start is really good ( I am using Pages on the iPad to write this article)
Numerous financial apps are available should you wish to keep track of your finances whilst traveling. Games are great and there are a number of free ones that provide great entertainment (have a look at the Crazy Snowboard app)
Besides being able to take your life ( or at least significant part of it) with you on your travels I can see a number of different applications for the iPad in a business environment, particularly if you are a small business owner.
Impromptu presentations to clients, pictures of your products, connection to your web store to take orders and invoice clients on the fly or to simply use it as product catalogue are amongst a few such uses. It won't be long before there are apps that specifically handle this sort of functionality without having to resort to the web browser.
The iPad marks a change in the way in which we interact with digital devices and I predict we will see a significant shift in operating systems and laptop type devices as result of these developments.
I almost feel like traveling again!
The model tested here is the 32G Wi-Fi model. Prices currently range from ₤429 to ₤699 for the 62 GB Wi-Fi + 3G model. Availability and pricing for South Africa has not yet been confirmed. To get your name on the waiting list register here: http://www.ydanglestore.com/c31/Let-me-know-when-the-iPad-arrives.aspx