Technology As A Journey, Not a Destination

I was one of the “crazy Apple fanatic” people who ordered the iPad on launch day.  I don’t know, something about this product seems to be a glimpse of the future and I wanted to be a part of it.  I have read the pros and cons of the device.  These articles range from positive to negative, to wandering off into absurd analogies.  I am a recent fan of Apple, less than a year in fact.

What prompted me to purchase the iPad was that I now regret not having owned an iPod until three months ago.  I went through several portable music devices, and only recently discovered what an amazing piece of technology the iPod is.  Looking back, I could have enjoyed this experience for several years.  Instead, I had a player that performed almost as well as the iPod.

What I’ve noticed with the Apple products I’ve found so far is that they don’t really do anything extraordinary.  What Apple products do is work really well.  I have owned all ranges of computers, from desktops to laptops to netbooks.  The mac has moved to my #1 favorite computer to use.  In fact, I find when I have to use Windows XP now, I’m just frustrated.

I also own Windows 7, and it is a dramatic improvement over XP.  In fact, I have Windows 7 on a netbook.  I have experimented with Windows 7 in a tablet version.  There’s just something missing.  I watched part of the keynote introduction of the iPad and what Mr. Jobs said is absolutely true – netbooks don’t do anything well.  This is true, but with one exception: my netbook with Windows 7 is great for streaming Netflix when I’m laying in bed.

So I look at the iPad and all of the things it supposedly can’t do.  It can’t take pictures, doesn’t have an external usb connector, doesn’t have a phone app, and on and the list goes on.  The one thing I find frustrating is the whole flash thing.  After reading this article, though, it made much more sense to me.

I hope I’m not disappointed.

I finally moved into a true mobile access world and purchased a Droid.  I went ahead and sprung for the full-fledged Motorola Droid and not one of the other versions.  So far I am very pleased with it.

The one thing I wish was that there was a plan with just a few talk minutes, because I use the data access much more than the phone.  It’s really an amazing device, very powerful and flexible.  I thought I would prefer the iPhone, but as I experiment with it, I am actually very pleased with it.

I wish there were more apps for it, but I’m sure as it evolves, many more will come available.  Not that I’m a real big app junkie anyway, but there are some really great apps for the iPhone/iPod Touch that I would like to have in a portable version.

I even managed to sync my iTunes music library with it, along with some videos.  Everyone told me this was not possible, but I have discovered several free syncing programs that seem to work very well.  It has really changed how I managed my information and communication.  I think that’s a good thing.