The iPad 2 finally arrives (and finds a home in a business card holder)

 I got the call on Wednesday evening, and was picking it up at Best Buy seconds after the store opened on Thursday.  Why didn't I pick it up on Wednesday you ask?  I tried, they wouldn't let me.

Just like bringing a baby home from the hospital, this little bundle of joy demanded diapers and a nursery--or at least a protective sleeve and a spot on the desk.  I haven't taken care of the sleeve yet (I plan on getting crafty so stay tuned), but I did learn that a cheap-o business card holder will sub in as a stand, so off to OfficeMax I went.  It turns out none of the business card holders alone could hold up the iPad when it was vertical, so I went with this guy.

Way cheaper than an Apple iPad dock.

It is strong enough to hold the iPad up on my desk vertically and horizontally.

My iPad goes both ways.

And it also holds my desk stuff.

Multi-use!

So I can get rid of my mug-of-pens, leaving my desk looking like this:

Sleek, huh?

So far I am extremely pleased with my purchase.  I had a Skype meeting on it already, which was a breeze, and I purchased QuickOffice (docs, spreadsheets, presentations) and iCab mobile (Safari alternative with tabbed browser and downloads) with a gift certificate to iTunes left over from Christmas. Plus, the iPad is already getting along quite nicely with what is now Chris's iPod touch. Here they are, chatting about being super-skinny, super-sexy gadgets together on the coffee table.

"No you're sexier!"

Decision 2011: I'm getting an iPad (2)

I have obsessed over portable cloud-ready devices that I can keep in my purse for long enough.  It is time for me to make a purchase.  And the decision is... (click play below for the drum-roll)

iPad 2!

You may be surprised to hear this (unless you read the title of this post).  I have never been a Mac junkie.  I pledged my loyalty to Microsoft long ago.  And in fact, my first impulse was to get a netbook.  But there were a couple of things holding me back from committing to the netbook.

First, the nipple.  I've said it before, but I hate touchpads.  I love trackpoints.  When I asked the guy at Best Buy if there were any netbooks with these eraser-head pointing devices he said "those things that were on the old ThinkPads?  They haven't made those for years."  First of all, he is clearly dead wrong.  Several big laptop companies still include nipples on all their normal-sized laptops (Lenovo and Dell, for example).  Second of all, the nipple is clearly the superior pointing device, as it allows manipulation of the cursor without having to lift one's fingers from the keyboard.  So that guy can go jump in a lake.

But I digress.  The point is only one netbook includes a nipple, and it is the Sony Vaio P.  The Vaio P, simply by virtue of being made by Sony, is prohibitively expensive (~$1000), especially among netbooks, which typically range from about 200-400 bucks.  Sony claims it is not a netbook, just a small laptop, but give me a break.  It's a netbook.

Sony Vaio P display at Grand Central Station

As for weight, most netbooks really aren't that light.  The smallest netbook is (sigh) the Sony Vaio P.  And guess why they can cut out so much weight?  Because by adding a nipple and getting rid of the touchpad, they could cut off all that extra stuff below the keyboard!  It all comes back to the nipple.

Before you go thinking that the Sony Vaio P would be perfect and I should just save up for one or get financing or something, the P is not perfect.  Its tiny keyboard is apparently difficult to type on, and it's tiny screen is difficult to read on. Since one of my major impetuses for purchasing something is for reading PDFs and traveling, this is a big deal.  Not to mention the fact that nipples have been linked to major finger joint problems (I've probably already done too much damage to reverse).

To be honest, my 3 year old ThinkPad is about as small and light as a laptop gets, so getting a netbook really  just seems redundant.  I would just be getting a crappier computer than I already have to shave off a little weight.  I want to shave off weight while expanding my computing capabilities, rather than replicating them.  I want something that can do things my ThinkPad can't.  Like be at my disposal on the bus instantly.  Or last 10 hours without having to be plugged in.  Or turn into a piano.  All while still letting me surf the web, read PDFs and books, Skype, blog, and take notes in class.

Let's go over a few of the iPad's downsides and why they aren't downsides at all:

No physical keyboard?  No problem! I took one out from the library last week, and it turns out I can touch type on it like a maniac! I'm not saying I'm going to write my whole dissertation on it, but if I want to bang out a chapter or two on a flight to Maryland, no biggie (yes, I can write 60 pages in 6 hours shush).

No file system?  No problem!  If you think that I'm a fan of saving data locally, you clearly have never read this blog, or talked with me for like fifteen minutes.  Pages (Apple's touch word processing program) integrates with Dropbox, as do several other common apps.  Having no files system will only accelerate my move to the cloud.

No Flash?  No problem!  I have already figured out how to play Flash on my iPod touch using something called  iOS Flash Video.  There are also several iOS web browsers out there that can play Flash, and that also allow downloads and tabbed browsing, unlike Safari.

As for the lack of USB ports, I have no excuse for Apple here.  Now what am I going to do with all my awesome food themes USB sticks???  What the heck is wrong with you Jobs????  You popularized it, now use it!!!!!

It's okay iPad, I forgive you.  Did I mention it comes in white?

Christmas

So as if the computer crash weren't bad enough, my mom and a friend and I were driving to dirt Mulholland for a hike when my Subaru made crazy noises and broke down. It's sitting in Van Nuys now waiting for the mechanic to open tomorrow at eight. I wish there was such thing as cloud driving. When is Google Car coming out?

I did make some egg cozies though, to keep (my new favorite thing in the world) soft boiled eggs warm. I also made an amazing pie yesterday. It's apple sour cherry with apple jack. MMMMMMMM.

The End is Near

The end of traditional computing that is. Since my disastrous crash I've remained obsessed with getting as much stuff off of hardware and into the "cloud" as possible. For example I got the beta version of Google Chrome so that I can download extensions. The extensions allow me to make Gmail my default mail application, and seamlessly integrate mail collection into my browsing experience. Goodbye email client! One less thing to crash. I also got an extension that opens an Internet Explorer tab in case I ever get to a page that can only be viewed properly in IE. Goodbye Microsoft proprietary programs that are totally unstable and clunky and I hate them!

My dad is wary of my enthusiasm, arguing that the internet is not reliable, and that he needs to be able to access his data and emails offline. Good point, but Google is working on it (and others too I'm sure). With Google Gears (built into Chrome, downloadable for Mozilla and IE, don't know about Safari or Opera), Google automatically synchs my Gmails to my hard drive, and if I'm offline I can interact inside a Chrome window with the saved emails as if nothing was wrong. Of course I can't send or receive email when I'm offline, but I can write messages that are queued on my hard drive and then sent automatically when I reconnect to the web.

I feel like I'm one of those people in the sixties who built underground bomb shelters filled with canned food to protect against the inevitable Russian attack and the end of the world. But seriously, I'm totally going to be ready for the revolution, and it's going to be awesome. Meanwhile I'll sit here with my canned corn and my wireless radio and use up the air in my bunker.