The iPad, uh, My iPad

There seemed to be an awful lot of sturm und drang over the birth of the iPad. I read most of the articles which guessed that it would be an incredibly well designed brick and good for not very much; I also read most of the ones which predicted that it would make and deliver a hot breakfast and that it would be expensive.

Taking the middle way, I reflected on all this and decided to order one partly, I must confess, I am intrigued by new gadgets, especially anything that Apple creates, and at my age you want to learn about this new stuff before the large hand comes out of the blue and takes you off to the happy hunting ground (call it what you will).

I thought that the iPad would be very good for reading books, magazines, and some newspapers. I also felt that it would be more than adequate to deal with television, via the web, via Sling Mobile, or via Netflix. and finally, I thought that for the under 40s, the prospect of games on the iPad would be of interest. And I figured it would be excellent for showing photos. To that end, I acquired the Wi-Fi only version in the belief that enriching AT&T with yet another data plan wasn't a high priority in my world.

That you could wander the web relatively easily and deal with email on a larger screen seemed a great improvement over the limitations of the iPhone (but it does have a place). Finally, no matter how many apps that the 12 year old geniuses come up with, the iPad will not replace a laptop...well, not yet.

The book on the bookshelf when you start up the iPad is "Winnie The Pooh," and the colorful Ernest Shepard drawings are so much more lively than they would be in black and white. A friend whose vision isn't as good as it once was looked at the large type available on iPad books and pronounced it of greater interest to him the Amazon's Kindle. My sister has a Kindle and has enjoyed it immensely, especially when she travels.

But the point is that digitization of print materials like a tsunami. I now subscribe to four newspapers online, and the paper recycling bags at the end of the driveway on Monday morning are now but one.

And yes, I get that there's nothing like the feel of turning the page of the New York Times or of a book whether old or new. Having thought about it some, I've decided that I'll hold out for the printed editions of The New Yorker and Cook's Illustrated, but that's about it.

I think about getting on a plane to London next month with an iPad which will replace the usual four or five books I usually squeeze into the carry-on, and I smile.

My conclusion is that you'd better get on the stagecoach before you find yourself under it. But now I have to return to the most recent episode of Spartacus, on my iPad courtesy of Netflix, and then find some time to leave the electronic world to admire the daffodils at the end of the drive. Nothing compares, even a nice high density image of them on a small screen, and nothing ever will.