The Amazing Ipad

Though I did not purchase an Ipad like 700,000 other did in the U.S. in the last two days, my son did. He was a Computer Tech  in his 20s and is even more of a technophile than I am(technophile means you like technology).  So he bought the 500 dollar version to test it out. However, the first thing you might want to know is that unless you have an IMAC or Macbook or Macbook pro it may not be the best thing for you because the Ipad is not a computer. It is like a large Ipod touch with many applications that you can either get for free or purchase(depending upon the application). Since my son has a Macbook for College he is in good shape in regard to owning an Ipad. What he tells me is that the best things he has found so far about it is the photo interface and the book reading interface(sort of like Kindle by Amazon). But most important to understand it is not a personal computer. It is something else entirely. And you can't really call it a netbook even though it does that too.  So some of the things it does(all by the touchscreen like an Iphone) is photos, books, internet, videos. What it doesn't do since it only has something like 35 Gigabytes of storage unless you go for the larger storage  version(which I think is about 60 something gigabytes) is store large amounts of text or data. So it is NOT a multitasking device. You can only do one thing at a time. However, my son tells me that sometimes if he is multitasking he can get lost on the internet. There doesn't seem to be that danger with an Ipad. Since there is only one task on can do at a time there aren't as many distractions simaltaneously as one can have on a personal computer. My son said he found this to be an advantage in completing a single task to it's conclusion. Also, my son discovered an application that will speak any written word(unless it is a book because of copyright issues).   So for him, it is wonderful because he will be a nurse next December, an RN BS. Since he finds it hard to know how to pronounce all the medicines he needs to know and doesn't have anyone who knows them to speak them all to him, he found that an app(application) he downloaded for 2 dollars called Speak it will do this for him. Also, he found out that people with larnyx or speaking problems for any reason are using this app to call cabs over there phones when they can't speak for themselves. So they can communicate with Cab drivers easily in this way too just by typing in exactly what they want to have spoken for them into their Ipad.

Also, Universities are starting to buy Ipads for their students because all their textbooks can be purchased without printing any paper by installing them on an Ipad. So the Ipad is already changing education in the United States right now even after two days on the market.

The other interesting thing is that software application developers from all over the world are flying into the United States to buy one or more Ipads so they can develop software applications to market to new Ipad owners worldwide in the next few years. This thing really appears to be taking off. And it's memory is all flash(no moving hard drives). So it's a brave new world the Ipad is moving into that is different than before. So what is an Ipad? My son says it is like having an Ipod touch with a larger screen with a touch keyboard or a keyboard you buy to plug into it. Or you can just use the touch screen exclusively depending upon what applications are the most important to you on any given day.