#idon’tthinkso – the iPad and me

The announcement of the iPad this week left me cold. This was because, after all the heightened expectations that it would be better than the Kindle, it was quite different but no more use and no smaller.

I am no expert on digital gadgetry, I own a Blackberry and have broadband, but that’s about the extent of it. However, I feel that I am the typical target audience for a new bit of digital wizardry. I am:

a writer
a reader
a web surfer
a corporate person who needs to see emails even at weekends, on a train, in the bath
a blogger
a tweeter
a facebook user
and probably most importantly, reliant on the Internet for all information seeking

Gone are the days where I will flick through a telephone directory or switch on the radio or TV for news. So, I read, write, critique, blog and surf all my working hours online. Therefore I need connectivity 24 hours per day. Also, other people (home and office) need to share connectivity. Hence the broadband connection. I also need the Internet when I am out and about. Hence the Blackberry, which fits in my bag, and Internet subscription for that. So far I am paying for three Internet subscriptions. Home, office and Blackberry.

24/7 connectivity, you ask? When do you relax? A good question. My brain is in work mode when I am contact with the business world through emails. Even when I am surfing the web or reading social networking sites, the email is still available, as is the possibility that some of the people on social networking sites are ‘colleagues’ rather than ‘friends’. In other words, my former 9 – 5 world has merged into a 24/7 digital melee of constant availability.

Of course, I can disable my Blackberry emails at any time. And often do. I can also restrain myself from checking email in a web browser. It seems to me that my life is full of onlineness – my identity has extended into cyberspace.

You may ask again, when do I relax? Well. Leaving my Blackberry behind, I go to somewhere without Internet connections and read a book. Reading a book is a singular activity, and does not saturate my self with information that I can barely take in fast enough. There is no competing information waiting in the wings with a little flashing light and a bleep to alert me. No. The activity of reading a book, regardless of the content, is fast becoming on par with meditation. We are so frenetic in our digital activity that the saturation of the self is perhaps pointing us away from the value of sitting down for a couple of hours, quietly lost in someone elses thoughts. Or even our own.

So, although the iPad is a (very expensive) shiny gadget which is marketed in a way that makes us feel we need one, it’s an Internet connection too far for me. I suppose I could swap my Blackberry for the iPad, but it simply wouldn’t fit in my handbag or make phone calls. Simple as that. As well as the disappointing and uncertain differing market formats of ebooks and the need for another subscription, the electronic ink issue niggles. Put simply, the Kindle uses electronic ink which is no good for graphics, the iPad doesn’t which is good for graphics.

And I can’t type on it? I’m a writer! I’ve gone through the adaptation from full sized keyboard to netbook, and in all probability the integrated pseudo-keyboard would be OK for emails and short messages, but for typing 2000+ words per day? And in what format? Sounds like another too steep learning curve to me, something else in the information queue.

To be totally honest I was expecting some Star Trekesque tablet which did everything we needed it to do. Along with many other people I am yearning for the complete identity extension which allows me to carry round one pocket sized gadget that lets me phone, look at pictures, read, surf, email and type. The Kindle isn’t it. The iPad isn’t it. And just think how many real books I can buy with £300+ quid and 15 quid a month. #iPad #idon’tthinkso