Why I’ve fallen in love with my iPad all over again
Years ago when the iPad first entered the market I was so excited. I was looking for an ultra portable product that would give me the opportunity to unshackle from my laptop but still complete all of the tasks I needed to get done in both my work and personal life. Phones at the time were great (I had an iPhone as well) but the screen size didn’t meet my needs for anything other than quick email viewing and the odd online search. The promise was there and along with the masses I picked up new gleaming piece of tech.
I raced to get it out of the box so that I could start downloading all of the apps that would run my life. I had visions of using this piece of kit for all of my digital heavy lifting from automating my house to managing my finances to developing brilliant presentation and documents to reading books and watching movies. This was going to be the one device to ruled them all and I’d never have to look back.
Unfortunately my love of the product started to decline quickly when I realized that I wouldn’t be able to do everything as well as I could do it on my laptop. App development was ramping up and all of the major players were taking their web-based products and building app based versions. There were apps to do my taxes, manage my household, check and write emails, read books and magazines and play the odd game but they were shadows of the online products (which didn’t work as well on the iPad). App features and functionalities were lacking and the ease of use disappeared. All of a sudden I realized that I was working with products that were 4 years behind their online brethren.
I wanted my iPad to do everything as well as my laptop could but the promise just didn’t realize itself.
Disheartened my iPad was used less and less frequently. It became much easier for me to turn to my laptop when I need to do the power lifting that both work and personal tasks required. It became relegated to a vacation device, something I would load movies on when my wife and I were going to be on a long flight. Even then it didn’t meet all of my vacation needs and became pushed aside for a Kindle when I wanted to read a book on the beach.
It quickly began gathering dust on a shelf and for a while I completely forgot that I had it. I would glance it’s way every once in a while thinking that I should sell it before it was completely obsolete but never really went through with it.
Then one day a couple of month ago I picked it up again. It had no charge and needed a good cleaning. I plugged it in, updated the iOS (I was about 3 versions behind) and updated the hundred and something apps I had on it. Looking at everything that was there I then asked myself what do I want to do with this device. Knowing that the majority of people only use about 10 apps on a regular basis I started to organize my screens. I built one that included all of the apps from apple that I couldn’t delete, a main screen that focused on the apps that gave me information and entertainment and a third that had folders of everything else. When it came to my main screen I started small and focused on daily content consumption; this included Flipboard, Youtube, a few social apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and a couple of games to take my mind off things.
Slowly a strange thing happened, I began picking up my iPad more and more. It became easier for me to check out the latest scores or flip through the news on that device than it did on my laptop. I decided to add a few more apps on my main screen, additional news and sports, Yelp, Google Maps, Spotify, HBO Go and the Weather Channel. While doing this I made a conscious effort to focus on organization of my main screen and kept the clutter to a minimum. Again to my surprise I started using it more regularly. It quickly became the first thing I picked up when getting out of bed and the last thing I looked at when going to sleep. I started using it more than any other device in my home, even my iPhone which never leaves my side.
I couldn’t believe it, all of a sudden this device that was gathering dust only a couple of months ago became my new go to tool and I was falling in love with it all over again.
I didn’t quite understand this new love affair and how something that seemed so useless to me could become so valuable. What changed? Was it the device itself? Were the apps better than they were in the past? Did Apple perform some magic spell? I looked everywhere for the answer and then realized something, my iPad was a perfect consumption device. It was the perfect way for me to consume all of the content I wanted without the bulk of my laptop and with a larger screen than my phone. I didn’t try to make it into something that it couldn’t achieve, I didn’t try to run my finances from it, I didn’t write long document or create presentation (I’m using my laptop to write this) and I didn’t use it to run different aspects of my life. I created a scenario where my iPad didn’t have to work as hard to do everything, but do one thing perfectly.
I never thought this would happen and never considered the idea of buying a new iPad. Today I’m on my way to the Apple store to get the new iPad Air 2. I can’t wait to get the latest, lighter, more powerful version of the iPad knowing how much I enjoy the product. There are moments where I doubted myself and think this is just another phase, but then I realize that much like my iPhone will never replace my DSLR, there isn’t another product out there that will allow me to read and watch all the content I want as easily.
My iPad is perfect the way it is and I love it all over again.
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