Saturday, May 22, 2010

iPad. I'm a sucker.


As a medical student I'm always looking for a good smartphone or smaller, utilitarian net book. Other than the iPhone, you can look to android for a decent phone iu. But... Androids market blows. It has not been fully accepted by the medical community, plus it's full of porn. I had been a disgruntled htc eris user, but frankly it was slow and buggy. Did I mention that the android market blows? I wasn't willing to go back to AT&T, since I literally had to press my head against the window to get reception in our apt. So I did the next much better thing.

I bought the iPad.

After a Lot of math and long introspection, I decided to go for it. After much longer pleading and whining, my wife broke down and let me go for it. Win, Win, Win if you ask me (name the reference and win, probably nothing tangible though)

As an outdoor athlete, I thought I could come up with a good arguement for and against the iPad as the outdoorsmen computing device of choice (I'm not comfortable calling it a full computer yet)

For:
The iPad weighs nothing and a half. It's light as turds and so easy to use that most grandmothers can jump right on up to playing with it.
I'm very impressed by the appearant computing power behind the iPad. Truly you're only limited to what developers come up with. Developers will come out with some truly amazing crap, so what you see in the App store isn't the only option indefinitely.
The 3G connection is an awesome addition. You can now backpack this thing in, and as long as there is some cell connection, you can access the web as necessary.
Plus, the battery lasts for 10 hours straight... RUNNING HD VIDEO! I have been able to routinely use the iPad for 3 days in a row (with heavy use) and not have to charge.

Against:
You're stuck on AT&T. See above statement about head pressed against the window
The keyboard can be unwieldy, but really you get used to it very, very fast.
The screen is pretty scratchproof, but really its not.
I don't think the iPad can handle a drop onto a rock. Of course, most computers can't. Hopefully companies will be coming out with much tougher cases in the future. They do have waterproof bags manufactured, both "made for iPad" and the normal ziplock.

I think the iPad is a welcome addition to any backpacker, climber, or expeditionist needing the utility of a computer but hates carrying the weight.
It's really only limited by what developers have put out (and it doesn't run flash... I think it's more a battery issue), so the utility will only grow. Can you imagine maps on this thing? GORGEOUS!

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