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Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Shifting paradigms
When Apple first released the iPad, I--like many other Apple enthusiasts--was both enthralled and disappointed. I remember joking about the iPad being just a larger iPhone, without the phone. Don't get me wrong, I was (and still am) very happy with my iPhone. My biggest disppointment with the iPad was that I had been waiting for Apple to deliver a netbook, and the iPad was no netbook. Yes, a touchscreen device with a decent-sized virtual keyboard was nice, and the battery life was a big plus, but it didn't have a user-accessible filesystem. How was I going to load and unload my files?
So I ended up buying an HP mini, wiping the disk, and putting Ubuntu netbook remix on it. It served me well as a portable writing device, and the form factor and battery life were perfect. As time went by, I continued to hold out hope that Apple would improve its clumsy, iTunes-based method for getting files on and off an iPad, but they never did.
Meanwhile, app developers rushed in to fill some of the gaps. I began to see the benefit of ignoring a conventional filesystem altogether, and turning to cloud-based storage, thanks to Dropbox. And when my netbook suffered a premature demise recently, I finally took the plunge and replaced it with an iPad 2.
The combination of Dropbox and Documents to Go (a very capable, stripped-down equivalent to Microsoft Office that supports a number of cloud-based storage services) has made the iPad an amazing writing device, and so much more. I don't miss my netbook at all, and the virtual keyboard is ideal for me, since I'm not a touch typist. My resistance to Apple forcing me to accept its way of thinking has faded. At some point, I may even begin to see that familiar filesystem and friendly Finder on my desktop Macs as completely antiquated.
That's Apple for you. It doesn't just shift paradigms, it busts them wide open.
So I ended up buying an HP mini, wiping the disk, and putting Ubuntu netbook remix on it. It served me well as a portable writing device, and the form factor and battery life were perfect. As time went by, I continued to hold out hope that Apple would improve its clumsy, iTunes-based method for getting files on and off an iPad, but they never did.
Meanwhile, app developers rushed in to fill some of the gaps. I began to see the benefit of ignoring a conventional filesystem altogether, and turning to cloud-based storage, thanks to Dropbox. And when my netbook suffered a premature demise recently, I finally took the plunge and replaced it with an iPad 2.
The combination of Dropbox and Documents to Go (a very capable, stripped-down equivalent to Microsoft Office that supports a number of cloud-based storage services) has made the iPad an amazing writing device, and so much more. I don't miss my netbook at all, and the virtual keyboard is ideal for me, since I'm not a touch typist. My resistance to Apple forcing me to accept its way of thinking has faded. At some point, I may even begin to see that familiar filesystem and friendly Finder on my desktop Macs as completely antiquated.
That's Apple for you. It doesn't just shift paradigms, it busts them wide open.
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