Love my iPad, for those who wondered!

Inquiring minds want to know! So many people have asked about how I liked traveling with the iPad. I thought it was the perfect little traveling companion. It is lightweight and so versatile. I was able to use it for email, internet browsing, reading books, writing blogs, listening to music, playing games, making travel plans, reading maps, checking on flights, navigating subways and buses, and so much more! There I am, above, on the patio in Kapadokya, iPaddling down the stream of consciousness.

The keyboard is very sensitive and takes some getting used to. I frequently switched from alpha to numeric keys when I didn't want to, and it has taken time to get better at avoiding that glitch. For the limited amount of writing I did each day, it was just fine. Someday I may get a little wireless keyboard, as they are now available.

The biggest drawback was not being able to download photos from my camera. We left the country before the photo card reader attachment became available. This forced me to use Daniella's laptop to download my photos, and often caused a lag on my blogs where no photos were available for a few days. Hated that part!

One fun and unanticipated bonus of carrying an iPad was being among the first in Europe to have one. They won't be released there until mid-June. Whenever I took it out, people swarmed around it wanting to feel it, try it, play with it. It was a real people-magnet, like having a puppy only not quite as cute! On our flight from Izmir, I sat with an elderly Turkish couple who now live in Munich. They spoke only Turkish and German, no English, but we were able to converse for two hours using only my very rough German and the iPad. We shared photos, maps, and used the drawing/art application to make words and pictures to get around the language barrier. It was engrossing and delightful to converse with the iPad as a helper! Neither of them had ever heard of it, and they seemed unfamiliar with computers. Yet the iPad is so user-friendly that they were soon enjoying it and easily able to navigate around on it. We had some great in-air bonding!

I can also report that Desmond, now age 22 months, loves to play with the iPad. He can turn it on and find his favorite apps. He begs to play with it. So for all those who are curious, I love my iPad! Go get one!!

I-Paddling

Working on an iPad is all new, a bit like paddling in an unfamiliar canoe. Sometimes it's an easy downstream flow. At other times, it is a hard paddle or even requires one to get out and portage across rough landscape. Often there are unexpected and hidden obstacles. This thing is elegant, delicate, wicked fast, exciting, exasperating, lovable, hateable, all in all quite an adventure!

The thousands of apps are exciting and fun. I've downloaded some books to take traveling, some wonderful kid stuff and musical magic for Desmond, an especially elegant word processing app. My photos have never looked lovelier, and music sounds great! We can watch movies at the tap of as finger, or surf the web to our hearts content! The screen quality is superb, speed is astounding, and multi-finger pad is magical.

BUT... Or maybe I should say AND... it is strange. There is no "desktop". The glass keyboard is so sensitive that I make a million errors, and correcting them is not as easy as I'd like. Since the camera card download is not out yet, the only way to get photos is via a computer or laptop. This may put a serious crimp in my travel blogs! So if I were to try to get my photos from Daniella's laptop, say, the iPad would probably upload all of her 12,000+ photos, taking hours to do so. (Well I've figured out how not to have that happen!) My best hope is to find an Apple store in Berlin so that I can buy the photo card in late April, as Apple promises. Otherwise,??? Had a hard time figuring out how to remove stuff I don't want on the iPad. No desktop, no trash can. But I'm slowly reading through the manual and discovering the huge range and depth and ability of this little device.

I'll get it! I like the thrill of figuring out solutions. I love this iPad, despite it's bumps. Bear with me on the travel stuff -we'll get there!

(random photo from the web above)