Off failing iPhones and fawned upon iPads

As they say, if you can’t beat them – join them. So fair warning: this post contains iPad-related stuff.

As much as I was inured by the recent avalanche of bytes over the impending release of Apple’s iPad, I just couldn’t take it anymore on Saturday, and simply decided to be internet(thusly,  iPad coverage)-free. But  this perhaps made the iGods (oh yes – there is very much a religion where Jobs is the messiah) angry.  Before the end of the day, it had to be that I actually got to hold and try out an iPad at the Apple store!

Here’s the story:

So I was happily spending the day driving top down on a beautiful sunny day through windy roads leading to the desert, taking snaps of wild-flowers growing on cacti, followed by a nap in the backyard hammock and such suitably non-iPaddy stuff, when – wouldn’t you know it – my iPhone started showing the white screen of death! As my favorite saying goes – karma’s a bitch (okay second favorite saying, and note to self: stop using cliched sayings). So faster than you could say irony, I booked an appointment with one of them Apple ‘geniuses’ (Apple – I hate you for that [1]).

And since I was already there in the Apple store – where any craziness for iPad purchases seems to have subsided and replaced by  a teaching session for  a bunch of geriatrics on how to use the machine –  I couldn’t resist temptation and actually got to playing with the thingie for a while.

Sigh! As the god said – so it goes.

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Seeing as I am bothering to write a post that involves the iPad, might as well cover some of my impressions:

Honestly, this stuff is a technological beauty. The apps open much faster than they do on the iPhone/Pod, display is stunning, especially for playing HD movies, and contrary to what what a lot of people have mentioned, I thought it was quite compact and light.

Personally of course, I have no use for a device that doesn’t come with a camera, doesn’t allow me to multi-task, and doesn’t allow me to transfer data.  As for the supposed 10 hours of battery life, I can only emit a hollow laughter. I am sure all the fanboys will buy one have bought one already. I can see a great use for college students, if they can download all their text-books into the iPad (will be a great interactive experience e.g if in a biochemistry book, you can click on an animation showing protein movements and likes). The one interesting demographic could actually be the elderly people not as much used to computers. I can already think of several relatives in India who are not quite comfortable with the pressing of keys , the clicking of icons etc.  The simple touch interface might allay their fear.

So, perhaps a ‘granny computer’ then.

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Oh, I was able to get a replacement iPhone, not before arguing with a Genius about how I  do know how to handle a smart phone and the white-out wasn’t my fault (even if the crack in the screen was – but the phone had been working perfectly with the crack for several months). Of course, the new iPhone had to have a white out screen this afternoon again! Fortunately, it was temporary and the problem fixed itself. No idea what caused it.

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[1]: Apple, as much as I really like your products, I need to point out that pimpled teenagers (or punly middle-aged ladies such as the one I got talking to), pompously trotting around with nerdy air of superiority does not a genius make. I know, what’s in a name you say, but a bit of honest honest nomenclature will not hurt.

Sleeping with the Enemy

I knew that Mac users (and general Apple lovers) are a bit crazy, even cultish (in fact, I like Apple products as well, mainly due to aesthetics). But this is kind of extreme:

Violet Blue, a popular blogger and sex columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, who also features in the film, says: “First of all, I’ve never knowingly slept with a Windows users … that would never, ever happen.” (link)