It's 4:30am the Monday morning after Christmas. And I know some of you are already rolling in your beds dreading going back to work after a nice extended Christmas holiday. But it's just another day, and another opportunity. Truth is, for me anyway, it was a short holiday. Joy had a nice long block of time off, and we had the Grandkids for almost a week. But Caitlin only had Christmas day off so it was up at the buttcrack of dawn for us both all through out the Christmas Holiday weekend. And in the end, just another day.
Although I needed/wanted nothing, and specifically requested that no one waste their money on me for Christmas, Santa, the redheaded one, decided to be a little on the naughty side and disregard my request and saw fit to leave an iPad under the tree for Joy and I. I've played with the iPad here and there in stores, and Joy and I had talked about them numerous times and for what we use a computer for, an iPad fills that bill quite nicely. Santa got us one of the 64gb iPads with BOTH WiFi and 3G capability, so I think we're maxed as far as hardware goes. Now all we got to do is learn how to use the little fruit.
And I won't dive into all the ooh's and ah's the iPad has to offer, but I will say it's a Mac, and I'm not. So it'll take a little getting used to for me. Luckily I had gone off the reservation and played with Safari and Firefox as a browser so it was sort of like meeting an old friend for coffee. But there are a lot of new things to be learned, at least for me. Caitlin has a lot of time on a Mac at UAB editing video and other assorted projects so she's ambiputerous and can help this old dog learn a few new tricks.
So far, I'm impressed as hell with the iPad. Battery is FANTASTIC and never fell below 40% after both Joy and I used it pretty much all day on Sunday. It uses any available "open" WiFi signal it can find first and then switches seamlessly back and forth to the cellular 3G AT&T network as needed extending your cellular access time. And now having a new and truly portable device will again open the wonderful world of coffee shops to my wit and charm. Some of the negatives I have found for me are it's hard as hell to hold on to. I need one of the Gel cases so it doesn't slip out of my hand, so will probably pick one up today before I drop it. Another negative is there is no user manual. So, if you really don't know what an iPad is, or what you can do with it and what nifty little features are built in to it, well... you still don't. I can't figure out if the little fruit has a GPS chip in it or not. Also I really don't appreciate the fact that the iPad is heralded for it's picture ability, but you don't find out until you are trying to plug your digital camera into it that there is no USB port, but guess what, they sell an "accessory" that replicates a USB port and a memory card reader. So, all it takes is just a little more money...
Everything has it's own up's and down's and I doubt if our new iPad will be any different. I am really excited about being able to be mobile again without having to either squint to see a microscreen or having to tow a trailer for all the peripherals and cabling. And third party apps are just crazy. Makes me want to write programs again. I looked over a GhostHunter application for the iPad that was just insane. It makes use of all of the iPad's built in sensors (light/sound/motion,etc.) and turns the iPad into a mobile paranormal lab. Now a serious Ghost Hunter I am not. I'm not even a serious believer in the paranormal, but I thought it would be a cool app to have and use with the Grandmonkeys. Might even scare my wife under the covers with it? And just for the record, I lean more towards the Bigfoot side of the "mysteries of the unknown" in my interests. No, never seen one, never looked for one, HAVE woken up beside a few that resembled a Sasquatch, but I was really, really, drunk, and it was a long, long, LONG time ago and thank God they didn't have cellphone camera's back then! But hunting down a "Squatchy" does hold some sort of allure for me.
So, I hope ALL of you had a good Christmas, got to spend some happy quality time with friends, family and loved ones, ate some scrumptious Southern foods and enjoyed the first White Christmas we've had in Dixie in many, many years. We did!
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