My, my, my daughter says “So you have gone over to the dark side.” Well, I guess I have, maybe, a little. Let’s say for now I’m in the shadow of the Apple, but I’ve only sniffed at it, not taken a bite.
So how did this happen. It was a progression that took place in a couple days in May. Yes, it is still May. I flew to Denver to present at a workshop and attend a two day conference held by a tight knit group of Real Estate professionals who are tech savvy in many ways. Out of about 30 people in the room I was the only old guy without an iPad.
Did that bother me? Not in the least. I’ve never felt I needed one of those gadgets to do the type of web development I’ve focused on the past couple of years. The evening of the first day the group gathered in the lobby at the Hilton before dinner. I think there were 9 people there and 10 iPads. All hooked to a central wifi puck that one of them carried in her purse. KK you know who you are.
The next day, I was saying “all I have to do is get three days past the gathering and I’ll be fine, no need to even think about an iPad.” Then, the next session was like show and tell. They went around the room giving a list of their favorite apps and why they liked them. The projector at the front of the room was displaying the apps as quickly as they mentioned them thanks to a moderator who certainly knew his way around the app store. Les that would be you.
Well, by the time they got to the back of the room and some 50 + apps were shared that changed the way these people conducted business and their lives I was having a hard time figuring out how I was going to get to day 3.
When I mentioned this the first time, there was a bit of a chuckle, “What?” “Not to many meetings ago three people in the group went out at lunch to a nearby Apple Store and bought iPads on the spot.” That was interesting.
I got home late Saturday night. The next day we were at the Apple store, purchasing TWO iPad 3s
That was two weeks ago now. Since then I’ve added a keyboard/case to mine. Barbara’s is with her in DC for the NAR Midyear conference. Her case and keyboard arrived today.
Do I like the iPad? I do. I’ve found it quite useful. Like right now, I’m typing this post using it. Do I find it frustrating, absolutely. Like writing this post, if I want to add an image I can’t do it unless it is alreay on the site. I have to go to the wordpress app to add the photo, but the preview doesn’t work from that app. Therefore, to write a simple post with a photo I have to open the WordPress app and the Safari browser. This is not convenient or a good use of time.
So I’ll keep the iPad for edits and leave the writing to the blogs to something that has apps that can handle it.
Not so much dark side as a step back to the dark ages.
