Sunday, March 6, 2011

Why I'm Sticking with iPad 1.0

I couldn't be happier about Apple's iPad 2 announcement.  I was worried they were going to show so many killer features I'd have to spend at least $500 upgrading.  Whew.  Thankfully for me and my bank account, I consider this new product more like iPad 1.1 than iPad 2.

Thinner?  Nice.  Dual cameras?  Don't need 'em.  Smart covers?  Need 'em even less.  iOS 4.3?  I'll take it, but I don't have to upgrade the hardware to get it.

Honestly, I've been wrestling with the notion of switching from Apple to Android in a few months and I was sweating the thought of having to upgrade my iPad so soon.  My iPhone contract is up in June and everyone I know who has switched from iPhone to Android seems to love the latter.  Now I can wait till this summer, knowing both my iPhone and iPad will be more than a year old and I won't guilty about switching so soon after a major purchase.

I am looking forward to iOS 4.3 though.  iTunes Home Sharing will be nice.  I've purposely kept all my music off my iPad so that I'd have more memory for videos, books and apps.  As a result, there have been countless times when I've sat down to read, wanting to listen to some background music but couldn't.  When iOS 4.3 hits I'll be able to just stream all that music from my Mac.  Nice.  I'm also looking forward to the new version of Safari that comes with 4.3.  Then there's the ability to customize the side switch's function.  Like many, I never understood why Apple decided to take a dedicated screen lock button and turn it into a mute one instead.  It's so easy to just turn the volume all the way down with the rocker switch, why take away my ability to quickly lock the screen orientation?  I'm glad they're righting that wrong with iOS 4.3 and letting the user decide what the button should do.

Finally, if you haven't already seen it, be sure to watch the hilarious short iPad 2 ad from Conan O'Brien:

2 comments:

  1. So are you still considering the move to Android? Are you hoping for a similar Android tablet that will do what the iPad has done?

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  2. Yes, I am. I know some of the pundits are down on other tablets because a few are actually higher-priced than the iPad. I figure at some point this year, probably by summer, we'll see a number of Android ones that are lower-priced and give the iPad a run for its money. As far as functionality is concerned, I also realize the iPad has a *lot* more apps than Android. Many of them are simply awful, of course, but that's true for Android as well, so Apple clearly has the advantage here. But I read an interesting article over the weekend saying how the demand for Android developers is starting to eclipse the demand for iOS developers, so we might see the app landscape change during 2011.

    There's a lot to consider on this and I'm not jumping blindly. My iPhone contract allows me to switch without penalty this summer, but I have no problem delaying that till the fall to give myself more time to assess the situation.

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