Bradley J. Shively

Put it in the hands of someone that is totally unsavvy with technology. Someone that hates gadgets. I had a conversation that went as follows last night…

My mom: what is that?
Me: the internet.

My mom got her first computer this Christmas when my sister and I purchased it for her. It has received minimal use at best. But holding access to the net in her hands, as well as flipping through a completely digitized version of a children’s book she no doubt read to me when I was much younger seemed to totally captivate her.

To anyone that hasn’t figured it out yet, let it be said again.. Hate the iPad? It probably wasn’t designed for you. It was designed for your mom.

Of course I’m not suggesting the iPad has nothing to offer “power users.” But there is a reason that the out of the box solutions for the iPod don’t support .ogg and FLAC. 80% of the market doesn’t care, or even know what it is to realize it’s missing in the first place. The iPad is just an extension of this design philosophy. Do 70% as much 200% better.

A quick list of pros and cons.

3g pros:
easy data access anywhere
GPS

3g cons:
expensive ($130 premium)
monthly fee for data
data is provided by AT&T (inferior to Verizon)

WiFi pros:
less expensive
tether for 3g (Verizon > AT&T)
no monthly fee (other than current phone bill)
more money spent towards storage
available now

WiFi cons:
extra step for data access (more complex)
data may be unreliable
use of wifi tethered to phone may drain phone battery
no GPS

16GB:
May be content-limiting, especially for video storage
Cheap

32GB:
Sweet spot?

64GB:
Expensive. VERY expensive with 3g. $830 (A MacBook with student discount is $900)

thoughts:
The 64GB option is just too expensive to be justified, in my opinion. This is doubly so when you consider it with 3g. I’m not concerned about the 16gb storage limitation because I don’t envision putting music on the device, or even more than one or two films at a time. The 32gb might provide a bit more breathing room. The option of tethering to my phone for 3g access is attractive, especially because Verizon’s coverage is far superior to AT&T’s. I think I can reasonably eliminate any option with 3g, with the only real downside being lack of GPS and potentially missing out on a few “cool” apps that utilize the feature. However, I don’t see the iPad as being a viable option for in-car GPS, a walking map, etc. Its too expensive to carry around on pavement and risk breaking. Also, some apps can use WiFi to determine your location in a general area.

My main uses for the device would (will?) primarily be as a reader, some apps, and perhaps (but rarely) viewing movies.

Special thanks to @benjaminmingle for helping me compile this list of pros/cons while we both debate the merits of owning an iPad.