Thursday, January 28, 2010

Something for the wanderers...maybe


So it is now official. A new touch-screen tablet computer from Apple, 9.56 inches high, 7.5 inches wide, and 1.5 pounds. Now I am not a fan of technology in general - I don't even have a phone anymore. I am real old-school and think that a phone should be a phone, a camera should be a camera, an mp3 player should just be an mp3 player... no hybrids and 2 and 3 and 4 in 1 packages work for me. It is like combining a guitar and a keyboard. Ok I know there is a keytar, but that is just a keyboard or synthesizer that you hang on your shoulders like a guitar - just a change of form, but no messing with the function, the bloody thing is still a keyboard.

Anyway, the reason I like the idea of a laptop that is 9.5 inches is that it is more readable AND it weighs just over a pound. A MacBook is about 5 pounds and you can walk for about only 30 blocks at a stretch lugging that thing in your backpack. Also, you just can't whip it out everytime you have this amazing thought in your head and you want to write it down (if you are the kind to have amazing thoughts, or delusional enough to think so). Also, the keypad on your iPhone/iPod is just too small. Yes, I have heard of these amazing inventions called a book and pen, but I'm sticking to the tech thingies right now. And believe me, it is a tad uncomfortable to walk and write in a legible manner, you still need to make a stop at the nearest coffee shop. By then the thought disappears or has lost its original epiphanic feel.

Ok, so with this new thing, I still may lose some time jotting down my thoughts or whatever, but for me it is the mobility it allows that attracts me. I will be able to walk 60 blocks. Yeah I am aware that I can walk without the encumbrance of books, bag, laptop, phone, but that's beside the point right now. This reduction in weight and addition of font size and hit size on screen... it is cool.

The real reason why I like it - I get that much extra space for more books when I cross international borders... I wonder why airports don't seem to change that ancient rule of 50 pounds per bag and only 2 bags at that. Maybe they should start weighing people and those of us who are below a certain girth and weight should get to carry additional baggage. And vice versa. You don't think? I think.

By the way, Apple should come up with a new name for this cool thing. iPad sounds like some female hygiene product. Come to think of it, it sure will be funny to see that men will have to carry Pads around too.

2 comments:

..N.. said...

ah i like the idea of weighing people and allocating baggage weight. lol

Unknown said...

Good for jotting down ideas, as much as a much tinier phone with a full keypad is. Not good for reading. Try reading for 2hrs on it and you will know.

And then, there is i-tunes. I wouldn't use in a month of Sundays. I wouldn't use in in a month of whatever days.