What's your iPad to you?
Pick up any gadgets magazine and you will have scores of pages dedicated to new products, their features, specifications and comparison to other similar devices. Similarly, any new technology product launch boasts about the "revolutionary new" features, enhanced specs, first-in-the-industry functions... Amoled screen, Carl Zeiss camera lens, Dolby sound, capacitative touchscreen, turn-by-turn navigation, 3G/HSPA, faster processor... to name a few.
Off late a few products have started talking about what these features can do for you... never lose your way, take notes in your handwriting, edit your videos, check your email on the go, upload your photos to Facebook...
Just two years back no one wanted a tablet device, knew what it was or what it could do. The select few in the technology world who had heard or read about such a device had anyways written it off stating what would anyone do with it? So when Apple launched iPad in March last year, doomsayers touted it as the downfall of Apple and that Steve Jobs had crossed all his limits on his now famous, reality distortion field. No need to mention they were yet again proved totally wrong. In less than two years every human on Planet Earth who knows even a little about computing, dreams of owning a tablet, most of them an iPad.
This is one device that doesn't just have features or doesn't just can do stuff... This is one device that plays various roles... A device that can be something or someone. Let's talk about a few such roles.
1. Newspaper vendor - Almost every prominent newspaper (NYT, TOI, HT), TV channel (BBC, CNN, NDTV) or magazine (Time, India Today) has come out with an iPad version which are undoubtedly much richer is user experience (yes, you will miss the smell of the freshly printed newspaper). One can browse through the headlines and just touch any to read in detail. The news articles comes interspersed with videos which you can watch if you wish to, providing a complete multimedia experience. The news get delivered to you personally. In fact, the news alerts reach you instantly keeping you updated always. With 'Newsstand' just subscribe to any magazine and it gets delivered to you pronto as soon as it is released.
2. Travel Agent - Almost all your travel related needs are taken care of. Book air tickets and accommodation on the go, know more about your travel destination using 'Lonely Planet' or 'Trip Advisor' and find out the best eating places using 'find near me'. Know about your flight status using 'flight track' or the train ticket status and the train running status using 'India Rail'. Traveling abroad? Check exchange rates with 'XE' or communicate better with the cab driver using 'translator'. And never get lost in a new location, thanks to the 'Google Maps'.
3. Entertainer - Never get bored with your iPad... Watch movies (inbuilt video and YouTube apps or using VLC, Flexplayer), listen to your own music (iPod) or radio with hundreds of online radio channels, read or hear books (iBooks, Audible) or watch TV (Yupp TV, Mundu TV, Star TV) or play thousands of games. With an iPad, you will never have a dearth of entertainment options. In fact, you will only be limited by your own imagination.
4. Teacher - Want to learn something new? Get on to your iPad. There are hundreds of podcasts available for any of your training need whether you want to learn drawing, cooking, swimming, driving, gardening, photography, fashion designing, carpentry or even a new language. My personal best is 'Drinksfree' which provides cocktail recipes, I believe, for each and every exiting cocktail mix ever made in the world. Subscribe to online courses and the course material and tests get delivered to you in a jiffy. Want to research? Get on to google, wikipanion, discover... Dictionary & Thesaurus are as handy as they can get...
5. Personal Assistant - Plan your meetings in MS Outlook or Google Calendar, set up auto sync and you can be sure of being reminded about it by your iPad. Take notes, set reminders, create things-to-do lists, sync birthday calendar from your Facebook account and your dutiful PA will never let you get hammered by your spouse for forgetting the anniversary. Sync your contacts to iCloud and never lose any number ever. Enquire about the weather, converting units or calculating numbers and your iPad will be at your aide.
Finally, you iPad can be your companion... Yes, truly a companion... It can be your travel companion to save you from the snoring co-passengers. It can accompany you to boring meetings and prevent you from dozing off and yes, you can take it to bed as well to keep you company till you sleep... Just that you can't make love to it (PS - Steve Jobs would have done something about that as well had he not kicked the bucket so soon).
So, what's your iPad to you?
Off late a few products have started talking about what these features can do for you... never lose your way, take notes in your handwriting, edit your videos, check your email on the go, upload your photos to Facebook...
Just two years back no one wanted a tablet device, knew what it was or what it could do. The select few in the technology world who had heard or read about such a device had anyways written it off stating what would anyone do with it? So when Apple launched iPad in March last year, doomsayers touted it as the downfall of Apple and that Steve Jobs had crossed all his limits on his now famous, reality distortion field. No need to mention they were yet again proved totally wrong. In less than two years every human on Planet Earth who knows even a little about computing, dreams of owning a tablet, most of them an iPad.
This is one device that doesn't just have features or doesn't just can do stuff... This is one device that plays various roles... A device that can be something or someone. Let's talk about a few such roles.
1. Newspaper vendor - Almost every prominent newspaper (NYT, TOI, HT), TV channel (BBC, CNN, NDTV) or magazine (Time, India Today) has come out with an iPad version which are undoubtedly much richer is user experience (yes, you will miss the smell of the freshly printed newspaper). One can browse through the headlines and just touch any to read in detail. The news articles comes interspersed with videos which you can watch if you wish to, providing a complete multimedia experience. The news get delivered to you personally. In fact, the news alerts reach you instantly keeping you updated always. With 'Newsstand' just subscribe to any magazine and it gets delivered to you pronto as soon as it is released.
2. Travel Agent - Almost all your travel related needs are taken care of. Book air tickets and accommodation on the go, know more about your travel destination using 'Lonely Planet' or 'Trip Advisor' and find out the best eating places using 'find near me'. Know about your flight status using 'flight track' or the train ticket status and the train running status using 'India Rail'. Traveling abroad? Check exchange rates with 'XE' or communicate better with the cab driver using 'translator'. And never get lost in a new location, thanks to the 'Google Maps'.
3. Entertainer - Never get bored with your iPad... Watch movies (inbuilt video and YouTube apps or using VLC, Flexplayer), listen to your own music (iPod) or radio with hundreds of online radio channels, read or hear books (iBooks, Audible) or watch TV (Yupp TV, Mundu TV, Star TV) or play thousands of games. With an iPad, you will never have a dearth of entertainment options. In fact, you will only be limited by your own imagination.
4. Teacher - Want to learn something new? Get on to your iPad. There are hundreds of podcasts available for any of your training need whether you want to learn drawing, cooking, swimming, driving, gardening, photography, fashion designing, carpentry or even a new language. My personal best is 'Drinksfree' which provides cocktail recipes, I believe, for each and every exiting cocktail mix ever made in the world. Subscribe to online courses and the course material and tests get delivered to you in a jiffy. Want to research? Get on to google, wikipanion, discover... Dictionary & Thesaurus are as handy as they can get...
5. Personal Assistant - Plan your meetings in MS Outlook or Google Calendar, set up auto sync and you can be sure of being reminded about it by your iPad. Take notes, set reminders, create things-to-do lists, sync birthday calendar from your Facebook account and your dutiful PA will never let you get hammered by your spouse for forgetting the anniversary. Sync your contacts to iCloud and never lose any number ever. Enquire about the weather, converting units or calculating numbers and your iPad will be at your aide.
Finally, you iPad can be your companion... Yes, truly a companion... It can be your travel companion to save you from the snoring co-passengers. It can accompany you to boring meetings and prevent you from dozing off and yes, you can take it to bed as well to keep you company till you sleep... Just that you can't make love to it (PS - Steve Jobs would have done something about that as well had he not kicked the bucket so soon).
So, what's your iPad to you?
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