Hey! Psst! Google Android tablet makers! You really want me to buy one of your products, right?
Then stop shipping and schlepping devices that are running Android version 2.2. The newest, four months old, is 4.something, “Ice Cream Sandwich”.
Running 2.2, or even 2.3?
That’s like making computers with Windows 98 (released in 1998), when most geeks prefer Windows XP (released at the turn of the century) or Windows 7 (released most recently).
What the heck, Android tablet makers??
On Black Friday, just before my husband and I were set to take off for our morning shifts, I browsed my two favorite deal-a-day sites, stopped, blinked, and looked at my husband pleadingly.
“What?” he groused groggily.
I batted my eyelashes. “Lookit!” and pointed at the screen.
He squinted, looked at me, and gave leave to purchase it–a first generation 16gb used iPad. I was really looking for the 3G 2nd generation version, which would solve my need for any other mobile device, but hey, this is cool too. I’d been watching prices like a hawk, and this was hundreds of dollars cheaper than I’d ever find anywhere, used or new. In a rare fit of stuffing money into the mattress, we had the funds available for just such a deal as this. Sooo yeah, I pounced on it.
I’ve already purchased a cover, screen protector, a stylus, and I’m gleefully browsing the different apps for the device that I haven’t been able to enjoy on my roommate’s borrowed 1st gen iPhone. I’ve been reading up on such things as whether it’s recommended that the 1st gen iPad be upgraded to iOS 5 (the consensus seems to be yes, if one wants to play with the iCloud feature). Sadly, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to use a webcam with the device. If I want to bother with a “mifi” option, I should be able to link the device up to a wifi modem with most any major phone carrier, it just means lugging around another piece of electronica and perhaps requiring a wall outlet.
3/4 of the reason I wanted the iPad was so that I could code some urgently wanted apps for the device. 1/4 of the reason is, yes, to play with it. :)
I felt cheesy for updating my Facebook status with, “I got to sip the iKoolaid, finally!” Surely that meme’s been out of date for years. Ah well. This should be a very very fun thing to play with.
Look, I remembered I have a blog! :D
I’ve been quiet lately. Stuff’s happened. Let me tell you them.
Bullet point the first:
We acquired a car, a lurvely 14-year-old station wagon, and for the past month it has been my extreme pleasure to drive hubby to work at 5am. Truly. It means he gets to sleep in an extra half hour and that we get some huggy time before his shift starts. There have been epic grocery trips, and a trip up to the Seattle area for my grandmother’s funeral and a small reunion with hubby’s sister, and his father, and boy howdy was that a good trip aside from the unhappy occasion that brought us up there.
A few days after we got back, the car went boom. I’m just thankful it waited until after the interstate trip to do that. We’re waiting to afford a mechanic to figure out how bad the damage is. We will NOT be employing a former friend who stole our first car and got it irrevocably towed, harrumph. So until it’s fixed, it’s parked. I made hubby get a bus pass for the month of November, because I’d rather we spend the money on that and not use it, than to pay full price sans employee discount for individual transit tickets. We’re due for another epic grocery trip, and it’s annoying trying to find someone to drive us. Yeah, we can use the bus like before, but damn it, we have a car and I want to use that. Ah well, enough griping about that.
Bullet point number B:
World of Warcrack (free private server) owns my soul again. I’ve been playing off and on (mostly off) for five years. Recently, due to car boomage and general lack of things to do because of said car fail, I installed Cataclysm to see what all the hubbub was about. They’ve changed some stuff, nuked a few cities, put a new lava pit in the newbie area, and tweaked the classes a little. I logged in to find all maxed professions intact but all recipes missing. I had four level 80s I’d spent the better part of a year getting to that point, which is annoying but ah well. I mention it in case anyone wants to join me there, I’m perpetually bored. Kick Ash server, PVE, Cataclysm. Install the trial client for Mac or Windows, tweak a couple files as directed, and you’re in.
Bullet point letter 3:
Apparently my brain thinks I can write five novels (totaling 250,000 words) during November, a series of related books borne of boredom and brainfarts. I have five complete and very long outlines and character sheets with some rather in-depth forays into conflict and other fluff. I don’t know if I’ll do all five, but it’s really nice to be able to choose the one that holds my attention the most. Or perhaps I’ll flit from one to the next as my ADD-addled brain demands.
Yeah, I need more to do. Amusingly, having the car made me very much not a slacker, with a full day’s worth of activities between schlepping two people to work and back, and the inevitable chores. I feel incredibly lazy now. Mostly because relying on a bus that takes 40 minutes to travel 4 miles is highly annoying for chores (bank, mail, groceries, errands) that require multiple stops.
The car should be easy to fix, but my extent of carspeak is, “It won’t go,” so I’m really pushing for a mechanic to at least look at the poor thing, to estimate what can be done for as little money as possible and still feel like it’s a better deal than not having one. I’m thinking it’s one specific issue and would be highly curious as to a mechanic’s opinion. At minimum it would require a new plastic reservoir and a couple of hoses. At maximum it would mean a new motor or something else horrible and undoable. Won’t know until it gets a professional assessment.
I’m going to step up my online workstuffs to see if I can pull up some serious moolah to either fix this car, or acquire a new one. Rawr!
I skimmed this, because I was mildly curious what another freelancer’s day looks like. After reading it, I went to Facebook elsewhere to be amused, with this article in the back of my mind. I was struck with the author’s organizational skills, and with her interactions with the internet.
It made me want a smartphone (iPhone or Android, I’m not picky) and it really really made me want to purchase an iPad. Well, the latter is always close to mind, but the article fanned the flames of that all over again, le sigh.
I wondered how I could articulate should anyone ask what on earth I’d want an iPad for. If my goal was productivity and/or organization, couldn’t a pad of paper and pen be just as adequate? My roommate has let me play with an original iPhone as she’s since upgraded. Whenever her phone’s out of commission, she grabs for the one I use, but otherwise, it’s mine to do whatever with.
I’ve purchased a number of apps that are compatible with this older version of the iOS, and played with many others that were free, and even developed a few that are currently in the app store and doing very well. So I do have the teeniest bit of experience with the sort of apps that are or might be available for the iPad. There are quite a few apps that I can’t play with because they will only work with a newer version of the OS, or because they’re specifically for the iPad with no iPhone equivalent.
ANYWAY, my answer as to why I’d want an iPad (v2, 3g) so strongly is threefold: 1. I would use the 3G internet access whenever I needed it–for everything from syncing info and work, to viewing Google Maps (I’m directionally challenged), to communicating with clients and with other professionals. 2. I would use the cameras on the iPad 2 for Skype and other programs of its ilk, again to communicate with clients and other professionals. 3. Productivity. What apps would I use? Well, I don’t rightly know, I don’t have one in my hands to test them out and formulate an answer. However, I would definitely find them, test them, and incorporate them into my daily usage.
There was a period of time in which I was dragging my roommate’s old iPhone everywhere with me, using it to jot down notes, organize to-do lists, write blog entries, scribble down URLs and companies that interested me, etc etc. I do that now by texting a note to my email from my almost-smartphone. I don’t drag my roommate’s phone around so often anymore, because 1) the apps are becoming obsolete with needed upgrades that it can’t handle, and 2) the few things I used to do with it, I now do with my phone. My phone doesn’t play music, but it can access the internet (badly), and like I said, I now send notes to myself via text and email rather than using a notepad app. I don’t like dragging around the different electronics that I used to, either.
I would be lying if I didn’t mention that there were a few not-work things I’d love to play with on the iPad–specifically, several “musical instrument” apps I’m really curious about that have no or limited functionality on the smaller iPhone screen. Oh yeah, and I want to code for the iPad too.
So yes, I can get by without the iPad, but I’d dearly love to get one, and create my daily life around it. Getting an updated iOS or Android phone would be splendid, too, but so little of my mobile stuff is done through voice talk that it’s a distant second on the list of wants.
I’m weird, that’s the only excuse I have. You see, I want to acquire an old fashioned sewing machine, one that worked with a treadle pedal rather than electricity, one that doesn’t have any bells or whistles more complicated than a needle and one or two types of stitching. The thought of using heirloom technology makes me squee.
I found out just the other day that low-tech things are still being manufactured to this day. A sewing machine made by Janome, for instance, was created for the Amish, who are not above using modern technology, if the use of it is acceptable in their society. I want one very much.
That’s all I wanted to share on the topic, really. The existence of the aforelinked sewing machine was very surprising for me, but pleasantly so. I thought it might be of interest of others, also.
