"please upgrade your system."

[jazzfish]

Time was, I had one computer. If I wanted to do anything online, I'd power up the desktop. (I didn't leave it running all the time because it has a half-dozen fans in it, and it lived in my bedroom, and that was more noise than I really wanted when I'm sleeping.)

Now, for a variety of reasons, I do practically all my at-home computing with the laptop on the couch, or sometimes on the other couch. This means I'm not getting any use out of my clicky keyboard or awesome trackball, and am thus consistently frustrated in small ways by the keyboard layout. On the other hand, it's kind of nice to do simple stuff in the evening sacked out on a couch.

Some of the simple stuff can be done on the Device: email, FB, blowing up skeletons. Even LJ /can/ be done there, as can chat; it's just slow and awkward. Chat especially. (There's a scene in Y: The Last Man where the ninja assassin says "You understand Japanese! Thank god! I sound like a moron when I speak English." That's about how I feel after trying to type on the Device.)

Ideally, when I move I'll get a better desk chair and start using my desktop again. (This may require a new desktop system, since the current one is, um, elderly. I think its last upgrade was in 2004. I know for a fact it's still running Windows 2000.) For lazy evening couch-based surfing, I'll acquire an iPad, since in theory the bigger screen and the 'multitasking' OS update this fall will fix most of my complaints with the Device. And it can be decent for typing on, too, if I use the Neo and the camera kit.

I've been saying "i'll wait until the second model" for months now. And I keep weakening.

Today's the seventeenth of June. I've got exactly thirteen days before the end of the month, and the deadline for Viable Paradise. I'd meant to apply this year; heck, I'd meant to have "Junkyard Dog" and one more thing complete by 1 January, but Life and the sluggish pace of my writing at the best of times intervened. So, a blatant attempt at manipulative motivation: if I can finish either of the things I'm halfheartedly working on by then, and get them in email with a coverletter, I get an iPad. (16GB, because that's all the space I need; wi-fi only, because I don't want to muck with having to switch carriers and such after I move.)

We shall see.

Comments

[uilos.livejournal.com]

If you get something submitted with a cover letter, I'll buy you the iPad myself.

[jazzfish]

. . . i'm flattered. Thank you.

[currentlee.livejournal.com]

I've been saying "i'll wait until the second model" for months now. And I keep weakening.
this is EXACTLY how i feel about the ipad.

[jazzfish]

Heh. Just don't actually /touch/ one. I suspect that, like Magic cards in the mid-nineties, they've infused it with crack.

[rbandrews]

I bought an iPad. It arrived last night. And I'm bringing it to Origins.

So far, it's had the same effect on people as the iPhone: to see one is to want one. I didn't care about the iPhone until I saw my mother's, or the iPad until I saw Ted's. My boss didn't care about the iPad until he saw mine. So you'll probably want one by the end of next week.

I'm going to write a little about the iPad (ideally, -on- the iPad) tonight, but the short version is, it makes you realize that most of the annoying things about the iPhone are related to how small it is, and how big your fingers are in comparison.

Oh yeah, and: the carrier thing is a sort of non-issue. There's no contract, and no phone number, you just sign up with your credit card number on the iPad itself. It's worth having, just because one of the things it does best is Google Maps.

[jazzfish]

That's basically what happened to me. N-- at work is doing all the documentation related to the iPad app, and I got to fiddle with it for a few minutes. And, yeah. Want. I can actually /type/ on the thing.

I have no intention of giving up the Device, and in fact I expect I'll continue to use it more often than an iPad (tentatively named "the Gadget") just due to sheer portability. But, wow.

ETA: Not so much "carrier" as "will it work on international networks?" Also, this way I can pretend it's just a trial run and still let myself buy the almost-certainly-twice-as-good Next Version.

[rbandrews]

My logic was, I don't have to turn on 3G, but if I pay a little extra I at least get the option. And I ended up turning on 3G as soon as I got it anyway, because my logic was, it costs about as much as taking Cassie out to lunch, one time.

I can sorta type on it, but any longer than about a URL and I want a real keyboard. Which is fine, because it works with the cute little Apple Bluetooth keyboard I already have. I just need to find some kind of document stand or whatever to prop it up.

The thing I've done most with it though, is games. It's got a big enough screen to be good at strategy games, instead of just little puzzles. So I've got Civilization Revolution, Battle for Wesnoth, there's a version of Smallworld, etc.

[jsciv.livejournal.com]

I was awarded an iPad for my birthday. Small World, Race for the Galaxy and Ingenious went on it immediately, and are all quite playable. Andy and I played in the airport and it was fun (and we got to look oh so pretentious). Videos are snazzy (he watched videos on the plane while I read because dangit, sitting captive on a plane is one of the few times I get hours to just READ). Internet browsing on the couch is fun. YouTube surfing is kind of amusing. Typing.... still annoys the crap out of me. The VIAO-P, small as its keyboard is, will continue to be my preference because I can touch-type.

FWIW. :)

[jazzfish]

. . . Race for the Galaxy? Dude.

[jsciv.livejournal.com]

er... um... Roll Through the Ages. Sorry. :(

[jazzfish]

Dang. Oh well. Roll is still decent.

[jsciv.livejournal.com]

Ever since I heard that they're working on something called "Roll for the Galaxy" (no typo there), the acronyms and names have started to dance around in my head... :)

[jazzfish]

It's got a big enough screen to be good at strategy games, instead of just little puzzles.

I confess that this is the thing that excites me second-most about it (the first being "lightweight cool-looking writing tool"). I'm really looking forward to a multitude of board games making the transition to iPad. I don't even /like/ Carcassonne and I've played the Carc iPhone app a decent bit.

[jsciv.livejournal.com]

The iPad is the first thing in a while that's made me start to think about "how could we adapt the physical f2f experience to the new possibilities?" It's not strictly board games, but I feel like there's innovation there. I kind of wish I had more time to explore it myself now that I've had the chance to putz with my iPad for a while: I think there's a breakout metaphor (on the lines of Magic, Farmville, D&D or WoW as a "genre defining experience") that someone's going to think of, and it'd be fun to have the time to be part of that hunt...

[vond.livejournal.com]

Whereas I preordered my iPad. I like to tell myself that I did so not so much because I'm an Apple fanboi, but because it collapsed two items in my inventory (netbook and e-reader) into one. I have no complaints about it so far, but I haven't really tried pushing it beyond the realm of what I needed it for, i.e. books and web/mail. Well, I did buy a SSH client and a night sky app, and they work fine.

[rbandrews]

Yeah, I'm unashamed: I got mine as retail therapy.

I'm all about the comic reading. The Marvel app is pretty good, but I got another app that's a CBR reader. It works pretty much perfectly for that.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

VP this year is a no-go for me, since my cousin is getting married the weekend before & one of my best friends the weekend after. But it looks potentially lovely-- good luck!

[jazzfish]

Realistically it's a no-go for me as well: the timing is awkward from a vacation-available standpoint. But hey, I'll burn that bridge if and when I get there. And, thanks.

[absolutliz.livejournal.com]

The laptop couch combo is hard to beat - it takes all the power I have to get OFF the couch so I can properly play L4D2.

[jazzfish]

That sounds like an argument for an XBox, right there. . .