Recalling the iPad

Okay, I know I’m late to the party with this, but I’ve got to congratulate Steve Jobs and company on the iPad. Not like they were waiting for my endorsement, but I’m giving it anyway. Over a recent long weekend I finally got to spend an extended amount of face time with an iPad and I must say the experience really opened my eyes. And ears. And mind.

To explain, I borrowed an iPad from a friend and was able to fill it with my stuff. Real stuff, not the limited selection of sample material you would find on an iPad at the Apple store. It was kind of like getting a free iPad. I loaded it up tons of family pictures, home movies, apps and a generous pile of music from our family’s iTunes library and we hit the road. My daughters even rented Letters to Juliet for the 4 hour drive.

Before we were even out of the driveway I heard Justin Bieber squeaking out his “hits” from the back seat of our car. This went on for some time as my daughters sampled other tunes, home movies, apps and music videos using iTunes. Once we arrived at our destination, the adults spent time checking email, surfing the web and watching YouTube videos. The iPad spent three solid days being continuously passed around. Both the kids and adults were virtually standing in line for another chance to spend time with it.

To be honest, I wrongly assumed that the 10 minutes I had previously spent playing with one at the mall would be a good indicator of what the experience would be like, but having unlimited access in a variety of situations proved the device to be even more amazing and irresistible than I expected. I’ve been a Mac guy since the days when Quadras roamed the earth, but this Apple experience was like no other. Actually being able to touch the internet with my own hand…now that is memorable.

Don’t tell my kids (or wife), but this holiday season will surely find Santa sneaking down our chimney with an iPad in his bag for our house. I’m really hoping he also has a Verizon iPhone in that bag for me, but that’s another story.