I was using an iPhone since January 2011 and I am owning a netbook. But since the iPad was available I was thinking about buying one several times. But I was torn between the question if it really would be useful or just a big iPhone. Finally – during our recent trip to the USA – I decided to find out.
It’s a cool gadget … no question but I am surprised how much it influenced the way I use my computer now. Or better don’t use it anymore! While I did a lot of stuff on my netbook before I now use it only when I have to do something that can’t be done with the iPad. Interestingly 90% of my stuff can be done with the iPad. And no – it’s not just a big iPhone. Same iOS but different use cases. The iPad is definately more a netbook than a smartphone!
During my last trip (which was only a two day trip during the weekend) I traveled only with the iPad and left the netbook at home. I will do the same at my upcoming 5-day trip to Coventry. Of course there is a difference between a weekend and almost one week. So this will be an interesting experiment. Beside several apps (including dropbox for file access) there is one im my portfolio that particularily sticks out … that one is “Zite”.
To quote the website “Zite is a free, personalized iPad magazine that understands what you like and gets smarter every time you use it”. And “getting smarter” ist the key point here. I just started with my Twitter account and form there Zite had built a nice collection of stuff that could be of interest for me. You can start from scratch if youl like (or don’t have Twitter) but this way I got a great starting point. But it doesn’t stop here. Everytime you read an article you can select or de-select keywords if you like as well as rate the article itself. Those information is the learning experience for Zite and helps to deliver stuff even more accurate the next time. Belive it or not: My one-hour long train ride each morning starts to get to short to read all the interesting stuff I get presented. Of course there are many articles I could easily find on my own but there’s also a surprising number of articles that I most probably woudl have missed. So in short – Zite is my own personalized Newspaper.
Without a doubt those two (iPad and Zite) especially in conjunction made a big change in the way I live and work. And for me it was definately a change for the better: Less stuff to travel with, faster access to needed informations and more accurate informations to name the most just the most important points. So getting back to the beginning of this post: Beyond being cool the iPad is one of the most useful gadgets I ever got … you just have to use it for the right things in the right way!
