There's an iPad for that.

I just didn't think I had an 9.5" hole in my life. Although the iPad is sexy and cool and full of Apple goodness, I had resisted getting one as I just couldn't see a use for it. Then my normally gadget conservative wife decided she wanted one for taking notes at meetings. What's good for the goose is good for the gander so I got one for me too. I had prepared a bit for this purchase with some background research. When I re-jigged our broadband setup, I got a Telstra wifi broadband device. This gets its Internet from the mobile broadband (3G) and provides a wifi hotspot so you can connect any wifi device to it. I use it for my laptop and iPhone. My thinking at the time was such a device is more useful than inbuilt or USB broadband which would be tied to a specific device. The wifi can provide Internet to anything that needs it. Even a friend's laptop. Certainly an easy way to get Internet on a potential tablet. Hence when purchase day came, it was the cheaper wifi iPad that we got.

The story of the purchase experience is also interesting too. I had long enough waiting unattended, unserved and unloved in Next Byte to try out the iPad and check the prices online and discover that JBHIFI had the best deal. At no stage was I bothered by a shop assistant. When I had finished my research I dutifully left and went to said JBHIFI and made my purchase in record time. I did make a point of holding it up and smiling through the window of Next Byte as I walked past. The "you wouldn't serve me so I bought it elsewhere" look!

Having a 16Gb iPhone which I haven't filled up made me think a 16Gb iPad might suffice. So basically I bought the cheapest model. Very unlike me. Most of my data lives in the cloud so local storage wasn't a priority either. I can save to DropBox. The power of the iPad is in the applications, the Apps as they are called. There are apps for just about everything. Apple makes a portable version of Pages, their word processor. There is Dropbox of course. That is the cloud storage and synchronizing app that runs on desktops, laptops and portable devices. Store something in Dropbox and it's available on all your devices.

You can certainly use an iPad for all the tasks you currently do on a laptop with the exception of really heavy data processing or tasks involving add on hardware. An iPad won't drive a USB data logger or a cash drawer for example.
There's a brilliant book by David Sparks called iPad at work if you want a practical guide to doing anything with the iPad.

I had thought of the iPad as a book reader. Having recently moved house, the concept of hundreds of actual paper books is a problem for me. The bloody things weigh a tonne literally. We are still to host yet another garage sale to divest the house of books we can't physically fit. So electronic books make so much sense to me. Both Amazon and Apple have excellent ebook stores. Loads of titles and instant delivery. Much of the science fiction I like has to be ordered in from the USA. You just can't find good books here in Tasmania. Our trips to Melbourne are punctuated with pilgrimages to our favourite shops - Swords and Science (books), DFO (clothes), Max Bremer (all things chocolate ), Allans Music and Myer. To name a few.
The promise of ebooks is good. International availability, instant delivery and no reinforcing the floor or costly book shelves.

My next discovery was that the iPad is like the worlds best portable DVD player. Whilst you can't play actual DVDs, you can rip DVDs or play downloaded movies and tv. The iTunes store has loads of movies and tv for rent or buy. And most stuff you've already downloaded will play too. A lot of my stuff is avi format and an app called CineXplayer plays them nicely. The quality is stunning and the movie doesn't skip if the car goes over a bump. For long car trips with kids this is bliss. Velcro the iPad to the back of the car seat and you have a complete in car entertainment system.
Oh and it plays games too. Lots of them.
So having held out for a while I see now resistance is useless I have been absorbed into the Borge that is iPad.