Oh Hive Mind, help me, I've lost mine.

[blamebrampton]

It's stinking hot, I have a vile head cold, and am writing like a demon whenever I am not at work, asleep, on a bike or icing my aching over-typed hands. (I might start icing my whole body if this weather continues …)

However, I need your help! I have the opportunity to buy an iPad 4 or 2 or iPad mini at a decent price, and I do not know if I want one.

Pros: They are cool. I like the Apple interface and live in Apple-land computer-wise. I like to read magazines and do crafty things and there are lots of good apps that would let me get mags more cheaply and help with things like inventing new knitting patterns with less stress. It's very easy to travel with. I am already doing some work editing and writing for the iPad and imagine this will only increase in future. I can afford it without much stress, and since no one else looks as though they are giving me anything for Christmas due to Mr B still not working, it would be a pressie!

Cons: I don't really need one, as I already have a laptop and a Kindle. When will I use it? I still have a stack of New Yorker magazines and Vogue Knittings to get through, and they're paper so can be read in the bath! If I do start using it, it will mean I fall further behind with something else, like knitting or ukulele practise, or stretching enough to get my hips and knees back to ballet-fitness. I have no money to travel! I could use the money to pay for something more useful, like summer clothes since I have done no sewing with the lightweight linen I bought for that purpose, or a banjolele, because I really really want one.

I realise that the cons list is longer, but on the other hand it would be good to learn more about publishing onto tablets. And before someone says 'Ooh! The Samsung!', the work I am already doing is iPad-based so it's Apple or wait at the moment.

My head is full of snot, Mr B has no opinion, feel free to offer yours! Do you have an iPad? Do you love it? Do you do cool things with it? Is it just another thing to cart around in your bag? Work-wise, the world will not end if I don't have my own as I can use office ones.

The news just reported that on Monday, New York City passed its first day in living memory without a single violent crime. Well done, Big Apple! Keep it up!

Comments

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

While I could not live without my laptop, the iPad makes life much easier, in terms of both media consumption AND production. Where I used to carry my laptop, I now take my iPad (third gen, with 3G). Using the Logitech mini keyboard (the one that hinges right on, forming a nice aluminum cover), and Pages for the iPad and Dropbox, I now do my on-the-go writing on the iPad. I upload the day's work to Dropbox, and at home I sit at a table and use the laptop by preference because it lets me do everything else that I want--surf the web more powerfully and comfortably, get mail to my Mail program and file email into folders, use programs like Photoshop Elements, etc. But these days the laptop only leaves my house when: 1) I'm going to do some all-day writing at the cafe, 2) I'm going on a trip of longer than 3 days duration (yes, that blows my mind, that I'll actually leave the laptop at home for a couple of days), 3) I'm going to work and might get some downtime and really have a project that requires the laptop.

And at home, every night, I take the iPad to bed and read/watch things in bed. It really has made everything easier.