In Which I Throw In the Towel and Buy an Ipad and Discover A Whole New World

December 30th, 2010

Now Skype is on the money warpath
I think it must have been the advertising and general publicity that finally got to me. I just had to have one. It was the same feeling I’ve had over other items that I never needed and bought. It was like that new Peugeot ad on the TV. A guy stops at the Peugeot showroom to admire a new model. He walks a little closer and a salesman walks out. “Do you need a new car, Sir?” No. “Do you have large family, Sir?” No. “Is there any special reason you are looking at this car, Sir?” Yes, I want it! My wife was not impressed!

The iPad
The thing with the iPad is the enormous potential it has. Not only does it do a whole slew of computer things that we now expect from every electronic gadget that can connect to the internet, the iPad has the ability to convert itself to many other uses, mostly specialized fields. I even went so far as to offer to purchase a cooking recipe add-on and let my wife take it into the kitchen.

No limit
There is no limit to the add-ons, in fact I would say the limit is that of the human brain. I am sure that there are already medical add-ons that will aid a surgeon in an operating theater, or chemical add-ons that will assist in lab work. Apple , of course, understood the that the toy they were developing had thousands of other applications so they developed “Apps”, the add-ons which they are now marketing. Many are free but most one has to pay for, from nominal small amounts to larger sums if you purchase a serious program to add to your iPad.

Using it
I am not a computer freak and at the slightest sign of a glitch in my desktop computer which I use for writing, I call Bernie, my PC Doctor who comes immediately and puts things right. In the shop where I bought the iPad I asked the young salesman if there was a manual in the box and he simply smiled. In fact there were 3 pieces of small paper and nothing else. It took me a few hours to figure out how to switch it on and after 2 days I can zoom around like my grandson does on his iPod. I am still a trifle slower…

Skype
Today’s announcement says: FaceTime software, which comes with iPhones, works only with Wi-Fi. The app, which is being released Thursday through Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store, will let iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS users make free video calls to other Skype users who are using the app or have access to the feature using Skype on their computer or other video phone. Those with the latest iPod Touch will be able to make video calls over Wi-Fi. The app allows the iPad and previous-generation iPod Touch to receive video calls, too, Skype said.

Me
I will install it today. Bet you my wife will be happy….

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 30th, 2010 at 5:32 am and is filed under Finance, Money, Personal / Internet, Technology, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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