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My Ipad

Last week I drove down to Champlain NY to take delivery of my shinny new Ipad.  The problem is that for us Canadians the Ipad is not available in stores (or for delivery) yet.  On the other hand purchase via the U.S. site (U.S. delivery address and U.S. credit card only) was easy. 

Primary purpose of the device is to replace morning newspapers (I read the FT, WSJ and local newspaper – La Presse), and for surfing and doing simple emailing around the house (in Montreal and at the cottage).  The devices cost $499, plus NY taxes and I paid an additional $30 in Canadian taxes at the border – a remarkably simple process.

The device is simply magical; it reminds me of that you tube video of the 100 year old women who took to the Ipad immediately.  When opening the box you find the Ipad, a wire and a wall socket charger, and a card 4x3 which gives the device instruction:  plug into a computer and sync wiht Itunes 9.0.

The first thing that impresses is that when opening a page where the script is too small you just expand the text with your fingers – easy and fun.    I installed a few applications, nothing drastic, no games for example.  The best are Bloomberg’s Ipad version and writing software – I purchased a special stylus so that I can use my Ipad as a note taking device – really useful.

The Pogo stylus was a lesson in comparative shopping.  I went to the Apple store in Montreal; they didn’t have any in stock.  They did have the price which was C$39—plus taxes.  Apparently, you can buy it in NY Apple Store for US$24, but and this is the best, I didn’t buy it from the North American distributor – ($17 plus $12 shipping cost), but from Ebay -- $12 + $3.5 shipping

 
By the way most of my buddies (all tech crazies – yeah I mean you Ryk) think this device is the devils work!  My guess is that they cannot play with the system’s architecture.  On a final note both Microsoft and HP this morning announced that they were dropping their plans to introduce tablet PC.   

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