My very uninformed take on the iPad and all other things Apple

I am a fan of Apple. I was merely curious about Macs before I came to Stanford, then realized that MAS was giving me money to buy a laptop and, for the first time ever, Apple laptops were approaching the prices of PC laptops (the Macbook). I've loved them ever since.

I admire Apple and their products because I think they stand in stark contrast to many of the other computer companies out there. They were the first (in my mind) to produce mass market computers not as utilitarian machines but as consumer products. They make things ergonomic, pretty, attractive - all the bling bling that PC makers thought wasn't important because it wasn't necessary.

So, that being said, I am actually quite intrigued by the iPad. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to www.apple.com and take a look or google 'iPad'.) The base model is only US$500 - quite a steal if you ask me, especially compared to the iPhone. 10 hours of battery life is quite a feat given how big the display is - those screens take up a lot of battery life. And like Steve Jobs kept saying, the actual experience of holding the internet in your hands sounds great. I can just see myself relaxing on a cosy sofa, browsing the internet, playing games that feed my short attention span, managing my schedule, watching TV... I wonder if there's a good way to hook up the iPad wirelessly to a flatscreen TV. That would be SWEET.

I do wish Steve Jobs didn't say "this is amazing/incredible" so frequently throughout his Keynote presentation. I cringed every time he said it, because truth be told, it's a brilliant product that came about by the relatively simple (conceptually anyway) meshing of two preexisting technologies, the iPhone and the Macbook. Nothing very new, hence the disappointed vibe you get in most tech reviews. But I'm going to stop being a spoilt brat and consider the fact that I celebrated the ingenious blending of Indomee with frozen vietnamese meatballs, of milk and Tim Tams. And I'll bet you graham crackers, marshmellows, chocolate and fire all existed long before Smores took off but no one thought of putting them together, until someone did. It takes genius to come up with a good idea, but it sometimes takes even more genius to take two already good ideas and realize they can also make a third.

So Apple didn't come up with some revolutionary technology. They did, though, come up with a new product. A new kind of computer, if you will, that is designed not to be a machine of productivity (unlike tablet PCs) but a machine for entertainment and enrichment. Typing will suck, but that will supposedly be a bearable cost for the sake of the comfort and pleasure of curling up on your favorite armchair watching Youtube, internet TV, reading the online newspaper and playing a game or two whenever you're bored, on your own personal, interactive, vivid, thin-as-a-magazine touch screen interface. The best thing about the iPad, though, is the apps store that can now be applied to a full-sized interactive screen. Imagine the kinds of apps that'll come out... actually, it's kind of hard to imagine. Even better.

But I'd still hesitate to get one, at least for now. Apparently it doesn't yet support flash (unfortunate - no Hulu! Youtube works though), nor does it allow you to run more than one program at a time (unacceptable). :( Do I really need to run more than one program at a time? It'd be nice to. But who knows, maybe I won't notice. Besides, it'd also stop me from checking my email every 5 minutes, which is a good thing.

I thought it'd be fun (for myself) to consider the relevance (or irrelevance) of Apple's entire product line up to my life. I know, it's rather self-serving and materialistic, but hey, it's my blog. ;) I bet this desire to review stuff is rubbing off from my writing for the car blog too.

So here we go:

iPod shuffle: Cute, cheap. Love the stainless steel one, think it looks classy. But this thing is so small I'd lose it in a day. Imagine how easy it'd be for it to hide in reclusive corner of your pants pocket as you wearily throw it into the laundry at the end of a long day.



iPod Nano: I concede that the smaller size and lighter weight might be well worth sacrificing the luxury of being able to carry my entire music collection with me on one device (see next paragraph). My 5th gen iPod was a little heavy on the MRT/subway when I used it to listen to music on the way to work during my summer internship. I wonder what color I'd get though. Maybe the orange.



iPod classic: YEAH. 100% of my music library on one heavy-but-not-too-heavy device!! :D I love being able to carry my ENTIRE music collection with me everywhere I go, because although I tend to listen to the same few albums most of the time (as do most people, I think), my desire to listen to music can be very erratic and spontaneous. It also means that when I'm hanging out with friends and I suddenly think of a song they probably haven't heard of but would like, I can let them hear it on the spot instead of having to go home and email it to them. The downside? My music library isn't anything close to 160GB. Kind of overkill. But hey, I think it's the best value iPod they have.



iPod touch: Eh. Maybe. But only if a) I have money to burn to buy the 64GB one, and b) I don't have an iPad, iPhone or any other iPod. I can see no reason to have more than one internet-capable touch-screen device (i.e. iPod touch, iPhone and iPad).


iPhone: Maybe, but only the 3GS with the 32GB harddisk. If I'm going to have something as heavy as the iPhone (well, heavy compared to an iPod Nano), it had better be able to store all my music and still have room for expansion. At the moment, that's hovering around 21GB for me, including podcasts. It's also nice and compact but bulky enough for me to know where it is, keeps my schedule and contacts, plus it's just cool to be able to look up businesses and directions on the fly anywhere. I highly dislike the iPhone's lack of a physical keyboard though. Also, I am generally suspicious of devices that try to do too many things in one. Then again, the phone quality should be fine, and Apple did make the iPod, so maybe this'll be good. I just have to make sure it's always charged - once it goes dead, I lose my music, phone and calendar all at once.


iPad: Already talked about it enough. Biggest downside? It has the potential to make personal entertainment too, well, personal. I like sharing my life with people. Unless you're just going to use it for calendars and stuff like that, in which case you should get an iPhone or iPod touch instead. Also, given that the unlimited data plans for the iPad and iPhone are the same price (at least in the US), I think it's way more worth the $$ to get the same data on the iPad's bigger, nicer screen. Surfing the web on the iPhone may be cool and convenient, but it also feels slightly claustrophobic to me.


Macbook: Irrelevant, to me anyway. Apple's way of providing a budget computing option. If I want a cheap computer, I won't get a Mac.


Macbook Pro: Sooo sleek. Pretty. Nice. If I only had one Apple product, this would be it (probably the 15 inch one). Powerful and large enough to be my only computing device, light and small enough to carry around if I desire to.


Macbook Air: Even more sleek and pretty and nice. There is absolutely no reason to have this AND an iPad. It's one or the other. If you have a desktop or another computer you use at home, i think the iPad complements that better than the Air - unless you need something mobile for work (read: you need to type), in which case the Air trumps the iPad hands down. Also, I see absolutely no reason to get both the iPad and the Macbook Air, despite the vast price difference between the two.


iMac: Awesome computer. I love the 1TB harddrive and 3ghz processor. That plus the large screen would be great for sound recording / editing projects (see "Combination 1" below), watching TV and all that good stuff. Without any processor-intensive applications though, I suspect the iMac is somewhat overkill. Also, I'd want something mobile too. The best mobile companion to this is, i think, the iPad. Or maybe the Macbook Air... but the iPad is way cheaper. An iPhone would be good too, but I'd really like something I can take to Starbucks to type up stuff if I feel like it. You can't do that with an iPhone... unless you're a Smurf.



Everything else: Can't be bothered to talk about them.

So what would I get if I decided I could spend the money?

Combination 1 (the super abundant lifestyle): An iPad, an iPod classic (160GB) and an iMac / Macbook Pro:

I say "super abundant" because having any one new apple product is a sign of a pretty abundant lifestyle already.

In most cases I'd prefer the Macbook Pro, except that I'm seriously considering purchasing hardware and software for small scale sound recording at some point, which means I'd need a powerful machine with good processing speed, lots of RAM and a big screen. I'd put the iMac or Macbook at my desk / workstation at home, use the iPad most of the time (at home and carry it around when I go out, unless i'm frequently typing a lot of emails) and store 100% of my music files on my iPod. And why would you spend more money on an iPod touch (vis-a-vis an iPod classic) when you already have an iPad? I just hope there is a way to wirelessly sync all of them, or at least the iPad with the iMac / Macbook (e.g. syncing contacts, calendars etc).

Combination 2 (Lightweight mobile computing): An iPhone 3GS (32GB) and a Macbook Air / Pro (13/15 inch):
Provided I don't need all that processing power and stuff, I'd love to have a Macbook Air that is wirelessly connected to my printer, external harddrive etc. that I can carry around with me anywhere around the house, and take out with me without having an extra heavy load in my bag. I doubt I'd need anything more powerful than the Macbook Air, but I'd save money with the Pro. It all depends on how much I'd still bring my computer around if I had the iPhone. Also, it'd be great to always have all my music with me in my phone.

Combination 3 (the minimalist): A Macbook Air/Pro (15-inch). That's all. Well. I'd keep my 5th gen iPod too, assuming it continue working forever, which of course all computing devices do. But really, how much do I need/want all the other stuff, given that I'd be busy with work most of the day and hanging out with friends or at home the rest of the time?


Final thoughts

Whew. That was a long post. If you're still reading, props to you, and thank you - I usually put stuff on my blog with the presumption that hardly anyone will read it, so I appreciate your proving me wrong.

I was just in downtown Palo Alto earlier today, and I was about to brave the evening traffic to swing by the Apple store in the hopes that they had an iPad there (I doubt they did). Then I realized that while it's fun to imagine what I'd like to buy, it's much more fun to realize that I am here now, I have what I have, and it's great. It's so much better to love life as it is now than it is to love my idea of my future, because often the latter is just a projection of my desire to escape life today, and when I get there I'll probably just find more reasons to escape again, always chasing after rainbows for that pot of gold. No. God is here now, I am loved and accepted now, I have great friends and cool stuff, and my hope is not in more stuff tomorrow - it's in more of Him today. :)