An Apple (or two) a Day

I finally caved in to years of pressure and bought an Apple device. I had never owned anything made by them before and had resisted in part because I did not understand the hype and cult following that their products had. However, we were in need of a new computer. Our desktop is quite old and while it still does the job, it is certainly getting to the end of its life. I have my work laptop that I can use and occasionally Mindy will use this as well but with Angus, it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to go to the basement and use the PC.

I was thinking of getting a laptop, this would give Mindy the ability to keep it upstairs and have easier access. I would probably keep the desktop as well, I had not thought that far ahead. Then I saw a blog entry and began reading about the iPad and I knew this was the thing for Mindy. Small, light, instantly turned on, great touch screen interface and PERFECT for web surfing and email, which is pretty much all Mindy (and most of us) does on a computer in any case.

Mindy was not 100% sure about it but we went to the Apple store to take a look. The product is amazing! Sure, there are some possible improvements that could be made but for what Mindy and most casual computer users need, it is perfect. Apple has successfully changed the model from "inventing stuff to do on computers" to "inventing computers to do stuff". While there, we were looking at their other products as well and I was thinking that it would not be my last visit there. Purchase made and off to the girls' school to pick them up.

On the way there we were discussing Naomi's birthday and how she has been begging for an iPod for a while now. So we thought we would give her the choice - she could have a party or we would put that money to the iPod. When we asked her, it took her all of two seconds to request the iPod. We decided to stop back at the Apple store on the way home and mess with her a little bit. We told her she could pick out a case and "pretend" for a few weeks until her birthday while secretly purchasing the iPod as well. The fact that she was excited to do this was really sweet. When we got to the car, we gave her the bag and asked her to check it to make sure we got the right one. She was quite excited (to say the least) when she saw what else was in there.

So since then, Mindy and Naomi have been walking around the house getting their money's worth from their devices. Nothing about the iPad in particular has made me regret the purchase and I think that the market for similar devices will likely explode as people realize what they can do.