30 Days of Gratitude: Day 9

Today, I am thankful for my iPad. I will admit, that with this device, I was an early adopter. I had been seriously considering a Kindle for awhile and was thisclose to purchasing one when the iPad came out. It was actually my mom who kinda nudged me towards buying one. A tech consultant got his early on and she got her hands on one during a consult. She wrote me this email with the text of "omg you must try it" or something to that effect.

Mom doesn't use OMG. Ever. So I knew this might be worth looking into. So the next time I was in a mall near an Apple Store, I wandered in and started talking with some of the employees. I said, I have an iPhone, I travel a lot and I have a Macbook Pro, why do I need an iPad. Some of them gave me the standard sales answer, but a few didn't. Then there was a free workshop on the iPad, so I decided to stay. I ended up being the only attendee and got a chance to ask a LOT of questions.

After that, I was pretty well sold. I knew I wanted one for all the reading (I'm a voracious reader) and I liked the idea that I would have access to a whole host of online bookstores (vs just Amazon's, if I had gone with the Kindle). And I knew it wasn't going to replace my laptop.

I no longer had to worry about having to re-read a book many times over because I couldn't pack enough reading material while on a gig. I could check my email on it and while on a trip to my cousin's wedding - mom and I left computers behind, and checked our email off our iPads as well as reading the NYTimes at breakfast in the mornings.

But now, I'm not traveling for work... right? So has it gone to the wayside? Oh no... I use it at my new job. We work in a Windows environment in a client called Citrix. And they have an app. That allows me to log into our Citrix environment backstage while our shows are going on and I can work on work and, god forbid, still be nearby should something go wrong.

It's incredibly useful and one of the smarter purchases I've made. Plus, I can show of my photos on there incredibly easily - a feature demonstrated to me by the Apple workshop guy.

So, I'm happy with my 1st generation Wifi only iPad. My mom got one shortly after I did, and Dad got his as a surprise for Father's Day. We are a 3 iPad family and love it! For them, it's their first "laptops" and they're loving it.

Thank you, iPad, for making life a little easier and a lot more fun!