Posted From My iPad

It's been two weeks. Two weeks since I splashed out extravagantly and treated myself to a new luxury item.

But what a luxury item it is.

I've been umming and aahing about Apple products for a while now. My 5 year old laptop, though it has been through thick and thin (including having an entire glass of water thrown over it), is on its last legs. It's still useful for quite a few things, but like an ageing racehorse, it just cannot compete anymore.

So, I started looking at new products, at MacBooks, at iPhones, and finally, at the iPad. I think it was the size, the power, the portability and the variety that made me splurge on the new iPad. Once I'd paid, and was waiting for the delivery, I was nervous. Very nervous. I was worried it wouldn't live up to my expectations and that I'd be hugely disappointed.

I wasn't.



I could barely contain my excitement when the box arrived, but then, I think that's more just the anticipation of getting a package rather than anything else. Nothing beats signing for the parcel and then rushing it inside to rip open the tape and wrench the box apart. Or struggling hopelessly with the well sealed contents if you're more like me.

Finally, with the box opened, I pulled out the iPad. In true Apple fashion, even the boxing was stylish designed and packed. And then with the ease with which Apple creates its operating system, I was off playing with it in seconds.

It hasn't really left my side since.

And yet, I am still just completely overwhelmed by it. Everything about it. There's just so much to do, every time I turn it on, I don't know where to begin. I have apps downloaded left, right and centre, and I don't really know what half of them do! I haven't even begun to look at paid apps yet, as I've been more than content with all the free ones. I'm sure I've got apps that do the same thing, but the beauty is you can just play with each and see which fits best.

Beauty is a word commonly associated with Apple. And rightly so. The aesthetics of the iPad are simply beautiful. The whole thing is so intuitive, and easy to use, and everything just fits. I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but it is true. 

The phenomenal power that is available at my fingertips is incredible. News, music, photos, videos, social networking, games, everything is there. I've already been overwhelmed by all these news apps which I could spend all day looking at, reading all kinds of different articles and discovering a world of information. For education purposes, if everyone had an iPad, the world would be a much better place. 

Of course though, I'm sure lots of people would be tempted by the games. Myself included. However, I have been putting the iPad to good , productive use too, and it's already proved invaluable in some of the things I have been doing recently. More to come on that later. 

Whilst figuring out my iPad, and discussing the wonderfully technological benefits with friends and family, I got to thinking about the changes in the technology. Just in my lifetime, the short 22 years I have been alive, technology has exploded exponentially. I remember memorising all my friends home numbers and ringing their house when I wanted to go out and play. No mobile phones, or preprogrammed numbers even. Hand written phone books. And we picked a place and time to meet, and that's when and where we met.

I sound old now, and to some I must sound ancient, but that's how it was. I remember my first Walkman. Then I had a snazzy....portable CD player. Now CDs are on the way out, and I collect records because they are retro. I used to videotape the finales to my favourite tv shows so I could watch those cliffhangers again and again. Last week I watched the finale to Homeland on my iPad.

I love this technology, I think it's incredibly useful and I embrace it. But I do think that my generation is in somewhat of a unique position. Generation Y as some have dubbed it. We grew up with this technology, but we weren't born with it. We have been used to something different, and have changed with the technology. Changed because we had to. Older generations may have embraced some technologies by necessity, but also some by choice. We have been required to embrace it all. If we didn't, we wouldn't get by in the world, particularly with regards to jobs nowadays. My younger sister is kind of used to all this technology; it's always been there, and she's always known about it. I'm different. My IT lessons at school didn't really teach us that much. Teachers were still training and adapting to new technologies then. In my time at school in fact, we went from blackboards to electronic whiteboards. Now there are no blackboards in sight, and chalk is a thing of the past.

And I kind of miss blackboards, chalk dust everywhere, and wooden board rubbers being thrown at unruly children. Generation Y then, is in a bit of a unique position. Because despite all that technology, I still have a pen and a pad of post-it notes by my side, and would hate to be without them! Technology changes, but we do not.