I’m Talkin’ iPad!

Imagine, if you will, opening e-mail attachments, visiting the Internet, shopping online, digital photos, video calling, social networking, watching a movie or TV, playing games, listening to music, reading a book, and more…all rolled up in one appealing and extremely portable device that measures 9.5” by just under 7.5” and weighs less than a pound a half. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Apple’s iPad!

To be fair, there is an entire industry of tablets out there worthy of your attention. Blackberry has their Playbook tablet, the Kindle and Nook are evolving more into a tablet with each generation. Asus, Samsung, and Lenovo also offer tablets with very good reviews at competitive prices, but the iPad was the pioneer and remains the dominant player in the field. Not to mention, I own an iPad and am in love with it.

The iPad functions like a big iPhone . There are over 90,000 apps (applications or programs) specific to the iPad and several iPhone apps worked in a modified way on the iPad. You are sure to find a few dozen programs out of 90,000+ that will truly amaze and entertain you. Of course you can use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even video Skype on the iPad. The screen size makes watching a movie or TV show or reading a book or magazine a pleasure. (All of which can be purchased from iTunes.) The glass screen makes any images come alive with clarity. Because I use my iPad for heavy duty e-mailing and writing I set it into an external keyboard rather than having to type on the touch screen. (My bad typing needs all the help it can get!) Just like some smartphones, the iPad can be held horizontally or vertically depending on the mood you’re in for viewing. You really have to see and touch it to believe all that it is capable of.

By the way, you have a choice when buying an iPad whether you want only the wifi feature or, for a monthly data usage fee, you can have 3G or 4G to stay connected to the Internet 24/7. Every weekend I train from New York City to Connecticut. There is no wifi on the train, so I opted to pay the small monthly fee to stay connected during my weekend commute.

I could just go on and on describing my enjoyment with the iPad, but rather than my talking about it and until you get one in your hands the best thing you could do is visit apple.com/ipad/guided-tours/ to see it all first-hand. Be sure to click Play All Guided Tours.

Good, now I can get back to playing with my favorite toy…you guessed it – my iPad.