So how am I liking the iPad? Well, allow me to share with you the whole unpacking process first:

Sitting unsuspectingly in the box…

And the iPad is unveiled!

Unwrapping the contents of the box…

Aaaaand here it is!

My initial thoughts after playing with it for 10 minutes? I’m glad I didn’t get the iPhone. Even on the iPad with its much bigger screen, I had difficulty typing. Imagine me texting constantly on the iPhone with those itty bitty buttons. I would’ve yelled at the screen countless times. Nonetheless, the interface was stunning and I was really liking the mobility it provided me.

I started downloading apps next (but of course). It was quite exciting finally being able to access these apps that many iPhone users around me have been raving about. But I later realised that many did not appeal to my interest. So I started deleting them one by one, and focused on apps for Social Networking (Flipboard, TweetDeck, TumbLiking), reading (Marvel, iBooks), and other online media and sites that I usually indulge in (BBC News, Vanity Fair, eBay, IMDB). I did also find some games of interest, and started playing around with those too. I then realised I was simply going to use iPad as a more mobile option for days where I don’t need the power of a desktop for work, or when I don’t need to work out of home. In fact, I’m also most likely never going to blog from my iPad, what with my inability to type fast enough on the touchscreen (I’m typing this on my iMac right now).

A couple of days later, my mum asked if she could use the iPad, so I got her to play Sudoku on it. She was engaged for 3 solid hours and only stopped cos we needed to have dinner. I then taught her how to work around the interface and she’s almost working it like a pro now. See, that’s what I love about Macs. They’re just so darn easy and intuitive that any one can use it without major problems (Inside joke moment: Alas, Dia, I’m sure cats still won’t know how to work it. Heheh.) So I may use the iPad mostly for entertainment, and if I had to choose between this and my MacBook, I’d pick the MacBook without hesitation. But the accessibility it gives me is undeniable, and I can’t wait to find new ways to incorporate it into my life.

Allow me to admit right now – I don’t know why I need an iPad. I just know that I want one, and I want it BAD.

And see, that’s the thing. I believe the iPad wasn’t created to fill a need that the tech industry overlooked (to an extent, I believe many of us think of it as a glorified tablet). It was developed so it can give us an additional layer of convenience that people would appreciate, but can also do without. It was developed so we can get information on the go, and not have to squint our eyes while we’re at it. It was developed so we can surf the web easily while lazing in bed, cos seriously, don’t we all want to do that? But will our lives be greatly hampered without such convenience? Certainly not. Slate wrote a great article about this, which I encourage you to read, especially if you’re considering getting one yourself.

With the device finally launching in Singy this Friday (23 July), I now face the dilemma of deciding exactly how much I am willing to spend on the iPad, and if I really should get one at all. At S$728 for 16GB (no 3G), it’s hardly spare change. And if I get one with 3G, that’s gonna set me back another S$200 more. And is the 16GB even enough for the kind of user that I am? Am I gonna kick myself when I see the improvements Apple will make to the 2nd generation?

So as a quasi-technophile who has a love for pretty things, I decided to draw up a list of uses. Bear with me here, especially if you don’t care for the iPad, but if you know me personally, please read on and tell me if I have a case.

1. Surfing
I’m more than happy with my iMac and MacBook, and I’ve more than often snuggled in bed with my MacBook. Unfortunately, it is cumbersome and I’d have to sit in a certain way, which isn’t all too comfortable after awhile. With the iPad weighing in at under 1kg, I can easily take it everywhere around the house (and outside too), and tweet, view recipes, share content with others.

2. Reading
As much as I love reading (whenver time permits, at least), I really don’t have room to store any more books, what with all the DVDs and CDs I already have. With eBooks, I do feel that I can still indulge in this pleasure and not have to worry about storage space. Then there’s all the international magazines/publications in the world I can subscribe to, without having to fork out ridiculous amounts for shipping. Besides, have you seen the Marvel app? SO GORGEOUS.

3. Games
I don’t play a whole lot of games as it is, but because the games developed for the iPad/iPhone are so intuitive and made for me, the casual gamer, it’ll provide me with endless hours of fun. Something that’s extremely welcomed after my daily 10-hour grind at work.

As you can see, I’d be using the iPad purely for entertainment. I did consider mentioning that I’ll be using it for work too, for when I show my classes all the fancy FrontPage presentations and what not, but I figured I probably won’t be using that feature as often when I really get down to it.

So now that you know my main uses for the iPad, should I even get one? If I do, should I get it with 3G or without? Will 16GB be enough? Help?

- – - – -

Edit: THIS. This pretty much gives me another reason to get an iPad.

I finally caved and got an iPod.

I never saw the need to have thousands of songs. It was all a bit excessive if you asked me. I always reasoned that I’m never on the road for such an extended period of time that I’ll need to have an entire library of songs at my fingertips. I was also very happy with my Sony Discman (yes, I still buy CDs although the frequency of that has dropped drastically) and I had a functioning Samsung MP3 player, with a mere capacity of 512MB, which was really more than enough for my needs. So, no. The iPod was never on any of my wishlists.

Of course, all that has changed after 8? 9? years, since this tiny music device was first launched. Mostly because:

1. I now have the financial capacity to buy my own tech toys.
2. I’ve recently replaced my old Sennheiser headphones and they are begging to be used.
3. This new iPod nano has a nifty video recording function which kinda looks good.
4. I’m starting to miss listening to music as I travel from place to place.

Allow me to explain point number 4: You see, work is a mere 15-20 minutes away, so I’ve not bothered to listen to any music as I travel to and fro over the past few years, choosing to spend my time on the commute catching up with news/tweets on my BlackBerry. To me, music is an experience that needs to last wayyy longer than 15-20 minutes. Cutting it short just seems… wrong. But yes, because I’ve not been listening to any music outside of home and the office for at least 3 years, I’ve really come to miss it tremendously. There’s just something special about walking through a park, or taking a long bus ride while listening to music that speaks to your soul, y’know?

So there’s the product shot of my new iPod nano up there, which has been projected to arrive at my doorstep on May 13. I was originally gonna go with either the yellow or the black, but seeing as the red one was tied in with (RED), and I didn’t mind the colour, I picked this one instead. Anything to support a worthy cause, no?

(Hands up if you just copied that move.)

Then I also reasoned: Every now and then, someone doing a Google search stumbles upon this blog and who knows, one of my posts might just provide a high school student or some random person with information that is deemed valuable or interesting enough to share with friends, but she doesn’t wanna have to access her email to share this post… that’s just too much of a hassle… oh, lookie here! Whaddya know? There’s a Like button right there! Now, thanks to this button, this person can just click on it, and share it with all of her friends on Facebook. Now, wasn’t that easy? That, my friends, is what I call FORWARD THINKING.

I know. I’m incredibly thoughtful.

Even if you’re a small-time (and sporadic) blogger like me, go ahead. Let’s all embrace Facebook’s Like button. Let’s be thoughtful together.

I came across this today and thought it might be quite interesting to do. Not only does it keep me Tumblr-ing more consistently, it also helps me take that little step to achieving the perseverance to see through a whole web project. Goodness knows how many times I’ve failed at that! Anyhow, be sure to check out my Tumblr to see if I emerge victorious, or crash, like I usually do. :p

And to make this challenge more um, challenging, I’m going to continue blogging here as often as I’ve been doing the past few weeks. *gasp* I know right! How exactly is she going to keep this up? Well, we’ll just have to wait and see. Heheh.

Part of me is envious that she’s able to so easily choose the simpler life. I know many people who yearn for that (myself included), but have never taken that bold step to abandon the globalised world and go back to basics. And as much as I’d love to be free from the stress of living up to societal norms, I really don’t know if I’m able to forsake the convenience and accessibility of life as I presently know it. For instance, just spending a day without my mobile phone can be somewhat disorienting. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not surgically attached to my phone. I simply can’t see myself choosing to go without it for an extended period of time. Especially not after I’ve experienced the type of ease it avails to me. Can you?

It really is quite hard to let go now that I’ve sunken my teeth into the technological fruits (Apple & BlackBerry). Perhaps when I’m older, and less in need of staying so “connected”, will I be able to retreat into my quaint little abode. But before that, please don’t judge me as I continue to be sucked in to everything that is the 21st century.

18 April 1999

Oh boy… my mum’s 50th birthday is just three days away and I still do NOT know what to get her! My grandma got her this really nice wallet so I can’t get her a wallet! Grr… I can’t get her perfume, ‘cos I don’t have enough money to get her a decent one. Oh geez… what am I supposed to do?? What can I get her? Oh no, oh no, oh no… I have to get her something! I didn’t get her anything last year! Oh boy, this is killing me! I’m feeling so frustrated!

On a happier note, I’ve finally completed the new Hedonism today. Ahh.. I feel a great sense of achivement now… *L* Only last month, did I realise that I have not added a journal entry since *gasp* January! I’m pathetic! If this goes on, I’ll become a procrastinator in no time. Talking about procrastinating, I haven’t even updated my Hanson site since April 3rd! What am I thinking?? I have so much free time and I keep putting things off… I’d better start changing soon.

Anyway, church was good today. The speaker, Dr. Freddie Boey, delivered this really motivating speech, not to mention funny too. ) Oh, and my grandparents left today for their 4-day cruise. They went with 8 other ‘old’ people. My grandpa tells me he’s gonna spend some time with the jackpot machine. Hope he doesn’t overdo it. But I shouldn’t worry too much, grandma will control him. *L* With both my grandparents gone, I can finally watch TV in their room! *evil grin* No more fighting with my dad for the remote control. And I don’t have to go to the living room to watch TV anymore! Heheh… Although it’s just 4 days, it’s more than enough for me. ) What can I say? I’m easily contented! ) Well, gonna watch PO5 now… Later!

Believe it or not, I was cringing the whole time while reading through this post. I’m SO glad I’m older and wiser now. :p

Then the “Red Chook” phase came along… Did you know I wanted to be in advertising?

2 December 2001

anyhow, the school term begins again tomorrow and i’m really looking forward to it. i’ll be learning advertising and media management… i think? i’m not sure. i love advertising. it’s one of my career options actually. however, i don’t know if i’m up to it. i’m not exactly that creative. i guess i’ll just see how it goes. i’ll take one step at a time and try not to think too far ahead. sometimes, over-planning isn’t all that good. right?

Things got emotional when I left for Brisbane:

4 June 2002.

my grandma has been acting all weird ever since friday, when she found out i was definitely going to QUT. this morning, when she found out that my flight has been confirmed for july 1st, she got all quiet. i nearly cried but i forced myself to hold back the tears. i knew she’ll start crying if i started crying and i really can’t bear to see my grandma cry. i’ll get all choked up. and just 5 minutes ago, my grandma came into my room and started crying and telling me how much she’s gonna miss me when i go to brisbane. i couldn’t control it anymore and started crying too. i love my grandma to death and i get weak whenever she cries. damn. i really can’t bear to leave her, and my mum…

Here’s one of the funnier incidents that happened in Brissie, that I’m glad I noted down:

11 February 2003

now, here’s something andrew badly wants me to mention: so, we’ve arrived at the airport and there he was, waiting for us (*cough* mainly huaiky, as we all know) and a certain uncle of mine was there too, to pick us up, as well! (see how loved we are? ) now, steff and i were in this uncle’s car and the other 2 were, we all know where… so, when we got home, this uncle just takes our bag out of the boot and then he happily says goodbye! poor ol andrew was in a state of “shock” cos now he had to lug 3 of our very heavy luggages up the stairs, all alone! hee. oh well, i’m sure my uncle was just giving him a chance to display his strength and sense of gentlemanliness (is there such a word?).

After uni, I came back and worked for a year in the PR & Events industry. This post here occurred during the last leg of my time in the industry (and got myself into teaching):

17 October 2005

i’m now officially jobless.

i did end up working the extra two weeks but it wasn’t too bad cos there wasn’t a whole lot to do, and most of the time, i was just sitting around, doing bits here and there and um, chatting on msn. heheh. i’m definitely gonna miss my kick-ass colleagues, without whom, my dwindling sanity would have long been devoured by the she-predator.

See what I did? I called my ex-boss a “she-predator”! Heh.

As mentioned earlier, I got myself into teaching, and here I’m singing the same song over and over again. Even up till today:

18 April 2006

i still love teaching, in case you were wondering. it’s been awesome. exhaustingly awesome. i’ve devoted so much time to it that i hardly have much time to do anything else but indulge in tv. after such a long day at work battling my composure no thanks to annoyingly-adorable teens, i am simply too decapitated to fathom anything else. thank goodness i enjoy watching tv, huh?

But getting into teaching wasn’t easy. It took me about 3 tries, I believe, before I was confirmed as a teacher. Here was when I finally got my letter of acceptance:

29 November 2006

When I opened my mailbox earlier this evening and saw this big, brown envelope with the words “ON GOVERNMENT SERVICE” stamped in big, bold letters on the top, I knew this was it. This was the exact moment I’ve been waiting for for over a year, ever since I decided to teach. Funny how I always imagined this moment to be a lot more exciting. Not like I’m expecting fanfare or confetti or anything like that — although… how cool would that be? — but I certainly expected to have a much bigger reaction than “oh, finally!”, which was exactly what I said in my head when I saw the envelope.

Ah, good times, Internet. Good times.

So in case anyone was keeping count, I’ve got this blog, Twitter and a Tumblr. How in the world do I keep up with all of them?

Well, I don’t.

I am enjoying whatever’s left of my long weekend. Granted, it wasn’t all about having fun, but in between the (minimal) marking and chilling out with the best bunch of friends, I’m certainly well-rested enough to face a brand new week of insane deadlines and a new bunch of crazy essays to mark.

It’s been so long since I had a good rest that I almost forgot what it felt like to be this relaxed. All thanks to Labour Day, my long weekend started on a high, mostly because I don’t have to prepare lessons until the new semester begins in end June (yay!), and also, I finally got the Blackberry Bold. I probably shouldn’t be this excited over a gadget, but I have been coveting it for awhile and since StarHub recently introduced an affordable plan for individual users like myself, I was glad I didn’t have to settle for the iPhone.

On a completely unrelated note, Huaiky (I miss you, hun!) recently sent me this email (Thanks, by the way! Heh.) about educational tools on the web and one of them was this website that’ll easily turn my handwriting into a font. It only costs US$9.95 so, what the heck… Presenting my very own font:

The underscore and some of the symbols didn’t turn out very well but I was too lazy to edit the template. Anyway, I’m actually rather happy with the way it turned out. It’s not my best writing but it’s not too bad, yes? Oooh… Perhaps I can create a bunch of fonts and sell them online? That should help finance my shopping household expenses. But seeing as this is my first font, I shall offer it to you for free. :p Go ahead, download my font. Be sure to let me know what you think!

As though it wasn’t enough having them take so long to get back to me, I found their response less than satisfactory:

Dear Miss T

Thank you for your feedback of 7 April 2009.

I am sorry to hear of your experience at hello! Tampines Mall. I agree with you that good customer service is important to our valued customer. You may be assured that we note on your feedback for improvement in service rendered. We appreciate your understanding on this matter.

Nonetheless, I am glad to inform you that our sales staff had reserved a set of Blackberry Bold and will contact you soon. If you need further help, please call me at 6838 xxxx. I will be glad to help you.

Yours sincerely

N Bte Mohd (Ms)
Executive
Customer Relations
for and on behalf of:
Singapore Telecom Mobile Pte Ltd

I understand that these companies are never actually sincere/sorry, but this reply here just sounds so… fabricated. It’s as though there was some kinda template that the Customer Relations Officer could just copy-and-paste from. Which led me to wonder why it took so damn long for them to get back to me.

Anyhow, so I went back to the store again today to get my Blackberry Bold. This time, a different Sales Assistant attended to me and I was somewhat taken aback by a brand new piece of information that the other guy didn’t tell me last week (should I even be surprised at the jarring lack of consistency?). Apparently with the Bold, I’m not able to access WiFi without first subscribing to BB’s Internet Service due to some configuration issues. So on top of the 3G plan, I’ll have to fork out an additional $40+ (minimum) to access the Internet on the Bold? Huh. Is that why BBs are less popular? Cos the plans are expensive?

Now, I’m looking at the iPhone again. As attractive as all the million apps are, I’m highly concerned about the much-criticised battery life and the fact that it’s a touch screen. I’m not the biggest fan of touch screen phones. Call me a prude, but I’d much prefer having actual buttons, that way it seems more “safe” since it’s kinda less dependent on the software. Then there’s also the battery issue which has got many users complaining. Sure, Apple has offered some tips to save the phone’s battery life, but most of them require turning OFF features. Um, hello? Why am I getting a phone only to turn OFF the features? Granted, the only 2 that directly affect me are having to turn off 3G and WiFi. Still. It’s somewhat troublesome having to turn them on and off, y’know?

Ultimately, it’s a matter of money vs product. As much-lauded as the BB is, the subscription is really gonna set me back a lot more per month. Also, I have absolutely no need for the pushmail service, which really is the key feature of BBs. Then there’s the iPhone, a device that is inherently more suitable for my sort of usage (calling, texting, surfing, tweeting) but I’m really concerned it wouldn’t last me a day at work, which is imperative considering the kinda hours that I sometimes put in. To break it down:

BlackBerry Pros: Actual buttons, better battery life, more aesthetically-pleasing to me
Cons: Price plan is expensive, No need for pushmail

iPhone Pros: Cheaper price plan, More apps, Better Internet browser
Cons: Touch screen, short battery life

Help?