When I first heard about the iPad becoming a new staple of apple products, I wondered why this was a necessary machine. So many people already have desktops or laptops or both, and the iPhone had already made it’s way into the hands of many people around the world. The iPhone had everything you needed and it was the size of a pack of gum too! Why would people need that in the size of tablet? I thought this way about the iPad for a while, up until this past summer. I started to changed my opinion when my friend purchased an iPad for school. Actually seeing her use the iPad made it so much more impressive to me. It was so simple for her to use, and she was able to use many apps for school, as well as her own personal use. I was impressed by the impressive visual nature of the tablet, as well as the number of apps which were useful to my friend in her school life, as well as her everyday life.

After being told we would be getting apps for the class, I was pretty excited about this prospect, and now, with a few weeks of experience with the iPad, I feel as though my interaction with the news has become even better. Walter Lippmann, in his piece, “The Nature of News” writes, “All the reporters in the world working all the hours of the day could not witness all the happenings in the world.” However, with the iPad and its many apps, an average person can get pretty close to encountering many news stories of the day. My experience with the news has been greatly enhanced with the Flipboard app. I, like many people I know, enjoy the feeling and organization of newspapers and magazines. Although a completely different feel to it, I do enjoy the organization of Flipboard to be similar to that of a magazine. Not only that, but it also allows for me to follow my favorite news sites and commentators and updates the stories whenever I open the app. It has allowed for such an ease of participation and knowledge of news stories that I feel as though would not have been as easy with a laptop.