OurPad

Or: The Punning

I remember the old jokes about the iPad when it first came out, chief among them that it was an extremely advanced sanitary napkin. At the time I wasn’t terribly excited about it, but I didn’t discount it either. Eventually, it found its niche, in my life between the computer and the smartphone. You see, my laptop is a desktop replacement model. It is large, too large to be carried about casually, though still quite portable. So the iPad came to occupy the space between, being brought to classes, a place to take notes and so on, since it was awkward to do so on my phone. Additionally, for whatever reasons, teachers tend to be more suspicious of students with smartphones out than with iPads out. Perhaps their aversion is not so much to distracting devices but specifically to phones, and not to messaging in general but specifically texts.

It was always something that was fairly unique though, and in this new program it was made common. Everyone in the class had one. It was an improvement overall, I think, since it gave common ground for discussion and avoided people probing your motives with questions. The number of times I was asked why I needed an iPad, the tone silently accusing me of being a tech geek or someone flaunting a new toy. Furthermore, the trade of tricks and tips helped out improve the utility of Apple products for me generally. I was able to learn more than a few new things from classmates, despite prior experience. A community can do wonders for any item.

Now, with the time to turn them in coming, I am honestly curious to see how many people will just let their lives go back to the way they were before, and how many will seek to get an Apple product themselves. I would think more of the later. While I am no marketeer, I would think Apple could be induced to provide such devices on the cheap, since it would lead to an even greater customer base. Then again, I’ve heard tales of Apple being rather tight fisted, so perhaps not. Regardless, we shall see about the challenge of new tablets, but despite feeling no particular brand loyalty to Apple, I do feel the iPad is a wonderful specimen of tablet. Hopefully it shall enrich the lives of many classes after this, eventually ending up in a history class about electronic devices humans used to use before the robot takeover.

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