Avoiding the Announcement
I decided this morning that I would avoid watching feeds from the announcement. My typical method of consumption is to have a handful of streams open watching shorting blurbs and photos come across all while debating points with Alex. I think I have been following Apple announcements since I started working at DxR in Carbondale.
The keynote takes 1-1.5 hours and then I usually spent time afterwards reading in-depth reviews and discussing it over and over with coworkers. I always felt dirty wasting so much time and frankly didn’t enjoy following streams. So today I decided to resist my own consumption and inform my coworkers of my decision. I’m amazed my plan worked for the most part. I kept my nose down in my work all afternoon by not checking Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Digg, RSS feeds, etc. It really felt good to eliminate all of that. In fact, I need to do it more often; I have a bad habit of losing focus for a second and immediately bringing up a random website.
Most of my coworkers respected my decision. Our new designer, Russ, even told his friend on the phone he couldn’t talk about “it” because of my decision. I appreciated the effort even if it wasn’t necessary. My boss, who was working from home, sent me a few instant messages while I was at lunch about “it”. His messages were very cryptic and generic incase I wasn’t paying attention. I appreciated that consideration. At the end of the day a woman from the other side of the building came over to ask me a question. She acknowledged my sign and then proceeded to tell me about the pricing and storage sizes. I didn’t mind.
I watched the whole presentation video tonight from the comfort of my leather chair. I enjoyed watching the actual reveal but I can’t stand the extended demos. For example, I already know how to browse the New York Times website using my iPhone. The iPad is just bigger so there isn’t a need to spend 5 minutes marveling at the blank boxes where the Flash advertisements would be. I skipped through most of these, especially iWork.
I think I’ll probably skip the live feeds in the future. Reading an article afterwards is much more rewarding.
I’m very excited about the iPad. I was worried I wouldn’t have a place for it in my life. As a fanboy that would crush me. But I told Beth tonight that I could see this device replacing the laptop that gets passed around in the living room. I also think Beth would enjoy reading books from an electronic device.
I also hoped that this device could cover everything my parents need a computer for. It covers everything but photo storage. I knew it wouldn’t and believe it shouldn’t. It’s a shame that it comes so close.
EDIT: There will be a Camera Connection Kit but even 64GB isn’t enough for a long term storage solution.
