IPad and Deja Vu

After a couple of weeks with the iPad, I keep experiencing deja vu to the early days of personal commuting, and a breakthrough product called the TRS-80 Model 100.

The Model 100 was one of the first portable computers, ran on AA batteries or AC, had a full size keyboard and a small LCD screen that displayed 8 lines of text at a time. And, perhaps most importantly, it had a built in modem. Granted, it was only 300 baud and used dial up, but, back then, it was all we had and it was magical. For the first time, writers had a computer that was really portable.

The Model 100 quickly became the traveling journalist's constant companion. Compact, instant on, tough as nails, and always there. Back then, I was a volunteer columnist for StarText, the online version of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I quickly succumbed to an impulse buy and a 100 became my favorite computer.

As I blog this from AA1346 on my IPad, I remember writing a StarText column from flight on my 100 about twenty years ago. Since the virtual keyboard takes up about a third of the screen, I can really only see about 10 lines of text!

Two weeks with the iPad and my experience has been great. My typing is just as bad on the virtual keyboard as it is on a real one, so I'm fine with typing on the screen. The instant-on aspect is terrific. Contrast that with a recent stop at Starbucks: it took ten minutes for a virus software update on my netbook to finish. I found myself waiting on software so I could leave!

Applications are coming out daily that just blow my mind: a fully featured GPS for $5, HD TV streaming, and a full board Words with Friends.

Reading books with the Kindle software is a pleasure. It's great that the software tracks what page I'm on when I switch between the iPhone and the iPad.

The lack of multitasking is a bit of a pain but will disappear with the OS upgrade later this year.

My biggest issue is its lack of a file management system. The word processing application I use, Words from Apple, stores its files in one directory. File transfer is restricted to iWorks or to email. Hopefully this will be expanded to other options soon including Google Docs and Dropbox. For now, I have to email this entry to work for posting on our blog system. I'll also use cut and paste to post to my Internet blog when we land. There is wifi on this flight, but I'm not willing to pay the $9!

I believe tablet computers will be a game changer for many folks, but it won't just be Apple in the game. There will be multiple players shortly and, I'll be rooting for open source to take the lead. But in the meantime, I'll sure enjoy the iPad!