Device thoughts

So unless something huge changes between now and summer, the plan is still to ride out the existing contract on the iPhone and then go to a work-provided sixth-gen iPhone on Verizon, which would hopefully feature the ability to roam abroad on my own SIM.  While I wouldn’t object to a slightly larger viewable area, I sure as hell don’t want one of the twenty identical Android slabs I saw at Best Buy on Monday at lunchtime.  The fact that Samsung thinks they’re going to put the smack down on Apple with a 5″ tablet of the exact sort that Dell busted HARD trying to sell? Go back to running the photocopier, boys.  Enjoy your Blade/Blackjack/S3 or whatever.

After another couple days trying to use the iPad, I can again say – it’s definitely easier to type on than a 7″ tablet would be, and it’s easier to pull out of the bag for daily goofing off than would be a laptop.  But you’re back to the bag problem, and daily carry.  And a 7″ tablet is too small to type on or effectively use as a laptop replacement in any way…which in turn takes us back to the Kindle Fire, except it lacks the GPS navigation that I keep keying on as a prospective use for a notional tablet.

Maybe I just need to try to do the things I think I need an iPad for…on the iPhone.  Naturally it’s easier to read the Economist on the iPad, but it can be done on the phone without as much aggravation because you’re dealing with shorter-form text than you’d get from a book (which is why I still need the Kindle 3rd edition).  Maybe I need to try to hit that for RSS more often, but the lack of a touch interface (never mind the sluggish performance) is off-putting at best and unworkable at worst.

I need to be jotting down the things that I balk at using the iPhone for and seeing what the real-world use case is like for those things.  Then we’ll see how much I really need to be splashing out on some notional third-generation iPad.  Especially when I could throw that cash on a nice seersucker suit ;]