If you need an endorsement for this iPad, it’s this: I have not felt the need of my legal pad and its expensive pen for weeks. Nor have I needed my phone and its myriad temptations on Sunday nights, when Irish trad forms a backdrop to reading and all from the same device. It’s actually made me appreciate my phone; being able to move between a one handed 5” screen with everything and an 8” screen optimized for reading or looking at scale is a delight.
To be honest, it isn’t the thing I’m going to learn to code on, barring some major progress and a Bluetooth keyboard. And while I can blog on it, it’s not as easy as typing on a keyboard. And while I could work on it in a pinch, it’s not an everyday workstation. And the pencil is very slick, but only really useful for drawing directly on the screen; as a text entry solution, it needs work.
But so much stems from just learning to use the thing, a consideration that also goes for the other new lithium battery addition to the household. The long-awaited ID.4 has proven to be a very pleasant ride once you sort your way around the controls. A brief outage of the cellular system was sorted with the cunning expedient of pulling a fuse and replacing it ten minutes later. The third attempt at charging from a free public level 2 charger was a complete success, now that I’m starting to figure time for watt power. The forecast range is still north of what the EPA estimate suggests, which lends credence to the notion that the EPA model is weighted toward highway rather than city driving. It feels good to be a little higher up but not so much so that you feel ungainly. I finally worked out how to open and close the lift gate with the kick of a shin, or bring up the climate controls or start the rear windshield wiper (for the first time in almost six years).
But despite a planned trip to Tahoe, it’s not going to be the long haul vehicle. And certainly not going abroad the way the iPad almost certainly will. In fact, there’s every chance that the iPad might be a walking companion in London, given how it’s been useful for looking up lodging and attractions or building the guide in Maps or what an improvement it is for video conferencing (assuming that it doesn’t center over your head in Zoom). As I bear down on a milestone birthday, both of my new electronic devices feel like a satisfying slice of the future we were promised, and given how that future is going, that’s not nothing. Of which.