Are You ready for an iPad?

I was talking to a new neighbor of mine the other day and she saw that my wife was using her iPad. Specifically, she was reading and responding to her emails while sitting by the community pool.

An Old PC User

The neighbor asked my wife how she liked having one of them, and during the ensuing conversation, she mentioned that she had an old notebook computer and even though it was working OK, her daughter was pushing her to upgrade to something newer and faster, because it was "on it's last legs".

She also mentioned that she liked to read, and was looking at the Kindle and the Nook readers, but really didn't understand all of the technical "mumbo jumbo" everyone was throwing at her' so she just couldn't make up her mind on that either.

She even laughed nervously and told us that when people started talking about technical "stuff" she would just get so confused that she would change the subject.

She said that she knew she needed to learn about these "pads and tablets and such" but she just couldn't make herself take the leap and buy one.

As I watched, she asked my wife a few more questions, who in turn showed her a couple of the tools she used such as email, the Amazon Kindle Reader software, the photo albums, the music player, even her cookbooks. The lady stayed for a while and then she finally said her goodbyes and wandered back to her chair at the pool. Obviously still at a loss over what to do and how.

Time for Change

Later that day, my mind wandered back to the lady at the pool and her dilemma.

She was over 70 years old, she had a notebook PC that her daughter had given her nine years ago. At that time, her daughter had set her up with an email account, an old word processor for writing letters and had showed her how to pay some of her bills over the web.

Now, nine years later, her daughter lived far away, her PC was a limping dinosaur and she kept hearing about social networks like Facebook, video chatting with packages like Skype, cheap telephone services via the web, and more.

She really wanted to upgrade, but was at a loss as to how to take the leap, and in what direction to leap.

From experience, I knew that hers was a typical but still sad case. In my opinion, she should be using an iPad. She really doesn't need a full-blown "Computer" to do what she needs.

She just needs a device that has the common and handy tools that are used by everyone around the world today to communicate.

An iPad User needs to learn.

But, I wasn't so stupid as to volunteer to set her up and train her on the iPad.

Nope! Been there and Done That!

If it was just a matter of telling her which model of the iPad to order, that would be one thing, but there is a certain amount of training that an “iPad Newbie” needs to learn.

They are not high tech, nor are they complex, but they are different. You need to learn how to;

1- “sync” your iPad with the Apple iTune software package,

2- set up your email on the iPad.

3- search iTunes and select new Apps,

4- search and set up and use other WIFI sites,

5- manage your documents, music and photos on iTunes.

Ipad Training

Actually, I am showing these examples to illustrate just how simple most of the tasks that an iPad user must be able to perform really are.

You see, a little over a year ago, I went through the process of converting my wife from just using email and the word processor on a PC, to becoming a full fledged iPad user.

OMG! Now that was a whirlwind ride for both of us.

Over a short period of time she went from that person who would refuse to listen to explanations on how to perform a certain task on a PC to a brave soul who now spends several hours a day, every day, using her iPad for one thing or another.

She not only uses email, but she now downloads and reads several books a week on Amazon (kindle books), she sends and receives pictures with our kids, she is active on Facebook, she has a personal cookbook app that she uses to record her recipes and share them with friends and family, she types documents and such and prints them wirelessly, she even takes the time to play a few of her favorite games such as solitaire, mahjong, and such.

She can Google-search for anything that she wants more information about, and find any business, post office, doctor, or other service that she needs with Yellow Pages.

As I said, she is pretty independent on her iPad, and all I have to do is upload the updates for the iPad and the loaded Apps. She refuses to even listen to me when I try to explain how easy this part of ownership is, so I end up doing this for her every few weeks.

iPad advantages outweigh the pain of changing over

Oh, and, I am the Geek who loves new Apps so I am the one who generally tells her about ones that she might like, and subsequently I end up downloading the new App for her.

But this is not because the process is hard. No, I suspect that it is because it's a "female thing" to dump the dirty work onto the spouse, whenever possible.

So, you might ask me why I didn't help the lady?

Well, One thing that I have learned, is to follow the old adage; "Never Volunteer!" Not because I am not willing to help someone, but because, she didn't ask.

If she had asked, I would have been happy to help her out and get her started, up to whatever level of competence she wanted, but, she didn't, so I didn't.

You see, the iPad is, in my opinion, the ideal tool for many seniors, and for that matter for most people who need access to technology for communications and entertainment, without having to be technical.

The iPad is the tool whose time has come, and it makes me a little sad to see so many people who limit themselves in today's high-tech world simply because they are scared to make the move.

With the iPad, the machine itself is cheap, compact and fast. The Apps are cheap and often free. And the Apps are designed to be used by people who don't really want to know how they work, they just want to know how to use them.

Oh, there are other "pads, tabs, tablets, etc" out there now. And they all purport to be "just as good" "just as fast" and to have "almost as many Apps" for them as the iPad does.

But, from my perspective, they are all playing a game of "catch up" with Apple, and will continue to do so for several years to come.

In the meantime, again from my perspective, I will ride with the leader, until there is another and better proven leader out there.

So, Are you ready for an iPad?

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