Friday morning the FedEx truck pulled into our driveway and set the stage for the turf war over the new iPad to begin. Ironically, later on the same day I had to turn my workhorse MacBook Pro in at the Apple store due to a one pixel wide vertical line that just showed up on the display the other day.

A bit of research indicated it was the dreaded graphics card defect common to some older MacBook Pros. I got in under the three-year deadline for a free repair. As I told the Genius at the Apple store who asked me if I could get along without my laptop for a week, well, I just got my new iPad ....  So here I am, with only my new iPad and iPhone to do my computing for a whole week.

My first impressions are that Apple has another sound hit. The device is impressive and addictive in the extreme. My 10-year-old is one of those kids who has grown up around computers. She talked me into giving her an old iPhone for Christmas with the ploy, "Dad, if I had an iPod touch I wouldn't be running your iPhone down so much." Well, having learned the female gift for manipulation, I expect to get hit for an iPad next time around.  

The problem in loaning Your iPad out is getting it back. Be ready with martial arts to encounter a desperate struggle to hang onto the darn thing. I fear the incident in the news where someone lost part of a finger to an iPod snatcher is only a foretaste of things to come.

My pastor wants to borrow my iPad to try it out for sermon notes and perhaps hook it up to the video projector to display Keynote slides for all to see. I can only hope that as an adult with the integrity of a pastor I will be able to a get my iPad back without a fight.

I am working on understanding the full ramifications of the device and looking forward to the next operating system coming out this fall. It will be cool to be able to print directly through WiFi and our house wireless network. I upgraded to the latest format anticipating adding The iPad to the network. I got the 3G 32GB iPad anticipating using the iPad away from home.  

I am intrigued with a recent report that the camera adapter converts the connector on the iPad to USB useful for other applications like a hard drive.  It seems like access to a hard drive through WiFi should be in the future for iPad.  

Non Apple folks simply don't appreciate the trust we have in Apple to continue to improve hardware through smart software. Every time new software comes out existing hardware is able to do new things.  

Occasionally people ask me what to do when their PC has problems and my sage answer is to "Soak the PC in a bathtub full of hot Epsom saltwater overnight and buy a Mac in the morning... Don't forget to unplug it first....." That always works.   

-- Greg Mills

Greg Mills does faux wall art (http://www.gregmills.info/GregMills.info/Home.html) and runs Cottage Industry Solar Shops (http://www.cottageindustrysolar.com/cottageindustrysolar/Home.html).