One could say that I am an Apple Fanboy – someone who salivates over every new tech product that comes from that most magnificent Cupertino, California company. Yesterday, salivation levels reached really bad proportions as Apple head honcho, Steve Jobs, took to the stage to announce a new product, the iPad.
According to Jobs, Apple has become the largest mobile communications company in the world. They offer mobile products that have been scooped by the millions. Of course, the iPhone leads the way — an incredible hand-held computer/communications device that just so happens to also make telephone calls. I love my iPhone 3G. It just works beautifully. The iPhone is a major part of my pastoral life – it provides me with incredible arrays of communication and business-related application options that no other phone on the market offers. Apple also sells the best laptop computers in the business — the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, and the MacBook Air.
The iPad is designed to fall right in the middle of both of those offerings. Essentially, it is a larger iPod Touch. A simple description of the Touch — it is an iPhone minus the phone and the AT&T 3G wireless plans (only works in wi-fi networks). As with those devices, with an iPad, one can surf the internet, listen to music, watch TV shows, movies, and other internet video. It also runs nearly all of the applications and games sold by Apple for the iPhone. However, with a much larger screen size than the iPhone or iPod Touch, it makes all of these tasks easier since there is more real estate to watch, read, play, and surf. Additionally, the iPad is also the coolest looking electronic book reader on the market (I have a first generation Amazon Kindle of which I have become very disenchanted). Further, with that larger screen size, they’ve also added an iPad-designed iWork productivity suite (Pages word processor; Keynote presentation program; and Numbers spreadsheets). With the ability to link the iPad to a projector, the addition of this suite makes this device more business-friendly.
For example, pastors can create bible studies on the iPad and easily link up with projector and share it easily. Even further, for churches who print out weekly bulletins, one can be crafted in Pages and offered for download for the iPad; people can flip through the service folder and easily follow along, all without printing out a single sheet of paper. As you can tell, this pastor is always thinking of ways of saving money and keeping paper out of the dump.
The cost is almost stunning and, just to say it, very un-Apple-like. They offer six variations of iPads, all of which come with wi-fi capabilities. Three of them will come with just wi-fi in three hard drive sizes of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, with price points of $499, $599, and $699 respectively. The other three will come with an AT&T 3G data option in the same hard drive sizes. The cost of these starts at $629, $729, and $829 depending on the size you purchase.
The data plan option is intriguing, to say the least. They have contracted with AT&T on special monthly pricing — $30.00 for unlimited data usage or $14.99 for 250MB of data. While those cost numbers aren’t all that spectacular, it is the very fact that this is pre-paid pricing, meaning NO CONTRACTS. You’re not tied in with a two-year data plan like you are with an iPhone or other data plans.
Last night after church, I went home and turned on the Rangers’ game (I should have just left the TV off). After talking on the phone for about an hour, I started to read up on Apple’s new product. To be honest, the Apple Fanboy in me longed to have one these devices. It would provide an added dimension to my pastoral life, my Fanboy conscience kept nagging at me. Thankfully, these products will not be available until March and April, because if they were available last night, the Fanboy in me would have pulled out my credit card and bought one.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
As soon as it’s available, you know you’ll go out and buy one. Consider it an invaluable tool for the furthering of your ministry.
Even I can’t come up with a good reason to plunk down 500 bucks on it.