I really, really like my iPad…

First, an apology for once again putting off writing a column about video chats. We just returned from a six week visit with our son's family in Arizona, and since we saw our granddaughters in person everyday, there was no reason for video chats. We miss them terribly, and I will arrange a video chat soon — after which my skills will be refreshed and I will be ready to write a column on the subject.

For this week's topic, I want to discuss our families tablet computing history. For Christmas 2009 Santa brought me an Amazon Kindle. As I have written in previous columns, I love the Kindle and it is a boon to a voracious reader like me living in a motor home for half the year.  I am always reading a book, sometimes more than one at a time, and, being able to keep a book collection on the Kindle is a great space saver. I also subscribe to the New York Times on the Kindle, which provided my breakfast table reading material. When I first got the Kindle, I thought that I might also be able to use it for my recipe files — and while it is possible ( I gave it a valiant effort), it was not a good solution for my electronic recipe file. 

In 2010 Santa brought my husband Eddie an Apple iPad. He uses it to visit web sites , read newspapers, magazines, books, and videos. He reads the New York Times on his iPad, but because we are subscribers of the print edition of the paper at home in New York, the iPad version is free — more on that point later. I certainly liked the iPad, but I had my Kindle and was very content. Except, I did think that the iPad would work well in the kitchen. I had already begun to create a database of favorite recipes on my Apple laptop, and since there is an iPad version of the database software I use (BENTO, more on that in a future column), it occurred to me that using an iPad for recipes would work even better. 

Eddie OK'd my putting Bento, and my recipes, on his iPad, and it worked out well, except of course if Eddie was already using his device. Then, this fall when we arrived at TR I decided not to subscribe to the New York TImes on my Kindle. The price had gone up, from $15 to $20 a month, and it seemed unfair that as print subscribers we could download the iPad version for free, but had to pay for the Kindle version. So, at breakfast, while Eddie was reading the St. Petersburg Times (the name hadn't changed to the Tampa TImes yet), I would read the New York Times on his iPad until he was ready for it.

The more I used the iPad, the more I appreciated the elegance of the device, and thought that it would be really nice to have one of my own. And, much to my delight and surprise, Santa brought me an iPad2 this Christmas. Now, I not only get to read the New York Times and have my recipe database to use whenever I need it, I also use it for word processing (I am typing on it right now!), spreadsheets, and a wide variety of other purposes. I really, really, like my iPad.

Next week I'll give you an in depth look at how I use my iPad, and how it integrates with my Mac Laptop and iPhone.