Car vs Truck
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 5:51AM This year's trip to Macworld | iWorld did include an unexpected turn of events.
Whenever I travel, I always take my MacBook Air and my iPad. The MBA usually stays in the hotel room and the iPad is my companion whilst out and about. As well as the iPhone of course. Access to broadband for my portable devices is usually a major PITA. I have a MiFi but this lasts only 4 hours, plus it's yet another device to carry around.
I usually get an AT&T sim for the MiFI, to provide mobile data.
Two years ago, it cost me $100 for 50MB.
Last year it cost me $50 for 100MB.
This year, I was able to buy an AT&T data only SIM for my iPad for 3GB of data for just $30.
Yowser!
3GB of data for 30 bucks. Sign me up.
So in effect, permanent connectivity anywhere on a device that has a 10 hour battery life. Not only at Macworld, but also on my holiday the following week. Especially useful as the holiday was on a cruise ship with limited and extremely expensive Internet access.
So the iPad became my go to machine for the 2 weeks, with the MacBook Air hardly getting touched.
What a revelation.
Now don't get me wrong, the iPad still has a number of limitations when doing tasks that require rapid access to multiple applications, but for most purposes, it was a joy to use. Tasks I'd previously avoided, I dug into. The availability of the data connection on the iPad made it worth the investment in time to figure out the best way to work around the limitations. I also spent a bit of time working out how to best use some third party applications, to assist me in carrying out the tasks I usually do on the MacBook Air. It wasn't perfect, but absolutely doable.
As an aside, I'll be covering some of these productivity enhancing applications on ScreenCastsOnline for IOS over the coming weeks, starting with Pastebot by Tapbots later today.
I still firmly believe that there will always be the need for powerful, multiwindowing desktop computers (trucks), but with the advent of more sophisticated applications, a more powerful hardware platform (iPad 3) and the further enhancement and maturing of iOS, the iPad is well positioned to be the most capable personal computer yet.
Not just a car for everyone, but iPad 3 could well be the Sports or Executive model.
Reader Comments (3)
Hi,
Does anyone know what the best options for data micro sim in Canada?
Umm...would that data only sim work on the iPhone as we are crossing the pond later this yr?
I don't believe it would. It was an iPad specific SIM