smacky and bucky

Saturday was the 10th anniversary of my first date with L. I had moved to DC a few months earlier, having just returned from 27 months in Africa in the Peace Corps. A friend (girl) in my Peace Corps group lived in the area and we got together for happy hour a few times to catch up. One time she brought along a friend from college, a really cute girl, and I said to our mutual friend, "You gotta give me her number!" She asked her friend if it was okay, and she thankfully agreed. A few awkward phone conversations later we made a date. We went to dinner and a movie (The Emperor and the Assassin, if you're curious). And that's how it all started...

Flash forward a decade and L decided we'd give each other iPads to mark the occasion. I was intrigued, but it wasn't something I had actively expressed an interest in, or thought I needed. What does it do? How does it fit into my life? Where does it fit between my laptop and my phone?

Short answer: We'll see. It's still early. So far, there are things I discovered that are very cool, for instance...

NetFlix Streaming app. If you have a NetFlix subscription, you can watch movies on the iPad instantly via WiFi. I watched a Tom Baker episode of Doctor Who on it.


GoodReader app. A PDF reader. Why is that cool? Because I have a few CD-Roms of comic collections (Captain America, Star Trek, Avengers) that are just PDF scans of the issues. You can transfer entire folders of PDFs to the iPad via WiFi. The above shot is a cover from 1971. (Thanks to De for the app suggestion. Best 99 cents spent so far!)



Pandora Internet Radio app. Why did I avoid this for so long? Type in a band name and instantly create a playlist of similar bands. I have yet to name a band it can't find. Shows album cover and biography of the band, you can bookmark the artist to come up later, and you can vote songs or artists up or down (I won't be hearing the Police again!)


iBooks app. Apple's version of the ebook reader. Uh oh, Kindle. Apple is selling books on iTunes now. And it gives you Winnie the Pooh to get you started. You can look at spreads or turn the iPad and look at large single pages.


The Guardian Eyewitness app. Oh my. This is a nice app, and free. Each day, 100 new AP photos of the news of the day are downloaded and you can scroll through them all. A touch of the screen clears off all the text so you can view the photo alone.

That's what I've discovered so far. Not bad for four days, I suppose.