30 Days With the iPad: Day 1

Day 1:::

Here we go again. Some of you might say I am some sort of glutton for punishment, but it's time to start a new 30 Days With project. I am typing this in the iWork Pages app on an iPad 2 because this month I am spending 30 Days With the iPad.

 

I don't mean 30 days playing with the iPad to see if I can beat my 5 year old daughter at Angry Birds (I can't--she's an iPad game prodigy), or sitting around reading books in the Kindle app (although I have a library of unread books I have purchased sitting there waiting for me). I will probably spend some time doing both of those things, but that isn't the focus of the project.

There is a lot to love about the iPad 2--but can it really replace a Windows 7 notebook?No, I mean 30 days giving up my trusty Dell XPS M1330 laptop--the notebook PC that has been my sole source of income for the past three years. I mean giving up the Windows 7 OS that I love--again. In case you're just joining us, I just got done spending 30 Days With Ubuntu Linux. I was looking forward to getting back to Windows, but this should be an interesting project.

Basically, this is a case of me trying to practice what I preach. Since the original iPad first hit the street, I have been a fan, and I have been a proponent that the iPad can--in fact--replace a notebook PC and be the primary computing platform for most users. Can it really? I guess we'll find out.

As I mentioned, I already know it can play Angry Birds, and that it can be an eReader. I know I can surf the Web, and watch a Netflix movie. I use the iPad regularly in the casual sense. But, the question is if my notebook died tomorrow, could I make my living from the iPad just as I currently do from my Windows PC.

Just as with the Ubuntu Linux experience last month, the daily posts during the 30 Days With the iPad project will cover a range of topics--some of which will be about the apps needed for certain functions, or just setting up the things one might need in order to use the iPad as a PC replacement instead of just a consumer gadget for consuming content.

I know up front that there are a number of issues I will encounter that are / will be addressed when iOS 5 is released. I will try to at least point those out as we go along.