Hi Fred,
I'm late to this party but my advice is DON'T DO IT.
You will gradually be sucked away from the umbilical of your desk top in an insidious and frustrating manner until you will long for the simple days when you could wait for your return home to get email, to order some part online or get an answer to a vexing question while you are in a bar, navigate to an address, find a restaurant or carry on any sort of activity that can be expedited by connectivity. You will recall wistfully when you could carry your 10 pound laptop in its own suitcase on your travels through airport security.
Heres my sad history of addiction: it all started innocuously enough. Anne got me an iPad 1 as a present, Xmas or bday a few years ago. She knew I had NO interest in Apple, iPhones, 3G and all that garbage that you have to buy subscriptions for so she left that out. I enjoyed playing with it and soon discovered ForeFlight. Got a Dual blue tooth GPS shortly thereafter and my short path to reliance in the cockpit brought about shaking hands and a sweaty neck every time i failed to bring the spaghetti ball of cords to hook all that up. Abstinence may have saved me then, but I was too poor to afford the psychiatric help I needed. There were no 12 step programs available in my community for iPad junkies so that avenue to health was denied me. I did look for some ii meetings but could find none.
Along came Square about a year and a half ago. This gave me an excuse to feed my addiction by donating the iPad 1 to my dental business for processing credit transactions and to buy a new iPad 2 with all the memory and other features available. I got an identical unit for Anne so that the awful disease she had saddled me with could be experienced by her as well.
Now the iPad is like an appendage and goes everywhere with me. Fortunately, unlike other malignancies it doesn't grow in size although there does appear to be the threat of metastases on the horizon.
To summarize the clever ways Apple continues to guarantee an agonizing, slow downward spiral into hell I offer the following observations:
1. the iPad looks like a small, very useful computer. IT ISN'T. You want the keyboard to behave like your PC one does. No such luck and it will quarantee mispelings and mistatements wehre you might want to say one very intelligent thing in an eamil but instead you insult the recipirnt in rahter graphic terms
2. Spreadsheet and word programs are only superficially like the ones you know. You are tempted to use them so you do, but they fall short.
3. Attachments to email? forget it.
4. Your list of unread emails on your desktop will start to resemble a backed up toilet and will only worsen over time.
5. This list is the tip of the iceberg.
The true picture of the problem with regards to flying is epitomized by an experience the other day in the LIVP. I have a Garmin 430, two Chelton screens, and a Garmin 496 in the panel. I was putting hours on the new Barrett TSIO 550 for break in and decided to run up to Bellingham. I was frustrated in my attempts to get all the airport information I wanted because I didn't have the iPad with me. That's SICK!
So Fred, take it from one who has no chance for recovery. Avoid that first step my friend or you'll wind up in a gutter somewhere like me.
Anyone want to trade a new iPad 3 for a new iPhone or Mini iPad? I'm going to start dealing so I can afford my habit.
John
|
<SENDER_EMAILfrederickmoreno@bigpond@@com.png>
At our customary Monday morning coffee fest in my hangar this AM (100 LL Java a specialty), one of the fellows brought in an Ipad 3 with aviation apps and an ultrathin Logitech keyboard cover which combined to overcome my buyers resistance.
My wife and I decided it was time to get a laptop with WiFi since we are in each other's way a lot with our single desk top computer at home. By shifting the problem statement to include aviation use as well as alternate use at home, the shift from plain vanilla el cheapo laptop to Ipad 3 plus keyboard became seamless.
So, before spending my money, I wanted to check with this group for the latest advice on Ipad3 or is the dual core 4 worthwhile?) configurations for aviation use. How much memory? (We don't plan to use it for movies or a lot of photos).
Also want to confirm a review I read that the Ipad 3 has appropriate stand alone GPS, gyros, and accelerometers to permit use of aviation apps. One of the reviews showing comparisons of various Ipads showed that Ipad 3 and 4 had GPS only in the 4 G versions, but Australian 4G is different than US which created a flap over here some time ago. I need to check to see if the 4G works in Australia.
Open to suggestions, cautions, recommendations and such.
Fearless Fred, returning to Apple after many years on a MacIntosh II, sadly abandoned over a decade ago..... |
|