I lied

ipad-emailWell, not really.

But I was not able to stay away from the iPad. No, I didn’t buy one. But I did visit the Apple Store last night (separate from the opening day, when I did not go in the store, as previously reported). My sons and I tried out the iPad. We all liked it a lot!

A few observations:

– It would not rotate from landscape to portrait in some apps. (The rotation lock switch could have been turned on and I didn’t know it. I discovered its existence after leaving the store.)

– The interface was not intuitive on Pages (the Word equivalent). I couldn’t find tools in the page view.

– The keyboard takes some getting used to. If I bought one, I’d grab a bluetooth keyboard right away.

– I guess I’m used to the traditional Mac interface – not having access to the Finder would take some getting used to. (I do a lot with files.)

Advantages of Amazon’s Kindle? You can read it in direct sunlight. It has longer battery life. More titles are available. Everything else? iPad.

I had fun making my site the home page for Safari on some of the demo units. (My website hits will go up artificially till the store personnel fix that.) Also, one of my sons made the screen background on some of the demo units look like a page filled with app icons – stealth little trick! Alas, though – the Apple Store resets them every morning, so our little tricks lasted just a few hours.

Verdict? It looks like a great new toy (and useful work device, for many). If I could afford one, I’d add it to my toy chest. Alas, not for a while! And finally, David Pogue has a great FAQ page on the iPad here. And don’t forget to check out the great explanatory videos on the Apple site.

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The scent of an iPad

ipad-launchI visited the nearest Apple Store just before Saturday’s launch of the iPad.

I should clarify – I went to see how long the line was, a half an hour before the opening, so I could take this photo for you. Then I left.

What for? Somehow being that close to the launch was enough for me.

I can’t explain why.

(By the way, the security guard said some people had been waiting in line since around midnight, the night before.)

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A tale of grace

a-tale-of-graceMy friend Dave is shown with his last-born son Liam. What a blessing he has been to their family. And this picture shows how a newborn baby can be truly cute!

I would go into more details on why Liam is a tale of grace, but I respect others’ privacy. (I am baiting Dave by asking him to blog again… ever so discretely.)

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Not Denver

not-denverAs most of you know, I love noticing details.

Occasionally that pays off.

Apple’s Keynote (a wonderful alternative to Powerpoint) is demonstrated by Apple with these lovely examples. Problem? Neither of these photos is anything like Denver at all. Top? English countryside. Bottom? Deep south, USA.

No awards this time. Oh well. At least now you know that Apple’s Keynote project manager has no geographic sense. Maybe they work him or her so hard that they never get to travel. Time for a vacation, I’d say!

Since it’s April Fool’s Day, if this were a joke, I’d tell you. But it’s such a minor thing that it would have made a very poor joke.

Happy April Fool’s Day, whether you live in Deep-South-Denver or England-Denver.

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Texas kitsch

truckstop-2funSo we went to Texas last week for our kids’ spring break. As we do every time (except one – for my mom’s memorial service), we make the trek via minivan. We have driven enough times that it’s not hard. The kids actually enjoy it. And I love the peaceful time behind the wheel while everyone’s asleep.

As with any journey, there must be stops for tending to those human needs. Truck stops are our pause of choice, as they usually have pretty clean restrooms. And I always enjoy seeing what trinkets they have – that I won’t buy.

Finally, those of you eagle eyes out there may have noticed that one of the fake photos in the western skull picture frames is upside down. (Ten points!)

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More ephemera

cold-waterOne of the things I will miss about winter is cold water. In Denver during the winter, water comes out of our taps at just above freezing. I love that for drinking – but not for our water heating bill.

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Gone – ephemera

DHLI love the word “ephemera” – it means quickly gone – like vapor.

DHL used to deliver packages within the USA. (This waybill was from those days.) Now they only deliver from the US to other parts of the world (and from other countries to other countries). They wisely decided that it was best to leave the internal US market to the US Postal Service, UPS and FedEx. It does not work for there to be too many players in one market.

Takeaway: How can you reinvest your energy to an area where you can be more effective?

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