My family is now the owner(s) of 2(!) iPads. Why two? Because we found that my wife and I were not the best at sharing even after knowing each other for forty-two years.

I love this little thing.I must confess that I was a big sceptic at first but it has almost changed the way I do a lot of my computing. Here are a couple of “for instances”:

I can do a website post from anywhere, even the local MickeyD’s as they have free WI-FI. This is much easier to use than a notebook or a net book (and we have both).

The battery life is a hefty ten hours, meaning I can take it places I could not take my other machines.

The iTunes store is impressive, and I’ve been able to acquaint myself with a number of old SF favorites which are now free from Project Gutenberg. It has been a long time since I last read “The Cosmic Computer” or “Lone Star Planet” by H. Beam Piper. I also got free editions of On War and a couple of bios on Frederick the Great and his campaigns and family.

Apps are so inexpensive as to be laughable. C’mon, a word processor for $9.99? (Yes, I do use Open Office on my other computers.)

It runs a Kindle app so I can also troll the Kindle store for dirt cheap classics.

The PDF reader that you can get for what, $3 or so, allows me to take the huge backlog of PDFs I have along with me so I can read them when I have the time. I can also annotate them (I’m one of those that reads with a high liter in my hands) and the notes get passed along to my computer when it syncs.

(and how can you dislike a machine that allows you to carry around copies of “Little Wars”, word documents of “Charge” and “The Wargame”.)

It’s a great, but spendy, night light. I can now read in the dark and so not disturb anyone.

And there’s something obnoxiously cool about your email having a “sent from my iPad” tagline!

Splendid job, Apple, and at a reasonable price point for capability and ease of use!