Sarcasm Included

The iPad

In July 2011, I have spoken about why I fell in love with the iPad. Worry not, it’s not going to be another ode to how awesome it is; I will just elaborate on how the gadget has revolutionized my life, in tiny insignificant ways. Oh, and I will also provide you with the apps that I frequently use, obtained from reading multiple recommendations and reviews that experts post regularly.

I read mostly on my iPad these days. There are always novels around the house; one by the dining table (yes, I’m that person who likes to read while eating, as long as there’s no company), and a few on my bedside. In addition, I treat myself to a light reading paperback or a biography hardcover once in a while. All that aside, the rest of my reading material comes through the screen of iPad. I use Stanza and not iBooks, simply because the app is flexible. Stanza will take books in any form and doesn’t require connecting to iTunes whenever I get a new book. With the aid of Calibre, my e-books are neatly organized and transferred easily between my laptop and the iPad. Despite what I previously thought, reading an e-book comes with several advantages. You can use the ‘search’ function to find your favorite section instead of going back and forty. Bookmarks can be made with a tap, as well as annotations. The volume of the book is not readily visible, so even if it is an enormous book, you will not be intimidated before you start. How else would I have the heart to read all the books from the Song of Fire and Ice series? I’ve also read the entire Percy Jackson series (plus The Kane Chronicles and The Heroes of Olympus), the final book of Eragon, The Marriage Plot, and Bossypants, all on the iPad. I would have read more; I can read even faster on the iPad. It’s sad that Kindle is not available in Indonesia. I would be reading so much more if I had access to the Amazon store.

I still love books the best. There’s no greater feeling than being absorbed in a story while turning the pages as quickly as you scan the words on the page. The smell of new book, the satisfaction you get from perusing the shelves of a bookstore. Even the paper cut I occasionally get. Nothing can compare. Then again, what’s wrong with reading them on the iPad, as long as I don’t give up completely on actual books?

Apart from books, I also get my magazine on the iPad. After the kind people from the Vanity Fair UK Subscriptions told me that I could not renew my subscription online (Indonesia being a country so full of frauds), I gave it all up and got the iPad edition instead. Not quite the same feeling and this means my pile of VF copies will never grow beyond its current level (sob) but once again, I feel victim to my shallowness. What I do get from the digital edition is extra content in the forms of live links (all relevant), some bonus features, and multimedia content in addition to the articles. And the ads, of course. These ads, by the way, change appearance when you rotate your iPad. Add them all up and suddenly this digital edition looks oh so irresistible. On a more functional (and therefore sensible) note, I also got the Empire magazine app. As the best movie magazine in the world, it is the perfect magazine to read on your iPad. They provide trailers with almost every major feature or review article. The multiple covers on the real magazine? Well, you can get them all here and you only have to pay once. If you want to subscribe, you totally can. Again, this will not replace actual magazines, but there are perks to having them.

I’ve mentioned how awesome Flipboard is. In fact, it is how I get my news these days, separated into neat comprehensive categories and all relevant to my interests. Recently, I’ve taken to Zite, which is similar to Flipboard, only looks more professional and resembles a magazine more closely. And the developers are from Vancouver (yay!). iPad apps also discover new music for me, which is awesome since discovering obscure artists is a great hobby of mine. When I have a lot of time to sift through the maze of indie and unknown songs, I open Music Hunter or Shuffler.fm.I usually end up with at least one cool band no one else’s heard of. Having an iPad has also reinstated my desire to learn from iTunes U, where we can download free lectures from so many prestigious halls of learning all over the world.

Music Hunter. Customizable to your taste.

Confession: most of my blog posts from October-December were typed on the iPad. Once the drafts were complete, then I transferred them via e-mail to my laptop for editing purposes. I employ a number of apps for writing purposes. MaxJournal helped me make notes while on holiday (hence my posts about the trip to China), UPAD makes it easy for me to write random notes with my fingertips, Pages and iA Writer are my go-to apps for typing.

My other apps are far less exciting. Facebook and Skype serve my social networking needs, the requisite Angry Birds (all three of them) to pass the time, FlexPlayer can play any video file without converting them to mp4 or .mov, and Remote is perfect when I’m feeling too lazy to skip a track on the iTunes playing on my laptop…3 feet away from me. Home Sharing, you have revolutionized technology.