23 October 2014

Apple

has definitely hit a home run with how all these things are working so beautifully together. I absolutely love my iPad mini and it is usually what I take on the road to present from or preach from. It's got incredibly great battery life and is a faithful workhorse. I have a keyboard and case I bought for it, and after a bit of getting used to the slightly odd layout, I can fly on it as fast as on my laptop (which usually stays at work and gets left behind...)

And the iPhone 6! It's amazing on so many levels. I love the new instant hotspot; the way the camera basically doesn't even know how to take a bad shot (big for me, because my hands shake a bit); and the night reading mode for iBooks...and....and a hundred other things. The thing is amazing, but I'm not sure why we call it a phone at all. That's the LEAST of its functions, but it does it that one handily as well. 

The other day, David asked me if I even imagined at his age that I'd be able to hold the collective wisdom of the human race in my hands and that such a slim thing could be all the devices it is (phone, video capture and play back, library, photo album, camera, game center, newspaper etc.). I readily confessed that I could not have imagined such a thing. David then asked: "But where will it be when I'M your age?" Mind blowing even to think of. One thing I'd be willing to bet on: Apple will be there, making it all not just work, but work insanely well and with beautiful simplicity.

3 comments:

Michael L. Anderson, M.D., Ph.D said...

Okay, I'm sold. Good Lord, my good man, I do hope you're working on commission. Which I guess, in a grand sense, you are.

But all this, meanwhile, coming from someone (i.e., moi) who's still struggling with the impenetrables of the telegraph.

It's true. I remember trying to apply the mysteries of the "cable equations" to the filamentous axon of the nerve cell, some 35-40 years ago . Now we're holding a very nearly near-brain, in the small recesses of the palm of our hand.

It's either going to be one of our most satisfying of dreams, or our most shattering of nightmares.

That's not for me to decide, or likely, to witness. On the whole, though, I'd rather be sailing. "Forsooth, wind over steam," I've always exclaimed.

Your (unworthy) pneumapunk,
Herr Doktor

William Weedon said...

Dear Dr. Anderson,

Most likely BOTH, That's usually the way of it.

Helen said...

And here I am, trying to decided if we should have an iPad, let alone an iPhone. Your simple post has given me hope. Do you also have the Pad? That is what I was thinking of getting as we have a simple cell phone which is all we require. Reason for an iPad i.e. tablet, is so I can do more reading while sitting in my recliner instead of tethered to the big desk top. Glad I checked the blog tonight. Always learn something. Happy Reformation Day by the way.