Recycled Computing

I Hate It When Apple's Marketing Mavens Are Right

- 2012.06.25

Popularity:

Short link: http://bit.ly/MnK7fI

It's your typical New Hampshire town. Two main roads form an X in the middle, and after a while, one of the roads becomes more dominant than the other, and all of the town's businesses form on it. The other road sort of tails off into obscurity, and it's this road I follow over to a smaller town and turn off onto the road that leads to my uncle's cabin on the lake.

This road is paved until you get close enough to the lake to turn off onto a gravel and hard pack two tire rut road. The gravel disappears, and you suddenly dive off into the woods and a road that makes you glad that you are driving a Honda Ridgeline. Roots rise up, and there are large rocks trying to take a hunk out of your fender. Eventually you descend down a passage (not even a road) to my uncle's cabin on the lake.

My uncle's father-in-law built a boathouse on this lake years and years ago. Then he dragged lumber over the lake when it was frozen to built the cabin out of the boathouse. He also filled the bed of his truck with sand and dumped it on the ice next to his dock. That spring he built the cabin, and the sand landed on the beach after the snow had melted.

The cabin gives rustic a bad name, but I don't care. It's one of my favorite spots, and I don't even mind the fact that there is no WiFi connection. I am, however, typing away on my iPad and reflecting on the fact that the Apple marketing guys are right. This is becoming a post-PC world.

I took a temporary job and took my iPad to work rather than my MacBook.

It's lighter and smaller than the MacBook and does almost the same job. However, there were a couple of things that proved a little frustrating. Printing and, for that matter, using the iPad with a smart boards.

Printing was kind of hit and miss with the iPad and the Windows system at my new workplace. I found that the easiest workaround was emailing what I wanted to print to one of the Dell desktops and then printing from that. I was able to email documents directly to my coworkers, but printing directly to the network printers was impossible to difficult.

The facility had two smart boards, but when I bought an iPad-to-VGA adapter, I discovered that Apple doesn't really allow output for anything but video files and YouTube on my old iPad 1. The solution for printing is to buy my own Canon AirPrint and for viewing, I guess I would need a newer iPad and the new iTV. Life is easier with money.

But I can see why more and more users are going to shift to using tablets - easier than lugging that laptop. Apple is right; it is a Post-PC world.

Join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, use our Google+ page, or read our RSS news feed

Recent Recycled Computing Columns

Changes, 2012.10.16. A new job has John Hatchett considered something of an iPad expert.
In Praise of Optical Viewfinders, 2012.07.30. Although modern digital cameras have digital viewscreens, there's something to be said for the traditional viewfinder.
The Lion Sleeps (on My MacBook) Tonight, 2012.07.05. Starting with a full backup, a Time Machine Backup, and an OS X 10.7 thumb drive, John Hatchett moved to Lion.
More in the Recycled Computing index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Mac LC II, introduced 1992.03.23. The LC gets 4 MB base RAM, gains virtual memory thanks to 68030 CPU.
May 19 in LEM history: 99: Student Bill of Rights - 01: First Apple Stores - 03: Upgraded beige G3 problems - 04: The Mac legacy - More for Mac users in superstores than many realize - 06: Smart design make the MacBook a winner - 08: Top 10 freeware - My first iMac
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Opinions expressed are those of their authors and may not reflect the opinion of Cobweb Publishing. Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all.
Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2013 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Low End Mac, LowEndMac, and lowendmac.com are trademarks of Cobweb Publishing Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad, iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, Mac Pro, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it, and we don't share the information we have with others. For more details, see our Terms of Use.