Someone offered me one (w/ a cracked screen) and I’m not being successful in convincing myself to accept.
I’m a pretty superficial user of most technology (have a whopping 1 app on my smartphone). I get no enjoyment out of messing around with a computer/phone trying to figure out what it can do. And I’ve never used an e-reader, preferring paper books/newspapers/magazines.
The one context in which I’ve seen iPads as useful is in music. I play bluegrass music at jams and with a small group. Our group is getting more organized in terms of refining our songlist. One of the guys is gathering all of the sheetmusic/lyrics/chords. Two of the guys use their iPads - and they really do seem pretty neat for that purpose. In addition, you can record/take pictures with them, download music/vids, etc.
BUT - I really don’t get any enjoyment out of using technology 9over alternative media), and my use of an alphabetized folder of paper chord/lyric charts isn’t what is holding my playing back. :o
Of course, I perceive that I am getting more and more out of touch/date as tech changes progress without me. So I’m trying to convince my self to take advantage of this no-cost opportunity.
So - am I being a resistant old fogey? Am I accurately assessing my wants/needs? Or something else entirely?
Those are pretty good. I also have a pretty good tuner/metronome app I use pretty often on my iPhone. If you don’t need one, though, there’s no reason to take it.
You can post to the SDMB on it. You can read e-books. You can check your e-mail. You can take pictures with it. Even without installing any further apps (many of which are free, anyway), there’s a lot you can do with it.
On the other hand, you can also do all of those same things on your phone. The advantage of the tablet is that it’s bigger. But the disadvantage is, it’s bigger. Is the bigger screen (which you can read more on at once, and which has easier buttons) a big enough advantage, in your eyes, to justify the decrease in portability? For me, the answer is no: If I’ve got something that won’t fit in a pocket, then I want it to be as big as a full computer. But your answer might be different.
Yeah - I looked into those. But I’ve got multiple clip on tuners which stay on my instruments and work great. And a few other electronic tuners scattered around the house. Hell - even a few tuning forks! And There is a nice wooden metronome within arm’s length of where my bass generally rests, and a couple more in other rooms.
That’s my personal issue with much of new tech - it is nice, but I don’t feel it is necessarily better than dedicated older single-function devices. And I personally do not find much of the interface to be intuitive.
One app I’ve been mildly interested in is something that will listen to music, and give a readout of the rhythm. Sort of a recording metronome. Make sense? I play bass, and am always very interested in how fast/steady our pace. I looked into it a while ago, and it looked like there were some options, but nothing that was ridiculously easy/cheap for me to try. And, while mildly interested, it didn’t take much for me to decide I really wasn’t that interested in it…
Yeah - basically I use my phone to make phone calls/text. I really hate using it for just about anything else.
You guys are nice and all, but I’m fine limiting my Doping to times that I’m around my computers - either at home or work. Same way I was pretty much fine with the idea of an answering machine at home. I really have extremely little that requires that i be immediately reachable.
Don’t view my responses as hostile or anything. I greatly appreciate your thoughts. They help me think through this. It kinda bothers me that I’m not eager to experience this free opportunity, but the more I think about it, I just am not. Hell, I love reading paper books, and read a paper newspaper daily, and subscribe to several paper magazines. I have no interest in doing that via an eReader.
When I see guys at jams who have exhaustive compilations of sheet music, linked with recordings of various interpretations - that is one application that really impresses me as pretty cool. Of course, I’m hauling an upright bass around when I’m making music. I really don’t need a single additional thing to fuck around with! :o
He’s a good friend of mine. I imagine the offer was intended in an “indefinite loan/gift” kinda way rather than “gift so you can profit by selling.” We play music together 2x a week. He’s the guy who is compiling all of the music. If I never brought the iPad with me, I would consider that awkward.
Tell him it’s a really generous offer, and you’re not sure if you’ll use it, but you’ll try it out, and if it turns out not to be useful, you’ll return it so he can give it to someone else.
Set a timeline for yourself where you’ll try to actually use it instead of your paper system and see if you actually like it better.
And There is a nice wooden metronome within arm’s length of where my bass generally rests, and a couple more in other rooms.