I skipped sunset attunement today and I’m glad…

…because I got my hands on an iPad instead. Yessireebob, it only took three days for this Mensan and Harvard alumnus to finally think of going to the shiny new Apple Store at Pheasant Lane Mall and looking at one of their demo iPads to see if By Light Unseen Media’s titles really do show up in the iBookstore. You think maybe I spend a little too much of my life online? “‘Store?’ What is this ‘store’ of which you speak? You mean it’s an actual building? How quaint!” *wry smile*

The Apple Store is a very new addition to the mall, but I certainly knew it was there. (Evidently Best Buy has iPads, too, and I didn’t think of them, either. And I have a Best Buy card!) It was busy but not jammed, and they had many demo iPads for people to try out. A very helpful sales associate named Ashley came over and helped me get into iBooks and look up books by title and by publisher name. And here they are!

I took that photo with my digital camera, but Ashley emailed me a screenshot–on the spot, right from that iPad–so I’ve got one of those, too. We’re in the iBookstore!! I was totally stoked, thanked Ashley copiously and wandered out of the store in a sparkly pink haze. *g* I went and petted the bunnies in Debbie’s pet store and then went to Panera up the road and bought half a dozen fancy bagels. (I recommend the Asiago cheese bagel. Yum!)

The iPad itself…well, it is nifty. It felt very natural to use. I didn’t have any trouble with the interface and the whole touch screen thing. I tried typing with the keypad, too–easy! But taken altogether…it just didn’t grab me, you know? And I’m definitely grabbable. I can think of several things over my life where, the instant I saw them, the very first look, I was a goner. MUST. HAVE. THAT. MUST HAVE. Even though it took years, in most cases, for me to finally get one. I felt that way the very first time I saw an ad for the Betamax–although by the time we finally got such an item, the Betamax had dropped off the evolutionary dead end and we got a VCR–but that was okay. I felt that way about the Bowflex. One look. Must have. The very first laptop computer I ever saw; the very first touchpad; the very first little netbook computer, at a convention. Love at first sight. Must have.

And not once have I ever been disappointed when I fulfilled one of these instantaneous obsessions–in fact, in every case, I’ve been even happier with the item than I expected (says the person who has worn out parts of her Bowflex and is now sleeping with her Netbook). So this is a pretty unerring instinct when it hits. But the iPad just doesn’t do that for me. I’m afraid I’m in the same camp as Cory Doctorow and the makers: the things I get excited about are things that make me work, and give me tools to do work, and don’t make it too easy. I like things I can tinker with and add to and connect to other things and use to make new things of my own. The iPad is another example of Apple’s attitude, “don’t bother your pretty little head with how it works, we’ve provided everything you could possibly need, just go play with your shiny toy and have fun.” That just doesn’t appeal to me. It’s the same reason I couldn’t be less interested in going to Disney World–and Disney and Apple have a LOT in common. I had more fun up in Montréal this summer, wandering around with a map and my netbook and a wi-fi connection, pushing the limits of my French and exploring and learning the ropes, than I ever would have in some shiny pre-packaged, polished vacation deal in a resort or cruise ship. I’m a DIY addict, every step of the way.

But that’s just me. As a publisher, if hundreds of thousands of people are buying iPads so fast their credit cards warp, I’m on board–hand over that Kool-ade! *g* The iPad is definitely pretty, and funky–you remember the finger-operated wall-sized computer screens in Minority Report? The iPad evokes that, it’s very tactile. I can’t fairly “review” it because I didn’t play with it for very long. I couldn’t have bought one even if I’d wanted to. The store in Pheasant Lane is sold out!