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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Gadgets and Gizmos

I remember when a standard shift transmission was standard equipment in an automobile. An automatic transmission was something that had to be requested and cost extra, a typewriter weighted 50 lbs and made a soothing click clack sound as the keys struck the paper, and paper was used without being called "hard copy". I look over my shoulder at where I have traveled down the techno path and I never could have imagined that I would get to see all the changes that have happened in my lifetime.

At one point in my life, I wished for my own typewriter. That was out of reach for a child of seven in a house that struggled to raise and feed and cloth those seven children. Years passed and during those years I have owned a manual typewriter then an IBM Selectric and finally into the  world of word processing on a computer.

Tonight I sit propped up on nice thick feather pillows while I download apps for the newest toy I have recently had bestowed upon me. I now have an iPad2. Initially upon receiving this new gadget, I was ambivalent about my need or even a desire to own one.

Slowly over the days and weeks of owning this new toy, I've begun to appreciate some of the things I can do with it. Tonight I downloaded apps. Apps. for play, entertainment and education and apps or 'readers'  to download books to it. I'm excited now about owning this iPad. I am only beginning to realize what capabilities I will have with it and I'm anxious to get started. My take off was slow as I tried to justify this expensive toy. Appreciation is growing and I've only barely begun to delve into it's uses.

My online time is limited now. I barely check into Facebook; I plan on downloading books to that iPad and doing a lot of reading during these hot summer months. Traveling with the husband on long trips, I will always have something to read. Educational apps have been downloaded for Carrie and games for Ted, we will all have iPad time.

From a desk top computer to a laptop and now to a thin sliver the size of a notepad, the iPad is a marvel.

Switching from a desktop to a Laptop took some adjustments on my part. Getting use to the size difference was my nemesis. Imagine going from a laptop to a gadget as thin and lightweight as a pad of paper. I'm going through another adjustment phase. I'm skidding into this small tool of technology. Give me another month and I will be totally comfortable with it and ready for the next invention that will be pushing me farther and farther down that path I've been traveling.

I can barely see the starting line back in the distance. The trip has been a speedy one and I'm looking forward to what is to come.


2 comments:

  1. Exactly. It's hard to imagine what will come next, what will be available in our life times.

    My dad once asked me to envision the astonishment of someone at the turn of the last century finding out that someone in MN would be able to converse with someone in, say, Louisiana. How could that be? How could anyone ever talk that loudly?

    And this is now commonplace.

    What comes next?

    Pearl

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  2. Pearl: I barely got over the astonishment of having a cordless telephone in my home..and then..lo and behold..CELL PHONES...and now phones that surf the internet.....oh..and I'm not completely over the internet thing. I'm still in awe of that! I love it......and am just excited to be here for what had come thus far!

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