Apple announced their tablet computing device yesterday, and the general consensus around the web seems to be “meh.” A coworker of mine said (paraphrasing here) “why would I buy this if I already have an iPhone and a laptop?” I agree. If you’re already a laptop toting iPhone wielding Apple fanboy, then this has to be a bit of a letdown. There doesn’t appear to be anything vastly innovative or different about the iPad. The iPad appears to be little more than a bigger, faster, iPod Touch. People wanted more. More innovation. More pizazz. Apple didn’t want to shake the boat too much though, and went with what has worked for them in the past.

But for me? I am intrigued. Not blown away. Just intrigued. We have one computer in our house. It’s a somewhat aging desktop, and it’s located in our basement. I don’t have smart phone. I don’t have a Kindle or other e-reader. I do have an iPod Nano. Kate doesn’t understand the appeal of a device like the iPad. Here’s what I see.

• Portable Web Browsing: Not mobile web browsing, because I’m not willing to front the extra $130 up front and $30/mo that the 3G versions of these devices require. But portable web browsing I can get behind. Need to send a recipe to your friend, but don’t want to trek down to the basement? iPad. Want to check the directions to your event that night but don’t want to trek down to the basement? iPad. Want to check your fantasy football score while watching the game? Ipad. Send a quick email, update twitter, or check facebook? iPad, iPad, iPad.
  
  Yes, there is a certain laziness implied in the above paragraph. It IS only a flight of stairs, after all. Let me put this another way. Want to do any of the above but can’t because your spouse/kids/dog/cat/gerbil is using the computer? iPad.
• Portable Video: Watch an episode of Chuck in the comfort of my own bed before I go to sleep? Or on an airplane ride? Or on the beach? Or on my way to New York while the kids sleep and Kate drives? Heck yeah!
  
  Oh who am I kidding? I never let Kate drive.
• Calendar, Contacts, Notes, etc. The functions and form of the iPad point towards it making a pretty decent PDA, especially if it syncs nicely with Google Calendar and Google Contacts. This is something that I always thought would be nice about having an iPhone. The successfulness (or lack thereof) of the on-screen keyboard will likely affect the iPad’s usefulness in this category.
• Photo Sharing: If I’m toting this back and forth from work every day (see the previous bullet), which I would, you’re darn right I’m going to use it to show off my kids. Heck, I’d prop it in my cube when it’s not actively in use and it’ll be a digital picture frame. Because my coworkers don’t get enough pictures of my kids already.
• Light Gaming: I’m kidding everybody if I don’t include gaming. I (and yes, probably the kids) will play a few games on this device. Not like I would on a gaming console or a full blown PC, but I bet there will be a couple of ways to waste some time with this bad boy.
• Digital Books, Magazines, and Newspapers: As much as I hate to admit it, digital magazines, newspapers, and yes, books are the wave of the future. I don’t think I’ll ever give up on reading a hardcopy book, but magazines and newspapers make pretty good sense for a device like this. It remains to be seen if the technology is to a point where I can read on a device like this without getting a headache, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

So while it might not make sense for others, this device might make sense for me. Does it have shortcomings? Absolutely. Might I wait a while for the price to drop and for the next version to come out in a year or two? I might. But this device definitely fits a hole in my electronics devices arsenal. Is it a hole that I absolutely have to fill? Ask me in March.

My new year’s resolution is to blog more often. Waiting for the laughter to die down. . .

Okay, that’s not really my New Year’s resolution. Somehow everything I want to say has recently been magically condensed to 140 characters or less. Because my attention span wasn’t short enough to begin with. Darn you twitter and facebook. So to start 2010, I present you with a picture of my whole family, taken at our Christmas celebration this past weekend.

View Large, On Black

Here’s an obligatory clip from Simon’s first “concert” at school.

I’ve discovered that taking a picture of one kid is pretty easy, compared to getting a picture of two. Today we took the kids out to try and get a decent picture or two for our Christmas cards. In keeping of the tradition of posting outtakes, here’s a small taste of what we had to deal with.

I’m not sure why I didn’t post this earlier in the week, but I wanted to get it up here before the next game. That’d be tomorrow, against Miami. Anyway, I couldn’t have picked a better finish. The Hokies, after an opening TD drive, did precisely squat offensively the rest of the game. The D and special teams (as well as a few favorable calls and mistakes on Nebraska’s part) kept them in the game for these last minute heroics. I LOVE the frenzied joy that comes with a last minute victory. And experiencing it in person was fabulous. You go from the doldrums to ecstasy with 65,000 of your best friends in about 5 seconds. It’s pretty cool.

Quick Update: I forgot to include this little conversation I had with my brother’s roommate right before this series. An “Overheard in the Stands,” if you will.

Steve (Murray’s Roomate): You know, all it takes is one big play.
Me: Steve, what have you seen in this game that makes you think we’re capable of even a single big play?
Steve: *shrugs*

So yeah, this shows what I know:

I’m a full 3 weeks, 4 weeks, well, let’s just say I’m WAY behind on my Adventures in Produce posts. The thing is, I’m not really that sad about it. This has been a frustrating project for me for several reasons, and I’m happy to throw it under the bus. All my fault, for sure, but frustrating nonetheless.

The problems that stand out most in my mind are:

• Logistics and Time Constraints – I simply didn’t have the time I wanted to put together these shots. Everything seemed rushed. I didn’t really anticipate the craziness of walking in the door from work and trying to set up and shoot the weekly produce picture with kids were underfoot in the 30-45 minutes I had before dinner. Additionally, Kate was sometimes needing some of the produce we got for that week to cook dinner.
• Lighting – I was extremely frustrated with the lighting in my house. Our house doesn’t get a lot of natural light, and the little we do get is difficult to work with. I was having all sorts of issues with exposure and white balance that I just didn’t have the time to mess with in the short period I had to take the pictures (see item one).
• Equipment – When I started this project, I fully expected to be purchasing the beginning of my strobist-inspired lighting equipment. I planned on having at least one strobe, one lightstand, and one umbrella with which to light. Er, yeah. . . about that. We had a couple of unexpected expenses this summer. Air conditioning, medical bills, auto stuff, hi-def television. . . you know, all essentials. What’s that? YOU try saying no to your wife when she tells you that it’s okay for you to go buy a replacement TV. I mean really, the GALL of that woman! Kidding hon, TOTALLY kidding. As an aside, now that football season has started any buyers remorse I had over that TV has been magically cured. Funny, that.

  So anyway, the flash equipment purchase got put off indefinitely, and I haven’t been experimenting with any of the light stuff I wanted to experiment with.

• A Generally Disappointing CSA Experience – In general, I have been a little disappointed by the quality of the produce we’ve gotten from the CSA. The fruit has generally been very good, but I have not been thrilled with the veggies, and we have gotten a couple of items that have been downright dreadful (the green beans from a couple of weeks ago qualify). Being not super-enthusiastic about the produce we were receiving made me even less motivated to take pictures.

  That being said, we LOVE our trips to the farm to pick our own produce, and the farm itself is a really fun place to visit. I’m not sure if we’ll do the CSA again next year. We still have a month or so of late summer and fall produce to go, so I’m going to withhold final judgement until it is all said and done.

So as of now, my photography goal is to get caught up processing all the pics that I’m backed up on by a couple (almost 3?! Ack!) months. I’m not even considering another “project” until I get caught up on the family shots.

Kid is growing up ridiculously fast.

The season is almost here. The Hokies start the season with a huge game against #5 Alabama in Atlanta, GA on September 5 (8:00PM, ABC) . If this doesn’t get you excited for the game, nothing will.

Go Hokies!