Behind the curve

Friends and readers have been asking me what I thought of Apple’s new digital product, the iPad, a tablet computer that — like the iMac, the iPod, and the iPhone before it — has been touted by Apple’s angels as humankind’s next greatest invention.

I, of course, am a hardcore Apple and Mac freak, a guy who still counts going to Macworld in San Francisco and standing within 10 feet of Steve Jobs (well within SJ’s fabled “reality distortion field”) as one of the highlights of his life, who still keeps a stable of aging Macs and PowerBooks going back to the Classic and the PowerBook 100 in his study and beneath his bed, and whose sometime chairmanship of the Philippine Macintosh Users Group he looks back on with more pride than most of his trivial, professional titles.

And unlike even most Apple fans, I’ve never waited for the so-called “Rev B,” or improved version, of a new product to run to the store to get one. Here in Pinoylandia, I was among the first, if not the very first, to get a Titanium PowerBook, a 12-inch Aluminum PowerBook, an iPod shuffle, an iPhone, and a MacBook Air. This usually meant waiting up all night for the Macworld extravaganza and for that inevitable announcement from Steve Jobs about “one more thing” — and making a beeline for the Internet to order or pre-order whatever that new gizmo was, sight unseen.

I feel a need to say all that because — for the first time in a very long time — Apple came out with something that actually had me asking “Do I need this? Or even if I don’t, why should I want one?” Unlike that mind-blowing moment a couple of years ago when Steve Jobs pulled a MacBook Air out of an office envelope to introduce the world’s thinnest laptop, the iPad’s stage debut left me underwhelmed, maybe because I was too busy figuring out where, in my lifestyle, the gadget would fit.

Don’t get me wrong: the iPad, from what I see, is still a neat, beautifully designed device embodying the seamless integration of hardware and software that’s been Apple’s calling card since the very beginning. It should do a good if not a great job as a media viewer, an e-book reader, a gaming console, a repository of a zillion iPhone apps, and, in a pinch, a mini-workstation running a modified office suite (in this case, iWork).

But my MacBook and my iPhone can already do 90 percent of that, so why should I want one more thing to carry — and something I’ll need to hold in one hand while the other one works?

I’m sure there will be many Mac users — and yes, new converts — for whom the iPad will be the perfect convergence device or digital accessory. Just because I don’t need it now doesn’t mean others don’t, or that I won’t. The thing about Apple is that it’s gotten ahead not just by meeting needs, but by creating them. Heck, nobody needed an iPod before Apple made one. As Time’s Josh Quittner puts it, Steve Jobs is “a veritable Innovator Bunny: while competitors scramble to follow him, Jobs races ahead to invent the next thing.”

Here’s my theory about my initial reluctance to embrace the iPad like the Mosaic tablets, which I’ve been telling anyone willing to listen: another tectonic division is upon us — that between those who need keyboards and those who don’t. We already got a glimpse of this when the iPhone arrived three years ago. Like many others, I grabbed one and pronounced myself in love with it — until I realized how much I missed the tactile pleasure of typing on a physical keypad; and so, like many others, I took to using a BlackBerry, and haven’t let go of it since.

Of course the iPad will allow typing on a fairly large virtual keyboard on its multi-touch screen. That should do well enough for e-mail, but I doubt that it’ll be as good for heavy-duty, long-distance typing. A physical keyboard’s virtues don’t consist just in the audible confirmation — in the reassuring click — of a keypress. The key travels downward and springs back, cushioning the impact of thousands of strokes. When I think of typing for long stretches on the iPad’s glassine surface, I imagine my fingers falling like heavy rain on hard concrete. But then again, maybe that’s just me and my romantic notions about the physicality of writing; the farther away we move from ink, the more ephemeral things get.

I’m beginning to wonder if my natural age (56) is finally catching up with me. I’ve been arguing these past several years — some of which I’ve spent writing product reviews and columns for techie magazines — that what I love about being on the cutting edge of new technology is how it allows me to cheat time, to experience now what people will be taking for granted 10 years hence. I still believe that.

Lately, however, I’ve noticed myself slipping way behind the curve. When I took serious stock of things, I realized that my interest in newness for newness’ sake has begun to wane, to the point that I should probably be surrendering my techie credentials soon, if I were to be honest about walking the walk instead of just talking the talk. For example:

1. I don’t play games. I’ve never even tried World of Warcraft, or the Sims, or Grand Theft Auto. My mom bowls on Wii and can give my brother-in-law Eddie a run for his money. I’ve never even touched a Wii, or a PSP, or a Nintendo.

2. I don’t do social networking. I don’t do Facebook. I don’t Tweet. Nor have I ever accepted any of the hundreds of invitations I must’ve received to Hi-5, Multiply, Friendster, LinkedIn, MySpace, and what have you.

3. I haven’t bought a new tech toy in ages. And it isn’t just because poker’s sucked up all my loose change, along with the Christmas bonus. Strangely enough, I’ve been very happy with the computer (a MacBook Air) and cell phone (a Blackberry Bold) that I’ve been using for over a year now; the MBA’s going on two — an eternity in digital time. Where I used to dress up my gear like they were blushing debutantes, my MacBook’s hard shell has acquired all sorts of battle scars; even my desktop pictures have been banished in favor of blank gray screens, the better for me to focus on the work I need to do. My iPod and iPhone — both one or two generations behind — have been languishing in the drawer.

So — will I eventually get an iPad? Knowing me, probably, yes. I’d be too curious not to. But at least you can’t say I didn’t stop to think about it. Just let me make these noises about not needing it, and valiantly saying no, for the time being, while the reality distortion field works its magic on me.

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E-mail me at penmanila@yahoo.com, and visit my blog at www.penmanila.net.