Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Adopt Early, Adopt Often

Boy, do I love it when my first-generation Kindle goes to sleep and the screen saver says "Thank you for being an early adopter." I adore being one of those.

And with all the iPad madness swirling around us, I'm completely dying to be an early adopter of one of those, too. I know, I know. It's early. There will be other versions. It'll be better, faster. Cooler.

But that doesn't stop me from wanting it now. Even though I can't justify the expense and won't be getting one, that doesn't stop me from dreaming. And I have to tell you what I heard while I was driving, listening to NPR. The reporter obviously felt like I did about the iPad -- you could hear the lust in his voice as he spoke. He was talking about the new Pages program. I don't use the program myself -- I'm still stuck in Word -- but I've heard it's wonderful, and that it exports to and from Word seamlessly, so I plan on using it with my next computer upgrade, rather than buying Microsoft's expensive package again. The reporter was tumbling all over himself like an eager puppy: "Apple rewrote the entire program, from the ground up, entirely for this device, so this is a word processing program, a great one, run by touch!"

And my toes curled on my accelerator as I drove, I swear they did. A word processing program, a powerful one, driven by a touch screen, and it's GOOD?

WANT. Pant, pant, pant.

But it's true that I want a lot of technological wonders, not least of all the Litter Robot. Given a choice between the two, I'm pretty sure I'd take the Litter Robot over the iPad, although. . . .

. . .Okay, you know what just happened in between those ellipses? I wandered over to Amazon to link to the really expensive Litter Robot to show it to you. And I found a $34 litter box that everyone loves -- you roll the box, and the clumped litter goes into a tray, and it has GREAT reviews, and it's hundreds of dollars less than anything automatic and you don't have to plug it in (no outlet on the porch where I need it) and THAT, my friends, is technology at its best. People, writing reviews, on a website, so that I can buy it, with the last few days of my Amazon Prime trial, so that I can then review it and tell YOU about it, thus letting me never have to make that decision between a Litter Robot and an iPad, because, friends . . . I want to someday pick the iPad.

And really, being an early (and often) adopter is how I got in this litter mess, anyway.

6 comments:

Gary Corby said...

I confess I just don't get the mania for Apple stuff.

Purely to be devil's advocate, what problem did all those iPad buyers have a week ago, that's been solved by owning an iPad this week?

Now the Litter Robot sounds like it might actually be useful...

Rachael Herron said...

Gary, I hear you. But the problem they're solving by having one? They're filling those deep, dark holes in their souls that they feel whenever they hear about running a word processing program on a flat-screen device (driven by touch) that can fit in their PURSES.

Maybe. I dunno. :)

Sophie Littlefield said...

ha! Gary! you silly man. I long for an ipad if only so i can make the little virtual page corner turn. Yes truly, THAT is enough to make it worth the gazillion dollars, if i had a gazillion dollars. much in the same way that my 12-year-old barely functional minivan is far superior to the new volvo, because it has *room for my purse* when I am driving the kids. and when rachael says there's a touch-word-processor i got all shaky legs. i swear when she and i are making the giant dollars, we'll be very scary....

Gigi Pandian said...

I was a relatively early adopter of Macs, but only by accident. I was starting art school and my PC was NOT cutting it. As soon as I got one, I was hooked. But I gotta say, those early Macs were so much better constructed than my current one. I wish I could do a body transplant and put my newer white plastic laptop into the sturdy silver body of my old Mac. Sigh ;)

Juliet Blackwell said...

I love this...I won't say much, except to mention that tomorrow's post will be the exact opposite of this! I'm kind of the adopt last, only when dragging kicking and screaming to do so. And then, of course, I think, "why didn't I do this a while ago?"
Case in point: I got my first microwave two years ago. 'nuff said.

Gary Corby said...

Ummm, this is probably a dumb question, but couldn't you get the same page-corner-turn effect with, like, a real piece of paper? Just asking.

Come to think of it, paper also has a word processing feature, and a highly flexible, stylus-driven UI. Paper comes in many fashionable colors. And the batteries seem to last forever!