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The personal site of Jamie Knight, an autistic web developer, speaker and mountain biker who is never seen far from his plush sidekick Lion. View the Archive

Topics: Autism Development

The iPad Boring

A few weeks ago Apple announced the iPad Boring via a press release. It was not a big announcement for Apple. Much like the iPhone SE the “iPad 5th gen” was a mid market device designed to fill a gap in the market. A design from 2013 stuffed with internals from 2016. To those waiting for iPad Pros it was a very disappointing update.

However, to me it was pretty darn interesting. I had been looking for a “home computer” for a while and i didn’t know it was iPad shaped.

Home Computer.

I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by amazing hardware. I have an iMac, a MacBook and (via the BBC) an iPad Pro. Thats almost £4,000s worth of hardware and i am grateful for it. My devices support my work and that keeps me fed and housed etc. All good things.

However, theres a snag. All of those devices serve double or even triple duty. None of them are really “mine”. They belong to my employer, or my company, but not really to “me”.

This is not the first time i have found myself in this position. For ages, i used to have a MacBook Pro for work and an iMac or a MacBook Air at home. I started this way back in 2011. At the time i even had this handy definition of a home computer:

For me, my home computer is the computer which i am unable to work on. It doesn’t have my software tools installed at all. My home computer is what i use once i get home to check on twitter, Facebook etc. […] I also use my ‘home’ computer for non work projects, such as study or researching lego parts.

Since getting ill my work life and my home life have merged. I certainly don’t need another Mac in my life. But i have been wanting something all of my own.

Enter the iPad Boring.

I want my personal computing to be effortless. Something i don’t have to think about or maintain. Something “good enough” is fine. The fact i cant load all my software tools onto the iPad Boring is a good thing! It does run my speech software, so the important stuff is covered.

Secondly, the iPad Boring is cheap. At £339 its a third of the cost of even an entry level MacBook and almost a quarter the cost of a Mac i’d actually want to own. If i get two years use of it then donate it to relative i’d be pretty happy.

I think thats everything. Long live the iPad Boring!

Published: 12 April 2017 | Categories: Permalink

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