Saturday, June 23, 2012

Living in a Post-PC Era

I think PCs are going to be like trucks: less people will need them. And this is going to make some people uneasy. - Steve Jobs
The industry keeps telling me that we're entering the post-PC era. I had a US Robotics Palm Pilot in 1997, loved it, and used it constantly. People would see me reading novels, entering appointments, playing games, and sending email. In class or on a plane I would hook in the collapsible keyboard to take notes, write emails and update my website. They would ask me if they should get one and nine times out of ten I would say no. The Palm was a computer extension - a tool to help you run your life while away from main work horse. If you didn't use a calendar on your computer, the PDA wasn't going to make you organized. Around 2001 I even got an Omnisky cellular modem for my PalmV, but after a year, I stopped the service. It just didn't cut it.
Now we've moved into the days of an Apple iPad, Google Android Tablets, RIM Playbook, and the soon to be Microsoft Surface Tablet. All those companies are telling me that I'm living in a post-PC era. I mean, sure, I would still need a real computer (e.g. powerful laptop) to get the real WORK done, but for my personal life, a nice tablet is all that it will take.
So I'm starting a bit of an experiment to see if I can really feel fulfilled just carrying around my iPad. It's become the computer that I generally use - but I'm upping the game and trying to see if I can truly avoid using my real MacBook for personal use. I do "cheat" a little bit, because I have server at home and iSSH on my laptop so I can run VNC against the home computer. But mostly all that is used for is ripping CDs, re-encoding videos, etc.
I cashed in all my "Peer Recognition" points at work and got myself $75 in Apple gift cards to buy what I need. I used that to buy Beejive so I have a good IM program and to buy Blogsy so I can easily update my website. I bought an Apple bluetooth keyboard that nestles right under my Compass stand. So I have a "laptop-like" setup when I need to do some serious typing - like updating my website. But I can leave all that behind when I'm doing "couch-based" computer on social networks.
Wish me luck and we'll see how it goes.