iPad

I clearly remember being on a tour bus back in the very early days of the iOS mobile phone era. Our drummer was the only one without a mobile (cue the drummer jokes). Our bass player (yes, the bass player) was showing him the dawning new age of iOS mobile apps and waxing lyrical about an imagined future where we'd all be making albums on the road on iPhones. Drummer Boy looked nonplussed as he gazed at the shiny screen - 'why ever would I use one of them?' he said.

Unless you live on the moon, before very long your kids are going to be hassling you for an iPad – or God forbid, your iPad. It’s only natural that peer pressure is going to kick in, and besides, they see us adults all doing it – often more than we should.

I’ve had iPads for over a decade now, and I entrust them with more and more personal data as the years go by. Each iOS update and iPad upgrade has brought increasing functionality. The oohs and aahs of ‘look what this can do now!’ with every advance very quickly subside into just taking my digital best mate for granted in no time flat. But what if something 'happens' to it?

Aside from the obvious tragic dark sides of the Covid 19 pandemic, there have been some cultural gains from us being forced to slow down the pace a little and rely on our own resources. We’ve discovered the green spaces that we’ve been living next to for years, got to know our neighbours a bit better and have been forced to reacquaint ourselves with the positive aspects of our immediate communities. In amongst the undoubted isolation and loneliness, many people have also learned new skills – helped by our new best buddies, computers.

After seemingly endless lockdowns, many of us will have forgotten how to go on holiday. Many of us have spent the last year glued to screens, in endless Zoom meetings, so it’ll be tempting to leave tech behind for a bit - almost spot on…..but don't leave all of your tech behind.

We’re all now long used to banking, paying bills and shopping online, but the last few years have seen an explosion of apps for managing, consolidating and synchronising our financial information on our iPads, iPhones and desktops. My MacBook Pro is perfectly capable of flying me to the moon, but recently I’ve been using it to budget and manage my finances way more effectively than I’ve been able to before. I’ve switched over to a bank that has no front door (or any doors, for that matter), and it works really well for me. No supercilious bank manager to patronise me, either. A major plus.

The original iPad was released on April 3^rd 2010, and has come a long way in it’s 11 year history. The all singing and dancing 8^th generation was released on September 18^th, 2020.

11 years is barely a generation and a half in human terms, but is centuries in computing. Without listing every single detail change between iPad generations here, we’ll provide an overview of the major changes with each upgrade.