iPad: The Frequent Traveler’s Companion

For the past week or so I’ve been on a cruise down the Rhine River through Switzerland, France, Germany and (soon) Holland. I’ve noticed a trend: the Apple iPad is the most carried computer on the ship, by a wide margin. I haven’t down an exhaustive survey of my fellow travelers (I’m on vacation after all) but just by keeping my eyes open in the ship’s lounge I’ve seen about a dozen different people with Apple’s tablet. I’ve seen just three mobile phone housing Windows laptops used by passengers in the same period. Our tour guide carries a Samsung Galaxy Tab. I asked around, and people told me they brought their tablets for some of the same reasons I brought my third-generation iPad on this trip: staying in touch with my friends and family through Facebook and email. Games are also a popular option. A Entertainment Device Our riverboat provides complimentary Wi-Fi, but with a strict limit on how much data can be exchanged. It’s enough to do some light web surfing, but not for something that requires a lot of bandwidth like NetFlix. That’s why I’m glad I loaded up some movies and TV shows before I left home. I also have quite a few ebooks with me, which saves a lot of space in my luggage. A few people are using their iPads as cameras while we’re visiting the various cities on the Rhine. I generally think that’s too cumbersome, but I had someone point out to me it’s a good option for those whose vision isn’t great — the large view screen makes it easy for them to see what they are taking a picture of. Several people have the Camera Connection Kit, so they can offload their pictures mobile phone spare parts onto their tablets, and then see them on nice big screen.