I am writing my first blogpost from my ipad2 that I recently got from my bank. I also installed Ubuntu for a family member on an unused laptop and even though they will be the primary users of the laptop I couldn’t help but feel excited to use Ubuntu simply because it offers a totally different experience when compared to Windows. I also don’t support piracy – if I cannot afford it then I simply don’t buy it, but I also don’t look for a pirate copy from a neighbour. After installing Ubuntu it got me thinking that in my everyday usage I am exposed to various devices running various platforms and it feels as if you have to change your thinking when you switch from one device to the next. The iPad requires little effort to use and it’s real value becomes obvious when you quickly want to view a web page such as wikipedia without having to sacrifice the viewing experience as you would when reading a website on a mobile device such as a blackberry. Reading websites on a blackberry is less than optimal. Reading websites on a Windows Phone 7 device is also a lot better but not as nice as on an ipad. So I have three mobile devices, a blackberry, an iPad and a windows phone 7 and of the three devices I use the blackberry the most the iPad the second most and the windows phone the least. I use services like facebook and twitter on all three and honestly the iPad provides the best experience because I can view url’s much easier on quicker within a twitter feed and the websites render quite well. Twitter on blackberry uses über social and it’s good in the sense that you can create a tweet almost anywhere in the user interface. Facebook support on the blackberry is good with its Facebook app which is good, but my initial feeling is that the iPad app is better. Windows phone 7 has Facebook baked into the operating system and is incorporated into the wp7 interface and does not reflect the interfaces provided by the iPad and blackberry. I would say I prefer the facebook experience on the iPad.
So I use three mobile devices, but I also use several operating systems on desktops, laptops and servers (virtual and physical). Both at home and at work I use various flavours of windows and at least one flavours of Linux. On all these devices I also experience the same or similar services, like Facebook and twitter.
I don’t feel overwhelmed at all, in fact each new experience is just another experience to know.
