Posts Tagged ‘miscellaneous’

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A Simple, Effective Way To Boost Your Creativity

11.09.08

Want a quick way to improve your creative output, at work and at home?

Carry a notebook with you at all times.

Carrying a notebook is a habit I’ve fallen into and out of over the years, but I’ve noticed that when I do, my creative output soars. Right now I’m rocking a Moleskine notebook, and I love it. Frankly, you could use scraps of paper instead, but having a notebook makes it way easier to refer back to later.

Why?

Because having a notebook means you can capture ideas as they occur to you, without the risk of forgetting them before capturing them. When you first start this, you’ll be astonished at how many ideas you

Yesterday, on the way to work I jotted down three ideas for blog posts that I had on my 30-minute commute. Today, I took notes on a book I’m currently reading (The Social Customer by Adam Metz).

Cheap, easy to establish and effortless to maintain, but the payoffs are huge.

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Thoughts on Disconnecting

11.08.10

You may have noticed that things have been quieter than usual here recently. If you didn’t know, two weeks ago I got married and as I type this, I’m sitting on a plane on the way back from two blissful weeks spent completely offline on honeymoon in Italy.

At the Colosseum in Rome

While many of our vacations focus on adventure and exploration, this time we made a conscious decision to set aside at least half of the vacation for relaxation as the last few months have been… well, manic, to say the least. So, I had plenty of time to think, and I got to thinking about the effect that being offline had on how I thought and acted while we were away.

A few words come to mind:

  1. Old-school!
  2. Refreshing
  3. Disconnected

Resourcefulness

Yu know how you don’t appreciate a good thing until it’s gone? As I rapidly discovered while staying in a villa with no Internet access on the Amalfi Coast (it’s a tough life, I know), I use the Internet for a lot. A lot. No Internet meant no Google Maps; no Trip Advisor; no online bus schedule; no Google searches; nothing.

Was this tough? Absolutely not – it’s not that long since we didn’t have any of these things. However, it did make me reflect on just how much we use the Internet for nowadays. We had to search out real maps (you know, the ones “old people” use) and ask around for recommendations from local people. We had to use a phrasebook instead of Google Translate.

Again, I’m not crying “boo freakin’ hoo” here, but every time I take an offline vacation I find that the Internet had filled more and more functions for me, and I find that fascinating.

Refreshing

The view from Ravello, on the Amalfi Coast

The last six months have been, in a word, exhausting. We bought a house, renovated it, got married, and I was working long hours in the office. With everything that was going on, I found the opportunity to go completely offline reinvigorating.

Going from 300+ emails a day to none; waking up in the morning and not checking Twitter and Facebook; and not feeling like I should be Twitpic-ing photos of the sunset on the coast was completely refreshing. I highly recommend everyone unplug occasionally and just unwind.

Disconnected

Setting aside the hugely positive aspects of being offline, I did feel disconnected. I wondered what was going on with my friends. I wondered what was going on with my family. I wondered what was going on at the office. Not being able to reach out and connect with people whenever I felt like it was strange. And, yes, I did often think “I should totally post this photo” before realizing I couldn’t. It was unsettling at first, but the feeling passed.

Still, social networks are all about connecting with other people. I did miss those connections.

Looking ahead

The last two weeks were absolutely blissful and we couldn’t have had a better honeymoon. With that said, I return from it reinvigorated and re-energized, and I look forward to diving back into the things and relationships that matter to me – friends, family and colleagues – with more energy than ever before!

Posted in: miscellaneous, personal

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Criticism is Good

11.06.28

Yesterday I published a post (ok, fine, a rant) about people who sling unconstructive criticism at others and the effect it has.

Several people seemed to take that to mean that I think all criticism is bad, or that we should avoid commenting on other posts. That’s my fault – I buried this line way within the post (as, per the previous paragraph, I was ranting):

“As I’ve said before, criticism can be good. For that to be the case, it needs to be informed and it needs to be constructive.”

My concern is that there’s a big difference between these two statements:

“‘Company X’ did this. I don’t think that was the best move – I might have considered [change A], [change B] or [change C] to make [aspects D, E and F] better.”

“‘Company X’ did this. What a dumb move – who in their right minds would do that? Fail.”

One is constructive; one is unhelpful. One offers useful suggestions; the other tears the organization down. One builds; the other tears down. One makes you look smart and helpful; the other does the opposite.

Happily, the people who read my post and took that meaning from it (again, my bad) chose to do so in a constructive way and made some constructive points in return. For that, I thank you.

Criticism is good. Most people don’t receive enough feedback — the kind that builds and helps them to be better, that is, not the kind that makes an example of them. I know I always strive to receive more, as I know there’s a lot to improve. We just need to get better at both providing and receiving it. The aim of the last post was to let those who aim to knock others down rather than build them up know that that’s not part of the equation.

Make sense?

#thatisall

Posted in: blogging, miscellaneous

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Armchair Quarterbacks: Don’t Be That Troll

11.06.27

A quick thought (or ten) for anyone who is thinking about armchair-quarterbacking someone else’s PR or social media execution without anything constructive to add…

When you criticize things from the outside, you:

Armchair Quarterback

Don't be this guy.

1. Don’t know what actually happened. You know what you read in blogs, in the papers, etc. You don’t know what actually happened — who said what and to whom.

2. Don’t know what discussions happened internally. You see the reported outcome. You don’t know what conversations happened – between the agency/agencies in question and the company; within the company or among the various stakeholders at the table. Hell, you probably don’t even know who all of those stakeholders and agencies are.

3. Don’t know the context for the decision(s) that were made. You don’t know the competing priorities in play. You don’t know what had been tried before and didn’t work. You don’t know what communications happened behind the scenes.

When you criticize from that starting point and don’t have anything constructive to say, you:

4. Make yourself look uninformed to all parties in question. You don’t impress anyone by taking cheap shots; you just show how little of that context you actually have.

Armchair Quarterback game

Is this how people sit when they come up with this stuff?

5. Make yourself look petty. You’re taking cheap shots. You’re sniping from the sidelines. When was the last time that made someone look good? Oh, that’s right, it didn’t.

6. Set yourself up for a fall. By taking those cheap shots, you set yourself up there on a pedestal, ready for anyone who encountered your critique to take you down next time you screw up. And guess what? Even if you didn’t actually screw up, you don’t have a leg to stand on – that leg is occupied trying to kick others when they’re down.

7. Lose recruitment opportunities. I’ve said many times – PR is a small world. Those people you just alienated might have been potential recruits some day. Don’t worry about it, though – given that you just alienated their client, too, you won’t have too much incremental work to worry about.

8. Lose new business opportunities. I just mentioned it – you don’t just alienate the agency in question; you alienate their client, too, through your misinformed punditry. Say goodbye to being on that shortlist.

9. Damage your own reputation and that of your employer. It’s not just yourself that you hurt with your critique – it’s your employer, too. Yep, just as in so many things nowadays, your actions are tied to that of the company you work for. “These opinions are my own” disclaimer or not, you’re working for that company and the words you say/write are those of someone working for that company. People will draw that line whether you want them to or not (to take it a step further, ask the many people who have lost their jobs after ill-advised comments online).

10. Get me worked up. Ok, that’s not really a big deal, but did you really think I would publish a post with nine points? Yeah, right.

Troll

Don't be this guy either.

For the record: As I’ve said before, criticism can be good. For that to be the case, it needs to be informed and it needs to be constructive. It can’t be uninformed, because that leads to you giving criticism that is based on a slice of reality and that does nothing to benefit anyone (including you). And it can’t just be an attack, with no constructive input, because then you’re just a troll.

If you find yourself falling into that trap (and I’ve done it myself in the past), do yourself a favour and cut the company a break.

Make sense?

(Yes, this was sparked by a particular incident. No, it wasn’t about me or about Edelman. Yes, it got me worked up. No, I won’t name the people at fault. Move along…)

(Images via here, here and here)

Posted in: blogging, miscellaneous

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The Little Give

11.05.30

Today I’m veering a little way from my normal topics – while I generally write about communications, social media and the like, I thought you might like a little insight into life at Edelman; specifically, one of the cool employee engagement initiatives we have here in Canada.

The Little Give

The Little Give is a CSR program, initially created by Edelman’s Vancouver office, that sees Edelman Canada offices split into teams and work to help charities in our communities.

This year, the Toronto office is supporting ten great organizations that work to improve the lives of youths in various ways. Everyone in the office was invited to participate in the nomination and voting process to decide the list of organizations, with the final list including:

(You can find out more about our partners over on our Little Give blog)

How it works

At 4pm on June 2nd, the Toronto office will split into ten teams, which will then work for the next 48 hours (we close the Edelman office for one day, and people donate a day of their weekends) to solve whatever problem their designated partner organization puts to them. Edelman seeds each team with $2,500 to use over the two days.

At the end of that time, each team comes back and gives a short presentation of what they did to the rest of the office and a panel of judges, who ultimately determine the winning project.

Why it works

Beyond a cheque: We could just hand over a cheque to these organizations, but by going beyond that and contributing 4,800 hours or so of expertise alongside the money, we can make a real difference to these organizations.

It’s authentic: As our General Manager Lisa Kimmel said, “CSR programs need to be authentic and clear and they need to be woven into the fabric of your corporate culture.” We’re not just handing over a cheque and moving on. We’re working to have a positive impact on our community.

Everyone’s engaged: From the selection of non-profits, to the fun run-up to the event (from the Little Give blog to the Facebook page to real-world in-office games), everyone in the office is involved, making this a high point of our employee engagement initiatives as well as a great CSR program. In fact, just last week a new employee mentioned how excited they were to join us in time for the event.

I narrowly missed-out on The Little Give last year, as I joined Edelman just after it happened. I’m totally psyched for this year’s.

 

Posted in: Agency life, miscellaneous

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5 Tips For Managing The Email Deluge

11.02.17

Ever find yourself thinking, “I need more email”? Ever feel disappointed because you don’t get enough in your inbox?

I didn’t think so. Personally, I get between 200-300 emails a day, as many of you likely also do. That’s enough email to completely paralyze you if you can’t deal with the volume effectively. You could spend your entire day working through your inbox, at the expense of the action items you actually have to do.

I’m continuing to work through the issue myself, but here are five pointers I’ve learned for managing the email deluge.

1. Read once

Ever find yourself reading an email, realizing you’re not sure what to do with it or that you don’t have time to deal with it, and just moving on to the next thing in your inbox? I know I have. Unfortunately, that leads to your inbox becoming a repository for difficult email, not a true inbox.

Try to force yourself to only read emails once. Once I’ve read an email, I take a leaf out of Getting Things Done (affiliate link) by David Allen and take one of several actions:

  1. Deal with it – if it’s going to take less than two minutes to handle, just do it
  2. Schedule it – file it in an “action” category and book time in my calendar to deal with it
  3. Delegate it – assign it to someone on the team to handle
  4. File it “to read” – lots of items are sent as “FYI.” I file these in an “information” category for review when I have time. This is a recent addition for me, as I was finding my “action” category was getting clogged with dozens and dozens of action items (thanks to the book Workarounds That Work (affiliate link) by Russell Bishop)
  5. Archive it – file it in an archive folder for future reference
  6. Delete it – get it out of the inbox to keep things manageable

2. Pay attention to the “To:” line

The body of the email isn’t the only part that sends a message – the address fields also send a message.

If I see that I’m in the “To:” line of an email, I pay attention and look for action items. If I see that I’m in the “cc:” field on an email, I treat the email as an FYI and review when I have time. (In some workplaces, this may require a little expectation-setting with colleagues)

3. Ensure the subject line is relevant

This is an are where I know I need to improve – ensuring that the title of an email remains relevant to the conversation. In the past I’ve sent far too many emails with “FYI” as a title. It could be worse (at least the recipient knows it’s not urgent) but it would be better if it read “FYI – media coverage of XYZ”, “Deadline: Need feedback by Feb 18″ or the like.

In cases where the topic of the email changes during the email chain, change the title!

Keeping the subject relevant lets recipients know what the email is about, and whether they need to pay attention to it.

4. Avoid “reply all”

Does everyone in the email chain need to be on it? If you don’t need to include everyone on a reply, do them a favour and remove the unnecessary people from the chain. No-one sits there waiting for the next group discussion to erupt; you’ll also find that you get fewer emails as a result, as there are fewer other people to hit “reply all” at their end.

5. Default to other media

Many of us co-locate in offices for a reason. Other forms of communication are richer and offer more cues than email. If you have the option, walk over and talk to someone, or pick up the phone and call them. Not only will you cut down on email, you’ll get things done quicker.

This is especially important when something is urgent. Email is an asynchronous medium – it can be read later. In fact, it’s intended for that. I spend a large proportion of my time in meetings and not checking email. In that situation, an urgent request is likely to go unheard. If you need to reach someone urgently, pick up the phone or walk over to them. Don’t rely on them checking email constantly.

What else?

I know my system isn’t perfect, and I still struggle with the email deluge on a daily basis. You likely have your own way of managing the volume. What tips would you add to the list?

(Image: jon|k)

Posted in: how to, miscellaneous

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5 Ways to Digitize Santa

10.12.24

It’s nearly time for Santa to round up those reindeer and hit the skies for another round of gift-giving.

A couple of years ago, in the spirit of the season, I put out some suggestions on how Santa could fix-up his PR. This year, I got to thinking what I’d do to digitize Santa.

1. @Santa

Santa already has a Twitter account – @Santa. However, it’s dormant most of the year. Dial-up the activity throughout the year and keep that Christmas spirit alive. Oh, and get a decent Twitter background!

2. SantaBook

Santa also has a Facebook page, with a reasonable number of fans (nearly 17,000). However, he’s clearly not optimizing it given the number of potential fans out there. A few suggestions:

  • Custom landing tab: Santa’s elves need to convert all the people searching for him into fans. Right now his landing tab is the info page. Buddy, we know who you are. Find a way to get people to “like” you – maybe an extra present in your stocking, or the ability to use what’s next…
  • Claim that URL: He may have the Facebook.com/Santa URL, but this guy ain’t Santa. The real deal is losing traffic and fans when people search for him because of this. Get in touch with Facebook and contest it.
  • Christmas list application: Snail mail is so 1990! Time to dial-up the digital a bit. Given that the kids, we hear, aren’t even sending email now, Santa should consider creating an application that enables people to submit their Christmas lists via Facebook. Add sharing functionality to let them spread the word (make the most of those newsfeeds!)
  • Naughty/Nice application: Making a naughty/nice decision at the end of the year is a bit like doing an annual review for someone at the end of the year without giving them any feedback throughout. Not cool. Instead, why not offer an app to let kids connect their Facebook account and see where they sit on the scale at any point during the year.

3. Augment Santa’s reality

As the Earth’s population inches ever further up, that naughty/nice list must be getting hard to manage. Santa would benefit from an AR app (like this) that could recognize kids’ faces and determine which of the lists they’re on. Even better, recognize the houses they’re in so Santa can know whether to even land the sleigh on their roof or not.

4. Blog.Santa.com

Santa needs a property he owns that he can drive people to. Santa.com is parked right now; it’s the logical choice for a domain. As part of that hub, Santa (and his elves, if he’s pressed for time) could blog about the whole process of getting ready for the holidays. Think “Elf” but spread throughout the year. Talk about a must-read!

5. Protect Santa’s online identity

Don’t let people like this guy hijack your name (local Santas?! That’ll never catch on ;) )! Santa should claim his identity widely on social networks to safeguard his reputation.

Bad Idea: Location, location, Rudolph

Picture this: Santa checks into kid’s house on Foursquare. Kid gets notification. Kid comes down and catches Santa in the act. Then, the next morning, family wakes up and finds that Santa is the mayor of their house. Not cool.

What else?

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How To Manage Your Time In A PR Agency

10.10.06

If you work in PR you probably find yourself pulled in myriad directions on a constant basis – especially if you work on the consulting side of the industry. This can be pretty overwhelming, especially if you’re new to the industry. So, I thought you might find it helpful to know a few of the tools I use to keep myself from running around like a headless chicken every day.

This system dragged me back from the brink a while back, at a time when I felt overwhelmed, and I’ve relied on it ever since.

1. Always-accessible to-do list

My to-do list, along with my calendar, is my bible. Everything I do revolves around this. So, I’ve adopted a system that lets me access and update my to-do list wherever I am.

I use Evernote to keep track of my to-dos. I can access it on my BlackBerry, on my iPad, on my laptop and on my home computer. It ensures that, whenever I think of something I need to do, I can capture it.

For each item, I capture several pieces of information:

  1. Project involved
  2. Specific task
  3. Estimated time required to complete the task
  4. Deadline
  5. Priority (I number things from 1-3 – for high/medium/low)

This becomes the basis of how I schedule my week and prioritize my tasks.

Power tip: Set up a notebook in Evernote just for to-do items, and just flip a quick email to your account to capture items in that notebook when you only have a couple of seconds. Then, when you have a few moments later, you can go back through those items and add them to your master to-do list.

2. Plan out the week

At the beginning of each weekI  I review my to-do list and my calendar as it stands to identify how I need to allocate my time for each day that week. So, if I have four hours of meetings one day, I know I have four hours to work with. I then work through my to-do list in order of priority, and assign tasks to a day.

I use a simple spreadsheet to accomplish this (thanks to Andrea Pietkiewicz who introduced me to this), with tasks down the left-hand side and days of the week across the top. In the middle I enter the hours required for the various meetings and tasks I need to accommodate. At the bottom I have a total so I can see how many hours of work I’ve scheduled for each day.

Mon Tues Weds Thurs Fri
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Total

I have an hour blocked off at the beginning of each week for this process.

3. Defensive scheduling

I now know what I need to do, when I need to do it and how long it will take. The next step is to defensively block-off my calendar. I add every task to my calendar as an appointment, for several reasons:

  1. Because “the work” takes time to do
  2. Because other people will fill the day with meetings if I don’t
  3. Because it helps me to track how I use my time

4. Constantly adjust

The process doesn’t end at the beginning of the week, of course. Things change – tasks take longer than planned; work arises unexpectedly and new meetings are scheduled. I constantly update my calendar as priorities shift during the week. If an item needs to be scheduled, it goes into the to-do list. If it needs to happen in the current week then it goes into the calendar immediately; if the work needs to happen in the future then I have a little more time to schedule it in later.

The beauty of this approach is two-fold:

  1. You know what needs to move to accommodate change. You need three hours for an urgent request from your boss? You know what needs to be pushed and the effect it will have later on in the week.
  2. You have a system for prioritizing your decisions. When someone comes to you with a last-minute task or meeting request, you have a clear list of tasks to which you can compare and prioritize it. Is it more important than Task 2? No? Then can it wait?

Your mileage may vary

I adopted this system in response to a time when I dealt with hundreds of emails and 5 or 6 hours of meetings daily in addition to my “regular work,” and industry events several nights per week. It worked for me, and the way I work. It may or may not work for you.

What systems do you use to manage your time?

(Image: Shutterstock)

Posted in: Agency life, miscellaneous, tools

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50 Great Apps for Your iPad

10.07.12

Wondering what apps to install on your iPad? Here are 50 of the apps I’ve installed on mine.

Take a look, and add to the list in the comments.

Business/Productivity

  1. Pages – Word processor. Sadly, not very compatible with MS Word (go figure) but suffices. $9.99.
  2. Keynote – Presentation tool. While I haven’t tried this yet, I’m hoping that this app may stop me from having to lug my laptop around to presentations. $9.99.
  3. Numbers – Spreadsheet tool. Enough said. $9.99.
  4. Dragon Dictation – Speech-to-text app. Makes dictating notes and ideas easy, and lets you text/email them quickly when you’re done. Free.
  5. Evernote – Wonderfully intuitive and easy to use. Integrates with the other interfaces (web, desktop, Blackberry etc). Free.
  6. LinkedIn – Sadly just an iPhone app for now. Hoping an iPad-optimized one is released soon. Free.
  7. Skype – It’s just an iPhone app right now so the interface isn’t great, but it lets you chat and call so who cares? Free.
  8. GoToMeeting – Lets you log into online meetings while on-the-go. Great way to save multi-task while travelling. Free.
  9. WebEx – Like GoToMeeting – lets you log into online meetings. Having both of these free apps will cover you for most meetings. Free.
  10. Dropbox – Lets you sync and share files online and across computers. Free.
  11. Dictionary.com – Dictionary for your iPad. Free.
  12. Adobe Ideas 1.0 – Sketchbook for your iPad. Great for jotting down ideas. Free.

News/RSS

  1. GoodReader – Integrates with Google Docs, Dropbox, box.net and other services. Lets you download and read multiple file formats including MS Office, iWork, HTML, images, audio, video and PDFs on your iPad. $0.99.
  2. Reeder – The best pure-play RSS reader I’ve found so far. $4.99.
  3. Pulse News Reader – This app alone has doubled how much news I consume. I sit down with this app and a cup of coffee every morning. $3.99.
  4. Instapaper – For all those posts you don’t have time to read in the office but want to later. $4.99.
  5. NYT Editors’ Choice – It’s the NYT. Free.
  6. BBC News – Great mobile interface for catching up on the latest news. Free.
  7. NPR – Another great news app. NPR content, in magazine format. Free.

Social Networking

  1. Twitterific – My favourite Twitter app for the iPad so far. Great interface. Free, or $4.99 for premium version.
  2. HelloTxt – Lets you update multiple social networks from one app. Free.
  3. TweetDeck – Interface could use some work, but still a good app. Free.
  4. TweetAgora – If you find yourself wanting to filter events out of your Twitter stream, this client is for you. Just an iPhone app for now, but hopeful that they’ll release an iPad version soon. Free.
  5. IM+ Lite – Integrates with multiple IM and social network tools. Free or $9.99 for upgraded version.
  6. WordPress – Reasonable interface for this iPad app, but editing features currently not as good as the web experience on a computer. Free.
  7. Darkslide – Another iPhone app; good for uploading photos to Flickr and browsing your friends’ latest photos. Free.
  8. Facebook – Still no iPad interface for this, which is surprising as Facebook could do great things with a bigger screen. Free.

Media

  1. Air Video – Converts and streams video from your computer, as well as being a nice interface for the iPad. Best $2.99 you’ll spend.
  2. Remote – Neat for controlling iTunes on your computer from the iPad. Free.
  3. Shazam – Figure out what that song on the radio is. Free.

Reading

  1. iBooks – Apple’s e-reader app. Almost no books available in Canada, but a nice interface if Apple ever decides to notice we exist up here. Free.
  2. Kobo HD – Another nice interface, but this one has books available too. Free.
  3. Kindle – App for Amazon’s e-reader. Free.
  4. Stanza – Another nice e-reader app. Free.

Location-based

  1. TwentyThree – Lets you access and update multiple location-based networks from one app, and see where your friends are. $0.99.
  2. TripIt – Popular app for organizing trips and seeing what your friends are up to. No iPad version for this yet. Free.
  3. TripCase – Like TripIt, another app for organizing and coordinating trips (note: associated with Travelocity.ca, which is a Thornley Fallis client). Free.
  4. Plancast – Let your friends know where you plan to be. Free.
  5. Foursquare – iPhone app for the popular location-based social network. Free.
  6. Gowalla – iPad app for the location-based social network. Free.
  7. Google Earth – Excellent port of the tool over to the iPad. Free.
  8. Kayak – Pulls in prices from numerous travel sites, including Travelocity (#client). Free.
  9. OpenTable – See which restaurants near you have tables available. Free.
  10. Urbanspoon – Check out reviews and ratings of restaurants near you. Great when you’re travelling in a new city. Free.
  11. Google – Suite of Google apps. Free.
  12. AccuWeather – Great, easy-to-use interface. Free.
  13. WeatherBug – Condenses a mind-boggling amount of information into a clean interface. Free.

Miscellaneous

  1. Epicurious – Recipes. On your iPad. Free.
  2. Craigsphone – Craigslist for iPad. Much better interface than the web version. Free.
  3. Digital Photo Frame – Another logical use for the monstrous storage capacity of the iPad – load your photos and off you go. Free

What about you? What apps have you liked so far?

Posted in: miscellaneous, tools

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Why I’m Writing This On An iPad

10.06.02

When the iPad came out I was vehemently against the idea of getting one, for several reasons:

  1. No multitasking
  2. No flash video
  3. No USB

I railed against the device online, I said similar things on the Social Mediators show and I argued against getting one privately.

How things change. I’m writing this post on my shiny new iPad, while sitting on a plane to Montreal.

Why the U-turn?

Several key reasons.

  1. Testimonials
  2. Travel
  3. Multitasking (soon)
  4. Convenience
  5. Work

1. Testimonials

Study after study shows that peers and word of mouth are central to purchase decisions. Every year, Edelman publishes its “Trust Barometer” study, and time after time it shows that we trust “people like us.” Well, since the first release of the iPad I’ve seen peer after peer obtain these devices and rave about the freedom and flexibility they gain when they do so. I’m not going to lie, this was a primary driver in my decision to purchase an iPad.

2. Travel

In addition, as my frequency of travelling increases, I’ve begun to long for a device which I can pull quickly and easily on a plane or in an airport lounge. My laptop just didn’t cut it from an ease-of-use perspective. When I had to power down ahead of take-off, I just hit a button and slid the iPad into the seat-back in front of me. Nice and easy.

3. Multitasking

When Steve Jobs first announced the iPad, I was dismayed that it wouldn’t support multitasking. I want to be able to deal with email while having alerts for new Twitter replies, or to flip back and forth between a game and a blog post. Fortunately, the upcoming OS update will take care of that so it’s no longer an issue.

4. Convenience

I cant count the number of times when I’ve wanted to quickly find something online, order delivery or show Caralin a neat video but haven’t wanted to wait for my laptop to boot up. The iPad boots instantly and is small enough to keep on-hand when you’re lazing around the house – perfect for couch surfing. What’s more, as with the iPhone, the web browsing is a dream compared to my Blackberry.

5. Work

Ok, this maybe me rationalizing a bit, but if I’m going to be on top of my game i think I should have some idea about the latest trends. I make a point of it with software; i think it’s important with innovative new hardware too. Case in point: within minutes of tweeting about buying the iPad, I received a call on my cell from a client asking about it. Frankly this isn’t the main reason for me buying this but it was a small factor.

Now, I’m not going to pretend this is a “magical” device as Jobs would have us believe. The keyboard takes some getting used to (placement of the space bar in particular), and I’m still incensed by the lack of Flash. A camera for video chat might be nice, although the device is too heavy to be used as a regular camera in other regular situations. However, the pros outweigh the cons for me at this point.

What do you think? Have you or will you get an iPad?

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