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Starting our fourth decade: Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously online for 31 years


   

The biggest secret of the iPad -- it's a computer


July 27, 2014


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2014, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2014, The Post-Standard


Apple might never forgive me for spilling the beans here, but that iPad you know and love is actually a computer.

Steve Jobs was adamant. No doubt if Steve were still around, he'd send me a quick, one-line email of the kind he was famous for, telling me I was full of something.

Steve made sure that no one at Apple would ever call his invention a computer. He knew a lot of people were scared of computers. Calling something that was cool and cute a "computer" was the kiss of death.

He was right in at least one way. A lot of people are indeed scared of computers. You know some yourself -- your Uncle Dave, maybe, or your sister, the one who still uses a typewriter. They grew up before computers took over our lives. They liked things the way they were before.

When I was the fix-it guru at the newspaper, I'd get calls just after I'd arrived in the morning. "I'm sorry. I hit the wrong key or something. Can you fix it?" They were apologizing for doing something to a machine.

These were perfectly normal reporters and editors. But they were afraid they might hurt a machine. Afraid of hitting the wrong key.

Steve had near-perfect intuition. With the iPad, he knew Apple had the thing visionaries had dreamed about for years. Alan Kay, the genius who imagined a book that was a computer (and a computer that was a book) back in the 1970s, led Steve down the right path. Kay called his device the "Dynabook." Not the Dynacomputer. Not the Computerbook. He knew better, just like Steve.

So Apple came up with the iPad. Steve made sure you'd almost never think of it as a computer. It didn't have a keyboard unless you needed one. It didn't have files -- or at least didn't ever ask you to deal with files. Everything you did with the iPad, you did with your finger. The perfect pointing instrument, one that babies know how to use as soon as they can see.

All the iPad had was a screen. Touch it and something magical happens. Really.

So it is with deep regret to Steve's memory that I have to tell you the bad news. Your iPad is just as much a computer as that horrible beige thing you had to use at school or got stuck with at the office. Or bought for $1,800 when you realized you were falling behind everyone else.

Most importantly, just like that ugly remnant of the last century, your iPad needs two things common with computers. It needs to be cleaned out so it doesn't run out of space. And it needs to be rebooted now and then.

I wrote about cleaning out your iPad last year. You can read that article at www.technofileonline.com/texts/tec041413.html. As for rebooting, that's easy. Just hold down the power button until your iPad asks you to swipe an onscreen button to shut down. After it shuts down, start it again. Rebooting might take a long time, but that's good news, not bad. During that time, your iPad clears its memory, gets unused apps out of the way and does some housecleaning. It will run faster after booting up .

Do this at least once a week. But don't tell anyone at Apple I told you so. They're still keeping Steve's flame alive.