After Two Weeks With The iPad 3G, It May Be Time for Redecorating. Good-Bye Computer Room.

There is room on the second floor of our house that would be great for napping. I love this room. It's small with floor to ceiling bookshelves on two walls and two windows on another that look out to the backyard. We live in an old New England antique and one of the windows is at floor level. If you had a comfy chair or ottoman, or even a daybed running alongside that window, and if it were raining outside or, in the winter, snowing, the combination would surely make it nap time Sunday afternoons.

I was thinking these thoughts again this morning standing in the doorway of the room brushing my teeth. Where my daybed should be is the long table with our desktop computer on it. Where the ottoman or comfy chair should be are the shredder and ink jet printer. Cables and cords and surge protectors are everywhere. Instead of books, the bookshelf at one end holds printer paper and user manuals. Nap Room, I'm afraid, is the Computer Room.

But maybe not for long. Right on schedule I took delivery of the new iPad with Wi-Fi and 3G direct from Apple. Two weeks later I'm thinking we don't need a Computer Room anymore. We have a lap top downstairs that moves around from one surface to another in the kitchen. It matches the color of the cabinets. Our banking is mostly done on that device these days, as is my wife's email, movie tickets, and other communications with the outside world not requiring a telephone. Really, the upstairs computer is increasingly marginalized. Now, I'm thinking (while brushing), we have an iPad connected to our wireless network that is versatile and highly portable. It can do most of the things the computers can do, even download movies instantly which we can then watch through the television in the Family Room using the handy VGA adapter. Best of all I can read books and magazines on it, falling asleep as I would anyway, while napping.

New media is getting better all the time.