This is short and thought provoking – it builds on the post I made around my personal journey. His message is relevant from a faith / God perspective and from a What Will You Do With Your Life question.
The real deal here is much like I have mentioned already and continue to work on. Hearing, saying, repeating is all worthless unless it turns into a passion filled life in pursuit of a goal and a vision to be something more.
A quote widely credited to Martin Luther King Jr. sums up the situation well. He says, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. “
I posted a bit ago with a video from a guy by the name of Francis Chan. His talk was titled “Lukewarm and Loving it”. Pondering that thought, and thinking about personal growth, both in the spiritual discovery sense, and also the character development and impact aspect, I am forced more and more into reflection on the importance of passionate engagement.
It’s so easy to go through life without really questioning why or what could be. How should I really make a difference, not just for me, but for others. If your faith is such that you say you believe in God, that’s a pretty profound statement to make if you are not seeking a purpose and life impact there. Regardless of your faith, life with a purpose is so powerful, but so much more effort than the easy and safe alternative.
I am generally a guy who finds passion in almost anything I engage in, just ask my clients and colleagues – it is something I am known for. Where I lack in this area, is a more constant “Life Passion” or direction that governs all others. (passions not people, not working on world domination just yet).
I am looking for that passion in my Faith in an exploration of what that means and how that could / should impact my life. It is an interesting and challenging exercise, that is worth undertaking for anyone regardless of where / what faith is your starting point. If you claim one, figure it out. If not, figure out what does matter and why, then how that should drive your life. As I type these words, I have to acknowledge that it is a lot easier to say than live out!
I will post more reflections on this topic as time goes on, with my particular direction coming from a “Christian” viewpoint – air quotes intentional since that is such an abused and loaded word.
Good stuff to think about – lot’s of room to grow and make an impact for a better world with real effort. I’d like to think I’m up for it.
I posted about the Kindle vs. iPad discussion some time ago, and am now in a position to revisit that post with experience with both devices. One of the points I made at that time, was the dual use of my iPod touch and Kindle, using the iPod touch as a reference while reading something on the Kindle. This still holds true, but the real question I had was if I had both (iPad), which would I prefer to read on.
From a library management perspective, and from a rich user interface perspective, my iPad blows away my Kindle. When I want to read stories to my little kids from an eBook – no question, it’s the iPad. We have fun with the pictures and even interactive nature of some of the kids books. For graphics rich content, or for illustrated material, again, the iPad is the clear and compelling winner.
The Kindle shines in its core competency. If I want to sit down and read a book, I pick up my Kindle. If I want a bed time read that will allow me to wind down, it is paper or it is the Kindle.
I do have the Kindle app on my iPad so I can read the same library there, but I also have the Google books, Overdrive for the library books, and the Nook app among others. Short summary – both devices excel, though for different purposes. Both can comfortably co-exist and compliment each others functionality. The Kindle is hands down the superior device for reading books, while the iPad is the clear winner for interactive content.
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The little side switch, just next to the volume control, can be customized by you, to act as a rotation lock or mute. Now, it seems like an illusion of choice to me since all you have to do to mute is hold the volume rocker for a second or two and you have muted your iPad.
The rotation lock is a GREAT feature. Yes, I just went Tony the tiger and yelled great. I was quite pleased to discover that enabling that little feature made a variety of tasks much more comfortable, including watching movies and reading in bed. When I would shift position and the ever helpful iPad would go and rotate on me, I had to flip it flat again and let it readjust. With the rotation lock on, no worries, it holds a stable position regardless of your hand shifting.
An additional valuable bonus I found is when you are trying to view pictures / documents that are rotated incorrectly. Typically, the scenario would be that if I don’t want to turn my head sideways, I have to open my “rotate pictures” app, edit the photo and save it. With the rotation lock, I just lock it, flip it, read it and move on.
Short tip, but very important tip. Productivity enhancements are a favorite of mine, and I trust yours.
As I sat to write this up, I did a little additional research and found an article I quite liked that summarized the review well. I suggest you check out the PC Mag article by Tim Gideon found here http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381687,00.asp
Following on with his article, the summary he came up with still largely stands even though the article referenced came out March 11 of 2011 and it is now May 12th, which in the world of tablet technology is almost a year of compressed time. The core point that comes up repeatedly is that there are a large number of players, a smaller number of competitors and even fewer contenders. The final tally of contenders really becomes about the Zoom and the iPad with a few contenders pushing their way in such as potentially Samsung, though at this point, they are not on the court of play.
The clear advantage is a year head start for Apple on figuring out what works and what doesn’t. One might easily argue that if that be the case, wouldn’t the new comers leapfrog the first mover with all the lessons publically learned regarding UI and behavior and while it makes sense, it turned out to not yet be the case. Apple moved the ball forward as well with the next rev of the iOS and really, the biggest change was multi tasking if I had to pick one.
I have a friend who picked up the Zoom and really tried hard to get me to go that route as well. I have to say, it was my preferred direction as I already use a droid X as my primary personal phone and I like the idea of the Android OS. That said, it is clear which OS is in rev 1 and which is not when you play with both devices side by side. The iPad is overall, more intuitive and an easier UI experience. (subjective, of course) and from a hardware perspective, the iPad has a much better feel in the hand, though again, this is subjective.
Rather than repeat all the stats Tim quotes in his solid review, I will just add a a few points that jump out at me and suggest you read his review or follow the links I provide at the end.
I am disappointed that the iPad does not offer SD expansion and you have to use the proprietary components to achieve what I think should be built in. Apple does provide the ability to connect to pretty much whatever you need with their components, but it is with additional purchases rather than “just works” by plugging it in. If you want to Jailbreak your iPad, you have even more expansion options and you can in fact, connect it to a USB drive or almost anything else if you desire. I have not seen the need to do so yet with mine, though I am told it is easy and reversible and that seems to be the general consensus. Until I have a clear need, I am not playing with that bit yet and so far, all I have needed to do, I have been able to do with a stock machine.
With the disappointment in expandability aside, I am finding that the way I use the device is making not as much of a limitation as it might be, with the connectivity to pull over what I want when I need it generally working well. Sharing media is the topic of a pending post so I will talk through why you may only need a small portion of your music library and the same can be said for photos and video.
Remember, your usage will be guided by your particular situation and device collection, so don’t rely on anyone else to tell you the best way to use it without experimenting yourself.
Reference Links
