Vroom vroom iPad!

Last week, my husband caved. I knew it was going to be one of us, but to be honest, I always thought it would be me.

He bought an iPad.

It became part of our day-to-day immediately - I love the sweet little thing (especially 'Plants vs Zombies'). It's so easy! So fast! So many cute little apps, look at them, they're adorable!

I was reminded of an analogy I thought of months ago, but didn't realise was true until now (because I was busy *talking* about iPads rather than *using them and learning about them properly*, naturally):

• Desktop (and laptop) computers are like geared cars.
• iPads (and their tablety kin) are like automatics.

Here's the thinking behind that:

• Desktops give you more control, but they're harder to use
• Tablets give you less control, but they're easier to use

I prefer PCs myself (stop laughing), and I'm quite happy to wander off into the more bewildering realms of 'My Computer' and tinker with what I find. Sometimes I mess things up terribly, and often I get confused. It's hard territory in there, and sometimes, when the task is boring or fiddly (installing new software for example) I'd really rather not. But I do have a huge amount of control - if I want to have a poke around the program files, I can.

With a tablet, you don't have to know much about anything to make them work, and nothing is boring or fiddly or a chore. It's all smooth. What you give up is the ability to wander around places like 'My Computer', because there isn't one - or at least, not one you can ever find to access.

I think, in a couple of years' time, the current (but starting to fade) idea that all computer users - from the highly skilled to the I-just-want-it-to-work types - should use the same machines will emerge as having been a bad call. The same machines that bewilder the less-skilled irritate the life out of the highly-skilled, so why should they be the same? No happy middle-ground has emerged (yes, pipe down Mac users) and the odds are good that that's because there isn't one. The two groups have different needs, why should they use the same machines?

We have different tools for different tasks for different users in almost all fields of life, and I can't see why computers should be any different - or how they've stayed different for so long.

And until the division becomes clearer, I'm just going to keep playing 'Plants vs. Zombies'.