ipad Archives - Behind the Lens

Yesterday my friend Leanne posted about how happy she has been with her purchase of a new iPad. I myself have been on the fence about buying one, and have been curious for what things people find the iPad valuable. I have heard many many different responses. Even this past week while at a business conference I had a conversation with one of the companies lead VP’s about the possibility of getting everyone iPads, and the business advantages it would bring us.

Now during this conversation with Leanne another friend of ours posted the following…

“Not all of these apply to the iPad, of course, but check out this link and multiply all of the hefty resource and human rights issues related to the iPhone by 4 (the approximate multiple of the iPad’s size to its smaller cousin.) You should also definitely think of the impacts–social, environmental–of your high-tech purchase BEYOND your mere personal enjoyment of it.
In this day and age, it’s pretty easy to disengage from connecting all of the dots… everything is just made SO far away. http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/03/scary-truth-about-your-iphone”

When you go to the website it talks a great deal about some of the disadvantages of the iPhone and iPad. Things like….
1. The origin of where the parts are made.
2. The amount of waste that it creates to make an iPhone or ipad
3. Illegal mine operations
4. Desecration of land in the harvest of minerals
5. Padding arms dealers pockets
6. Labor and sweat shops
7. Bad safety record
8. Monopoly

Now before all of you Apple loving people go nuts out there, lets remember that I am an Apple snob myself. However I am always willing to listen to other peoples opinion. Doing a little research into this and I have found some (not all) but some credibility to the accusations.

My question to Hudson was this…

“Holy guilt trip BatMan….Hudson while I think you environmental attitude is well worth while I have a few questions?

1. What is your solution? I see you have brought a problem to the table but I see no solution to the issue. While I guess your solution could be to stop buying cell phones, ipads, etc, in todays world that is an unrealistic solution.
2. What did you use to make this comment? A computer? I believe that if I did deep enough about any electronics store, with maybe a few exceptions, I think I would find similar things to what you have posted. So again I see you bringing a problem to us, but using the very thing you abhor.

Im not saying your wrong. Truly I am not, and I am listening to you that there is a need for more awareness and understanding, but what is the solution. There are a lot of people in this world who want to bitch about problems but I see very little problem solving.”

So my question to the world is….Do you think that this is really a problem? If so what is the solution? How do we change this? Do we need to change it? Is it out of our control?

So last night I only got about 2 hours of sleep. Why, you ask. Well the answer is Terra and I stayed up WAY to late, and then I had to be up at 3:00AM to pick up a friend who needed a ride to the airport. As I sit here at my desk writing this is occurs to me that the last time I was this tired I was in Thousand Oaks, CA serving a christian mission for my church. Lucky for me today will be an early day.

Anyways in the short time I was asleep last night my brain decided to entertain me by giving me a dream that involved the Ipad (What an unfortunate name). The dream took place during a meeting for work. I dont remember what we were discussing, but eventually I pulled an Ipad out of my backpack and started using it. Before long everyone at the table was envious of my new found possession. The meeting soon ended and I found myself in a hotel room getting ready to get on a flight home. Suddenly I remembered that I had only been loaned this Ipad from a local Best Buy store. They had taken a 300.00 deposit from me in case I didn’t return it. I sat on the edge of the bed in the hotel room pondering if I wanted to return the Ipad or just keep it for myself.

At that point I was suddenly outside looking out over a disney castle. The clock on the top of the castle struck 11:00PM. Suddenly the castle came alive with fireworks, lights, and disney characters all singing some song I cant remember, probably “Its a small world”. As soon as it had begun the singing, lights and fireworks were over, and I was left staring at a silent castle.

I realized I wasn’t alone and saw two girls standing near me that looked to be about my age. They were hurriedly writing something down. I asked them what they were doing, and they explained that the castle was a geocach and that you could only find the geocach during the lights, fireworks, and singing. I found myself disappointed I didn’t get to find the geocach, but vowed to myself that I would return the next night and find it. So I took out my Ipad, made the decision that I would keep it, and jotted a note down to be here again in 24 hours to find the geocach.

Thats when my alarm went off, and I woke up.