Technology is great - when it works

This is another rant about technology. I really do have a love/ hate relationship with it. I have an iPad that is 6 years old and it will no longer accept the latest IOS. I’m looking for a text creation program and I thought I would just install Pages. No dice. I need a higher IOS. Fine let’s try Google Docs. Nope, needs a higher IOS. Having just experienced a technological storm at the writing retreat I’m not at all impressed with the iPads. In this writing workshop each person must print out their writing for the day and hand it in by noon. Reasonable. The problem came because iPads don’t talk to any kind of printer using a cable. No USB port. Thank you Apple!

    Did I mention that we were at a writing RETREAT? That means they encourage people not to use their portable devices and their wifi is not the speediest or the most reliable. Result: more than slight unhappiness all round. Many people came with new or almost new iPads only to find they couldn’t connect to a printer. None of us was a technological genius but among the group we eventually got the problem sorted out, not without a fair amount of anxiety and regular offerings to to gods of technology to help the network to operate at the times we needed it to. One of the suggestions before the workshop was to bring a portable typewriter if you had one. There were moments i was wishing I had kept my old turquoise portable with me. One trick was to take our devices downstairs right outside the room where the router was and then email each other. My printer was connected to my laptop with a cable so once I received an email I trotted upstairs and printed the writing. Not exactly seamless but it worked.

    As you can imagine, I was not amused when I came home and found my iPad wouldn’t do what I wanted it to. I think its days are numbered and I don’t think I’ll be buying a new one. My Galaxy 9 has as much memory as the iPad, plus it has an additional storage card. It has already replaced my much-loved and much-used iPod touch. Again the phone has more storage. I’m writing this on my phone with the help of a very light keyboard, bluetooth of course, that I bought for Richard to go with a tablet he had. I’m in Google Docs and things seem to be working just fine. I don’t have a trackpad or a mouse but that’s not a big deal. The only downside I can see to this arrangement is that when I touch the screen on my phone it tends to move. I’m sure there is an easy fix for that one. So, for holidays and travel it’s goodbye to the iPad and hello to the phone and the little keyboard. I don’t think I’ll need to print anything while on holiday and for now, I think Richard may have to wait in line to use his keyboard.

    I’ll try to copy this and upload it to my blog. If you’re reading it the experiment has been a success and the laptop and the iPad will be staying at home when we go on holidays. As to the writing workshop next year, I’m sticking with the laptop and the printer that attaches to it using a USB cable. In some cases I’m just fine with the older technology.