‘Twas the Night Before iPad

April 2, 2010 by Andrew Shriner · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Technology 

This is a wonderful age in which we live. Were Douglas Adams alive today, I wonder which piece of modern consumer electronic devices would draw his attention in the same manner as the widespread adoption of digital watches did at the time he wrote the Hitchhiker’s Guide.

My guess would be electronic toothbrushes, but thats just because I believe Mr. Adams would find the existence of the term ‘manual toothbrush’ deliciously absurd and ripe for lampooning. More likely, he would choose a device with a similar impact on the social landscape and similar ubiquity. The iPod, perhaps.

Its funny to look back and the impact that that one single device has had. As a music lover, its hard to divorce the concept of digital music from the player, itself. I wonder what the iPad will come to represent.

I’m not going to take this opportunity to make any wild predictions about the future–I’ll leave that to the fine editorial staffs at publications such as FastWiredCompanyCrunch. Rather, I’m going to take this opportunity to take a nostalgic look back and remember the electronic devices that have impacted my life.

In somewhat autobiographical order:

  • The Walkman (road trips with my parents just got better for all parties involved)
  • The Nintendo Entertainment System (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A, Select, Start)
  • The original Discman (which still works)
  • The Palm Pilot (anyone remember how to write in Palm-script?)
  • The Motorola StarTac (still the most reliable phone I’ve ever owned)
  • The Palm V (my first purchase off eBay)
  • Several crappy phones (honestly can’t remember what happened to the StarTac)
  • A Blackberry (email on my phone? wild.)
  • About a half dozen iPods of various shapes and sizes
  • A Gen 1 iPhone (still in service)

And a look ahead to the device I most want to own in the future:

  • A Hot Tub Time Machine (its a hot tub that travels through time)

In the spirit of the dawn of a new technical modality and in recognition that I will own an iPad when I can devise some sort of use case, no matter how preposterous, I have developed a way to celebrate April 3rd: The University Avenue iPad Drinking Game.

My thoughts are as follows:

Go to University Ave in Palo Alto, and find a bar with outdoor seating that is situated between the Apple Store and a coffee shop (Joya, for example).

  • Every time someone passes by the bar with an iPad box / Apple Store bag reasonably assumed to contain an iPad, you take a drink of your beer.
  • Every time someone walks directly from the Apple Store into a coffee shop within eyesight, you take two drinks.
  • Every time someone walks directly from the Apple Store into the bar you are sitting in and begins to diddle with his new iPad, you take a shot.
  • If you spot Steve Jobs, its Apple Martini time.

Who’s with me?

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