Traveling with the iPad

I really love my iPad, it is really a great device and has saved my back and shoulders a lot of strain on  the trip from the US to Eldoret.

Total travel time from New York to Nairobi was about 18 hours (including layovers).  Between sleeping and eating, I was constantly engaged with the iPad.  Reading books, watching movies, playing games and listening to music.  The reported battery life is 10 hours and I am pretty sure I exceeded that amount of time.

In the past, I would have to lug my books, computer and in the time before mp3s, I would also drag along a set of CDs and a portable player.  Not to mention a camera, lenses and who knows what else.  On this flight out, I just toted my camera, laptop and iPad and I never touched my laptop.

One regret is that I did not sync up my newspaper apps before getting on the plane.*  Would have been cool to catch up on things during the flight.

* Gotta rant** about the current state of magazine subscription prices for the iPad.  $4.99 for an issue?  How in the world does SI, Wired and other magazines justify that kind of pricing?  No paper, no mail costs, no real printing costs.  Where is the subscription price?  Make the pricing reasonable, give me a 12 month subscription and I will gladly sign on.  


** Another rant, though it doesn't really affect me now.  Why does MLB.tv have black out restrictions on their games?  Is it out of fear of lost local TV ad revenues?  Fine, then just air the actual local TV feed (block the away feed) with commercials for those in the local market, now the local station won't lose out on any potential ad revenues.  Or is it more complicated than that?

One additional regret, I wish I had purchased the 3G version.  Would have been cool to try it out on the Safaricom network (the main local telecom company).  Version 2 of the iPad should be out sometime next year, I will upgrade then.