Or… I dropped my iPad2.
So I wrote about how un impressed I was with my Fire, and as I turned back to my iPad – I noticed that my slick – solid – sturdy aluminum case – was dented! And not just any dent, it was dented right where you plug in the connector.
Disappointment #1
Apparently it slipped off my arm rest in my F250 and landed just right on one of the steel posts that holds in the back seat. Until you really look it it, it’s kind of hard to believe how tight the tolerances are on these things. No way could I get a pair of pliers into the gap to straighten it out.
And with no access to the connector plug, there is no way to charge the darn thing.
So I made an appointment at the Genius bar and took it to the apple store.
Disappointment #2
Turns out Apple does not have an accidental damage policy for these things. And they can’t repair it. Say what? That’s a 64GB 3G iPad! What do you mean it can’t be repaired? Not by apple anyway.
Suuuuuuck.
Fail #1
I go to Fry’s electronics and buy the smallest, skinniest pliers I can find and try to straighten the port myself. No joy. All I’m doing is scratching the surface and I’m afraid I’m going to break the board inside the slot. Time to get help.
Let’s hope there’ s not a Fail #2
So I go online, find a company that says they can repair iPads. I sign up, and take my baby to Fedex and ship it out. God help me.
Kindle Fire to the Rescue
So that leaves me tablet-less… or does it? I still have my Fire! And so I start to poke around with the skinny 7″ unit. Without the option to use my iPad I’m forced to really assess to the Fire. And now I have to say… if I couldn’t own an iPad I would definitely want one of these. And if I didn’t already own an iPad, I think I would give the Fire some serious consideration. If you don’t know what you are missing then the Fire is a very impressive little box.
Works for my books, I’ve downloaded a couple of games and they work pretty darn well. And I can stream some old TV shows (Why isn’t Quantum Leap part of Amazon Prime? Really?). It’s not iTunes and the iPad but this little bugger cost $800 LESS than my beefy iPad 2.
And I now see that they’ve added email and some other useful apps. I still find Android scattered and generally not nearly as polished as iOS and iOS apps. But for $800 still in my pocket I think I could learn to live with it.
I’ll update when I know how my repair went.